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Atari Jaguar

alex

By alex,
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mash

mash

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I've been playing around with the new emulator and I've got to say I'm impressed. I don't have any nostalgia for the system and to be honest most of the games I tried were either shit or could be done on the SNES/Megadrive but there were a few gems. 

 

Rayman - Hands down best game on the Jaguar. Feels so polished and the 2d visuals which would have felt dated back in the day feel timeless. 

 

Alien vs Predator - Looks alright I suppose, but it's fucking boring. Everything looks the same, no signposting to show you where to go. 

 

Doom - Credible version of Doom. But where's the music?

 

Flashback - Meh. Megadrive version was better.

 

Raiden - Horrible intrusive border aside this was great. But again it's another game that could be done on 16 bit consoles.

 

Super Burnout - Technically this was fucking awesome. The Jag could have handled super scalar games with ease judging by this. Shame it's too hard. 

 

Powerdrive Rally - Last time I played this was in 1994. It's okay but it's not a patch on the Neo Geo isometric racing games. 

 

Sensible Soccer - It's er Sensible soccer.  Preferred it on the Amiga

 

Tempest 2000 - Joint best game on the Jaguar. It's a little too busy for my middle-aged eyes and I'm shit at it, but Ioved the oily effect and the 90s dance music. 

 

Double Dragon V  - Utter shit.

 

NBA Jam TE - This surprised me. Finally a port of a game which actually used some of the Jags power. Really good this.

 

Atari Karts - Looked alright and technically it's sound but it's not playing the same sport as Mario Kart or even Street Racer.

 

 

 

 

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Spartan

Spartan

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Id have loved to have seen the 2D Conan side scroller brawler that was cancelled. Remember seeing a couple of screenshots, looked very much like a souped up version of golden axe. In the right hands the console could really sing, pity it just ended up with a bunch of ports that barely scratched the surface

 

Conan Beat em up

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PikaStu

PikaStu

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Some of the games I tried…

 

Club Drive - I can’t believe this was ever released?! It’s a bad tech demo, it makes the Megadrive version of Race Driving look good.

 

Chequered Flag - Boosting the processor x1.25 make this a smoother experience, but the handling is pretty shite.

 

Kazumi Ninja - So bad, it’s an absolute shambles. Even the comedy Scottish guy can’t save it.


Iron Soldier - I had some small hope this would be a fairly fun mech game. I was wrong.

 

Doom - Looks and plays better on a low spec 486 PC

 

 

 

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megamixer

megamixer

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On 04/12/2022 at 12:11, PikaStu said:

Club Drive - I can’t believe this was ever released?! It’s a bad tech demo, it makes the Megadrive version of Race Driving look good.

I'm still in shock that this game was chosen for the small Jaguar selection in the new Atari 50th compilation 😮

 

I mean, I understand that they wouldn't have been include licensed stuff like AVP on there, but surely there would have been something - anything - even if it was just a mediocre title, instead of fucking Club Drive!!! It should have been Super Burnout on there instead of this crap (unless I'm forgetting something and SB is actually a licensed game that wouldn't have been available?!?).

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Rex Grossman

Rex Grossman

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11 hours ago, megamixer said:

I'm still in shock that this game was chosen for the small Jaguar selection in the new Atari 50th compilation 😮

 

I mean, I understand that they wouldn't have been include licensed stuff like AVP on there, but surely there would have been something - anything - even if it was just a mediocre title, instead of fucking Club Drive!!! It should have been Super Burnout on there instead of this crap (unless I'm forgetting something and SB is actually a licensed game that wouldn't have been available?!?).


And Club Drive came out at pretty much the same time as the home version of Ridge Racer.

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PikaStu

PikaStu

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I’ve tried to “do the math” but I don’t see anything that couldn’t be done with a Sega 32x, or in the case of 2D games, a SNES. 
 

You’d have thought with all that (alleged) power, they could’ve used a higher resolution for Syndicate, making it more like the PC version, instead of what is possibly an Atari ST port. 


Club Drive received a score of 72% in CVG?! I’d struggle to give it 7.2%. 

 

 

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MattyP

MattyP

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On 02/12/2022 at 06:41, Nathan Wind said:

A new emulator has just been released, claiming 100% compatibility with all the commercial games. I’m going to give it a whirl later. The last time I tried a Jag emulator it was absolute shite, so I shall keep my expectations in check. However, I’ll be over the moon if it lets me have a decent blast on Power Drive, Super Burnout, AvP and JagDOOM! 
 

