History Platform / AtariJaguar

* [[UsefulNotes/GraphicsProcessingUnit GPU]]: Atari "Tom" 32-bit GPU, 64-bit object processor, and 64-bit blitter, 26.6 [=Mhz=].

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to its contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter he wrote to ''[=GamePro=]'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and its stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." and ended the letter with [[TemptingFate "We...welcome comments from the enthusiasts who read GamePro."]] ''[=GamePro=]'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, called Tramiel's bluff and printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue. Incidents like these did a lot to damage Atari's already tenuous relationship with industry press and gamers.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} Platform/PlayStation, Platform/SegaSaturn and Platform/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making it a huge flop[[note]]How huge? The [[Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], itself a complete and utter bomb with nearly triple the [=MSRP=] at launch, still managed to sell at least 8 consoles for every 1 Jaguar[[/note]]. The molds were later sold to a company called Imagin Systems, who used them to make Jaguar-shaped [[http://sebastianmihai.com/atari-jaguar-dental.html dental cameras]]. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing until 2017 and was the end of the Atari Corporation as an independent company.]] Jack Tramiel would sell the company to Hasbro Interactive, who relegated the label to remakes and compilations of classic Atari games, before selling the company again to Infogrames, who adopted the Atari name and is the Atari that exists today. In 2017, they decided to re-enter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

Still lingering in the [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Creator/{{Atari}} Corp decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of solely working on the '''Jaguar''' thanks to how well its development was going, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $249.99 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit Platform/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and Platform/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]]. Consumers were urged to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead, because apparently having more bits automatically meant the system was obviously superior and it was ''definitely'' not just marketing hype.

The Jaguar's controller tried to combine a numpad-style button layout that was in vogue during the tail end of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames with a traditional controller, which led to it having a whopping 17 buttons. It was criticized for being overly complicated and cumbersome to use. Ironically, the controller was ill-suited for {{fighting game}}s despite its excess of buttons and Atari's attempts to make the Jaguar appeal to that specific crowd. A new [=ProController=] had to be released to make fighting games playable on the system.

* CreatorKiller: Atari was barely hanging on in the video game market after their downfall during the UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, and the critical and commercial failure of the Jaguar finally did them in. Atari was forced to withdraw from the console market entirely for the next twenty-five years as a result, surrendering its dominance as a developer as a consequence as they were bounced around two other companies who bought them out.

* The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD add-on in the same vein as the Sega CD for the Genesis. It had only 15 games released for it, didn't add any extra hardware beyond the capability to read [=CDs=] (by comparison, the Sega CD included upgrades to the console's graphics and sound chips), and its abysmal hardware design (One of the developers who worked on the ''Highlander'' tie-in game for the add-on noted that the add-on was [[ObviousBeta clearly buggy and resource constrained]], and that everything for it had to be coded by hand from scratch to make games for it) and worse production quality (on some units, the [=CDs=] were jammed in so tightly that they couldn't spin, which could lead to further mechanical problems in the already failure-prone motor) gave it a poor reputation. Due to the absurd hardware failure rate and the fact that hardly anyone bought one to begin with[[note]]It's believed that only 25,000 units were produced, it's unknown how many were actually sold but generally believed to be somewhere between 10 and 15 thousand[[/note]] a working Jaguar CD is ''incredibly'' hard to find and will run you at least $1,000 USD.

Still lingering in the [[UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars console race]] years after losing the gaming public's trust and playing a significant part in UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Creator/{{Atari}} Corp decided to chip in with a new effort to get a head start on the next generation in gaming. They hired some outside help to engineer both an experimental 32- and 64-bit console, codenamed "Panther" and "Jaguar" respectively. The 32-bit Panther was scrapped in favor of solely working on the '''Jaguar''' thanks to how well its development was going, and the system was out the door as early as 1993 with a price of $249.99 and an aggressive marketing campaign against its competitors, the 16-bit UsefulNotes/{{S|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES and UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis ''and'' the 32-bit [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]]. Consumers were urged to "do the math" and choose the 64-bit system instead, because apparently having more bits automatically meant the system was obviously superior and it was ''definitely'' not just marketing hype.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[MediaNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining power based on the bit number is a gross oversimplification of how bits work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry "Tom" and "Jerry"]]. The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and the chip's history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors. Whether or not the Jaguar is a true 64-bit system isn't entirely agreed upon, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's poor showing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

The eventual appearance of the Creator/{{Sony}} UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} with their sleek 3D visuals, simpler controllers, and superior libraries condemned the Jaguar to an early demise. It was discontinued in 1996 and sold less than a quarter million units in that time, making it a huge flop[[note]]How huge? The [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]], itself a complete and utter bomb with nearly triple the [=MSRP=] at launch, still managed to sell at least 8 consoles for every 1 Jaguar[[/note]]. The molds were later sold to a company called Imagin Systems, who used them to make Jaguar-shaped [[http://sebastianmihai.com/atari-jaguar-dental.html dental cameras]]. [[CreatorKiller The Jaguar's failure heavily contributed to Atari's withdrawal from hardware manufacturing until 2017 and was the end of the Atari Corporation as an independent company.]] Jack Tramiel would sell the company to Hasbro Interactive, who relegated the label to remakes and compilations of classic Atari games, before selling the company again to Infogrames, who adopted the Atari name and is the Atari that exists today. In 2017, they decided to re-enter the market with the UsefulNotes/AtariVCS.

