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Atari Jaguar

alex

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MattyP

MattyP

Posted
Posted
On 10/11/2019 at 22:05, mwaawm said:

 

I had one and all the gamess you've listed.....but I freely admit it was shit....bemused that you could somehow think the telephone of a controller it came with was better than the ergonomically perfect N64 one. I could go on listing it's failings but would just be cruel to point out how pointless this was....suppose if they'd made it backwards compatible to work with all those old ET carts it could have been worse.

 

Frankly the thing was pointless it should have been released as the Panther 2 years earlier to give us an affordable western neo geo instead of overcooking it to launch with little to no games that showed off its superb handling of 2d to the fullest when everyone was jumping ship to 3d.

 

People that pay the silly asking price today to maintain a toe in the jaguar gaming pool need friends prepared to make an intervention.

:)

 

Kept a Jaguar boxed for years and to be honest forgot about the thing. They sold them for super low prices at one point so couldn't even be bothered to get it out of the loft to get rid of it.

 

Sold it last year for £150 with Cybermorph.

 

i can categorically state that it was the worst console I have bought. Tempest 2K was probably it's only game of note I really enjoyed. Doom was OK I guess but better on PC and Alien Vs Predator was terrible IIRC framerate was horrible although it looked OK. Can't think of anything else worth playing on the system. I did think about getting Fight For Life at one point but then just decided to ditch the system. No doubt collectors will collect because well not sure why curio? Ataris last console? Not sure.... Let's face it this wasn't the same Atari that brought the 2600 to the world. It's a shame they went out on this. :(

 

I've recently been playing Tempest 4K on the PC and it's great. Brings back memories of my time with the Jag. Worth picking up if you were a fan of Tempest 2K....

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Dudley

Dudley

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MattyP said:

i can categorically state that it was the worst console I have bought. Tempest 2K was probably it's only game of note I really enjoyed. Doom was OK I guess but better on PC and Alien Vs Predator was terrible IIRC framerate was horrible although it looked OK. Can't think of anything else worth playing on the system. I did think about getting Fight For Life at one point but then just decided to ditch the system. No doubt collectors will collect because well not sure why curio? Ataris last console? Not sure.... Let's face it this wasn't the same Atari that brought the 2600 to the world. It's a shame they went out on this. :(

 

I've recently been playing Tempest 4K on the PC and it's great. Brings back memories of my time with the Jag. Worth picking up if you were a fan of Tempest 2K....

 

It's a bloody great version of Power Drive. It's also the only uncensored console version of Cannon Fodder iirc.

 

I grant you I did basically just name 2 Amiga ports.

 

Looking at my small collection I'd suggest Defender 2000.

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MattyP

MattyP

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Never got to play Defender 2000 unfortunately. Defender is a very difficult game to improve on because IMHO it just works really well in it's first release. Looking at the video below that shjp is just too clunky and the background landscape just distracts from the action it doesn't look as fluid as the original. Might be wrong but making a new defender is a tough call. Think the best clone of Defender was Dropzone on the Atari/C64.

 

Think the main problem with the Jag is it never had a killer game. Something that only the Jaguar could do and made your jaw drop. Something akin to Ridge Racer on the PlayStation or even Pong or Space Invaders on the Atari 2600. 

 

 

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MattyP

MattyP

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Nathan Wind said:

IMG_0653.thumb.JPG.2831c3b91ace4bf80767fe1bdb4852bf.JPG

:) I bought a US import one! (It had a red light on it!) :D I had faith loved Atari as a brand. Sigh. Trust me I wish things had turned out differently but let's face it it was wrong timing and the wrong product at that time. It didn't stand a chance against Sony and Sega. Loved the fact Atari were looking at bringing VR to the market though and it's one thing that interested me. Who knows what the Jag could have been with more money invested and better hardware. Did manage to get VR on my PC though but some 25 years after the Jag.

 

Just watching a cool documentary on Amazon Prime at the moment on Atari... For me it died when Warner took it over and Nolan Bushnell was removed. However perhaps it was about to self implode anyway. Who knows. 

 

For me Atari will always be remembered for the spark of brilliance they brought to gaming during the 70s. They practically invented the coinop. Although I never got to see much of it! Battlezone and Star Wars (my first experience of Atari games in the arcade) were both awesome.

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Dudley

Dudley

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, MattyP said:

Never got to play Defender 2000 unfortunately. Defender is a very difficult game to improve on because IMHO it just works really well in it's first release. Looking at the video below that shjp is just too clunky and the background landscape just distracts from the action it doesn't look as fluid as the original. Might be wrong but making a new defender is a tough call. Think the best clone of Defender was Dropzone on the Atari/C64.

