Jaguar question

[Pico956]

I know that back in the day, Jaguar rode on the campaign that they were a true 64bit system. I know then, it was unheard of being that it came out so early. I know now that it had what 2 32bit processors? Bummer. Not to mention I heard it was a nightmare to develop for. The thing is, developers probably skipped out on alot of the system potential and cut corners just to put out games and forget the hassle of messing with the horrible mechanics of the machine. If things were done right and people actually used the power of the machine, do you think the graphics would have looked better?

I look at N64 and the Jaguar and think there is no contest.

[K3V]

If you have the means, check out the latest issue of Retro Gamer Magazine. There's a big article in it about the Jag and it addresses this issue from the perspective of actual Jaguar developers.

[Pico956]

If you have the means, check out the latest issue of Retro Gamer Magazine. There's a big article in it about the Jag and it addresses this issue from the perspective of actual Jaguar developers.

Where can I find this?

[K3V]

In the US it's available at Barnes & Noble stores and I think Borders. This is the issue you're looking for:

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/2381/sonic5hr.png

[Kevincal]

Jag came out in 1993. N64 in 1996. Of course it's going to be better. But the Jag has many awesome games too.

[walter_J64Bit_]

The Jag is a 2D Game system that think it can do 3D but the N64 is a 3D Game system so you can't compare the 2 with each other. ;)

[DeputyMoniker]

In the US it's available at Barnes & Noble stores and I think Borders.

Hmm. I thought RG went under. Why dont I subscribe to this? It'll be a great replacement for my CPU sub that just ran out. I'll give CPU some time to get their shit together before I try another issue.

As for the Jag, it suffered from SHID syndrome. Superior Hardware Inferior Development. :bawling:
I havent read that RG article yet but in the research I've done it appears the Jag project just needed better leadership. It may be only two 32 bit procs but it's as worthy a system as the TG-16 was with it's two 8 bit procs. I think the main problem was that the Jag had another proc in there that was meant to do one job but the designers used it to do another job because it was easier to program for. I wish I could remember the details off the top of my head...and I may even be talking about the wrong system so correct me if I'm wrong:
The Jag had 3 procs. The two 32 bit ones and another one that was to be used for something simple. It turned out that the designers opted to use that one proc for the main brainpower rather than taking the time to take advantage of the Jags more complicated but highly superior 64 bit proc setup. I could be way off with that though...it's been a while since I did my Jag homework.

[j_factor]

Jaguar had 5 processors. Two of them were 64-bit, two were 32-bit, and one was 16-bit. It also has 64-bit memory architecture.

[DeputyMoniker]

In the US it's available at Barnes & Noble stores and I think Borders.

Hmm. I thought RG went under. Why dont I subscribe to this? It'll be a great replacement for my CPU sub that just ran out. I'll give CPU some time to get their shit together before I try another issue.

I went out to B&N to pick it up & it's $12. Imported or not...$12 is too much for me & I'm sure they wont sell many of those in Oklahoma.

[T2KFreeker]

Just to get mt two cents in, the Jaguar was indeed a 64-Bit system. The problem though is that one of the chips it has is the 68000, same as the Genesis. Third party cheaped out alot and just ported over Genesis games that they made with more color, which is really sad as the system could handle far more than it did. The Jaguar still has plenty of great games available, and there are still some to come. I('d say go buy Battlesphere, but unless you have $500.00 + dollars sitting around, the reality of this happening is slim to none. ;)

[le geek]

The Jaguar still has plenty of great games available, and there are still some to come. I('d say go buy Battlesphere, but unless you have $500.00 + dollars sitting around, the reality of this happening is slim to none. ;)

You know by the time Battlesphere came out I already played Colony Wars :(

But! I highly recommend Tempest 2000 and Iron Soldier on the 3D front...

Cheers,
Ben

[anagrama]

That's not the latest issue any more - the new one has a MegaDrive cover ;)

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Just to get mt two cents in, the Jaguar was indeed a 64-Bit system. The problem though is that one of the chips it has is the 68000, same as the Genesis. Third party cheaped out alot and just ported over Genesis games that they made with more color, which is really sad as the system could handle far more than it did. The Jaguar still has plenty of great games available, and there are still some to come. I('d say go buy Battlesphere, but unless you have $500.00 + dollars sitting around, the reality of this happening is slim to none. ;)
Yeah, this is what I was gonna say (except that the ports were mostly Amiga rather than Genesis actually). You can't really blame the developers, though, since there wasn't a proper SDK for the system; that sort of thing wasn't expected back then. The more complicated systems coming out--and the Jaguar was more complicated than probably any of the others--changed all that and dev kits full of libraries and other code became the norm, the Jag was just too early for that. So the fact is, most Jaguar games are essentially 16-bit, with the actual core of the architecture and the graphics system only being used for special effects and such.

The system was very definitely capable of doing much more graphically, it's a similar situation to the Saturn really except that at least the Saturn hardware got somewhat properly used by Sega and Capcom and such. I really think that if it had been properly developed on, the Jaguar could have rivaled the Saturn in graphics. We could have seen some really mind-blowing 2D stuff as well as some nicer 3D.


...word is bondage...

[T2KFreeker]

Just to get mt two cents in, the Jaguar was indeed a 64-Bit system. The problem though is that one of the chips it has is the 68000, same as the Genesis. Third party cheaped out alot and just ported over Genesis games that they made with more color, which is really sad as the system could handle far more than it did. The Jaguar still has plenty of great games available, and there are still some to come. I('d say go buy Battlesphere, but unless you have $500.00 + dollars sitting around, the reality of this happening is slim to none. ;)
Yeah, this is what I was gonna say (except that the ports were mostly Amiga rather than Genesis actually). You can't really blame the developers, though, since there wasn't a proper SDK for the system; that sort of thing wasn't expected back then. The more complicated systems coming out--and the Jaguar was more complicated than probably any of the others--changed all that and dev kits full of libraries and other code became the norm, the Jag was just too early for that. So the fact is, most Jaguar games are essentially 16-bit, with the actual core of the architecture and the graphics system only being used for special effects and such.

The system was very definitely capable of doing much more graphically, it's a similar situation to the Saturn really except that at least the Saturn hardware got somewhat properly used by Sega and Capcom and such. I really think that if it had been properly developed on, the Jaguar could have rivaled the Saturn in graphics. We could have seen some really mind-blowing 2D stuff as well as some nicer 3D.


...word is bondage...

I agree totally, especially since there are new games coming now, and the fact that there is so much documentation available for the system right now, it's going to be interresting where this leads the homebrew community for the system.