Atari Jaquar2 And Mirai And Panther

Nothing could have saved Atari in the Jaguar era.
The system really wasn't marketed correctly or released in the right moment, the software mostly sucks, and the controls and graphics are horrible - even if I love Atari to death and I'm really fond of the Jaguar, I can tell you, it was doomed to fail. Maybe good games from japanese developers, though... that could have been a factor, somehow.

Sega, on the other hand, would have had much more luck if it weren't for trying to "americanise" their lineup - thus ignoring many great Japan-only Saturn releases that would have been enough to keep it competitive. Sony could do this discrimination because their hardware was superior in 3D, though the quality of games still remains questionable in comparison.

The system that could still be alive now, perhaps, is the Dreamcast. It was brought down more because of Sega's previous failed endeavours and the subsequent lack of support and marketing, than because of quality. It's still considerably superior to PS2 in many aspects.

 

do you think that sega or some one has maybe a 100 000 units left of either the dreamcast or the saturn?

 

I agree.

Atari had stuff in the 1980s that could have kept them at #1 and never allowed Nintendo to take the western markets.

Sega had a tremendous amount of potential with the things they in development during the SegaCD and Saturn eras, before Dreamcast, that could've saved them.

Sega did not bring out the right hardware or the right games at times when they badly needed them. Sega CD should have been the focus of Sega's 16-bit arcade to home conversions of their 1980s sprite-based 'super scaler' simulation games, and serious RPGs, instead of all the live action FMV crap.

The 32X should never have come out. GigaDrive/Saturn should've been a 2D machine at first, focusing on sprite-based games for a number of years (1993-1996). Then Sega should've released the 3D-accelerator+PowerPC CPU cartridge upgrade for Saturn to combat the PS1 and N64 for the rest of the 1990s. This upgrade should've been more powerful than 3DO M2, and maybe 3/4 as powerful as Dreamcast (thanks to Lockheed Martin Real3D) and launched in 1996 or 1997. Dreamcast should've been an Xbox-class system launching in 2000 or 2001, with a second-generation Lockheed Real3D+PowerPC chipset and lots of RAM, giving it the capability to smash Playstation2 into the ground.

 

True, the Atari of the 1980s had MANY ways it could have survived:
3200 instead of 5200, or that 3600 that ended up being 7800, that Famicom deal, a proper marketing of the powerful 7800 before the NES in 1984, Not cannibalizing themselves with the 7800 and XE/XEGS at the same time, the ST line, ST based consoles, the Lynx, the Panther...

They could have taken over the world....

 

Hey guys,


New to the site, but thought you might be interested in my website since you're talking Atari Jaguar. I'm the owner of the 2nd known Jaguar 2 board (I purchased it from Clint). In addition I own the only 2 working Jaguar VR units and a pile of other protos. They're all up no my site if you're interested in taking a peek. As far as the JagDuo goes, I picked up the mock-up for Curt Vendel of the Atari Historical Museum and have pics of it lying around here somewhere.....

http://www.jaysmith2000.com

 

Cool stuff, and welcome to the site.

 

Dude, your site is really cool - I love the 90s' style artwork design on the index, it really takes you back.

Plus you have a lot of really cool stuff.

Welcome to the board and thanks for the link!

OOOH, dude, and you got the Falcon Microbox and the ST Notebook, too!


I was wondering how you install the extra hardware on the Jag, though, like the Midi card and the Stereo module - and if you have any way of showing us how the Virtuality units work.

 

If there was a hope for the jaguar, its name was VR.

I remember when they shown the VR headset in the mags, everybody was freakin out! At last somebody had came out with a real VR system that was below 10K :-D

If they did market it with some game like Quake then the jag is saved :douga

 

Thanks for the welcome and glad you like my site. I just got it up a few weeks ago since I had to change ISP's. I still have plenty more updates to make, but am moving along slowly but surely. Wish I didn't have to work, that would help!

I picked those up from Hans Martin-Krober. He was there when Atari closed their HQ's and is a wealth of stories and goodies!

The midi card works in conjunction with the Alpine board. Hans actually created the software to run the midi board. Take a special mod on the Alpine that many of them don't have. The stereo card is a piece of cake, it plugs into the DSP on the back and extends it so you can connect your S-Video or Composite cable. It has a single plug which works great with 2-way amplified computer speakers. I use a Klipsch 2.1 with my single player Kiosk for it. My other kiosk has a built in amp, although the 1 player blows it away!

As far as the Virtual reality units go, there is a video from CES that has some great samples of the VR, but it's difficult to show the experience without actually putting it on your head. The SU2000 experience is very similar if you have ever played one of them in the arcade.

 

No doubt! I wish it would have seen production, it's an amazing system....

 

Sadly they banned the VR units here in the early 90 due to a number of (stupid) protest by medics who claimed those systems could be dangerous

Anyways, could you do a video about how the unit works? Notting too complex, just showing how it turns on.

 

Did you guys get the Virtual Boy? Or was it banned too?

 

Of course we got it

 

Yeah, I can put something together that'll give you an idea anyways. Banned the VR's huh? That's a bummer! I also have 2 SU2000's networked (although they're taken apart in storage at present) and an SU2000E proto I have hooked up and running.... They're amazing systems when done right. They do make my wife sick though, so for some folks they can't stay on them very long....

 

Well, thats the exact reason why they banned the units.

 

I have something related to the Jaguar Duo that was posted on Jaguar Sector III by John Hardie of the National Videogame Museum Look foward to that tomorrow

 

Here's the board of the never-released Atari Jaguar Duo

 

I downloaded and viewed the PDA just now (at the time of this writing). The board as empty as a fresh sheet of printer paper!

 

But thanks to this, somebody will attempt to make a working Jaguar Duo. Sounds stupid but at least we now know that the system wasn't a hoax

 

Aw yeah!