Atari Jaguar

The **Atari Jaguar** is a hame video gaemm console pit thegither bi Atari Corporation an pit oot in North Americae in November 1993. Pairt of the fift generation o video gemm consoles, it competit wi the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive, the Super NES and the 32-bit 3DO Interactive Multiplayer that wis pit oot the same year. Driven bi twa custom 32-bit Tom an as weel as a Motorola 68000. Atari mercatit it as the warld's first 64-bit gemm seestem, pittin emphasis on its 64-bit bus uised bi the blitter.  The Jaguar wis pit oot alang wi *Cybermorph* as the pack-in gemm, thit wis gien divisive reviews. The seestem's library wis ultimately made up o juist 50 licensed gemms.

Development for the Atari Jaguar stairtit in the early 1990s bi Flare Technology, thit stairtit tae focus mair on the seestem efter cancellation o the Atari Panther console. The Jaguar wis an important seestem for Atari efter the company shiftit its tent frae computers - efter pittin a stap tae the production o its Atari ST - back tae consoles. Hounaiver, the multi-chip architecture, hardware bugs, an scunnersome tuils made pittin thegither gemms for the Jaguar difficult. Unnerwhelmin sales pit aff third-pairty support fur the console an aw.

Atari attemptit tae stend the seestem's lifespan wi the Atari Jaguar CD add-on, wi an extrae 13 gemms, an pittin an emphasis on the Jaguar's price o ower  less nor its competitors. Wi the lowsin o the Sega Saturn an PlayStation in 1995, sales for the Jaguar conteenued taw faw. It didnae sell mair nor 150,000 units afore it wis discontinued in 1996. The commercial failure of the Jaguar promptit Atari to lea' the console mercat an become a third pairty developer fur ither consoles insteid.

Efter Hasbro Interactive boucht oot aw o Atari Corporation properties, the patents for the Jaguar war pit int the public domain, wi the console declared as an appen platform. Frae its discontinuation, hobbyists hiv pit thegither gemms for the seestem.

## History

### Development
Atari Corporation's previous hame video gemm console, the Atari 7800, wis pit oot in 1986. Whiles it selt 3.77 million units in the U.S. in up tae 1990, it was considert ordinar an faur ahint rival Nintendo. Aroond 1989, wark stairtit on a new console makkin uise o technology frae thair Atari ST computers. Cried the Super XE tae stairt wi - efter the Atari XE Game System - it becam the Atari Panther in the end, uisin aither 16 or 32-bit architectur. A mair advanced seestem codenamed Jaguar stairtit wirk an aw.

Baith the Jaguar an Panther war pit thegither bi the members fae Flare Technology, a company formt bi Martin Brennan an John Mathieson. The team haed pit forrit thit thay could pit thegither a console thit isnae juist superior tae the Mega Drive or the Super NES, but cost-effective an aw. Impressed bi thair wark on the Konix Multisystem, Atari perswadit thaim tae close Flare doun an form a new company cawed Flare II, wi Atari giein the siller tae fund it.

Wirk on the Jaguar design went forrit mair swift nor expectit, so Atari dichtit the Panther project in 1991 tae pit mair focus on the mair promisin Jaguar, an rumours war already gang aboot for a 1992 lench an its 32-bit or e'en 64-bit architectur. Bi this time the Atari ST wis wey ahint in popularity bi the Amiga, while baith Atari an Commodore becam victims o 'Wintel', thit wad be the dominant computer platform. Support for Atari's legacy 8-bit products war drappit tae fully focus on pittin thegither the Jaguar console,  while thair line o ST computers war drappit durin the Jaguar's lowsin in 1993.

The Atari Jaguar wis shawn aff in at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Juin 1993, cawin it a "multi-media enterteenment seestem".

### Lowsin
The Jaguar wis pit oot on 23rd November 1993 in North Americae, at a price o $249.99, unner a $500 million manufactur deal wi IBM. The seestem wis juist available in test merkets o New York City an San Francisco at the stert, wi the slogan "*Git bit bi Jaguar*", claimin superiority ower competin 16-bit an 32-bit seestems. Durin this test lowsin, Atari selt aw units howpin it wad howk up support for the seestem. A kintra-wide lowsin follaed six months later, in early 1994. The Jaguar strauchled taw ateen a muckle uiser base. Atari reportit that it had shippit 17,000 uinit as pairt o the seestem's initial test mercat in 1993. Bi the end o 1994, it reportit thit it haed selt aboot 100,000 uinit.

