Anyone Own An Atari Jaguar?

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Originally Posted by old man

I own one, but I don't admit to it.

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GAH! A paradox. :mrgreen:


I've considdered getting one, but the prices tend to be rediculous, noy like 2-3 years ago with bundled systems going for like $20. (a pair of controllers, hookups and a few games)

Shopgoodwill seems to be the cheapest place now. (not ebay for sure, maybe craigslist, but that's for local stuff only) Except, as usual, their shipping prices suck. (I got what would have been a good deal for a HDG M1+M1 CD for ~$30, but shipping costs almost doubled that) Here's a prime example:
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=5583004

Price looks pretty good, but add $20 for S&H (and I'll bet that price goes a good bit over $30 by the end)

I bought mine on EBAY with Wolfenstein 3D, AVP and Iron Soldier (IIRC) and it come with the hookups and 1 controller for $100. The pleasant surprise was it also came with the AV cables even thought he didn't mention them!

I've had my Jag for quite some time. I'd bought it from Telegames for about $120 shipped, and it came with Aikman Football, Tempest 2000 and Cybermorph, plus an extra controller.

I have about 25 titles for the console (all complete) including Iron Soldier, Zool, Checkered Flag, Theme Park, AVP, Wolfenstein 3D and Power Drive Rally. The games aren't that great, and the only real winners are Tempest 2000, PDR and Theme Park. AVP is an over-rated game, with a crappy frame-rate, horrible level design and often times poor camera angle. Cybermorph is a boring, repetitive game, that was more about what the Jag could do, than actually being fun.

I keep the system, because it's the last console from Atari. Sam Tramiel destroyed the company long before the Jag.

i had my Jaguar for quite some time too, bought it for $50 at Walden Software back in 1996 came with Cybermorph, bought a few other games like Iron Soldier, Ultra Vortek, NBA Jam TE, an earlier version of Cybermorph, Zool, and Tempest 2000.

also picked up an extra controller and the AV cable for it, and ditched the shitty RF cable.

AVP needs a re-release, desperately. Maybe like an HD Remix version? Same levels/gameplay with HD sprites/graphics and modern analog controls. MMMM, wonderful.

Got mine when KB toys was clearencing them off back in the day... (i think i bought one of each remaining game they had in stock as well)...

While i don't play it much lately.. the games i've played the most were: Tempest 2000, Super Burnout, Zool 2 and Iron Soilder

I just traded my Jag towards another Saturn. I like the Jaguar, but I didn't really play it that much, which is why I traded it in. I had some good games for it too, like Tempest 2000 and Wolfenstein. One of these days I'll get one again, this time with more games (I only had 5).

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Originally Posted by gamevet

AVP is an over-rated game, with a crappy frame-rate, horrible level design and often times poor camera angle. Cybermorph is a boring, repetitive game, that was more about what the Jag could do, than actually being fun.

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Jaguar Doom is a lot better than AVP, AVP is choppier and uses wolf-3d style raycasting (single height and a grid map layout using only right angles), just with floor/ceiling textures and higher resolution sprites/textures.

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I keep the system, because it's the last console from Atari. Sam Tramiel destroyed the company long before the Jag.

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Yeah, even those who appreciate what Jack managed to do with Atari Corp. tend to be unkind to Sam, things really started going down hill after Jack stepped down. They probably wouldn't have dropped out of computers the way they did if Jack had stayed.
Then again, who knows what would have happened with the Lynx or Jaguar under Jack's management, he certainly seemed more interested int he ST's development, but at the same time had supported the release of the 2600 Jr. and 7800 (the former prior tot he NES being test marketed and the latter being delayed due to ongoing negotiations with GCC), in particular with Michael Katz managing their marketing.

I reasently found out that Atari Corp. was offered to partner with Sega for marketing the Genesis in the US, but turned it down. (according to Katz, Jack felt the proposed arrangement was too expensive and was more interested in the ST) That would have been an interesting turn of events, also interesting that Katz left Atari and came to Sega not too long after.

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Originally Posted by 17daysolderthannes

AVP needs a re-release, desperately. Maybe like an HD Remix version? Same levels/gameplay with HD sprites/graphics and modern analog controls. MMMM, wonderful.

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You don't mind the overly simplified map layout?

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

I reasently found out that Atari Corp. was offered to partner with Sega for marketing the Genesis in the US, but turned it down. (according to Katz, Jack felt the proposed arrangement was too expensive and was more interested in the ST) That would have been an interesting turn of events, also interesting that Katz left Atari and came to Sega not too long after.

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Atari was also offered distribution rights to the NES. It makes you wonder how much different the history of Atari would be, if not for the arrogance of the Tramiels.

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Originally Posted by gamevet

Atari was also offered distribution rights to the NES. It makes you wonder how much different the history of Atari would be, if not for the arrogance of the Tramiels.

