History Platform / AtariJaguar

* The [=JagLink=] allowed the console to connect to the internet via LAN for online play. Yes, online play did exist back then.
* The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD add-on in the same vein as the Sega CD for the Genesis. 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 (One of the developers who worked on the ''Highlander'' tie-in game for the add-on noted that the add-on was [[ObviousBeta clearly buggy and resource constrained]], and that everything for it had to be coded by hand from scratch to make games for it) 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. 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. Due to the absurd hardware failure rate and the fact that hardly anyone bought one to begin with[[note]]It's believed that only 25,000 units were produced, it's unknown how many were actually sold but generally believed to be somewhere between 10 and 15 thousand[[/note]] a working Jaguar CD is ''incredibly'' hard to find and will run you at least $1,000 USD.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making it a huge flop[[note]]How huge? The [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], itself a complete and utter bomb with nearly triple the [=MSRP=] at launch, still managed to sell 8 consoles for every 1 Jaguar[[/note]]. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing until 2017 and was the end of the Atari Corporation as an independent company.]] Jack Tramiel would sell the company to Hasbro Interactive, who relegated the label to remakes and compilations of classic Atari games, before selling the company again to Infogrames, who adopted the Atari name and is the Atari that exists today. In 2017, they decided to re-enter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to it's contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter her wrote to ''[=GamePro=]'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and it's stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." and ended the letter with [[TemptingFate "We...welcome comments from the enthusiasts who read GamePro."]] ''[=GamePro=]'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, called Tramiel's bluff and printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue. Incidents like these did a lot to damage Atari's already tenuous relationship with industry press and gamers.

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to it's contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter her wrote to ''GamePro'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and it's stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." and ended the letter with [[TemptingFate "We...welcome comments from the enthusiasts who read GamePro."]] ''GamePro'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue. Incidents like these did a lot to damage Atari's already tenuous relationship with industry press and gamers.

These issues making game and Atari's inability to properly fund the system meant its library ended up extremely lacking, with it receiving less than 60 games. Despite this, it managed to nab a decent selection of third-party ports, such as the aforementioned ''Doom'' (oddly the only console port of the game to be developed by Creator/IdSoftware), ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'', and ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''. Other notable games include the first ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator''; ''Rayman'' was actually developed and released for the Jaguar first before being ported to other consoles, while ''Alien vs. Predator'' was a relatively popular exclusive that was the closest thing to a KillerApp the Jaguar had.

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to it's contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter her wrote to ''GamePro'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and it's stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." and ended the letter with [[TemptingFate "We...welcome comments from the enthusiasts who read GamePro]] ''GamePro'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue. Incidents like these did a lot to damage Atari's already tenuous relationship with industry press and gamers.

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to it's contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter her wrote to ''GamePro'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and it's stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." ''GamePro'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue.

The Jaguar's issues making game development difficult and Atari's inability to properly fund the system meant its library ended up extremely lacking, with it receiving less than 60 games. Despite this, it managed to nab a decent selection of third-party ports, such as the aforementioned ''Doom'' (oddly the only console port of the game to be developed by Creator/IdSoftware), ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'', and ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''. Other notable games include the first ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator''; ''Rayman'' was actually developed and released for the Jaguar first before being ported to other consoles, while ''Alien vs. Predator'' was a relatively popular exclusive that was the closest thing to a KillerApp the Jaguar had.

* The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD add-on in the same vein as the Sega CD for the Genesis. 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 (One of the developers who worked on the ''Highlander'' tie-in game for the add-on noted that the add-on was [[ObviousBeta clearly buggy and resource constrained]], and that everything for it had to be coded by hand from scratch to make games for it) 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]]

* The [=ProController=] is a slight visual facelift of the original controller with 3 extra buttons -- for a total of 6 face buttons and 20 overall buttons -- and the addition of triggers. It was made due to complaints about the original controller's design, especially since it was ill-suited for playing {{Fighting Game}}s. Despite this, it was not bundled with the system.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making it a huge flop. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing until 2017 and was the end of the Atari Corporation as an independent company.]] Jack Tramiel would sell the company to Hasbro Interactive, who relegated the label to remakes and compilations of classic Atari games, before selling the company again to Infogrames, who adopted the Atari name and is the Atari that exists today. In 2017, they decided to re-enter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

Despite all its issues, the Atari Jaguar still has a sizable cult following. During the period when Hasbro Interactive held possession of Atari and its relevant trademarks,[[https://web.archive.org/web/20040818111046/http://www.atari-explorer.com/Hasbro-PR.htm they released the Jaguar's encryption codes into the public domain in 1999]] so fans could easily make homebrew games. The homebrew community has supported the system all the way into UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, more than doubling the amount of games in its library.

