Atari Jaguar

Template:ConsoleInfoboxThe **Atari Jaguar** was Atari's final home console, succeeding the Atari Lynx, and was the second console of the fifth generation of gaming, released in 1993 for North America and 1994 worldwide and was discontinued in 1996, prior to the release of the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and Nintendo 64. It became Atari's last major console to hit the market until the release of their 2021 Atari VCS console as Atari SA.

## Why It Deserves 64 Bits of MEGA Power

1. Very incredible games, such as *Rayman*, *Iron Soldier*, *Atari Karts*, *Tempest 2000*, *Alien vs. Predator*, *Super Burnout*, *NBA Jam: Tournament Edition*, *Ultra Vortek*, *Zero 5*, *I-War*, *Checkered Flag*, *Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy*, *Supercross 3D*, *Doom*, *Wolfenstein 3D*, *Missile Command 3D* and *Raiden*.
	* *Alien vs. Predator* was the best selling game on the system, programmed by Rebellion, while Ubisoft's *Rayman* was the best-selling kids' game on the system.
	* It has some best Jaguar CD games, including *Battlemorph*, *Primal Rage*, *Dragon's Lair*, *Space Ace*, *Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands*, *Vid Grid* and *Iron Soldier 2*.
2. Its port of *Doom* comes the closest of all console ports to the PC original, as John Carmack led the port's development (though it does have the massive downside of lacking music except during intermissions). It used 65k colors instead of the 256 that the PC had, which gave it a darker, grungier look. It is also one of the few games to make use of the JagLink LAN adapter to connect two consoles together, although depending on the quality of the phone cord used to make the link and the map played, the game can frequently crash in this mode. It also features a great port of *Wolfenstein 3D*, done by John Carmack, which includes more detailed graphics than the PC or 16-bit console versions, and runs at full screen at 60 frames per second.
3. Its very wonderful startup screen.
4. The console's design looks futuristic for the 1990s standards.
5. The music in Jaguar games was often a source of rare praise for the system, from the soundtracks to *Tempest 2000* and *Defender 2000*, to others. The soundtrack to Tempest 2000 was remixed and released on CD, where it was included as a pack-in with the Jaguar CD. GameFan editor ECM declared of the 1998 Telegames release *Zero 5* that the game had "better music than 90% of the games on the N64," also referring to how both the Jaguar and N64 were cartridge-based systems.
6. The source codes for the system and its CD add-on became available for homebrewers after the system was discontinued along with the CD add-on. It was declared an open platform by Hasbro Interactive on May 14th, 1999 after they purchased all of Atari's properties. Some of those homebrews have shown that the Jaguar had plenty of potentials **that just weren't utilized**. Good examples of this are the games *BattleSphere* (which allowed up to sixteen Jaguar consoles to be networked together and played similar to *Star Raiders* in 3D); *Iron Soldier II* (more texture mapping); and the unreleased game *Phaze Zero* (height mapped terrain, often mistaken for voxels).
7. Although no games on the Jaguar other than *White Men Can't Jump* ever utilized that feature, its Team Tap peripheral can actually support up to **8 players** if another Team Tap is plugged into port 2 of the console, which is ahead of its time.
8. Its original controller, despite being bulky, has a D-pad and face buttons, which are in easy reach of the user's thumbs. The backside of the controller has good ergonomics with indents for the user's index fingers.
	* This made it extremely comfortable to hold for any gamers with large hands.
9. The Pro Controller released in 1995 was more ergonomic than the original, came with a better D-pad and it mapped keys 4 and 6 to a pair of shoulder buttons while providing X, Y, and Z buttons above the A, B, and C buttons (Mapped to 7,8, and 9 on the keypad). This made games much better to control, particularly for games that were specifically optimized for the "Pro" layout.
10. The Jaguar CD came with a built-in music visualizer known as the VLM, created by Jeff Minter. This would play whenever a music CD was inserted into the CD unit and was interactive. This was one of the first interactive visualizers on the market. Later, Minter would create the VLM2 for NUON DVD players and Neon for the Xbox 360.
11. Atari didn't shy away from graphic violence on the system at a time where video games were under fire for such things. Games like *Kasumi Ninja*, *Ultra Vortek*, *Wolfenstein 3D*, *Doom*, *Alien Vs. Predator* and *Brutal Sports Football* featured no censorship and were not afraid to throw a lot of blood around. Atari even commissioned a game loaded with violence and nudity for the Jaguar CD called *American Hero*, which was canceled, but will see a 2021 release on PC through Ziggurat.
12. The commercials for the console's launch, are so good.
	* Very funny cartoon commercial for the console's launch, with the news reporter got eaten alive by a cartoon jaguar. See the video below.

## Bad Qualities

1. The system was a commercial flop, unfortunately being Atari's last console. See here for the reasons why and for bad qualities/Why It Didn't Do The Math see here.

## Reception

The Atari Jaguar is a commercial failure that ended Atari's venture in the home console market with only 250,000 units sold. After several years, it finally became a cult classic. It is now considered a great system despite being a commercial failure. It is widely considered the best console Atari ever made, and is well remembered for being Atari's farewell console.

It developed a small fanbase, especially with its open-source code allowing homebrew games to be released on actual cartridges. Atari essentially ceased to exist after the Jaguar as they had sold themselves to a storage company and ceased all hardware operations.