Jason RM Smith portfolio tapes, Argonaut Software

Collection

Identifier: SMITHJRM

Staff Only

Jason RM Smith portfolio tapes, Argonaut Software

Scope and Contents

This collection contains five PAL miniDV tapes from the portfolio of senior animator Jason RM Smith containing footage from Argonaut Software projects in various levels of completion: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Buck Bumble, FX Fighter, and Hot Ice (unreleased), and three data tapes of indeterminate contents, also likely from Argonaut.

The majority of these videos were recorded off-monitor with a camcorder. There is little to no audible in-game audio. Due to the camera picking up background sounds and conversations, the audio has been omitted from the library's public versions of these videos.

At the time of cataloging, the library's digital collection only includes the videos; the data tapes could not be immediately digitized.

Dates

Recorded: 1995–1997

Creator

Jason RM Smith (Animator, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The videos in this collection have been reencoded and deinterlaced for public viewing. Access to the original interlaced PAL recordings may be provided to individual researchers at the discretion of the Video Game History Foundation library staff.

Conditions Governing Use

The Video Game History Foundation has been given permission by the donors to reproduce these materials; the intellectual property rights for these materials remains with their respective owners. Notwithstanding those rights, the library allows reproduction of our copies of this material for research and educational purposes, including publication (both print and digital) with attribution to Jason RM Smith and the Video Game History Foundation.

Historical Note

These tapes include development footage of a survival horror-style action game titled Hot Ice, which was never announced by Argonaut and had never been shown to the public.

Extent

5 Tapes (5 PAL miniDV tapes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Jason RM Smith served as senior animator at Argonaut Software, working on titles including Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Buck Bumble, and FX Fighter. Smith created backups and recorded videos of his work for his animation portfolio.

Arrangement

The five videotapes in this collection contain a total of 12 digital video segments. Six of those segments (from two videotapes) are from a single continuous playthrough of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. For the sake of organization, these segments have been combined into a single video file.