Eps 5: ATARI JAGUAR
The game library comprised only 50 licensed titles , plus another 13 games on the Jaguar CD .
A virtual reality headset compatible with the console, tentatively titled the Jaguar VR, was unveiled by Atari at the 1995 Winter Consumer Electronics Show .
In late 1995 reviews of the Jaguar, Game Players remarked, "The Jaguar suffers from several problems, most importantly the lack of good software."
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Stacey Pena
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For example, the game Cybermorph, which came in a package with the Atari Jaguar, was a game for the Panther, but due to the development of the Jaguar, which was running ahead of schedule, Panther was cancelled and the release of Jaguar was brought forward. Atari promoted the Jaguar as "Do the Math" and claimed to be the world's first 16-bit home video game console. Moreover, the Jaguar boasted the highest graphics resolution of any console at the time and the best graphics performance of its time.
This claim caused controversy, as the Jaguar was certainly more powerful than the Super Nintendo Genesis in most respects. The Jaguar CD add-ons exceeded expectations so much that Hasbro Interactive had to give up the rights to them. There would eventually be amazing exclusive games for the Atari Jaguar, such as Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Country. In this article we will look at some of the amazing exclusivity and why Atari's Jaguar is great.
The Atari Jaguar was a console that used the same hardware as the Super Nintendo Genesis, but in a much stronger form factor and with a larger screen.
The Atari Jaguar was a home video game console developed by the Atari Corporation, which was launched in North America in November 1993. It competed with the 32-bit 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, which came to market in the same year. In many ways it was similar to the Sega Dreamcast, but had a shorter life span, had its own special convention and was the last console produced by the respective companies. Despite its short life span, it has evolved into a thriving independent development community and continues to thrive as one of the world's most popular home games consoles.
The development of the Atari Jaguar began in the early 1990s at Flare Technology, which also designed the slimmed-down Atari Panther console. Jaguar development began in 1990 when Atari commissioned Cambridge - based on flare technology - to design a 32-bit home video game console and a portable gaming system simultaneously.
The project included the development of a 32-bit fourth generation system called the Panther and a bold 64-bit system called Jaguar 1.0, as well as the design of the Jaguar 2 and the fourth generation Jaguar 3.1. Atari decided to abandon Panther and released its 64-bit machine in the late 1990s, along with the Atari Jaguar, the first of its new consoles.
French computer scientist Sebastien Briais was the man at the centre of the project and made some unconventional design decisions. Creator Eric Chahi has now given his blessing, and the platform of choice is the powerful machine that is proving to be the worst selling video game console of all time.
Atari never recovered from the 1983 crash that nearly brought home the game in America, and that dominance was a distant memory when the Jaguar was released in 1993. The Jaguar sold so poorly that the new console was technically superior to its rivals. If there ever was a game about how not to develop and release a home video game system, the Atari Jaguar would be among the top contenders.
The Atari Corporation, then led by founder Nolan Bushnell, was at the forefront of the business world and rose from immediate success in the late 1970s.
The company literally invented the home games arcade business in the US and successfully controlled the market for the Atari Jaguar, the company's first home console, with an iron fist. The Jaguar was classified as a commercial failure and caused Atari to leave the market for home video game consoles. After Atari was bought by Hasbro Interactive in late 1990, the rights to the Jaguar were released under a new license, declared an "open platform" and downloaded free of charge.
The Jaguar achieved cult status, as a developer base produced self-made games for the console. In the early 1990s, Atari had more than 1.5 million downloads of Jaguar games on its website and thousands of downloads on the Internet.
The first was a 32-bit code system called the Panther, and the second was the more powerful 64-bit system called Jaguar.
After seeing the graphical capabilities of the Jaguar, Atari stopped working on the Panther and concentrated on the more powerful Jaguar. Flares 2 began development, Panther was quietly discontinued and Jaguar development is progressing steadily.