 

Its by the chap who made the emulator for the Atari 50th Celebration collection he open-sourced the project I believe. 

 

I can categorically state the Jag was the worst console I have ever had the misfortune to own.

 

Tempest 2000 was the only game on the system that I enjoyed. Playing and experiencing  most of the Jag games on the Atari Celebration compilation I am so glad I kept hold of my money back when I had it. Even Alien Vs Predator was a bit rubbish IMHO. 

 

Why people are paying crazy prices for these is really beyond me. Just proves people will buy any old tat when it comes to retro stuff. :D 

 

At least we have a decent emulator now so people will be able to try things out before buying any physical things. I expect most will end up in a display cabinet or something anyway. Sad thing it doesn't even look good IMHO. Looks like some kind of toilet with the CDROM drive on the top. Shame Atari went out on this.

 

EDIT: In fact I'd go so far as to say if you want to have a play with a Jag - go out and buy a Xbox Series S. Buy Ataris 50th Celebration Collection. Play the Jag games on there and then thank me for at least having a Series S to play some great games on when you are done! The D-Pad on the Series controller even feels like a better version of the Jag's original D-pad :) Also there are plenty of great games to play on that Atari collection too... :D 

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Vimster

Vimster

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Back then I had an Atari ST-owning mate who was fiercely loyal to Atari. The two main point he'd press constantly were the Falcon 030 and the Jaguar. Not sure of the story of the Falcon, but it was pretty obvious to us at the time the Jaguar wasn't doing any damage. Then the PS1 got revealed and that's was that. Even my mate couldn't defend the Jag. 

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MattyP

MattyP

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1 minute ago, Vimster said:

Back then I had an Atari ST-owning mate who was fiercely loyal to Atari. The two main point he'd press constantly were the Falcon 030 and the Jaguar. Not sure of the story of the Falcon, but it was pretty obvious to us at the time the Jaguar wasn't doing any damage. Then the PS1 got revealed and that's was that. Even my mate couldn't defend the Jag. 

Yeah. It is a bit of a shame to be honest. If the Jag had released maybe 3 years earlier than it did it *might* have done a bit better however it was released at the wrong time - back of the 16 bit era (many games playing and looking much better on those consoles) and people looking towards the Playstation and Saturn. Also Atari really never had the funds to back a console release either at that point.

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MattyP

MattyP

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4 minutes ago, SeanR said:

If they’d released the panther earlier still, and made wedge off that to fund a proper 64bit machine, and attracted developers…

If they'd got the Panther out before the SNES/Megadrive or around the same time yes. However getting dev support might have been an ask even then. Atari started loosing traction in consoles way back at the 5200 which was a bit of a flop followed up by the 7800.... Nintendo basically had stole Ataris market at that point with the NES. 

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MattyP

MattyP

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18 minutes ago, megamixer said:

Was there anything remotely essential on the Atari Toilet Seat aka the Jag CD? I don't know much about it other than a rep for breaking down (which I'm not sure on the legitimacy of) and that it's expensive (surprise, surprise...).

Think Jeff Minter did a visualiser for it? Although not sure it would be classed as essential :)

 

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ianinthefuture

ianinthefuture

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1 hour ago, Unofficial Who said:

Is this sudden jump in emulator quality for the Jaguar due to the great one used in Atari 50? It seems a bit of a co-incidence.

It's the emulator they use in that. The creator got permission to release it publicly, though it's still closed source for Contractual Reasons.

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gone fishin

gone fishin

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I’d never heard of Club Drive so I had to look it up on YouTube

 

 

I mean, this was seriously a launch title to showcase the Jaguar? Man, it looks like a slightly gaudier version of an Amiga Shareware game. The music is absolutely laughable too, but it was made by Rebellion who had made Aliens v Predator? The Wikipedia entry is pretty funny

 

Quote

During a presentation at the London Planetarium, the game was showcased to the video game press and the audience laughed to the point that then-Atari UK marketing managerDarryl Still was infuriated due to the reaction from attendees.

 

I’ve never owned a Jaguar, but I’ve had a soft spot for it because of the slightly tenuous link to the Sinclair Spectrum Loki. After leaving Sinclair when the Loki was canned, the team then went on to design the Konix Multisystem. Which was then canned. They then sold the next version to Atari and released it as the Jaguar… they didn’t have much luck but it kind of sums up the plucky spunk of the Brits.

 

 

Poor Jeff Minter, designing games for the Konix Multisystem, then the Jaguar and that DVD games system, he knows how to pick em. 

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