Is an Atari Jaguar system worth keeping?

[Ed Oscuro]

A tie-in with the raging "high prices" thread suggests itself.

This is actually why games are getting expensive: People are buying shit they don't play and don't like instead of leaving it for someone else. Granted, it's a service to put it in the eBay market, but still.

[j_factor]

And the Jaguar had horrible 3rd-party support. If Atari had been more patient and released a handful of mind-blowing 2D titles, they might've actually gained a little footing.

I don't think the Jaguar would've gone anywhere no matter what they released. The timing, hardware design, controller, etc. were all wrong, and the history of the company was a huge impediment at that point.

And really, if you look at the Jaguar games Atari did release, you can see that they really did try to give it a spread of marketable titles. The buzz was all about 3D at that point, so that's what Atari mainly focused on. Star Fox was a big hit, so they made something that resembled it. Virtua Racing was one of the top arcade games, so they ripped that off. Mortal Kombat was insanely popular, so they made a Mortal Kombat clone. Virtua Fighter and Mario Kart were both copied, and they secured ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. The only problem is that Atari Corp. had shit for in-house development, and these games were all mediocre to terrible (except Doom and Wolfenstein). The Jaguar's best selling, highest rated, and most celebrated game -- Tempest 2000 -- is kind of an aberration when you think about it.

[tomaitheous]

I don't think the Jaguar would've gone anywhere no matter what they released. The timing, hardware design, controller, etc. were all wrong, and the history of the company was a huge impediment at that point.

j_factor pretty much sums it up right there.

That's exactly how my friends and I felt and treated the Jag. The price was decent/reasonable. That was about the only thing going for it. Atari pretty much was a joke by then. The typical earlier bird adopter and the fans nostalgia for Atari, are the ones that bought into it. I think almost every one else was in the "what and see" sort of suspicious mentality. Release games with no music, never helped its case with me. That had to be the cheapest thing I've ever seen. Was it soo rushed that they couldn't even fit time to put in at least some kind of music or were they pretentious enough to think they could spark nostalgia from old atari games that were sound FX only like BITD? Either way, I had a good laugh at them. I think the game was Trevor McFur or something like that (I knew of one person that had gotten it, but he was always an early adopter. I got a complete boxed SGX + 3 complete package games from him for $50, so he could put the money towards this... IIRC, or some other new system at the time. I don't remember which..meh).

[allyourblood]

The timing, hardware design, controller, etc. were all wrong, and the history of the company was a huge impediment at that point.
... The only problem is that Atari Corp. had shit for in-house development, and these games were all mediocre to terrible (except Doom and Wolfenstein).

Agreed. But that's why I think that a handful of dedicated 3rd-party companies on-board, along with some amazing 2D titles from Atari could've at least helped them stick around a little longer than they did. A new Castlevania, or Blaster Master, or Street Fighter or anything with pedigree from a recognizable series certainly would'nt have hurt. Wolfenstein and Doom are about the only two that come to mind, and in my eyes, they weren't mainstream enough in their appeal (in the console market) to have made much difference with a lot of consumers.

The whole thing smacked of laziness. Looking back, I'm shocked that Atari actually got the Jaguar off the ground to begin with. It seems like a bad joke that it actually made it into production. While I always kinda liked the look of the console itself (I still don't think it looks much like a toilet, despite what so many people have said), the controller was just wrong from the start. The feel of it is fine for me, but the button layout and lack of joysticks or shoulder buttons (at least, upon launch) was ridiculous.

The Jaguar may not have been capable of the level of 3D that we find in its competitors, but I felt that the stuff that did come out seemed rushed, overly-simple, cheap, and likely didn't come close to showing off the Jaguar's true potential. Like a bunch of guys sat in a room and said, "What's the easiest thing we can do to make a Star Fox clone? Don't bother with memorable characters, or an intriguing storyline. Just cut as many corners as possible and push it out the door. As long as it boots and has end credits, that's good enough." If a talented team had spent enough time with the hardware, I have no doubt the Jaguar could've bore more than a handful of memorable and fun 3D games.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I first heard of the Jaguar, I was really excited. It was such an awesome concept: the down-trodden, defeated Atari rising from the ashes to reclaim its former glory; despite its ugly past, I think people really did want to see Atari come out swinging and shake things up, with its tantalizing "64-bits" of power that was such a lovely buzzword in its day. I so wanted the Jaguar to show up and blow my mind with amazing new graphics and games. While it may have had a limited release, I think there was enough hype and buzz at launch that Atari had a huge opportunity to make something great. A shame, really.

At least, that's the way things look to me.

[danny_galaga]

I have a different take on the Jaguar. Here in Australia, no one has heard of it. As far as anyone knows, Atari went bust before they could ship them here.

Having never known the hype and consequent disappointment, I bought one last year, brand new. And I love it! Some of the titles that were considered uninteresting then, now have a whole lotta retro love! For instance Super Burnout. This really didn't showcase the Jags capabilities at all. But now as retro game fans, we can appreciate that it is a slick little 2D racer. Good fun on two player (",) And Ruiner Pinball is great fun too.

Another example is Tempest 2000. Apparently Atari themselves weren't very impressed with it. But now it's pretty much a must have title for the system. And luckily it's not very pricey.

So for me, the answer is an absolute yes!

[tom]

[QUOTE=retro junkie;1716240]Probably the conflict here is, we look at the Nintendo 64 and then we look at the Jaguar, thinking 64-bits, wondering where's the beef? I'm not sure if any of the games really taxed or revealed the true power of the 64-bit environment created in the Jag. The people at Atari just did not know what to do with it. And it did not stay in the market long enough for developers to come to grips with the hardware.
[QUOTE]

The Jaguar was way ahead of its time, just like the Lynx, but by the time the Jaguar appeared, consoles and console gaming was fully in Japanese hands. Who was gonna buy a American made console in 1993?

[diskoboy]

The Jaguar was way ahead of its time, just like the Lynx, but by the time the Jaguar appeared, consoles and console gaming was fully in Japanese hands. Who was gonna buy a American made console in 1993?

I did...

The only thing I hated about my Jag was the pins in the controller ports bent easy, and were very hard to get back straigt once they were bent. I ruined my Jag when I moved... I packed it without protection. The pins bent bad, and I couln't sraighten them back out. The console was unplayable by that point. I couldn't get my Jag repaired because Atari dropped support by this point.

[tom]

I did too.
I was in UK at the time, and I SOOOOO desperatly wanted a pre-order (Atari UK had some Jags on pre-order service only).
I went into Virgins (sucky UK CD/gaming/ whatever shop) all over and ask if anyone changed their minds, so I could buy it. No luck, I had to wait until the 'real' release, and I snapped one up on first day of 'official' release..GBP 220.00.

[Leo_A]

I think there was enough hype and buzz at launch that Atari had a huge opportunity to make something great. A shame, really.

Can't say that I agree. I think it was a lost cause from the start.

Where I think they could've been really successful was with the Lynx. They got in on the ground floor of things just weeks after the GameBoy and a full year before the GameGear even hit the Japanese marketplace, with a really nice piece of hardware, some great games, and some talented programmers onboard.

But it was never much more then a side focus for them for many reasons (Including their console ambitions that turned into the Jaguar). So it sputterred out almost as soon as it began despite a successful launch and reception, and Nintendo has had a untouchable lead in the market since.

That's the real wasted opportunity in my mind. I think they had the handheld to compete with Nintendo and establish a new niche for themselves after fighting a losing battle in the console business. But sadly, they wasted the opportunuty.