** The "Tom" chip ''did'' have texture-mapping capabilities, but, the system was not designed with texture-mapping capabilities in mind and thus was very bad at it, which is why many games look like higher-res [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super FX]] games.

* TrendKiller: Together with the UsefulNotes/Sega32X, the Jaguar's commercial failure and widespread negative reception are often credited by analysts with ending the "bit wars" that had dominated the home console market in the early '90s. Whereas the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16, UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, and UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem all tried to appeal to consumers by describing themselves as "16 bit" systems and their third-generation predecessors as only "8-bit," the Jaguar tried to one-up all of them by positioning itself as a 64-bit system. However, journalists quickly exposed how empty Atari's claim was, and this plus the system's lack of differentiation from the competition sowed increased skepticism towards bit-based marketing. While "X-bit" distinguishers still stuck around in the public consciousness for the fifth generation, they were no longer used as selling points by console makers, and come the sixth generation, "8-bit," "16-bit," and "32-bit" would only stick around as labels used by gamers to describe specific styles of games, with newer systems no longer being described in terms of bit width.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining power based on the bit number is a gross oversimplification of how bits work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry "Tom" and "Jerry"]]. The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and the chip's history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors. Whether or not the Jaguar is a true 64-bit system isn't entirely agreed upon, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's poor showing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

While Atari claimed that the Jaguar was a beast of a 64-bit system, many games barely looked better than what you'd find on either of its 16-bit competitors or the 3DO, especially compared to the latter when it came to 3D. Outside of the fact that [[UsefulNotes/HowVideoGameSpecsWork determining power based on the bit number is a gross oversimplification of how bits work]], the Jaguar was poorly documented and hard to program for, so developers often defaulted to using the system's Motorola 68000 chip as the main processor instead of its 32-bit chips "Tom" and "Jerry". The 68000 was meant to function as a "manager" that wouldn't actually do any heavy lifting, but due to the aforementioned poor documentation and the chip's history of use in previous computers and game consoles, it was the only part of the hardware most developers were comfortable using; unfortunately, the end result was that the Jaguar effectively became an overclocked Sega Genesis when the 68000 was used this way. The system also inexplicably lacked dedicated audio hardware,[[note]]The "Jerry" DSP chip had audio capabilities, but more often than not, developers ignored these features in favor of using the "Jerry" chip as a math co-processor to make up for the shortcomings of the "Tom" chip, since trying to make it do both at the same time was extremely taxing on the hardware and not worth the effort to make it work[[/note]] famously leading to its otherwise decent port of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' missing its soundtrack. These issues led to a common belief that the Jaguar wasn't truly 64-bit and that the technical specs were exaggerated for marketing by adding up the bit numbers of its multiple processors. Whether or not the Jaguar is a true 64-bit system isn't entirely agreed upon, but it definitely isn't on par with the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 and is actually weaker than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, a 32-bit system. Many consider the Jaguar to be the biggest blow to the "bits" marketing gimmick due to this; while the Nintendo 64 would still make use of it, the Jaguar's poor showing was what thoroughly cemented public indifference in its usage.

* ''Fight for Life'' (The last game released for the system and the last first-party title to be published by Atari for 20 years.)

* ''Fight for Life'' (The last game released for the system.)

* ''Fight for Life'' (One of the last releases for the system.)

* ''Fight for Life''

* ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' (1994)

Another factor that didn't help was the actions (to put it mildly) of then-Atari president Sam Tramiel (son of Jack) in trying to promote the Jaguar in the press. Several interviews he gave, most famously one that was given to ''Next Genration'' magazine, revealed Tramiel to be completely out of touch with the technical specifics of the Jaguar, often giving vague non-answers to questions regarding the Jaguar's power compared to it's contemporaries. Another of Sam's antics that lost him a lot of goodwill was a letter he wrote to ''[=GamePro=]'' magazine, blasting the magazine's writers and editors for pointing out the lack of third party support (specifically Capcom and it's stable of arcade titles) and giving a response that sounded almost pleading, saying "We at Atari are doing all we can to cultivate new and exciting experiences on the Jaguar...I ask gamers to write to their favorite publishers and ask them to write software for the Jaguar." and ended the letter with [[TemptingFate "We...welcome comments from the enthusiasts who read GamePro."]] ''[=GamePro=]'', never ones to hide an opposing voice, called Tramiel's bluff and printed both the letter and the address of Atari's offices in their April 1994 issue. Incidents like these did a lot to damage Atari's already tenuous relationship with industry press and gamers.