RH100154
Atari
Jaguar
Serial No
K146005950
Description: The Atari Jaguar was actually a very powerful and well designed console which was ruined by Atari's incompetance and lack of finances. If Atari had not rushed the Jaguar's release, shipped it with a good platform defining title, sorted out it's hardware bugs and given developers the tools and support they needed, it would have been a lot more popular with much higher sales. The hardware performance was on-par with that of the Sony Playstation, if not better in certain instances. The successful release of the Jaguar VR system would have given this cheap to build console a lifespan way beyond 1996 and would have probably saved Atari from it's eventual demise. The Jaguar still has a devoted following and many new homebrew games have been released for the Jaguar since it's cancellation. Games such as Iron Soldier 2 (1997), Skyhammer (2000), Frog Feast (2005), Protector: Resurgence (2014) and Saucer Wars (2019) clearly demonstrate the console's actual capability.
The Atari Jaguar is a "64-bit" cartridge based games console released in the US in 1993. Despite it being designed by UK company, Flare Technology, it wasn't released into Europe until 1994. Flare Technology who had already designed the technically advanced Konix Multisystem were approached by Atari to develop two consoles, a 32-bit console called 'Panther' and a more powerful 64-bit version called 'Jaguar'. Atari saw the speed in which 'Jaguar' was being developed and probably being influenced by their financial issues decided to cancel the 'Panther' console and put all their eggs in a Jaguar shaped basket. Two years later, in August 1993, the Atari Jaguar was unveiled at the Chicago Consumer Entertainment Show.
The Jaguar was capable of producing both 2D and 3D graphics and incorporated joystick ports for up to 2 players. The Jaguar joypad was rather unique with a normal D-pad and 3/2 button gamepad at the top and a 12 button feature pad at the bottom. Developers could supply games with a card which fits onto the controller to identify the usage of the 12 buttons. Although this was considered a very good feature it was rarely used and resulted in many complaints that the controller was too large.
The console consisted of two 32-bit RISC processors, one for graphics (Tom) and one for sound (Jerry), and a much slower Motorola 68000 processor for general control. Having two 32-bit processors connected to a 64-bit wide data bus Atari decided to agressively market the console as a "64-bit" games console. Their tag line used in many TV and print commercials "Do the Math" referenced the Jaguars 64-bit prowess against their 16 and 32-bit competition. This however came under much criticism as it actually only run 32-bit instructions. An editorial in Electronic Gaming Monthly commented "If Sega did the math for the Sega Saturn the way Atari did the math for their 64-bit Jaguar system, the Sega Saturn would be a 112-bit monster of a machine.".
This unique multi processor architecture made it more difficult to write software for and due to a hardware bug in the memory controller and Atari's poor development support, many developer's struggled with this powerful console. This caused many developers to just port old 16-bit games that ran primarily on the low power Motorola CPU and resulted in many Jaguar titles being no better, or in some instances worse, than the versions released for other consoles. Atari failed themselves to deliver that 'Killer Game' to show off the consoles power and even the included game, Cybermorph, was a lacklustre title originally developed for the cancelled Panther console. It wasn't until October 1994 when Rebellion released "Alien Vs Predator" that the Jaguar had a must have game worth purchasing the console for. Alien Vs Predator was a fantastic atmospheric and frightening first person shooter and showcased the Jaguars 3D graphics capability perfectly. This was soon followed up by a fantastic port of the PC game, Doom, from id Software reinforcing the Jaguars superior 3D performance. Unfortunately this was too little too late and by the end of 1995 Atari had only sold around 125,000 console's and with the new generation of CD based consoles on the horizon, such as the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn, the Jaguar was doomed.
By the end of 1995 Atari were in serious financial trouble and ceased development of the Jaguar and it's related products. Although Atari did manage to release a few of their promised add-on products such as the "Jaguar CD" unit and the dialup modem, many went unreleased, such as their potentially groundbreaking "Jaguar VR" headset. Atari closed down the Jaguar division, liquidised all their remaining stock and shifted focus to their more lucrative business licensing PC games. In December 1995, Sam Tramiel suffered a heart attack, forcing him to step down as President of Atari. On July 30 1996, the struggling Atari Corporation merged with JTS Inc., in a reverse takeover, forming JTS Corporation. That would be the end of the famous Atari brand as we know it and went unused until Hasbro revived the brand to publish retro-themed remake titles in 1998.
Specification:
» CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 13.295MHz (General Purpose Control), 26.59MHz 32-bit RISC GPU (Tom), 26.59MHz 32-bit RISC DSP (Jerry)
» Graphics: Tom Processor with 4KB internal RAM, 64-bit Object Processor, 64-bit Blitter & 64-bit DRAM Controller
» Audio: Jerry Processor with 8KB internal RAM, 2 DAC's for 16-bit Stereo Sound, Wavetable and AM Synthesis
» Memory: 2MB 64-bit (4x 16-bit fast page mode DRAM's)
» ROM: Cartridge Slot for up to 6MB Cartridges
» Video Output: Composite, S-Video, RGB & UHF in NTSC and PAL
» Ports: 2x Joystick Ports, DSP-Port (JagLink), ComLynx I/O
» Power: External 9VDC 1.2A Power Supply
» Weight:
» Size:
This exhibit is in good working condition and includes it's original controller and power supply.
Condition:
  |
- Hardware fully functional.
- NOT in original packaging!
- NO Manuals or Instructions!
Notes:
Product Images:
Related Items:
 | Atari Jaguar |