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"My Atari Jaguar"

F

forrest

formerly nacire
Mine is in the closet. Only ever had Doom and AvP for it, but they were both pretty incredible at the time for me.
 
F

fenners

Member
I loved what I played on my Jaguar. It was a weird mix of cartridge limitations with enhanced capabilities, with the support of quirky game studios. So you had the likes of T2k from Minter obviously, Iron Soldier, Alien vs Predator, Cybermorph, and superb ports of Doom/Wolfenstein/Rayman because developers wanted it to succeed.
 
Deft Beck

Deft Beck

Member
fenners said:
I loved what I played on my Jaguar. It was a weird mix of cartridge limitations with enhanced capabilities, with the support of quirky game studios. So you had the likes of T2k from Minter obviously, Iron Soldier, Alien vs Predator, Cybermorph, and superb ports of Doom/Wolfenstein/Rayman because developers wanted it to succeed.
Click to expand...

But it was badly marketed, badly timed, and not a very good value in comparison to the PlayStation.
 
T

The Shadow

Member
I rented one eons ago with a bunch of games. I'd never buy one because even then it didn't seem like it'd last, particularly against the then upcoming Saturn, PSX, and N64, but I had a lot of fun with a few games I did play. Temptest 2000 was flipping awesome, and despite reviewing poorly, I actually liked Club Drive quite a bit too.
 
T

Teasing_Pink

Member
Had one and I regret getting rid of it. Jaguar Tempest 2000 is still my favorite version, and I wish I had it just for that.

AvP was fun with the three playable sides, but I'm sure it doesn't hold up at all, especially with the pc AvP releases doing the idea far better.

Everything else I played on the system was hot garbage.
 
A

atpbx

Member
I had one.

If I hadn't of been swimming in cash living with the folks still I probably would not have had one though, they were rubbish,
 
U

UpUpDownDown

Member
I bought one with a few controllers and a ton of games for dirt cheap maybe 10 years ago.

Some random factory close to my place ended up with a bunch in stock cause someone, bought someone, who bought atari.

Was a pretty killer 2d system but shit overall.

Oh and tempest (that I have)!!
 
D

Dog Problems

Banned
As a kid I had a uncle that had one and I loved playing. He had Doom, Alien vs. Predator, Tempest 2000, and Iron Soldier. When I got a bit older he ended up giving it to me for my birthday one year. Still had the same four games and I played them so much. As I got older I stopped collecting video games and got rid of it. Always meant to get that CD add-on but never got around to it.
 
U

UpUpDownDown

Member
Oh and this.

:p

fnvu2vu.jpg


I mean. The thing still has a fucking cartridge in it.
 
M

Moofers

Member
That guy's Dad seems like a lot of fun. Good for him.

I loved my Jaguar. My Dad got me one for Christmas with Alien vs Predator, Doom, and Wolfenstein. We ended up getting several more games before we ultimately sold it just before the PlayStation launch in order to pay for that.

That system really gave me a lot of good times in the couple of years that I had it. We didn't have a PC so this was my exposure to first person shooters. Years later I bought one off eBay and have held onto it since. I really like it despite only enjoying a dozen or so games on it. It's a cool and rare retro system to have.
 
D

Dr. Black Jack

Member
Back in my early collecting days I bought one. I even bought a second with a second copy of DOOM and a Jaglink just to test the dropout in deathmatch.

Sold it years back since the only good exclusive is AvP and that game isn't good enough to deal with the awful controller.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
Haha, I love the enthusiasm from the dad over the Jaguar game library. Yeah sure, the system has a lot of mediocre games, but it still has some charm. To be honest, I have never played one of these machines.

The '90's was a crazy time for game consoles.

