Atari Jaguar - A missed opportunity for great 32bit games.

[Marc_LFD]

This was Atari's final gaming console and it really wasn't a very good one to go out with, but being fair now, it did have some good games so here's a list of them:



I'm personally mostly disappointed with how unfinished Checkered Flag was as it could have been Jaguar's Virtua Racing. Heck, the prototype plays better than the retail version, too.



There isn't a whole lot to do, but you can drive around and it genuinely feels more polished than the "final" version released.

Games aside, the console design and controller design were terrible. The console looked like a toilet and the controller some weird telephone with number on it (I know it was for overlays and even then it was still unnecessary).

 

[The Catboy]

Honestly, they made a huge mistake by pushing a "64bit" system when the technology wasn't even close to being ready. Had they been smarter during the "Bit Wars" they might have done something less poorly thought out. Also that controller

Why? Who thought this was a good idea? Who actually held this and said, "Yup, this is conformable, put it out!" Why didn't they learn from their attempts to integrate a numpad?

 

[Marc_LFD]

Just played a bunch of different roms and frankly, the Jaguar had good games although it just wasn't enough to save it as no one was buying and developers gave up on it.

On Archive there's a zipped file with all games and it comes about to just 64 titles in total (less when you only count the good ones).

 

[A2600]

Atari was a skeleton of itself back then and to be honest it had very little retail outreach heck I remember seeing more of the 32X and Saturn than I did Jaguar stuff growing up

 

[Veho]

. Also that controller
View attachment 404944
Why? Who thought this was a good idea? Who actually held this and said, "Yup, this is conformable, put it out!"

Um...

It's more likely than you think

 

[Marc_LFD]

Um...

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View attachment 408132

It's more likely than you think

I once bought a keypad for the DualShock 3. It was pointless.

 

[The Catboy]

Um...

View attachment 408131

View attachment 408132

It's more likely than you think

I hate this game

 

[Veho]

I hate this game

Look, it might be a bit impractical but (in the words of she), it's not really that big. Compare it to some other chonks:

 

[Marc_LFD]

Look, it might be a bit impractical but (in the words of she), it's not really that big. Compare it to some other chonks:

View attachment 408157

Pity Sega didn't include a 2nd analog stick on their DC controller as it would have been great for FPS/TPS games. The potential was right there!

 

[TVL]

I think aesthetics are good. Not with the CD attachment obviously, but would they have made it more flush to the system even that could have looked nice. IMO it looks better than the systems that came after and crushed it (PS1, N64 and Saturn*)

Controller was comfortable to hold.

At release it was the only console doing 3D - I know 3D0 was also capable, but I never saw one, not in video game stores or in computer stores - But the Jaguar aged terribly. Hardware was weird, lots of Amiga ports, what was the Motorola 68k even doing inside of that machine..?

A lot of things would have to be different for it to stand a chance. Good exclusives could have helped. But it was just doomed with the upcoming competition.

*At release anyway, later on with the PSOne, the N64 Clear blue & white and the white Sega Saturn they all beat it in looks too.

 

[Jayro]

For me, the 32-bit/64-bit era of consoles were a major shift from 2D to 3D gaming, and it was a gigantic leap forward. And each console gen after the PS1/N64 era saw steady leaps forward, but lately it's no longer the case with the Xbox One/PS4, on up. Graphics jumps between generations have gotten very staunch, and I don't see the point of being able to run games in 4K if we can't even hit a steady 60FPS. The 32-bit/64-bit consoles really had a gigantic leap forward, and quite a rocky start since nobody could even streamline the controls until about 2 gens later. The Jaguar didn't really impress me from the demos and games I've seen. It seemed like a gimped PS1 in the graphics department. Why Atari, Sony, and Sega all skipped out on bilinear texture filtering is beyond me. Nintendo did it right with the N64. Sega "forgot" to add proper transparency instructions to the Saturn, so devs just used a shitty dither that looks like ass for shadows, glass, you name it.