 

 

That's a funny way to spell "Resogun".

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Nathan Wind

Nathan Wind

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Dudley said:

 

It's a bloody great version of Power Drive. It's also the only uncensored console version of Cannon Fodder iirc.

 

I grant you I did basically just name 2 Amiga ports.

 

 

 

Uncorrect!  Compare and contrast Power Drive Rally to any other version (although it's more a sequel than a port) and you'll observe that it's doing things that none of it's peers could do.  The animations, shadows and reflections are sublime.  This thing was a 2D powerhouse; see also, Rayman. 

 

Although it was reasonably capable at 3D.  Iron Soldier 2 and Skyhammer are impressive for the time - the latter in particular chugs along at a reasonable pace with textured polygons, albeit with an abysmal draw distance.  Given longer in the hands of capable developers like Rebellion and Id things could have been different.  As it stands, it's a failure with just enough games worth playing if you have the interest and disposable income to poke around.  The thriving Jaguar 'scene' also makes it slightly more interesting to be around than some of the other failed machines.

 

TLDR - To this day the Atari Jaguar remains the best console ever.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
MikeBeaver

MikeBeaver

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Nathan Wind said:

I panicked when I saw you'd replied to this thread, it would have broken my heart to have been forced into adding The Beave to the list.  Tread carefully though, you know I will if I have to.

 

 

 

Lol, it was a system that I had a quick look at, decided it was beyond me, and added it to a box of stuff for him to have a go at fixing up and doing a video on, I've watched it all now... I think you'll be happy with the end result :)

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  • 7 months later...
SeanR

SeanR

Posted
Posted

it's 2021

 

I nearly dropped £25 on a cart only Val D'Isere over on eBay:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Val-DIsere-Skiing-and-Snowboard-ATARI-JAGUAR-64-BIT-GAME-BOXED-HQ-PHOTOS/133441537291?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200520130048%26meid%3D0acf553d99ad426a81dc591e9604e7be%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D10%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dco%26sd%3D324178687223%26itm%3D133441537291%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithDarwoV3BBEV2b&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

then used the forum search function because I couldn't be sure if I had a copy already, and it was easier than checking the box of jag stuff in the garage.

 

2016. £15.

 

I don't think I've ever played it...

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mwaawm

mwaawm

Posted
Posted
On 09/01/2021 at 13:31, Nathan Wind said:

It's an unplayable mess.  Far too fast and you can't see a fucking thing that's coming at you.

Thats harsh but probably fair.....I thought it was one of the Jags better games at the time but that was probably because there wasn't  that much competition.

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Nathan Wind

Nathan Wind

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, mwaawm said:

Thats harsh but probably fair.....I thought it was one of the Jags better games at the time but that was probably because there wasn't  that much competition.

The Jag has a dozen or so genuinely good games but Val is most definitely not one of them!  It’s almost impossible to control or even see where the boundaries of the tracks are. The visuals are just so unclear. If you’re after super fast racing on the Jag, Super Burnout is much better I think, and one of the system’s essentials. Very fast, perfectly controllable, looks fantastic and gives you time to react to what’s coming up. 

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chipsgravy

chipsgravy

Posted
Posted

I had a couple of Jaguars back in the day. A Pal version and an NTSC version. Sadly I sold them before the prices got into silly money territory. 

 

However way, way back AvP was an absolutely stunning game. The visuals were amazing for someone coming from a SNES/Megadrive even if the framerate is a bit slovenly these days. The atmosphere alone was worth the price of the Cart. Admittedly today there is no reason to revisit other than nostalgia as the FPS has been done and refined plenty since. 

 

I have also over the festive period been dabbling a little with Phoebe (Jag, 3DO emulator) and  really enjoying Protector SE and Tempest 2000 for their simplistic arcade style fun. I have also been playing a lot of Super Burnout which is an incredibly slick and fast sprite scaling type of game. However the difficulty of that game detracts from the overall enjoyment as I cannot even get close to being good at it. If only Road Rash on 3DO had opted for a similar game engine instead of the low jerky framerate it has.  

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owen2471

owen2471

Posted
Posted

I've still got my original jaguar. also managed to pick up a cd add on for it years ago, from Telegames in Leicester. Loved Tempest 2000 and still do. The CD addon resembled a toilet when fitted on top of the jaguar. Someone from Atari must have had a great sense of humour when designing that.

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