1990 - SNK Neo Geo
1990 - Super Nintendo Entertainment System
1990 - NEC Turbo Express
1991 - Sega Game Gear
1991 - Mega CD/ Sega CD add-on
1991 - Phillips CDi
1992 - NEC Turbo Duo
1993 - 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
1993 - Amiga CD32
1993 - Atari Jaguar
1994 - NEC PC-FX
1994 - Neo-Geo CD
1994 - Sega 32x
1994 - Sega Saturn
1994 - Sony PlayStation
1995 - Nintendo Virtual Boy
1995 - Atari Jaguar CD add-on
1995 - Sega Nomad handhend (US)
1996 - Nintendo 64
1998 - Game Boy Color
1998 - Sega Dreamcast
1998 - Neo Geo Pocket
1999 - Neo Geo Pocket Color
 
O

Omnii-chan

Member
I had a boxed one for collection when I was into that. It was a cool piece of history but the games were pretty lousy all round. Saw no reason to keep it.
It has a cool AVP game (for the time), that's about it.
 
ranmafan

ranmafan

Member
My cousin bought one and I always would go over to his house to play Aliens vs Predator and Iron Soldier on it. Loved those games. Later on when he got out of gaming he gave me the system and his games. I have them somewhere. Really need to play them again. While it didnt have many great titles, the good ones it did have were excellent.
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
Trash console. Objectively worse than 3D0, and that's saying something.

Worst official controller in the history of the video games industry.
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Banned
One of several ghastly contraptions to wear the Atari corpse. This was not the Atari of legend that the 2600 was born from, this was Jack Tramiel's home computer division trying to muscle in on the then rapidly developing console business. They didn't know the first thing about games. Bless Jeff Minter for saving it from being completely worthless.

Of course nowadays the corpse of Atari is worn by an actual real person and that's super creepy.

RIP Atari 1972 - 1984.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
for some reason I remember The Wherehouse having a Jaguar kiosk where I played AvP. Thought it was kind of cool, but not cool enough to buy a console for. And the controller was a huge piece of shit. Their stable of fighting games (kasumi ninja, ultra vortek, Fight For Life), and the fact that for some reason they had a White Men Can't Jump game, always intrigued me for some reason.
 
W

Weevilone

Member
I bought one used with a bunch of games. I loved it at the time. I had a blast with AvP, Doom, Iron Soldier, T2K, Defender 2k and a few others.
 
P

Parallax

best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
Dreams-Visions said:
Trash console. Objectively worse than 3D0, and that's saying something.

Worst official controller in the history of the video games industry.
Click to expand...

the 3do shouldnt even be compared to the jaguar. the jaguar is the worst console ive ever bought. the 3dos worst aspects were its ridiculous price and daisy chaining controllers. wing commander alone kills the the lame ass jaguar software line up.

yeah, im still pissed
 
M

Moofers

Member
Best games and I'd know because I had these:

-Alien vs Predator
-Tempest 200
-Wolfenstein 3D
-Doom
-Brutal Sports Football (way under-rated game!)
-Cannon Fodder
-Cybermorph (hasn't aged well but it's not garbage)
-Ultra Vortek
-Zool
-Rayman
-Raiden

Kasumi Ninja is trash, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The soundtrack was abysmal.

The Jag CD doesn't have anything good on it. There's Primal Rage but it's a lousy port.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
Freshmaker said:
It came out 2 years before the PlayStation.
Click to expand...

The Atari Jaguar was released one month after the 3DO Multiplayer in November of 1993. The 3DO had a much better line-up of games overall, but it was far more expensive at launch when compared to the Jaguar. The Jaguar was a weirdly stuck in between the 16bit generation and the 32bit generation. Very few developers ever got the full potential out of the machine because it was hard to program for.
 
Shai-Tan

Shai-Tan

Banned
my parents were friends of Jack Tramiel so we had all the games given to us. It was ok to sample games for 15 minutes or so each. it was more the rise of pc games than other console games that was pushing us away from playing it

most played games were brutal sports football, raiden wolfenstein, and tempest 2000. we sucked too much to get beyond the first areas in avp
 
O

Outtrigger888

Member
Ok there's a ton of "my retro life videos" this guy put together with old home footage. And they are all awesome.

Someone needs to compile all his uploads and make a thread.
 
E

EctoPrime

Member
Interesting to think that if Atari released the Panther in 91 the Jaguar console might have been scrapped and something else taking its place in 1994 or 95.
 
