Sega games on the Atari Jaguar?

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08-02-2017, 03:26 PM
Gryson

Sega games on the Atari Jaguar?

I was looking over these recently released documents from Atari that show communications between Sega and Atari in regards to which Sega games would be released on the Jaguar. Very interesting!

Apparently, the back story is that Atari was patent-trolling Sega and Nintendo in the early 90s over things such as 'fine horizontal scrolling of the video display.' Atari won and lost some of these lawsuits (the history here is quite vague and I can't find many reliable accounts), but apparently they made big money from these lawsuits, which helped keep the Jaguar afloat. Eventually, during one of these lawsuits, Sega and Atari came to the agreement outlined below:

http://i.cubeupload.com/74jtv0.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/a7HQCS.jpg

And below are the recently released documents:

http://i.cubeupload.com/54ecmJ.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/zRaouD.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/y63kvp.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/W2O85M.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/15WWaj.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/qzMF9c.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/mINmyZ.jpg

The list of games is missing pages, unfortunately, and it includes Master System and Game Gear games, as well. One of the most interesting aspects is that it shows 'royalties owed to 3rd party' for some games, so it's possible to figure out who developed/co-developed some Sega games.

One interesting thing that comes to mind is that Sega says Columns is licensed from a 3rd party. That seems hard to believe, since as I recall Sega bought the rights to it in 1990 and licensed it out to about every system there was.

It's important to keep in mind that the list was compiled by Sega of America, and they were clueless about a lot of the older Japanese-developed games (** indicates they don't know who owns the rights).

I got these from: https://assemblergames.com/threads/j...o.20747/page-5

Here is one of the lawsuits, if you're curious: http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/...9/783/1495595/
08-02-2017, 03:46 PM
Team Andromeda

I remmeber it and Atari had SEGA over the 9 pin joypad used on both the MD and MS. From what I remeber Atari could use any MD or MS game they wanted other than SONIC. And wow i thought my spelling was bad, but sombody can't spell Acient to save thier lifes
08-02-2017, 04:02 PM
Sik

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gryson

One interesting thing that comes to mind is that Sega says Columns is licensed from a 3rd party. That seems hard to believe, since as I recall Sega bought the rights to it in 1990 and licensed it out to about every system there was.

They listed Afterburner as being such a game too, even though they very blatantly own the IP (the ports were 3rd party, but that wouldn't be relevant here).
08-02-2017, 04:05 PM
Gryson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

I remmeber it and Atari had SEGA over the 9 pin joypad used on both the MD and MS. From what I remeber Atari could use any MD or MS game they wanted other than SONIC. And wow i thought my spelling was bad, but sombody can't spell Acient to save thier lifes

Yeah, there's the joystick one, but I think that was before '94. Like I said, they had a lot of lawsuits so it's unclear which one this came out of.

According to the letter above, they also couldn't use Ecco since it was also a "proprietary character of Sega".

Could you imagine if the games Atari wanted had actually appeared on the Jaguar: Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, Shining Force, etc. I really can't imagine it would have done much to help them to have older 16-bit games on the Jaguar. I wonder if that's why nothing ever came of this.
08-02-2017, 04:13 PM
Gryson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sik

They listed Afterburner as being such a game too, even though they very blatantly own the IP (the ports were 3rd party, but that wouldn't be relevant here).

Right. I have a feeling they're referring to the Genesis port, which was developed by Dempa. I don't know what kind of royalty agreement Sega had, but for Space Harrier the list makes it seem like royalties would have to be paid to the developers of the ports. Nevertheless, as you say, Afterburner wasn't licensed from a 3rd party...
08-02-2017, 05:13 PM
xelement5x

Quote:

Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

And wow i thought my spelling was bad, but sombody can't spell Acient to save thier lifes

Lol, I thought so too. "Thuderforce" was the that stuck out for me :p
08-02-2017, 05:30 PM
Gogogadget

The best part of this list.

Atari asking for certain games, and Sega just basically being like "no actually fuck off"

Like Atari had a chance at getting Shinobi or SOR on their system
08-02-2017, 05:45 PM
Team Andromeda

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gryson

Yeah, there's the joystick one, but I think that was before '94. Like I said, they had a lot of lawsuits so it's unclear which one this came out of.

Well the other one was left to right scrolling, but that would have been one hell of a battle to prove Atari way. Also part of deal that was struck with SEGA and Atari was cash payment SEGA buying shares and also SEGA able to have some Atari games on its systems
08-02-2017, 09:43 PM
Lync

That 'Recommended' and 'Missing' list of games for the Jaguar had me rolling.

They just didn't have a clue. I mean, it's December 1994. You really want a title like Phantasy Star II highlighting your 64-bit console? PSII was released in '89! For ten years Atari banked on the 'retro' console premise: No new thoughts, just recycling the same old. But this time desperately trying to recycle whatever games they can libel out of their competition as well.

As much as I like the Jag, Atari truly is video games' greatest one-hit-wonder.
08-03-2017, 05:24 PM
KitsuneNight

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lync

That 'Recommended' and 'Missing' list of games for the Jaguar had me rolling.

They just didn't have a clue. I mean, it's December 1994. You really want a title like Phantasy Star II highlighting your 64-bit console? PSII was released in '89! For ten years Atari banked on the 'retro' console premise: No new thoughts, just recycling the same old. But this time desperately trying to recycle whatever games they can libel out of their competition as well.

As much as I like the Jag, Atari truly is video games' greatest one-hit-wonder.

atari hasnt changed their tune at all
even more then 20 years later they are still recycling the same old and banking on nostalgia ( just like nintendo these days )