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Established 1997
They’re GRRRReat.
…that was a Tiger, not a Jaguar.
Despite being widely regarded as one of the less
successful consoles, the Jaguar is often unfairly
maligned. Critics focus on its shortcomings,
particularly the unwieldy controller, creating a rather
distorted view of its capabilities. Indeed, positioned
against the might of the PlayStation and Saturn, the
Jaguar struggled. However, it did possess next-gen
appeal that, alongside the 3DO, helped herald a new
era of powerful gaming consoles.
I'll admit, I was a 3DO enthusiast back in the day.
Atari's initial reluctance to adopt CD-ROM technology
and their somewhat exploitative practices turned
many away, mirroring the restrictive approaches of
Nintendo and Sega with cartridges. Moreover, the
aesthetic superiority of CD games, championed by
figures like Trip Hawkins, was undeniable compared
to their cartridge counterparts.
The debate between the merits of the 3DO and
Jaguar was intense, especially among veteran Atari
ST and Amiga users eager to embrace cutting-edge
technology. Personally, the Atari Jaguar caught my
eye with titles like "Alien vs Predator" and
"Cybermorph"—the latter now the butt of many
jokes.
What often goes unremarked are the Jaguar’s
impressive 2D capabilities. Based on 1995
screenshots alone, games like "Zool," "Rayman,"
"Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure," and "Trevor McFur"
visually rivaled the best of SNES and Mega Drive,
though they didn’t quite reach the gameplay heights
of "Sonic" or "Mario."
It’s easy to overlook that the Jaguar supported a
palette of 16 million colors, with up to 32,000 on-
screen at any given time, and its prowess in handling
polygons was notable. In these respects, the Jaguar
had its moments of brilliance.
2D Games
3D Games
They got it, We got it…
The Atari Jaguar Controller is not as bad as the more hysterical members of
the online community would have you believe. In fact, I prefer it to the
Dreamcast controller. There I said it, I can’t take that back…
Rayman is surprisingly good. I genuinely thought
it was a Jaguar exclusive. I was wrong. It is not.
Zool, not to be confused with Sonic.
Pitfall the Mayan Adventure is really pretty and
really hard. Despite the love for the 2600 Pitfall
and Pitfall II, this game failed to ignite interest.
A solid version of Raiden. It’s by no means arcade
perfect, but it’s pretty decent none the less.
Big stompy robots, in glorious 3D. You can even
destroy whole buildings, you can just keep
shooting them and eventually the collapse. Which
is very satisfying.
Cyber Morphs clunky 3D graphics didn’t look
clunky for a home system in ‘93. They looked
amazing and buttery smooth. Also and I’ve
checked, and that isn’t Sinead O’Conner. Which
was disappointing.
Easily one of the most ‘stop ‘n stare’ moments of
the early ‘90s was Rebellions Alien vs Predator
Jeff Minters Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar is a cult
classic. And expect to pay cult classic prices if you
want an original copy.
John Carmack, didn’t like 3DO, he liked the
Jaguar, because the 3DO had an operating system
games had to be written to, and Jaguar did not.
That said, away from the PC, this was the best
version of Doom available for a long time, It was
coded by Carmack himself, and it shows.
Unless you have a spare kidney to sell, getting your hands on some
Jaguar titles can be expensive. The Jaguar GD ROM, is a cartridge that
allows you to load and play ROM images (including CD’s) from SD
Card. https://www.retrohq.co.uk/products/atari-jaguar-gd-flash-
cartridge
Atari felt, with Jaguar, they could take the fight to
Sega and Nintendo. To do that they needed popular
games on those platforms for their platform. To
that end, they hired the developer of Virtual
Fighterto make a rushed Virtua Fighter clone for
the Jaguar “Fight for Life” (above) and they also
made Atari Karts to go toe-to-toe with Mario Kart.