Zero 5 (Atari Jaguar game)

Zero 5 is a shooter game where the player assume the role of a recruited Space Hound by DEFCON to take command of both the BamBam space fighter craft and the Hit-Pak space cruiser in a battle to defend Earth from the invading forces of the Morphon alien race, who are set to eradicate the human race after their signal was picked up signal by the now-destroyed Europa III satellite across 15 missions, each one featuring a different scenario and gameplay styles, with later missions increasing in difficulty and introducing new enemies as the player progress further. By pressing the Option button at the title screen, the player has access to the setup menu where various settings can be adjusted such as controls and sound configurations, in addition of selecting the last mission reached on the main game to resume progress and choosing any of the three levels of difficulty, each one applying a different stipulation during gameplay, with the highest one featuring missions that are longer in length compared to the other two difficulty levels.

The game is based around three types of gameplay styles depending on the mission. The first mode is a shoot 'em up where it involves the BamBam space fighter and the player is given full control of their ship in a three-dimensional environment featuring six degrees of freedom on zero gravity. The main objective is to survive against incoming enemies across all directions to finish this mode, while collecting energy pods left by them after destroying a wave of enemy crafts to increase either the ship's firepower, shield or the score by pressing 1, 2 or 3 on the keypad, and pressing 6 will activate a homing laser beam to destroy enemies but can only be used up to three times. The ship can also be rotated left and right with the C or A buttons.

's European center of development, which was established in January 1995 with the aim of working alongside small game developers around the region to create titles for the Atari Jaguar. Development of the project started during the same month as Atari established their center of development in Europe and was created by a small team at Caspian Software consisting of Chris Dillon as producer, lead programmer Matthew Gosling with assistance from programmers Dave Pratt and Sean Baggaley (who previously wrote Rock 'n' Roll Clams on Atari ST), while David Philbedge and Mark Bloomfield were involved as artists. Andrew T. Gisby, who was one of the authors of the original game, worked as consultant during development and providing voice work.

Dave Newman and James Veal, who worked as composers in the original game as well, returned to compose music for the remake using a proprietary sound driver called "Zik Tracker", in addition of creating sound effects. Atari UK Software Development Manager Alistair Bodin and marketing manager Darryl Still were also involved during the production.

Zero 5 on the Atari Jaguar garnered mostly positive reception from critics despite its very late release on the Jaguar. GameFan's three reviewers felt mixed in regards to the visual presentation but unanimously praised the techno soundtrack, regarding it to be better than most Nintendo 64 releases, intense gameplay and smooth pacing. However, criticism was geared towards the high difficulty and constant change between playstyles on each mission. GamePro's Dan Elektro commended the fast-paced polygonal visuals, controls, fun factor, sound design and techno music but also regarded this later aspect to be repetitive. He also commented that the title has a high difficulty, which can be frustrating for some players.

Atari Gaming Headquarters's Keita Iida regarded the audiovisual presentation as some of the best on the Jaguar but criticized the gameplay, specifically the three playstyles due to certain design shortcomings each one has and steep learning curve. The Atari Times's Chris Engineer also commended the visuals, audio, controls and fast-paced arcade-style gameplay between each playstyle but noted its high difficulty level.