The Jaguar's issues making game development difficult and Atari's inability to properly fund the system meant its library ended up extremely lacking, with it receiving less than 60 games. Despite this, it managed to nab some decent third-party ports, such as the aforementioned ''Doom'' (oddly the only console port of the game to be developed by Creator/IdSoftware), ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'', and ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''. Other notable games include the first ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator''; ''Rayman'' was actually developed and released for the Jaguar first before being ported to other consoles, while ''Alien vs. Predator'' was a relatively popular exclusive that was the closest thing to a KillerApp the Jaguar had.

Despite all its issues, the Atari Jaguar still has a sizable cult following. Hasbro Interactive (then-owners of the original Atari Corporation's trademarks and patents) [[https://web.archive.org/web/20040818111046/http://www.atari-explorer.com/Hasbro-PR.htm even released the Jaguar's encryption codes into the public domain in 1999]] so fans could easily make homebrew games. The homebrew community has supported the system all the way into UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, more than doubling the amount of games in its library.

The Jaguar's issues making game development difficult and Atari's inability to properly fund the system meant its library ended up extremely lacking, with it receiving less than 60 games. Despite this, it managed to nab some notable third-party ports, such as the aforementioned ''Doom'' (oddly the only console port of the game to be developed by Creator/IdSoftware), ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'', and ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D''. Other notable games include the first ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' and ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator''; ''Rayman'' was actually developed and released for the Jaguar first before getting ported to other consoles, while ''Alien vs. Predator'' was a relatively popular exclusive that was the closest thing to a KillerApp the Jaguar had.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atari_jaguar.png]][[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atari_jaguar_cd_wpro_controller.png]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1200px_atari_jaguar_console_set.jpg]][[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/atari_jaguar_cd_wpro_controller.jpg]]

* ''VideoGame/Ultra Vortek''

* ''Ultra Vortek''

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining power based on the bit number is a gross oversimplification of how bits work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors. Whether or not the Jaguar is a true 64-bit system isn't entirely agreed upon, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's poor showing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

* CreatorKiller: Atari was barely hanging on in the video game market after their downfall during the UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, and the critical and commercial failure of the Jaguar finally did them in. Atari was forced to withdraw from the console market entirely for the next twenty-five years as a result, surrendering its dominance as a developer as a consequence.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making it a huge flop. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing]] until 2017, when they decided to reenter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making the it a huge flop. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing]] until 2017, when they decided to reenter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining console specs solely off of bits is a gross oversimplification of how computers work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar 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 real answer of whether or not the Jaguar is a 64-bit system is... complicated, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's poor showing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

Despite all its issues, the Atari Jaguar still has a sizable cult following. Hasbro Interactive (then-owners of the original Atari Corporation's trademarks and patents) [[https://web.archive.org/web/20040818111046/http://www.atari-explorer.com/Hasbro-PR.htm even released the Jaguar's encryption codes into the public domain in 1999]] so fans could make homebrew games. The homebrew community has supported the system all the way into UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, more than doubling the amount of games in its library.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining console specs solely off of bits is a gross oversimplification of how computers work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar 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 real answer of whether or not the Jaguar is a 64-bit system is... complicated, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's misleading marketing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining console specs solely off of bits is a gross oversimplification of how computers work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar 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 real answer of whether or not the Jaguar is a 64-bit system is... complicated, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system.[[note]]Incidentally, many consider this console to be the biggest blow for using "bits" to market a console; while future consoles like the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage and would slowly but surely die as a marketing gimmick from here on out[[/note]]

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}} Corp 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 solely working on the '''Jaguar''' thanks to how well its development was going, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $249.99 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]]. Consumers were urged to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead, [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork because apparently having more bits automatically meant the system was obviously superior]] and it was ''definitely'' not just marketing hype.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Because the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar 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 real answer of whether or not the Jaguar is a 64-bit system is... complicated, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system.[[note]]Incidentally, many consider this console to be the biggest blow for using "bits" to market a console; while future consoles like the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage and would slowly but surely die as a marketing gimmick from here on out[[/note]]

The Jaguar's controller tried to combine a numpad-style button layout that was in vogue during the tail end of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames with a traditional controller, which led to it having a whopping 17 buttons. It was criticized for being overly complicated and cumbersome to use. Ironically, the controller was ill-suited for {{fighting game}}s despite its excess of buttons and Atari's attempts to make the Jaguar appeal to that specific crowd due to the controller layout not providing enough standard buttons. They had to release a new [=ProController=] with more normal buttons to make fighting games playable on the system.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Because the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager chip" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and its history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar 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 real answer of whether or not the Jaguar is a 64-bit system is... complicated, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system.