A History of a Console: Atari Jaguar

This week, I figured I would try something new. Every time I post a "Flashback Friday", I am reminded of a simpler time. The days of 2 buttons, cartridges, Game Genies, the first load times, companies like Philips and Panasonic trying their hand at consoles, before achievements and trophies, back when consoles had a reset button, those were the days. So let's take a look at the consoles of long ago and how they helped us get to the 1080p/3D/60fps world we live in now.

Atari was THE name in video games for the longest time when gaming was still in its infancy. The Atari 2600 took the world by storm and showed that arcade games at home were a real possibility. The subsequent Atari 5200 and 7800 and their various home computers made Atari a household name and a gaming juggernaut.

However, today's Monday, so let's get depressed.

Scary for so many reasons.

Atari decided it wanted to get back into the home console market in the early 90's. Systems like the Genesis and the SNES were making a lot of money for SEGA and Nintendo respectively, and video games and video game systems were starting to come into its own and become a more stable industry. Atari and a company called Flare II were working on 2 different console ideas: the 32-bit idea (Codename: Panther) and the 64-bit idea (Codename: Jaguar), when development of the Jaguar progressed faster than the Panther, Atari cancelled the Panther and focused on the Jaguar.

The Atari Jaguar was released in late 1993 in New York and San Francisco, and to the rest of the US in early 1994. The whole marketing strategy was "Do The Math"...

Even a 3DO reference huh? This is really starting to get depressing.

Ah, the "Bit-Wars", when all people cared about was having more than the other guy. Did we even know what "bits" were in terms of video game consoles back then? Hell no! We just wanted the most of whatever it was.

Here's the problem though: The Jaguar wasn't actually a 64-bit system.

Follow me here: The Jaguar's CPU and GPU produced a 32-bit signal that went through 64-bit graphics accelerators. Atari claimed that the mere presence of these accelerators was enough to justify their 64 bit console claim.

It's kinda like that episode of Spongebob Squarepants where Spongebob buys those inflatable arms and pumps them up so he looks strong, then when he enters the weightlifting competition and actually tries to be strong, the arms end up exploding. The Jaguar can say it has the power and show it in all the advertisements all it wants, but when put to the test, it just wasn't there.

Also consider this: One year after the Jaguar was released, SEGA released the Saturn and Sony released the original Playstation. So, Atari already had the deck stacked against it. (A) They had been out of the console market for a while before releasing the Jaguar (B) It was the first to go through uncharted territory with the "64-bit" claim (C) It was kinda lying about the "64-bit" thing (D) SEGA had a bigger following and more titles (say what you will about the Saturn) (E) Sony was the ambitious newcomer to the scene after talks of a SNES CD add-on broke down with Nintendo...

Should I go on? OK, how about this abomination?

The Godzilla of controllers

You thought the original Xbox's "Duke" controller was bad? (Well, it was).

I never understood the need for this, and especially from Atari. The Colecovision had this , the Intellivision had this, the original Atari 2600 had a joystick and ONE FRICKIN' BUTTON! That was the competition back then. Looking at the Jaguars competition:

SNES: 4 face buttons, start/select, 2 bumpers

Genesis: 3 face buttons (6 on some other models), Start

3DO: Well those kinda got out of hand.

Jaguar: ALL THE BUTTONS!

Maybe this would work well for someone like Andre' the Giant, but not for your key demographic.

Then Atari made the "Pro" version of the controller which added ANOTHER row of buttons labeled 'X' 'Y' and 'Z'. Basically what SEGA did with the Genesis and Saturn controllers.You didn't need that many buttons for the kinds of games the Jaguar was pushing out. When you think of Doom do you think you need 17 different buttons?

Hang on, I gotta find the button that kills you.

OK enough bashing on the hardware for now, let's just mention a couple games, since there actually were a couple good Jaguar games.

Tempest 2000:

Good game, kick ass soundtrack.

Alien vs Predator:

Could play as a Marine, Alien, or Predator and all were pretty fun. Also, it was actually a suspenseful, scary game, something recent Alien games seem to lack.

Doom:

C'mon, it's Doom. Referred to as "The Big Motherfucker of First Person Shooters", the Jaguar port was well done and still fun to play.

Wolfenstein 3D:

Same goes for the original first person shooter.

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Being ambitious is great and all, but now Atari had a system that developers had a hard time making games for, since this is the first "64-bit" console (we know the truth). This inevitably led to lack of titles for the Jaguar, so interest in the system (if there was any) quickly died out.

As late as 1995, Atari even made infomercials basically begging people to buy their console, which retailed for $249.99.

The Jaguar CD was released in 1995 and was the long-promised CD add on to the Jaguar. Only 11 games were officially released for it, the most "well-known" titles being Primal Rage and Dragon's Lair. Also, it made your Jaguar look like a damn toilet, which was fitting in retrospect.

Not lying, you see it, right?

According to Atari at the end of 1995, they had sold roughly 125,000 Jaguar units and had approximately 100,000 still left in their inventory...ouch.

Think of this too: one of the peripherals announced for the Jaguar was a VR Headset. Imagine playing Doom in the early equivalent of an Oculus Rift. Or, better yet, I wonder if it would have came out, maybe this wouldn't have.

The Jaguar and Jaguar CD were discontinued in 1996 and took Atari out of the console market. Many of the Atari properties were bought by Hasbro in the late 90's (and are now strewn about all over the place).

The Atari Jaguar was an ambitious attempt by the old kings of video games to stay relevant in a world that was passing them by. It was just so ambitious that nobody could do anything with it. Third-party support wasn't there, the titles weren't there, and the interest wasn't there. I don't have to "Do the Math" to know that doesn't equal success.