Atari Jaguar: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively ← Previous edit Next edit →Content deleted Content addedVisual WikitextInline

Revision as of 12:08, 23 November 2006 editJoeDaniel4 (talk \| contribs)28 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit		Revision as of 17:07, 23 November 2006 edit undoWgungfu (talk \| contribs)Pending changes reviewers14,858 edits World releaseNext edit →
Line 14:		Line 14:
	\|predecessor = ]		\|predecessor = ]
	}}		}}
	The '''Atari Jaguar''' was a ] ~~introduced to the U.S. market~~ in November 1993 to rival the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. It was touted as the "first 64-bit system". The system eventually wound up as a ] and prompted ] to finally leave the hardware business.		The '''Atari Jaguar''' was a ] released in November 1993 to rival the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. It was touted as the "first 64-bit system". The system eventually wound up as a ] and prompted ] to finally leave the hardware business.

	== History ==		== History ==

Revision as of 17:07, 23 November 2006

Atari Jaguar
File:Jaguar Logo.gif

Manufacturer	Atari
Type	Video game console
Generation	Fifth generation (32-bit/64-bit era)
Lifespan	November 18, 1993
Units sold	4.41 million
Media	Cartridge, CD-ROM
CPU	Motorola 68000
Best-selling game	Alien Vs. Predator
Predecessor	Atari 7800

The Atari Jaguar was a video game console released in November 1993 to rival the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful next generation platform. It was touted as the "first 64-bit system". The system eventually wound up as a commercial failure and prompted Atari to finally leave the hardware business.

History

The Jaguar was the last game system to be marketed by Atari Corporation. Flare Technology, a company formed by Martin Brennan and John Mathieson, said that not only could they make a console far superior to the Sega Genesis or the SNES, but they could also be cost-effective. Impressed by their work on the Konix Multisystem, Atari persuaded them to close Flare and, with Atari providing the funding, form a new company called Flare II.

Flare II initially set to work designing two consoles for Atari. One was a 32-bit architecture (codenamed "Panther"), and the other was a 64-bit system (codenamed "Jaguar"). However, work on the Jaguar design progressed faster than expected, and Atari cancelled the Panther project to focus on the more promising 64-bit technology.

The Jaguar was released in November 1993 for a sale price of $249.99, under a $500 million manufacturing deal with IBM. The system was initially marketed only in the New York City and the San Francisco Bay areas. A nationwide release followed in early 1994.

The system was marketed under the slogan "Do the Math", claiming superiority over competing 16-bit systems. Initially, the system sold well, substantially outselling the highly hyped, and publicized 3DO, which was also released during the holiday season of 1993. However, the Jaguar could not shake the perception of having poor games after several dismal launch titles. It finally had its first hit game with Tempest 2000, and other successful games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D followed. The most successful title was Alien vs. Predator which is often considered the system's defining title.

Through its lifetime, the Jaguar had an overall low number of titles due to being difficult to develop for. This was due to serious bugs in the released hardware (such as a memory controller flaw that could halt processor execution out of system RAM). Customers complained the Jaguar controller was needlessly complex, with over 15 buttons. .

By the end of 1995, after the entrance of the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, the Jaguar's fate was all but sealed. In an interview , Sam Tramiel, CEO of Atari, touted that the Jaguar was much more powerful than the Saturn (which was untrue) and slightly weaker than the PlayStation. He also predicted the price of the PlayStation to be $500 and said that any price from $250 to $300 would be price dumping and that Atari would sue to block sales (they never did). His comments were selected as #3 in GameSpy's Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming.

In a last ditch effort to rescue the Jaguar, Atari tried to play down these two consoles by proclaiming the Jaguar was the only "64-bit" system. Technically-minded gamers debated the merits of Atari's claim: some felt the Jaguar's principal "64-bit coprocessors" were essentially nothing more than graphics accelerators (with limited programmability), requiring external control from the Jaguar's primary processors; the primary GPU executed a 32-bit instruction-set, while the remaining CPU (68000) was already established to be a 16-bit unit. Others countered that the mere presence of 64-bit ALUs for graphics, was sufficient to validate Atari's claim. Finally, in mid-1996, Atari ran early-morning infomercial advertisements with enthusiastic salesmen touting the powerful game system. The infomercials ran most of the year but did not significantly sell the remaining stock of Jaguar systems.

Over the short life of the console, several add-on peripherals were announced. Yet only the Atari Jaguar CD drive and the JagLink (a simple two-console networking device) reached retail shelves. The voice modem and VR headset (with infrared head-tracking), existed in prototype form, but were never commercialized. (See Loki and Konix Multisystem for early development.)

Production of the Jaguar stopped after Atari merged with JT Storage in a reverse takeover.

After the Atari Corporation properties were bought out by Hasbro Interactive in the late 1990s, Hasbro released the encryption coding to the Jaguar, finally opening the doors for homebrew development. Several game companies, including Telegames and Songbird Productions, have not only released previously unfinished materials from the Jaguar's past, but also several brand new titles to satisfy the system's cult following.

Arcade games

Atari Games licensed the Atari Jaguar's chipset for use in its arcade games. The system, named COJAG (for "Coin-Op Jaguar"), replaced the 68000 with a 68020 or SGI R3K (depending on the board version), and added a hard drive and more RAM. It ran the lightgun games Area 51 and Maximum Force. Other games (3 On 3 Basketball, Fishin' Frenzy, Freeze the Cat and Vicious Circle) were developed but never released.

Technical specifications

CPUs:

"Tom" (contains 3 video-related processors), 26.59 MHz
- Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4K internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
- 64-bit object processor – programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
- 64-bit blitter processor – high speed logic operations, z-buffering and Gouraud shading
- 64-bit DRAM controller (not a processor)
"Jerry" , 26.59 MHz
- Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architecture, 8k internal cache
- CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
  - Number of sound channels limited by software
  - Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
  - Full stereo capabilities
- Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
- A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
- Joystick control

Motorola 68000 (processor #5)
- General purpose control processor, 13.295 MHz

Other Jaguar features:

RAM: 2MB on a 64-bit bus using 4 16-bit fast page mode DRAMS
Storage: Cartridge – up to 6MB
Support for ComLynx I/O

External links

Categories:

Misplaced Pages