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Nope, that was in '83, with Atari Inc and Ray Kassar. Apparently he'd already decided to go with the 7800 but was stringing Nintendo along in attempt to get an exclusive contract and lock them out of the US, or short of that (as it's extremely unlikely N would have gone for a risky deal) Atari wanted to stall and delay Nintendo's enterance as long as possible.
Kassars (over)reaction to Donkey Kong on Coleco's Adam was most likely part of this ploy to delay Nintendo as well. (in fact, Coleco was the first to secure rights for the game and Atari later managed to fine a loophole allowing them to publish it for their computers, regardless the version being played ont he Adam was, in fact, for the ColecoVision, with which the Adam was compatible)

In summer of 1983 Kassar was charged with insider trading, was later aquitted of the charges, but was forced to step down as President of Atari Inc. at which time, James Morgan replaced him and picked up a horrible mess to solve. At that point Atari was a mess internally and the home video game market was on the brink of the crash, pushed over the edge by Commodore that fall/winter. One of Morgan's first actions was to halt all activities (production, development, etc) for a short period to review everything he had to address. Unfortunately, this pretty much handed Commodore the 1983 holiday market for home computers.
Morgan was in the midst of reforming th ecompany when Jack stepped in with his offer. By that time, Warner was ready to give up and had been actively seeking buyers for Atari Inc. Jack took on the consumer properties and massive dept Atari Inc had accumulated, so we'll never know if Morgan's efforts would have been successful. (note that the 7800 was ready for release in 1984, had already had limited/press releases that year and was building up for a full release; however who knows how that would have gone with the market in the state it was in '84; by '85 things had settled for sure though, with the decent demand shown by 2600 Jr sales -which Katz commented were mainly limited by their production capacity)

I own two Jaguar consoles, but both of them came to me DOA in two different transactions. Gotta love eBay slime selling busted hardware then ditching their accounts.

One day I'll get a working Jag or get my pair repaired.

I'm not sure of the construction of the Jag, but the most obvious killer would be reversed polarity or power surge, if it's protected by a fuse, that should be all that needs replacing though. (I'd check with the Jag forum on AtariAge)

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

I'm not sure of the construction of the Jag, but the most obvious killer would be reversed polarity or power surge, if it's protected by a fuse, that should be all that needs replacing though. (I'd check with the Jag forum on AtariAge)

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The problem with one of my units is actually that when it powers on it will stay at the Jaguar splash screen, make the growl, and then hang there. It never boots cartridge you have inserted, and I've tried quite a few. Hopefully it's an easy fix.

Thanks for the heads up.

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

Nope, that was in '83, with Atari Inc and Ray Kassar. Apparently he'd already decided to go with the 7800 but was stringing Nintendo along in attempt to get an exclusive contract and lock them out of the US, or short of that (as it's extremely unlikely N would have gone for a risky deal) Atari wanted to stall and delay Nintendo's enterance as long as possible.
Kassars (over)reaction to Donkey Kong on Coleco's Adam was most likely part of this ploy to delay Nintendo as well. (in fact, Coleco was the first to secure rights for the game and Atari later managed to fine a loophole allowing them to publish it for their computers, regardless the version being played ont he Adam was, in fact, for the ColecoVision, with which the Adam was compatible)

In summer of 1983 Kassar was charged with insider trading, was later aquitted of the charges, but was forced to step down as President of Atari Inc. at which time, James Morgan replaced him and picked up a horrible mess to solve. At that point Atari was a mess internally and the home video game market was on the brink of the crash, pushed over the edge by Commodore that fall/winter. One of Morgan's first actions was to halt all activities (production, development, etc) for a short period to review everything he had to address. Unfortunately, this pretty much handed Commodore the 1983 holiday market for home computers.
Morgan was in the midst of reforming th ecompany when Jack stepped in with his offer. By that time, Warner was ready to give up and had been actively seeking buyers for Atari Inc. Jack took on the consumer properties and massive dept Atari Inc had accumulated, so we'll never know if Morgan's efforts would have been successful. (note that the 7800 was ready for release in 1984, had already had limited/press releases that year and was building up for a full release; however who knows how that would have gone with the market in the state it was in '84; by '85 things had settled for sure though, with the decent demand shown by 2600 Jr sales -which Katz commented were mainly limited by their production capacity)

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The Tramiels were in charge of Atari in 1985, when the NES was released in North America. I'm not quite sure about when Atari was offered the rights of distribution to North America, but the system didn't see our shores until that year.

Even this interview made it very questionable about who was in charge, when the deal came about.

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/Vie....Detail&id=268

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Originally Posted by Classic Gaming

Marty: What was the status of the Nintendo deal (Warner/Atari had been in negotiations with Nintendo at the time for distribution of their Famicom system that became the NES) at the time you took over? Had it already been cancelled before your family took over, or was it just lost in the shuffle of the takeover and eventually fizzled out?

Leonard: I'm pretty sure there was no serious negotiation between Nintendo and Atari. I don't know what your source of information is, but there's a lot of bad information in the world.

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I have a Boxed Jaguar and a Boxed CD, I have about 25 games for both combined. I actually like the console and don't mind the controller, If you don't like the controller then invest in a six button controller, they're way better. Other than the mentioned games there's also some more good ones, Zool plays well as does Checkered Flag if you give them the time. There's also some great CD games, Battlemorph comes to mind.