Jaguar
The Jaguar is a fifth-generation video game console developed by Flare Technology and sold by Atari on 1993-11-23. It was billed as the first 64-bit console, but actually used two 32-bit processors and a Motorola 68000 with a 64-bit bus. The Jaguar, like the Lynx, and the unreleased Panther, was named after a large cat.
Unfortunately for Atari, the console could not live up to the hype. The multi-chip architecture was difficult to work with and Atari failed to attract third-party developers so few games were made, and the console essentially caused a second bankruptcy for Atari. The console was discontinued in 1996 without selling even 250,000 units. Atari was bought out by a holding company and its properties were eventually bought by Hasbro Interactive in 1998. In an effort to maximize their investment, Hasbro opened the publishing rights for the Jaguar, but few companies took advantage.
Personal
I remember being at my friend Rob's house when he was reading from a video game magazine and mentioned that Atari was working on a new console. Since most of my memories of the company were of the Atari 2600, I thought it was hilarious. Atari was a fossil in my mind, and, when my friend told me it was going to be a 64-bit system, I didn't believe it. The 16-bit SNES had just come out, and there was no way a dinosaur like Atari would be able to eclipse all of video game technology so effortlessly. When I saw a photo of the Jaguar's bulky controller I couldn't help but laugh. Needless to say, no one I knew had a desire to buy a Jaguar. I don't remember even seeing anything else about the platform until probably 15 years later when I started seeing emulators and ROMs for it.
I've never owned or even played a Jaguar, though I've played a couple games through emulators, bit they were all awful.
Games
- See all Jaguar Games.
Initial Games
The Jaguar shipped with Cybermorph as its pack-in title.
It's launch titles were Cybermorph and Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy.
Personal
There are no games for the Jaguar that are important to me.
Review
I don't know enough about the console to write a proper review, but I do know that the system was difficult to develop games for which resulted in a very limited library, and, despite the touted 64-bit hardware, the PC games ported to it usually looked and played better on the PC.
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