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Atari Jaguar

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The Atari Jaguar was technologically advanced, but had a poorly regarded games library.

The Atari Jaguar and the Atari Lynx were the last two Atari systems to be developed, but because Atari did not want any direct involvement in hardware production they were produced by outside contractors. In 1990, Flare Technology (a company formed by Martin Brennan and John Mathieson with Atari funding) said that not only could they make a console far superior to the Sega Genesis or the Super NES but they could also be cost-effective. Atari immediately agreed and the system was released in 1993 for $250 under a $500 million manufacturing deal with IBM.

The 64-bit system was marketed under the slogan "Do the Math", claiming superiority over competing 16-bit systems. Initially the system sold well substancially outselling the 3DO also released in 1993. As time went on however, a perception of the Jaguar having poor games and an overall lack of software, the system was eventually considered a failure. The system was difficult to program for, as the hardware had a large number of bugs, including one in the memory controller that stopped some of its processors executing code from the system RAM . The final nail in its coffin was the release of both the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. In a last ditch effort to rescue Jaguar, Atari tried to play down these two consoles by claiming the Jaguar was the only 64-bit system, causing some controversy (some contended that the Jaguar's two 64-bit "processors" were essentially nothing more than graphics accelerators; its GPU was only 32-bit and its CPU was a 16-bit 68000). This advertising push was futile, and production of the Jaguar stopped after Atari purchased JT Storage in a reverse takeover.

Several peripherals were announced, such as a voice modem and VR headset, but the only peripherals released were the Atari Jaguar CD drive and the JagLink, a simple two-console networking device. See Loki and Konix Multisystem for early development.

Screenshots

Screenshot Cybermorph Screenshot Tempest 2000 Screenshot Fight For Life Screenshot NBA Jam TE
Cybermorph Tempest 2000 Fight For Life NBA Jam TE
Atari (1993) Atari (1994) Atari (1995) Acclaim/High Voltage (1995)

Technical specifications

CPUs:

  • "Tom" (contains 3 video-related processors), 25.59 MHz
    • Graphics processing unit (GPU) - 32-bit RISC architecture, 4K internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
    • 64 bit object processor - programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
    • 64 bit blitter processor- high speed logic operations, Z-buffering & Gourad shading
    • 64 bit DRAM controller (not a processor)
  • "Jerry" (the audio processor) - 32 bit DSP at 26.6 MHz

Other Jaguar features:

  • RAM: 2MB
  • Storage: Cartridge - up to 6MB
  • Support for ComLynx I/O

See also

External links

Category: