History Platform / AtariJaguar

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, and the system was poorly documented and hard to program for (one major flaw being the inexplicable lack of dedicated sound hardware, hence why ports like Doom didn't have a soundtrack) so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo, which led to a common belief that the system wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors.[[note]](in fact, so long as developers were using the console's Motorola 68000 as the main processor -- which more often than not, they did -- the system was for all intents and purposes a '''''16-bit''''' console, and essentially just an overclocked Sega Genesis in CPU terms)[[/note]] The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing until 2017, when they decided to reenter the market with the ''UsefulNotes/{{Ataribox}}''. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

[[caption-width-right:350:Top: the Jaguar. Bottom: The Jaguar with CD drive and Pro Controller attachments. The shape of the console is a perfect indicator of [[ToiletHumor its other common use]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Top: the Atari Jaguar. Bottom: The Atari Jaguar with CD drive and Pro Controller attached. The shape of the console is a perfect indicator of [[ToiletHumor its other common use]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Top: the Atari Jaguar. Bottom: The Atari Jaguar with the CD drive and Pro Controller attached. The shape of the bottom setup is all too indicative of the console's performance.]]

** Worse still, the console came out in 1993, well after the use of keypads as a mainstay feature [[DeaderThanDisco had gone out of fashion]].

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, and the system was poorly documented and hard to program for (one major flaw being the inexplicable lack of dedicated sound hardware, hence why ports like Doom didn't have a soundtrack) so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo, which led to a common belief that the system wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors.[[note]](in fact, so long as developers were using the console's Motorola 68000 as the main processor -- which more often than not, they did -- the system was for all intents and purposes a '''''16-bit''''' console, and essentially just an overclocked Sega Genesis in CPU terms)[[/note]] The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing altogether. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, and the system was poorly documented and hard to program for (one major flaw being the inexplicable lack of dedicated sound hardware, hence why ports like Doom didn't have a soundtrack) so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo, which led to a common belief that the system wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors. The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing altogether. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1200px_atari_jaguar_console_set.jpg]][[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1200px_atari_jaguar_cd_wcontroller.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Top: the Atari Jaguar. Bottom: The Atari Jaguar with the CD drive attached. The shape of the bottom setup is all too indicative of the console's performance.]]

Still lingering in the [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Creator/{{Atari}} decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of the Jaguar, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $250 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], urging consumers to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead ([[BinaryBitsAndBytes because having]] [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork more bits]] [[SarcasmMode meant the system was obviously superior]]).

Still lingering in the [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Creator/{{Atari}} decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of the Jaguar, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $250 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], urging consumers to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead ([[BinaryBitsAndBytes because having]] [[HowVideoGameSpecsWork more bits]] [[SarcasmMode meant the system was obviously superior]]).

* ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator'' (1994)

Still lingering in the [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Atari decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of the Jaguar, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $250 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], urging consumers to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead ([[BinaryBitsAndBytes because having]] [[HowVideoGameSpecsWork more bits]] [[SarcasmMode meant the system was obviously superior]]).

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1200px_atari_jaguar_console_set.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-Atari_jaguar4.jpg]]

* [[UsefulNotes/CentralProcessingUnit CPU]]: Motorola 68000, 13.3 [=Mhz=].

* 16-bit stereo. The Jaguar had sound abilities that in theory were fairly close to the SNES, but suffered probably the system's most glaring flaw in that there was no dedicated sound memory. This led to a lot of the system's games (most infamously ''Doom'') only offering sound effects with no music during the actual gameplay.

* ''AlienVsPredator'' (1994)

* BillionsOfButtons: The controller had 17 plus the D-Pad, all front-mounted (supposedly, they were going for an "arcade" feel, but the end result looks more like a calculator instead). Cited by IGN as one of the [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/02/22/top-10-tuesday-worst-game-controllers worst controllers ever]].

The Jaguar had a CD add-on, the Jaguar CD. It had only 15 games released for it, didn't add any extra hardware beyond the capability to read [=CDs=] (by comparison, the Sega CD included upgrades to the console's graphics and sound chips), and its abysmal hardware design and worse production quality (on some units, the [=CDs=] were jammed in so tightly that they couldn't spin, which could lead to further mechanical problems in the already failure-prone motor) gave it a poor reputation. [[note]](To further elaborate on how shoddy the Jaguar CD was, it took WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd three attempts to get a working copy, the first two of which didn't work even after trying to get it repaired. [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] had a bit more luck, but his unit suffered from constant crashes and eventually fried itself completely after a few days' operation.)[[/note]]

** It's pretty clear the Jaguar CD wasn't very thoroughly tested (assuming it was tested ''at all''), due to how easily it breaks down.

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, and the system was poorly documented and hard to program for (one major flaw being the inexplicable lack of dedicated sound hardware, hence why ports like Doom didn't have a soundtrack) so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo. The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing altogether. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo. The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing altogether. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

* CreatorKiller: The Jaguar marked the end of Atari's days in the home console market and with that, its former dominance in the video game industry as it eventually fell into bankruptcy.

* [[GraphicsProcessingUnit GPU]]: Atari "Tom" 32-bit GPU, 64-bit object processor, and 64-bit blitter, 26.6 [=Mhz=].

Still lingering in the [[ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Atari decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of the Jaguar, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $250 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], urging consumers to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead ([[BinaryBitsAndBytes because having]] [[HowVideoGameSpecsWork more bits]] [[SarcasmMode meant the system was obviously superior]]).

Still lingering in the [[ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Atari decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of the Jaguar, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $250 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit {{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], urging consumers to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead ([[BinaryBitsAndBytes because having]] [[HowVideoGameSpecsWork more bits]] [[SarcasmMode meant the system was obviously superior]]).

Unfortunately for Atari, in spite of the Jaguar's technical advantages, they didn't have the money to throw at high-quality software development, so most of Atari's games looked hardly any better than those of its competitors, including the 3DO (especially in terms of 3D graphics) and even the Super Nintendo. The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} PlayStation, SegaSaturn, and {{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals and simpler controllers condemned the Jaguar to an early demise, and resulted in the company withdrawing from console manufacturing altogether. The Jaguar still has a cult following, which even caused the Jaguar encryption codes to be released so fans could make homebrew games.

* ObviousBeta: It's pretty clear the Jaguar CD wasn't very thoroughly tested (assuming it was tested ''at all''), due to how easily it breaks down.