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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Does anyone else wish Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, and Corran Horn had larger roles?

Discussion in 'Literature' started by ST-TPM-ASF-TNE, Dec 29, 2001.

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  1. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    Yep everyone looking through it with the eyes that have been influenced by modern technology. Back in the day that was pretty good way to do cutscenes when you couldn't afford life actors for an expansion pack. But by todays standards it looks subpar. The thing is expansion packs don't sell as well as full games, so they wouldn't be given the budget to do anything more than they did with what they had.
     
  2. Kier_Nimmion

    Kier_Nimmion Jedi Knight star 5

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    Aug 9, 2000



    I loved the JK cutscenes, but I've only seen the intro to MoTS, and by the Force was that bad...

    As I said, so did I. I actually grabbed the Smacker Video runtime package and wrote batch file that would let me watch them without having to boot up the game.

    Mysteries of the Sith wasn't bad, but I feel as though it was only cashing in on the popularity of the Mara Jade. The best levels are the last 3 set on Dromund Kaas.
     
  3. Knight1192

    Knight1192 Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2000
    Kyle is a video game character and I'm glad authors have choose to keep it that way.


    As has already been pointed out, several times by several folks besides myself, Kyle appeared in three books of his own. So I'm afraid to tell you, again after you've already been told by others, that Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors have been used by authors.
     
  4. ST-TPM-ASF-TNE

    ST-TPM-ASF-TNE Moderator Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 27, 2001
    Who are you telling, me?
     
  5. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    quiwan posted that.
     
  6. Dae-Won_Song

    Dae-Won_Song Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 5, 2001
    Taken from the completely unofficial star wars encyclopedia:

    Katarn Commandos
    the crack squadron of guerilla warriors who were teamed with the former mercenary Kyle Katarn during the early days of the Galactic Civil War. When Katarn retired from active duty, Page rose from the ranks to become the leader of the group. Their name changed to Page's Commandos, but their expertise didn't change. Their insignia was formed from the seal of the New Republic, with a stylized katarn beast leaping across and in front of it.

    Obviously the Katarn is a beast, but was chosen for the insignia because of the name 'Katarn Commandos'. You can't tell me that the name and the squad's founder, Kyle Katarn, are a coicidence.

    Are they?


     
  7. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    Katarn was named after the same beast as well. It was a placer name they took intending to change but never got back to it. Kyle Katarn stuck.

    but officially kyle katarn is not tied to the katarn commandoes. He was never said to be the squads founder.

    Unnoficcial encyclopedia makes up stuff from time to time. That is one of the things. That's why it's unnofficial.

    The katarn commandoes officially are named after the beast according to all the sourcebooks. Page wanted his commandoes to show off there strengh, and katarns are very scary, strong beasts.
     
  8. Knight1192

    Knight1192 Jedi Knight star 6

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    Feb 5, 2000
    Backing Valiento up on this, I give you the following from A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, page 337-338:

    [blocquote]Page's Commandos
    Lieutenant Page of the New Republic heads a special missions team called the Katarn Commandos. The unit, named for a predator from the Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk, consists of twelve of the best trained soldiers serving the Republic. Officially, the special-forces unit is attached to the office of the Commander-in-Chief, but in practice it often operates independently for weeks or months at a time. It is a rogue team, like Wedge Antilles's Rogue Squadron, with no set mission profile but the capability to handle most assignments. It operates either as a single unit or broken up into smaller elements, and all members are trained to work in any environment. Each soldier is a jack-of-all-trades as well as a specialist in a single field. The team currently consists of Lilla Dade, the pathfinder or scout; Gottu and Idow, urban combat specialists; Frorral the Wookiee, wilderness fighter; Mian Hoob of Sullust and Korren of Alderaan, team technicians; the Bothan Kasck, infiltrator and shadow; Vandro, heavy weapons and repulsorlift specialist; Syla Tors, ex-Corellian pirate and pilot; and Jortan and Bri'vin, medical technicians.[HE, HESB][/blockquote]

    In the brackets, as with all the entries in the book, we have some abbreviations, which actually help to date the term "currently" as it pertains to the SW timeline. HE= Heir to the Empire; HESB= Heir to the Empire Sourcebook. Who knows how many of these members were serving as a part of the Katarn Commandos by the start of the NJO.

    Incidently, my copy of the book dates from 94, and I believe it wasn't until at least 96/97 before the Dark Forces game appeared. Plus the HttE Sourcebook appeared in 92. So it's safe to say that the Katarn Commandos were already using the name before Kyle Katarn appeared.
     
  9. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    Interesting to note but page's commandoes were killed off during reytha mission by vader and his forces in galactic battle grounds(takes place a little after or during dark forces). So it would seem that he had to rebuild them from scratch.
     
