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The Atari Jaguar was a video game console introduced to the US market in November 1993 against the Sega Genesis (known in the United Kingdom as the Mega Drive) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. It was touted as the "first 64-bit system". The system eventually wound up as a commercial failure and prompted Atari to finally leave the hardware business.
History
The Jaguar was the last game system to be marketed by Atari. Flare Technology, a company formed by Martin Brennan and John Mathieson, said that not only could they make a console far superior to the Sega Genesis or the SNES, but they could also be cost-effective. Impressed by their work on the Konix Multisystem, Atari persuaded them to close Flare and, with Atari providing the funding, form a new company called Flare II.
Flare II initially set to work designing two consoles for Atari. One was a 32-bit architecture (codenamed "Panther"), and the other was a 64-bit system (codenamed "Jaguar"). However, work on the Jaguar design progressed faster than expected, and Atari cancelled the Panther project to focus on the more promising 64-bit technology.
The Jaguar was released in November 1993 for a sale price of $249.99, under a $500 million manufacturing deal with IBM. The system was initially marketed only in the New York City and the San Francisco Bay areas. A nationwide release followed in early 1994.
The system was marketed under the slogan "Do the Math", claiming superiority over competing 16-bit systems. Initially, the system sold well, substantially outselling the highly hyped, and publicized 3DO, which was also released during the holiday season of 1993. However, the system was eventually considered a failure, due to the perception of the Jaguar having poor games and an overall lack of software developed. Developers criticized the Jaguar as being difficult to develop for. This was due to serious bugs in the released hardware (such as a memory controller flaw that could halt processor execution out of system RAM). Customers complained the Jaguar controller was needlessly complex, with over 15 buttons. [http://slashdot.org/articles/00/03/02/1430232.shtml#1225584.
By the end of 1995, after the entrance of the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, the Jaguar's fate was all but sealed. In an interview Sam Tramiel, CEO of Atari, touted that the Jaguar was much more powerful than the Saturn (which was untrue) and slightly weaker than the PlayStation. He also predicted the price of the PlayStation to be $500 and said that any price from $250 to $300 would be dumping and that Atari would sue to block sales (they never did). His comments were selected as #3 in Gamespy's [http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/index22.shtml Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming.
In a last ditch effort to rescue the Jaguar, Atari tried to play down these two consoles by proclaiming the Jaguar was the only "64-bit" system. Technically-minded gamers debated the merits of Atari's claim: some felt the Jaguar's principal "64-bit coprocessors" were essentially nothing more than graphics accelerators (with limited progammability), requiring external control from the Jaguar's primary processors; the primary GPU executed a 32-bit instruction-set, while the remaining CPU (68000) was already established to be a 16-bit unit. Others countered that the mere presence of 64-bit ALUs for graphics, was sufficient to validate Atari's claim. Finally, in mid-1996, Atari ran early-morning infomercial advertisements with enthusiastic salesmen touting the powerful game system. The infomercials ran most of the year but did not significantly sell the remaining stock of Jaguar systems.
Over the short life of the console, several add-on peripherals were announced. Yet only the Atari Jaguar CD drive and the JagLink (a simple two-console networking device) reached retail shelves. The voice modem and VR headset (with infrared head-tracking), existed in prototype form, but were never commercialized. (See Loki and Konix Multisystem for early development.)
Production of the Jaguar stopped after Atari purchased JT Storage in a reverse takeover.
After Atari was bought out by Hasbro Interactive in the late 1990s, Hasbro released the encryption coding to the Jaguar, finally opening the doors for enthusiasts and hobby programmers to make their own Jaguar games and software, similar to what has happened with another defunct game system, the Sega Dreamcast. Several game companies, including Telegames and Songbird Productions, have not only released previously unfinished materials from the Jaguar's past, but also several brand new titles to satisfy the system's cult following.
Trivia
Atari Games felt so strongly about the Atari Jaguar's hardware capabilities that it developed a new arcade board based on the Jaguar architecture. Named CoJag, it had enhanced graphics and sound capabilities. It ran popular arcade hits such as Area 51 and Maximum Overdrive.
Technical specifications
CPUs:
- "Tom" (contains 3 video-related processors), 25.59 MHz
- Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4K internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
- 64-bit object processor – programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
- 64-bit blitter processor – high speed logic operations, z-buffering and Gouraud shading
- 64-bit DRAM controller (not a processor)
- "Jerry" , 26.6 MHz
- Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architecture, 8k internal cache
- CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
- Number of sound channels limited by software
- Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
- Full stereo capabilities
- Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
- A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
- Joystick control
Other Jaguar features:
See also
1993 introductions
External links
- Atari Times, Jaguar - Covering the Atari Jaguar!
- AtariAge – Comprehensive Jaguar Rarity Guide and information
- http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Console_Platforms/Atari/Jaguar_64/
- Atari Jaguar FAQ
- Atari JagFest Guide
- http://www.atari-jaguar64.de/
- Sam Trameil interview
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