JAGUAR ......DO THE MATH

ATARI'S JAGUAR
(October 1993-1995)

The first 64-bit system ever...... just not a very good one.

It's looking at me!

Yup, it's true! This is the first 64-bit gaming system ever; the Atari Jaguar. This console promised a whole new world of better graphics, cutting edge sound, and faster speed for more intense game play to prove to the world that Atari is back and better then ever. Too bad it had just under a measely 60 games released for it and this thing is basically just a poor man's Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis (both 16-bit systems by the way!) anyway. See why this Jaguar was put to sleep.

The Jaguar was first introduced in 1993 for decent $249.99 Canadian (compared that to the rival 3DO's $999.99 Canadian price) and it came packaged with the 3D game Cybermorph: a really bad Star Fox clone with boring free roaming stages and no in-game background music. The future looked bright at first with games like Doom, Alien vs. Predator, Iron Soldier and more on the way, but Atari would quickly revert back to its old ways of totally screwing up a good thing (remember the Atari 5200).

I seen it several times before. Nothing kills a promising gaming system faster then a lot bad press and a lot of bad games. The Jag was constantly being slammed by critics for not being a true 64-bit system and who could blame them? After seeing some rather last gen games like Raiden and Trevor McFur that are still in 2D while the 3D ones look even worse with polygon duds like Club Drive, Fight for Life, and many more. The awesome game Tempest 2000 is really the only thing that kept dark grey oval system alive in its first year. Owners would go for months without a new game released especially during the start of 1994 and it didn't help matters when the hyped Rayman was delayed several times before it was finally released in June 1995 (Just when the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn were making news). When Donkey Kong Country was released on November of 1994 for the Super Nintendo, most people forgot about the Jaguar and just how powerful Atari hyped it up to be. Like Sega, Atari even had a poorly supported Jaguar CD that had a massive 790 Megs of memory (I think that's big anyway). Unfortunately this Jaguar add on only had around 10 games for it including a very poor remake of the Atari Lynx classic, Blue Lightning. The Atari Jaguar CD fits right on top of the Jaguar and it lets you play music CD's and Jaguar CD's. Comes complete with a Tempest 2000 Music CD, Vid Grid graphic imager, Blue Lightning CD, and a demo disc if you got it originally. There are only a few games for this beast so it definitely isn't worth it. If you look hard enough too you'll find homebrew releases for the Jaguar like Sky Hammer and Battle Sphere (expect to pay big bucks for them though).

Jaguar Controller: The giant Jag Controller may look cool but the thing is loaded with buttons and lots of them are absolutely unnecessary. You get three red action buttons and 12 key pad ones for different options plus a standard digital cross pad if you wanted to know. The thing was just way too bulky though and younger kids may have a tough time getting a grip this big grey brick.

Bottomline: The Jaguar is a good system for game collectors thanks to some rare games out there and some retro freaks who want to play the cool upgrades of Defender, Break Out, Tempest, and more. The problem is you can find a lot of the great Jaguar on other, more popular systems so there is little reason to get this. Rule number 1: "Don't ever play with a Jaguar" whether it's a cat or this game system, you may get hurt.

Atari Jaguar overall rating: 36/100
Find the Jaguar on eBay here!

RARE SCALE: 5/10 This system bombed big time with less than 500,000 sold, it's not Super Rare but it's very common either.

Good points:
*Most games feature build in save features for your high scores and other stuff.

Bad points:
*this is a 64-bit system? Can't be? It sucks!

Common Jaguar Games:	The Rarest Jaguar Games:	eBay
Blue Lightning CD Checkered Flag Cyber morph Dino Dudes Iron Soldier Tempest 2000	Air Cars Atari Karts Attack of the Mutant Penguins Defender 2000 Fight For Life Hover Strike Unconquered Lands Missile Command 3D Primal Rage CD

Recent Jaguar releases:
Battleshpere
Battleshpere Gold
Iron Soldier 2
Iron Soldier 2 CD
Protector
Sky Hammer
Towers II
World Tour Racing CD
WORMS
Zero 5

StarSoldier's Top Ten Jaguar games:
(Tempest still beats out Rayman. Remember that I only own 15 Jaguar games, so some bad ones make the list too)

#1 TEMPEST 2000

2. RAYMAN

3. CANNON FOLDER

4. RAIDEN

5. DOOM

6. ALIEN VS. PREDATOR

7. IRON SOLDIER

8. WOLFENSTIEN 3D

9. ZOOL 2

10. SUPER BURNOUT

Most Disappointing:
DINO DUDES

The Worst:
DRAGON

Most Underrated:
???????

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