*Computer Gaming World* wrocht in Januar 1994 thit the Jaguar wis "a smashin machine efter a developer/customer base", as Atari haed tae "owercome the stigma o its name (lack o mercatin an customer support, as weel as puir developer relations in the past)". Atari haed "ventured late intae third-party saftware support" for the Jaguar while competin console 3DO's "18 month public relations blitz" wad hae an ootcome in "a hurloch o saftware support", the magazine reportit. The smaw size an puir quality o the Jaguar's gemm leebrar became the maist citit raison for the Jaguar's unnerwhelmin adoption, as early lowsins sic as *Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy*, *Raiden*, an *Evolution: Dino Dudes* bein gien puir reviews an aw, wi the hinder twa for no taen fou avantage o the Jaguar's haurdware.  Jaguar wis later on gien praise wi gemms sic as *Tempest 2000*, *Doom*, an *Wolfenstein 3D*. The maist successfu title durin the Jaguar's first year wis *Alien vs. Predator*. Hounaicer, these occasional successes warnae seen as enouch as the Jaguar's competitors war gittin a conteenual stream o critically acclaimed saftware; *GamePro* endit thair rave review for *Alien vs. Predator* bi pittin "See gin Atari can churn out a dizzen mair gemms like AvP, Jaguar awners coud truly rest easy an injoy thair purchase."  *Next Generation* commentit thit "thus far, Atari has spectacularly failt tae deliver on the saftware side, lea'in mony fowk tae speir the actual quality an capability o the haurdware. Wi juist ae or twa exception – *Tempest 2000* is citit mair frequent-like – thare juist haesnae bin ony truly braw gemms for the Jaguar up tae the nou." Thay notit an aw thit whilst Atari is weel kent bi aulder gamers, the company had a lot less oweraw brand recognition than Sega, Sony, Nintendo, or e'en The 3DO Company. Hounaiver, thay argied thit wi its law price pynt, the Jaguar micht still be able tae compete gin Atari coud impruive the saftware seetiation.

### Bit coont controversy
Atari tried tae dounplay competin consoles bi pittin forrit thit the Jaguar wis the anely "64-bit" seestem; in its mercatin in the American mercat the company uised the tagline *dae the math!*, in reference tae the 64 nummer. This claim is pit intae quaisten bi some fowk, because the Motorola 68000 CPU an the Tom & Jerry coprocessors execute 32-bit instruction sets. Atari's reasonin that the 32-bit Tom & Jerry chips wirk thegither tae mak up tae a 64-bit seestem wis reediculed in a mini-editorial bi *Electronic Gaming Monthly*, thit commentit thit "Gin Sega did the math for the Sega Saturn the wey Atari did the math for thair 64-bit Jaguar seestem, the Sega Saturn wad be a 112-bit monster o a machine." *Next Generation*, while giein a maistly negative review for the Jaguar, mainteened that it is a true 64-bit seestem, as the data path frae the DRAM tae the CPU an Tom & Jerry chips is 64 bits wide.

### Arrival o Saturn and PlayStation
In early 1995, Atari anooncit thit thay haed pit doun the price o the Jaguar tae $149.99, in order tae be mair competitive. Atari ran infomercials wi enthusiastic salesmen touting the game sestem. These aired for maist o 1995, but didnae sell the remaeenin stock o Jaguar seestems.

In a 1995 interview wi *Next Generation*, then-CEO Sam Tramiel pit forrit thit the Jaguar wis as pouerfu, gin no mair powerfu, nor the newly lowsed Sega Saturn, an slichtly weaker nor the ingang PlayStation. *Next Generation* received a flood o letters in repone tae Tramiel's comments, parteecularly aboot his threat tae bring Sony tae court for price dumping gin the PlayStation entered the U.S. mercat at a retail price ablow $300. Mony readers thocht this threit wis empie an heepocreetical, as Tramiel notit in the same interview that Atari wis sellin the Jaguar at a loss. The editor reponed thit price dumpin doesnae hiv onyhing tae dae wi a product gien a price ablow cost, but its price is faur lower in ae country nor anotherThit, as Tramiel said, is illegal. Tramiel an *Next Generation* greed thit the PlayStation's Japanese price converts tae aboot $500. His remerk, thit the smaw nummer o third pairty Jaguar gemms wis guid for Atari's profitability, gart Jaguar owners angert, as thay war awready frustratit at hou few gemms war comin oot tae the seestem.

In Atari's 1995 annual report, it notit: 

On tap o this, Atari haed verra limitit financial resoorces, an coudnae dae the level o mercatin thit haes historically backed successfu gemmin consoles.

