I think the controllers had these paper overlays that you could put over the bottom portion of the controller, think of it as a poor mans touch screen.PacoDG wrote:I wanted one because that Alien vs Predator game looked so 'rad' at the time. I always wondered why it had so many buttons (but now I see most "next gen" systems all have a crapload of buttons). Anyways, I wish I owned one, and will probably break down and get one off eBay if I had the extra cash (after I get a CDX)
Anybody Ever Owned An Atari Jaguar?
I worked at a local game store around the time Jaguar came out. It was quite a sad sight, even at that time you could tell Atari had no hope against even the 16-bit SNES let alone the forthcoming Playstation which was soon to be released.
I brought it home a couple of times to check out the games. From what I recall:
Tempest 2000: it was fun. I'd play this once in awhile if it was on XBLA. Nothing amazing though.
AVP: It was quite unique, but the graphics are pretty iffy (even for the time period) and the level design wouldn't win any awards. Very 'mazey'
Iron Solider: The 3D was pretty underwhelming (looked like a overclocked Super FX game for SNES) but it was fun to blast stuff for a few minutes
I did try a variety of other games but they were uniformly worse - and I forget most of the names. A few fighting games I tried were truly awful by any standard.
So pretty much those were the 3 top games released for this system and I'd rate Tempest as the best of them at around 7.5. So the Jaguar's best game is above average but not much more. Its really a wonder Atari strung things out with the Jaguar as long as they did...
On the subject of the controller, it didn't seem so weird to me. Maybe this is because my first ever system was the Colecovision, which was also 'blessed' (cough) with a unique controller with a numeric pad underneath the joystick. But just because it wasn't weird didn't mean it was a good controller - actually the Jaguar and Colecovision probably have two of the worst controllers ever...
I brought it home a couple of times to check out the games. From what I recall:
Tempest 2000: it was fun. I'd play this once in awhile if it was on XBLA. Nothing amazing though.
AVP: It was quite unique, but the graphics are pretty iffy (even for the time period) and the level design wouldn't win any awards. Very 'mazey'
Iron Solider: The 3D was pretty underwhelming (looked like a overclocked Super FX game for SNES) but it was fun to blast stuff for a few minutes
I did try a variety of other games but they were uniformly worse - and I forget most of the names. A few fighting games I tried were truly awful by any standard.
So pretty much those were the 3 top games released for this system and I'd rate Tempest as the best of them at around 7.5. So the Jaguar's best game is above average but not much more. Its really a wonder Atari strung things out with the Jaguar as long as they did...
On the subject of the controller, it didn't seem so weird to me. Maybe this is because my first ever system was the Colecovision, which was also 'blessed' (cough) with a unique controller with a numeric pad underneath the joystick. But just because it wasn't weird didn't mean it was a good controller - actually the Jaguar and Colecovision probably have two of the worst controllers ever...
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The Apprentice
- 128-bit
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- Location: Wishing I was in California again
I owned a atari jaguar and cd system. i purchased it last year. i was so sick of it i sold it all to fund my psp just a few months ago.
The system really did have potential, but most games only utilized its 16 bit chip which was really supposed to be a chip to instruct the other chips. cheating but this is what happed with lazy developers (not their fault, didnt have enough resources to learn their code and other politics)
there are some very nice games however.
Protector SE (2002 release!, my favorite blows defender 2000 out of the water)
Skyhammer (1999 release) pushes jaguar to its limits)
Tempest 2000 (its ok, just a little repetitive)
Iron Soldier 2 (CD)
AVP (little overated, but mabye great for its time, gives me a headache cause of the framerate)
Burnout (amazing frame rate for its time)
NBA Jam
Raiden
Total Carnage (2006 release!)
Defender 2000
Battlesphere (never played it but its the Holy Grail of the Atari Jaguar.
The system itself looks like crap, but with the CD add on, i thought it was the nicest looking system in my collection. It was a bad ass looking machine.
If i was everybody i would avoid this unless you have money to blow and laugh it off. you can always do what i did and just re-sell it.
this past year the prices have inflated so be careful, its only gonna go up.
They are still working on new atari jaguar games at www.songbird-productions.com
The system really did have potential, but most games only utilized its 16 bit chip which was really supposed to be a chip to instruct the other chips. cheating but this is what happed with lazy developers (not their fault, didnt have enough resources to learn their code and other politics)
there are some very nice games however.
Protector SE (2002 release!, my favorite blows defender 2000 out of the water)
Skyhammer (1999 release) pushes jaguar to its limits)
Tempest 2000 (its ok, just a little repetitive)
Iron Soldier 2 (CD)
AVP (little overated, but mabye great for its time, gives me a headache cause of the framerate)
Burnout (amazing frame rate for its time)
NBA Jam
Raiden
Total Carnage (2006 release!)
Defender 2000
Battlesphere (never played it but its the Holy Grail of the Atari Jaguar.
The system itself looks like crap, but with the CD add on, i thought it was the nicest looking system in my collection. It was a bad ass looking machine.
If i was everybody i would avoid this unless you have money to blow and laugh it off. you can always do what i did and just re-sell it.
this past year the prices have inflated so be careful, its only gonna go up.
They are still working on new atari jaguar games at www.songbird-productions.com