  10. Mastadge

    Mastadge Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 1999
    The thing that got to me about MotS cutscenes wasn't that they were in-game, but that they were low-res. Even if you ran the game at high-res 3D enabled, for the cutscenes it would switch back to something like 16-bit 640x480.
     
  11. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2000
    I think that mots cutscenes were one of the first times anyone tried to do ingame cutscenes in a pc shooter that I can think of.

    well, you can watch the cutscenes in real time using the games engine if you look in a folder in the cd. But it's minus the speech, and you have to use the level skip code to get to each additional scene.

    I would guess they made the cutscenes early on back when they had limited JK engine with smacker, and built the levels later, and upped the graphics with the new features later.

    smacker may have also had limitations at which resolution it could video capture.

    Interesting fact, but in dark forces strategy guide it talks about how they wanted to do ingame cutscenes but couldn't because of hardware and software limitations, so they resorted to the animated scenes they added alone.

    Nowadays they just do cutscenes like that in real time, they don't have any hardware or software restraints.
     
  12. Quiwan

    Quiwan Jedi Padawan star 4

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    Jun 29, 2000
    "As has already been pointed out, several times by several folks besides myself, Kyle appeared in three books of his own. So I'm afraid to tell you, again after you've already been told by others, that Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors have been used by authors."

    I'm affraid to tell you that I really don't care. His books were books to go along with the game to make him more interesting and he's never appeared in the (not sure if this is the right word) main storyline.

    Not to mention, he's said to be Luke's equal in the Force in all but name or some crap like that. Is that even possible in light of what we've learned about midiclorians and Luke pretty much being the grandson of god?
     
  13. Genghis12

    Genghis12 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 18, 1999
    Knight,

    It doesn't change the conclusion you made - that HESB was long before, but Dark Forces was released in 1995 and was in development at least as early as 1993. However, at that time in 93, it was still a "Luke Skywalker game," I believe.

    Sometime between prelim and final design, they dropped the idea of playing as Luke and created their own main character to take Luke's place. A character who as Val said they named Kyle Katarn just for the heck of it. They had every intention of coming back and changing it, but when the time came, no one could come up with a better name.
     
  14. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2000
    Kyle Katarn was born out of a prophecy much like anakin skywalker. Just not born from midis like anakin skywalker.

    It was a prophecy that restated in Jedi Vs. Sith which is a main line story that showed how bane started the sith order.

    Infact main line stories also include any stories that the skywalkers are involved in, and the Jedi Knight books had important character development for luke skywalker. They were books done by a co-op of dark horse and bantam subsidiary.

    But technically we don't exactly know what midis mean or do yet.
     
  15. Mastadge

    Mastadge Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 4, 1999
    His books were books to go along with the game to make him more interesting and he's never appeared in the (not sure if this is the right word) main storyline.

    His books were made by the people who made the other books and comics, for the reason that they were made -- entertainment and profit. And his books introduced the event that became the Battles of Ruusan, which was a major event.
     
  16. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    Correct mastadge is.
     
  17. Knight1192

    Knight1192 Jedi Knight star 6

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    Feb 5, 2000
    Oh no, the Yoda bug has struck poor Valiento.

    Thanks for the info on the game Genghis. I think, based on what you said, that the dates I provided may have been the date I saw Dark Forces in stores around here. Sometimes the stores around here are rather behind when it comes to certain things, like games. Helps to know the further info, especially when I couldn't get a release date on the game material I have (that being the LucasArts Archives Vol. IV: Star Wars Collection II) without looking to the disk itself.
     
  18. Valiento

    Valiento Jedi Knight star 7

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    Mar 19, 2000
    Hey fun, from time to time, the yoda bug is.
     
  19. Arabwel

    Arabwel Jedi Youngling star 2

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    Sep 20, 2001
    This really doesn't have much to do with the topic, except that I also want Kyle in NJO, but can you believe that I got Dark Forces for Christmas?

    Ara
    (Urgh. Latin Finals. Me dead.)
     
  20. Knight1192

    Knight1192 Jedi Knight star 6

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    Feb 5, 2000
    Which version, computer or Playstation?
     
  21. Arabwel

    Arabwel Jedi Youngling star 2

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    Sep 20, 2001
    Computer. It was quite amusing to see the 'Return to DOS' button...

    Ara
    (Blew Latin. Will die.)
     
  22. Genghis12

    Genghis12 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 18, 1999
    I just bought the Playstation version for myself while I was out Christmas shopping. It was on sale for $5.99. I figured, what the heck - might as well play the old thing one more time.
     
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