### Decline
Bi November 1995, mass layoffs an insider statements war giein fuel tae jurnalistic speculation thit Atari haed pit aff baith development an manufacturing for the Jaguar an wis juist tryin tae sell aff existin stock afore gangin oot the video gemm industry. Awtho Atari conteenued tae pit doun these theories gang intae 1996, core Jaguar developers sic as High Voltage Software an Beyond Games statit thit thay warnae receivin communications frae Atari ony mair aboot futur Jaguar projects.

In its 10-K405 SEC Filing, filed 12t Apryle, 1996, Atari telt stockholders thit its revenues war doun bi mair nor hauf, frae $38.7 million in 1994 tae $14.6 million in 1995, than gied thaim the news on the truly dire nature o the Jaguar:

The filing confirmt thit Atari haed abandont the Jaguar in November 1995 an in the months follaein war concernt maistly wi liquidating its inventory o Jaguar products. On 8t Apryle, 1996, Atari Corporation greed tae merge wi JTS, Inc. in a reverse takeover, an formin JTS Corporation. The merger wis duin on 30t Julie.

Efter the merger, maist Jaguar inventory wis still no selt an wad be flitit oot tae Tiger Software, a priveet liquidator, on 23rd Disember, 1996. On Mairch 13, 1998, JTS selt the Atari name an aw the Atari properties tae Hasbro Interactive.

## Technical specifications

Design specs for the console hae the claim thit the GPU or DSP are able tae act as a CPU, leain the Motorola 68000 to read controller inputs. Atari's Leonard Tramiel suiggestit tae developers no tae uise the 68000 an aw. In practice, hounaiver, mony developers uise the Motorola 68000 tae drive gemmplay logic due tae the developers bein faur mair familiar tae the 68000 an it's adequacy for certain teeps o gemms. Maist creetically, a flaw in the memory controller means thit certain obscure conventions maun be follaed for the RISC chips tae be able tae execute code frae RAM.

The seestem wis kent tae be difficult tae program for, no juist acause o its twa-processor design but development tools war pit oot in an unfeenished state an the haurdware haed cripplin bugs.

### Processors

* Tom chip, 26.59&nbsp;MHz
** Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4 KB internal RAM, aw graphical effects are saftware-based, wi extrae instructions pit in for 3D operations
** Object Processor – 64-bit fixed-function video processor, pit display lists intae video ootpot at scan time.
** Blitter – 64-bit heich speed logic operations, z-buffering an Gouraud shading, wi 64-bit internal registers.
** DRAM controller, 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-bit memory management
* Jerry chip, 26.59&nbsp;MHz
** Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architectur, 8&nbsp;KB internal RAM
*** Seemlar RISC core as the GPU, extrae instructions pit in for audio operations
** CD-quality soond (16-bit stereo)
*** Nummer o sound channels limitit bi saftware
*** Twa DAC (stereo) pits digital data intae analog soond signals
*** Fou stereo capabilities
** Wavetable synthesis an AM synthesis
** A clock control block, incorporatin timers, an a UART
** Jystick control
* Motorola 68000 - seestem processor "uised as a manager".
** General purpose 16-/32-bit control processor, 13.295&nbsp;MHz

### Other features

* RAM: 2&nbsp;MB on a 64-bit bus using 4 16-bit fast-page-mode DRAMs (80&nbsp;ns)
* Storage: ROM cartridges – up tae 6&nbsp;MB
* DSP-port (JagLink)
* Monitor-port (composite/S-Video/RGB)
* Antenna-port (UHF/VHF) - fixed at 591&nbsp;MHz in Europe; not present on French model
* Support for ComLynx I/O
* NTSC/PAL machines can be determined bi thair power LED colour, Reid: NTSC; Green: PAL.

### COJAG arcade games
Atari Games licensed the Atari Jaguar's chipset for tae uise in its arcade gemms. The seestem, cried COJAG (for "Coin-Op Jaguar"), replaced the 68000 wi a 68020 or MIPS R3000-based CPU (bi the wey o the board version), pit in more RAM, a fou 64-bit wide ROM bus (Jaguar ROM bus bein 32-bit), an optionally a haurd drive (some gemms sic as *Freeze* are ROM anely). It runs the lightgun gemms sic as *[[Area 51 (1995 video game)|Area 51]]* an *[[Maximum Force]]*, thit war pit oot bi Atari as dedicatit cabinets or as the *Area 51* an *Maximum Force* combo machine. Ither gemms war pit thegither an but never pit oot: *3 On 3 Basketball*, *Fishin' Frenzy*, *Freeze*, an *Vicious Circle*.

## References

## Freemit Airtins

* 
* Atari Jaguar review, 1994 Archived January 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine