The Atari Jaguar Thread

[TrekMD]

I just watched this video comparing NBA Jam between various consoles, including the Jaguar.  This is another title that was considered good on the Jaguar, even it it wasn't an exclusive title.

https://youtu.be/x0Ob5FZh33k

[DeadVoivod]

Some of them:
 
- Fight for Life
- Cybermorph
- Iron Soldier
- AirCars
- Ultra Vortek
- Hover Strike
- Hyper Force
- Kasumi Ninja
- Missile Command 3D
- Defender 2000
- SuperCross 3D
- Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy

And my favorite of the bunch, wait for it... CLUB DRIVE Are you kidding me

[TrekMD]

Ah, I can see why you feel the way you feel about it.  You didn't touch any of the better title, pretty much. 

[Shadowrunner]

Some of them:
 
- Fight for Life
- Cybermorph
- Iron Soldier
- AirCars
- Ultra Vortek
- Hover Strike
- Hyper Force
- Kasumi Ninja
- Missile Command 3D
- Defender 2000
- SuperCross 3D
- Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy

And my favorite of the bunch, wait for it... CLUB DRIVE Are you kidding me

Some of those are pretty bad I will agree, but Cybermorph, Defender 2000, and Club Drive are some of my favourites on the system. Iron Soldier and Ultra Vortek are also very good. Most people would probably agree with you that Club Drive is terrible but I have a soft spot for it.

Also like Trek said, you don't have most of the really good games. AVP, Tempest 2000, Power Drive Rally, Doom, Wolfenstein, Breakout 2000, and Zero 5 are all great games. That's not all of them either. You should try some of the better games before giving up on the whole system.

[DeadVoivod]

Don't get me wrong, I played ALL of them, the whole set, I was just listing the very bad ones. Others are Ok to good, although nothing really outstanding.

[davyk]

Jeff Minter always said he was disgusted with what he was forced to do with Defender 2000.

His direct remake of the game and the plus mode on the D2K cart look great and what he wanted to do was blocked by management because he was using similar sized sprites. He was forced to make things bigger which really hurt the playability of the game.

I can't say I have ever played it but looking at it the main ship is far too big for what is going on - esp with the speed it can move at. I watched a video of a guy who beat the game and he says he looks at the radar scope the whole time because its the only way he could react in time - leaving the main game display redundant. What a waste.

What a missed opportunity that era was. Management were even sniffy about T2K at the time because it didn't fit in with what they were expecting.

Imagine what Minter and others could have gone on to do with the Atari (and Williams?) IP - remakes of Robotron, Super Breakout, Missile Command, Asteroids, Black Widow, Xybots, Gravitar et al - all with a new look and enhanced gameplay.


Robotron 64 proved there was a market for it. It wasn't a blockbuster but it did OK.

The proposed new Atari console , if it does exist, could have been a new platform for this style of game.  Not retro games - but retro/classic style games - non timesink "won and done" games.

[TrekMD]

Yes, Atari went from one bad decision to another.  It is my understanding that the dev kit for the Jaguar also wasn't quite finished, which contributed to the difficulties in game development.  The system is clearly capable of more but it was not really taken advantage of.  A lot of lost potential. As for Defender 2K, have you seen Protector?  A better implementation of an updated version of Defender on the system.

[davyk]

Jaguar is one of the few consoles I don't own and have never owned. It's becoming an expensive thing to buy into now so I'd find it hard to justify spending on given the library which largely isn't to my tastes. I also have Saturn T2K so that itch is scratched.

However if an opportunity came up that would let me experience it at 60Hz with RGB and be able to get the likes of T2K and Raiden then I would probably take it.

[Shadowrunner]

I understand the complaints but I still say Defender 2000 is a great game. Sure you have to keep one eye on the radar the whole time but once you get the hang of it it's a lot of fun. Just have to get in the zone

[TrekMD]

Here's a video from 1995 showing the game "DeathWatch" for the Jaguar.  The game was a 2D run and gun platformer developed by British game developer Data Design InterActive. It was announced and demoed at E3 1995, the first E3, but it was never released.  Atari shifted focus to 3D games on the Jaguar after the E3 event.  The game looked really good, so it is unfortunate it is a lost big of Atari history.

https://youtu.be/mmGkjsWhFSU

[TrekMD]

Here is another video that looks at the entire game library of commercial releases for the Jaguar.  I'ts done pretty well. 

https://youtu.be/oHr9G8dUXDE

[TrekMD]

Atari Explorer Online visited E3 in 1995 and recorded a ton of Atari Jaguar related interviews, game demos and even added some Atari Jaguar TV commercials. They closed out the tape with an interview with Hyper Image, the creators of Hover Hunter - better known as Phase Zero.

https://youtu.be/ioG07qR6T7k

[TrekMD]

Jenovi posted this video where he discusses the rise, fall, and return to popularity of the Atari Jaguar.  It's an interesting chat. 

https://youtu.be/RvQ4NmFeKg8

[Shadowrunner]

Just a heads up for fans of the Jaguar, one of the main programmers for Alien vs Predator is on Twitter now and sharing a lot of stories and photos from back in the day.

https://twitter.com/WhittakerGames

Goes by Jane now. Not sure if that's a gender thing but I'm trying not to use any him or her pronouns just to be safe. Anyway, if you're on Twitter and a fan you should definitely be following.

[TrekMD]

Cool, thank you.