P

piratepwnsninja

Member
I actually won one the day it launched. There was this computer store in my hometown that was all jazzed about the Jaguar, and they had a contest for one. Inexplicably, said contest was whoever has the highest score in the Bruce Lee game. You only got a single try, and I went early and my score actually stuck. I didn't actually play it too much after winning it. Lol.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
I have one, still hooked up. And I play it from time to time. I have 23 games for it, plus 12 for the Jaguar CD.

I bought one close to "launch" back in 1994. I was in the Army and had just been moved to Maryland, and hadn't seen one for sale before that. I bought it because the Aliens vs. Predator game looked killer in the game magazines, and the store clerk assured me it was shipping to arrive the next week. LOL. Not even close, it arrived months later.

Nevertheless, I had plenty of fun with it. It did its job, giving me a taste of the next generation, before that generation really arrived. It had a few highlights, like Tempest 2000 (the game in my avatar), Iron Soldier, Aliens vs Predator of course, and even Cybermorph I found really engaging. Watch AVGN's Jaguar video for hilarious impressions of Attack of the Mutant Penguins - a very fun game. And it has a unique, very awesome version of Wolfenstein, and by far the best version of Doom vs. the 32X and 3DO - those ports are shit. The Jaguar's is ace.

It's a train wreck of a console, though, just horrible. 64-bits, ha, sure. Give the Jaguar credit for making people stop thinking bits matter, perhaps. It's clearly more powerful than the SNES and Genesis, and even the 3DO, but it's not even close to the following year's Playstation and Saturn. Even if Atari had the money to hang around, it could never have competed.

And the controller, while perfectly comfortable and functional (despite what it looks like), was archaic even then. No shoulder buttons, years after the SNES? And 3 face buttons, years after the Genesis tried to patch up that same shortcoming? Unthinkably stupid.

It was a transitional machine, along with the 3DO, and 32X I suppose (I still have those also), and like those systems, not much of its library has aged very well. A lot of it looked dated or didn't live up to its promise even at that time. They were all quickly forgotten as the first impressions of the new consoles arrived. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Saturn and Playstation. And they quickly delivered on the promises the stopgap consoles could not.

Fun fact: the Jaguar CD, which I got much later, actually launched AFTER the Saturn and Playstation. Isn't that bonkers?
 
1

120v

Member
i remember the system was always kind of a joke. even the school rich kid who had a 3DO didn't want one.
 
O

Occam

Member
I have one. Controller not designed for human hands.
Terrible software support. There are only handful of good games (Tempest 2000, Aliens vs Predator).
Thankfully I bought it for peanuts about 15 years ago, and not back in the day.
 
W

Wubbys

Member
My best friend bought me one for my 13th birthday barely played it Alien v predator was pretty fun. Always thought the controllers were rediculous but the overlays for different games was neat. kept all the original boxes and sold it last month. Told him that he basically paid my rent.
 
Fnord

Fnord

Member
I pulled mine out of the closet a few months ago. Planning on cleaning it up and selling it on eBay. Jaguars are going for ridiculous cash for some bizarre reason.
 
Ragnarok

Ragnarok

Member
Parallax said:
the 3do shouldnt even be compared to the jaguar. the jaguar is the worst console ive ever bought. the 3dos worst aspects were its ridiculous price and daisy chaining controllers. wing commander alone kills the the lame ass jaguar software line up.

yeah, im still pissed
Click to expand...
I'll never understand why people think the 3do daisy chaining controller scheme was BAD. It was like including a multitap! At the time 2 controller ports was standard so having the ability to have 4-player multiplayer was AWESOME. Plus the cords were very long so there was no trouble at all with the other player jerking you around. It was a feature not a problem.
 
Correctomundo

Correctomundo

Member
Bought one shortly after launch. It paled next to even the SNES (which would see daily play from me until the Playstation launched), but I liked it. Anyone who says it didn't have any good games is a damn dirty liar.

Sold it and all the games during a period of lean, but rebought one in late 1999. I'd still have it, except that it was among the huge chunk of games and stuff stolen from me a few years ago.

While it has been a goal to replace all the stolen games and hardware, I will admit the Jaguar is last on the list. Still I look forward to the day when I can say I bought my third Jaguar.
 
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