Atari Jaguar [Atari]

Finally, this gap at the end of my Atari collection has been closed as well. I was lucky enough to win a nice bundle on eBay at a reasonable price.
The bundle includes:

• Jaguar (NTSC-Version)
• 4 Jaguar Power Pad
• Jaguar TeamTap
• 9 Spiele:
• Rayman
• Bubsy
• Club Drive
• Ultra Vortek
• White man can’t jump
• Cybermorph
• Flashback
• Wolfenstein 3d
• Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy
• Iron Soldier

To complement this, I also picked up a suitable SCART cable from England. Cost: around 15 pounds – it produces a significantly better picture!

Hier die Übersetzung: Technical Details and Background
At the end of 1992, Atari unveiled its new game console: the Jaguar 64-Bit Interactive Multimedia System. At the time, it competed directly with the SEGA Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The Jaguar hit the market at an excellent price – $250 including one game – making it clearly cheaper than the competition.
The story actually began a few years earlier, though – work was underway on the successor to the Atari 7800, a 32-bit system that was intended to bridge the gap to the 64-bit Jaguar. However, work on the Jaguar progressed faster than on the 32-bit system. As a result, work on the "simpler" system was discontinued.
The main components of the Jaguar are three processors:

• TOM – responsible for graphics – consists of three processors: GPU, Object Processor, Blitter
• Jerry – responsible for sound – I/O functions and a DSP
• Motorola 68000 – it's responsible for controlling the other chips 🙂

Unfortunately, the system wasn't particularly well-designed and some parts were extremely difficult to program – so some developers resorted to programming games primarily for the 68000, which wasn't really intended for that purpose. (See the poor quality of the games "Club Drive" and "Supercross 3D"). Unfortunately, no games were available at launch, apart from "Cybermorph," which was included with the system. The award for Best New System of 1993 from Game Informer magazine didn't help much either. Regrettably, some of the games pictured on the back of the box weren't released until a year later – if at all.

The Marketing Disaster:
Atari’s advertising slogan: “If the Jaguar doesn’t give you the ultimate gaming experience, bring it back and get your money back.” Given the lack of games and the poor quality of the available titles, it is easy to imagine that thousands of Jaguars were returned.
Incidentally, the Jaguar was manufactured in the USA by IBM. Exact figures are unknown, though the total is estimated to be around 250,000 units.
Some of the best games for the Jaguar:

• Tempest 2000
• Iron Soldier
• Alien vs. Predator
• Rayman

Officially, over 100 games have been released. But there are still a few developers who continue to produce new games for the Jaguar (both on cartridge and on CD). Some Jaguars are still available in their original packaging - the prices are correspondingly high. The combination I got was actually okay in terms of price – although not super cheap :)

A suitable RGB cable for the Jaguar is very important, since the picture quality via the antenna output isn't really good 🙂

The successor was planned for 1996 – but never appeared, as Atari ran out of money and the merger with hard drive manufacturer JTS was imminent. The Jaguar 2 was intended as competition for the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64.

Jaguar CD
Der CD-Aufsatz für den Jaguar erschien 1993 für knapp 150$. Das Laufwerk ist ein Double-Speed Laufwerk, die CD’s haben eine Kapazität von 790 MB und basieren auf dem Format der Audio CD. Philipps hat das Laufwerk in Amerika gebaut. Die erste Auflage davon waren ca. 20.000 Stück. Dies dürften auch alle produzierten Laufwerke sein. Aufgrund der Besonderheiten der Einheit gibt es leider keine Möglichkeit diese Laufwerke heute nachzubauen. Daher sind sie – wenn überhaupt – nur für mehrere hundert Euro erhältlich.

Hier die Übersetzung: PAL/NTSC and 50/60 Hz
The Jaguar cartridges had no regional distinction – meaning they could be used on any console. Nevertheless, there were small differences between PAL and NTSC units:
– the switch next to the antenna output is a sign of an NTSC unit (switches between channels 3 and 4)
– on the US version, the power LED lights up red, while on the other version it lights up green
– if the screen is displayed with black bars, it's the PAL version – if it's full-screen, it's the NTSC version
For anyone who owns a PAL console, I would recommend the easily performed conversion to 60 Hz. Only one wire needs to be cut (there are videos on YouTube).
Link to the 50/60 Hz modification
On my console, this has already been done, along with a switch routed to the outside

Among the games, "Dragon's Lair" is the exception and required an NTSC/60 Hz Jaguar. Space Ace does run on a 50 Hz unit, but is said to have timing issues then

On the topic of 50/60 Hz, I found the following interesting description:

Hier die Übersetzung: Certain games are so improved at 60 Hz that the higher speed makes them feel like a completely different experience. Games like Doom and Wolfenstein are examples of this. Doom in particular moves so much more smoothly than the 50 Hz version that it's actually quite impressive. Super Burnout also feels a bit faster… if that's even possible. There doesn't seem to be a specific rule here – some games benefit massively from the switch to 60 Hz, while others don't. AvP is one example… unfortunately, the only difference on screen is the enlarged display area. That probably has more to do with the actual game engine than with the console's frequency.

By the way: Atari's original developer software for the Jaguar ran on the Falcon/TT

Zubehör

• ProController – available from 1995. Thinner and smaller—and thus easier to handle—than the standard pad. It also features a few additional buttons.
• PowerPad – just like the StandardPad, but in gray/blue instead of black/red (matching the design of the Atari Falcon).
• Note: There are some games for the Atari Falcon that support the Jaguar controller.
• JagLink – connect multiple Jaguars and play against each other (e.g., DOOM)
• TeamTap – controller ports are quadrupled – two TeamTaps can be connected – allowing for up to eight controllers (e.g., for *White Men Can’t Jump* and *NBA Jam Tournament Edition*).
• Jaguar Modem – never released – was intended for connecting to the Internet. (Supported by Ultra Vortek).
• ICD CatBox – manufactured by ICD, not Atari. It expanded the Jaguar with inputs and outputs for composite video, S-Video, RGB, stereo and mono audio, two headphone jacks, RS232 and RJ11 communication ports, and a DSP port.

Community
– Atari Age (englisch)
– Nexgame (deusch)