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About the Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is noted for being the world's first 64-bit "interactive
multimedia system" or home video game system. It was first announced
along with an important contract with IBM to manufacture it on June 28, 1993.
The beginning of the announcement read:
"IBM's multi-year contract is valued at $500 million. The Atari Jaguar,
to be made in the United States, is an interactive multimedia entertainment
system which features over 16 million colors in 24-bit true color graphics
and produces shaded 3-D polygons for manipulation in a "real world" in
real time. A 32-bit expansion port will allow for future connections into
cable and telephone networks, a digital signal processing port for modem
usage and connection to digital audio peripherals. The Jaguar will also
feature a double-speed compact disc peripheral."
There were many remarkable things about this announcement. For one,
the world was to see a "64-bit" entertainment system at a suggested retail
price of $249.99! At this time, there were no "64-bit" personal computers
on the market--only workstations costing thousands of dollars. The
second thing remarkable about this announcement was that the last two major
video game systems released were the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.
Both of these systems are 16-bit. The natural progression in the release
of video game consoles would be 32-bit. And then maybe in 1996 or 1997, the
world would see a 64-bit system. But, Atari released the Jaguar, like it
did the Lynx, years ahead of its time. The third thing remarkable about this
announcement was that IBM was contracted to build it in the United States.
At a time when companies were moving the manufacturing of their products
to Mexico and other cheap labor countries, the Jaguar 64-bit system was
to be made in the United States. It is the ONLY video game system ever to
be made in America. Nintendo, Sega, and all other video game manufacturers
produce their video game systems outside the United States.
Atari Corporation officially held a press conference to give specifications
on the Jaguar in August, 1993. According to Sam Tramiel, research and
development of the Jaguar took almost half a decade. The press conference
was originally intended exclusively for the gaming press, but Tramiel
threw open the doors to everyone from the Associated Press to the Wall
Street Journal once he got wind of the remarks made by Trip Hawkins,
President of 3DO, regarding the Jaguar. Sam Tramiel stated at the press
conference: "Trip Hawkins has said that the Jaguar is really just two 32-bit
processors running in parallel. By that logic, the Jaguar is actually
a 240-bit machine!" 3DO produces a 32-bit "high-tech" motherboard that it
plans to sell to companies for use in products. The first company that
used the 3DO motherboard is one of the company's financial backers--Panasonic.
The motherboard is used in Panasonic's "R.E.A.L. Interactive Multiplayer"
and had a suggested retail price of $799.99 in 1993.
The Jaguar 64-bit Interactive Multimedia System has five processors that
are contained on three chips. Two of these chips are of proprietory designs,
nicknamed "Tom" and "Jerry". The third chip is a standard Motorola 68000
used as a coprocessor. Tom and Jerry are built using an 0.5 micron silicon
process. The five processors are the following:
"Tom" RISC-based Graphics Processing Unit, Object Processor, Blitter.
"Jerry" Digital Signal Processor, and the Motorola 68000.
Communication between chips is performed with a high speed 64-bit data bus,
rated at 106.4 megabytes/second. The 68000 is only able to access 16 bits
of this bus at a time.
The Jaguar 64-bit Interactive Multimedia System has 24-bit "True Color"
display with a capability of displaying 16,777,216 colors simultaneously.
The highest resolution is 800 x 576 pixels (1300+ with additional hardware).
The graphics processing unit is of 32-bit RISC architecture--64 registers
of 32 bits wide. The chip is rated at 26.6 MIPS (million instructions
per second) at a speed of 26.6 MHz. The digital signal processor is of
32-bit architecture. The chip is rated at 26.6 MIPS (million instructions
per second) at a speed of 26.6 MHz. The chip is capable of producing
better than CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo). The Motorola 68000 processor
is rated at 13.3MHz and is used as a general purpose control processor.
The Jaguar contains two megabytes (16 megabits) of fast page-mode DRAM.
Game cartridges can support up to six megabytes (48 megabits) of uncompressed
or compressed information.
The Jaguar is built to support comlynxing for communications with the Atari
Lynx handheld game system and networked multiconsole games. The two
controller ports can be expanded to support "dozens" of controllers such as
digital and analog interfaces, keyboards, mice, and light guns. The
expansion port allows connection to cable TV and other networks. The Digital
Signal Processor (DSP) port allows connection to modems and digital audio
peripherals (such as DAT players).
The system measures 9.5" x 10" x 2" and has a slick design which allows
for a double-speed CD-ROM player to be added to it later. The double-speed
CD-ROM player is expected to be released in September, 1994 at the
suggested retail price of $199.99.
The controller has an eight-directional joypad, three fire buttons (A,B,C),
pause and option buttons, and a 12-key keypad that accepts game-specific
overlays. The controller measures 6.25" x 5" x 1.6" with a 7 foot cord.
How does the Jaguar compare with other systems?
It is really unknown. The Jaguar is a new 64-bit home video game system
among 12 million 8-bit Nintendos, and millions of 16-bit Genesis and
Super Nintendo systems. The Jaguar is clearly vastly superior to the
Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, but lacks games as of January 1, 1994.
The only other competing product on the market is the Panasonic R.E.A.L.
Interactive System that uses the 3DO 32-bit motherboard and has a
suggested retail price of $799.99. The Panasonic R.E.A.L. system, however,
also includes a double-speed CD-ROM player and has the backing of major
companies like Panasonic, Time Warner, Electronic Arts, and AT&T.
For this reason, hundreds of software companies signed to develop 3DO
software in 1992.
The Jaguar, however, is much quicker than the 3DO and if you add the
$200 double-speed CD-ROM, the Jaguar CD-ROM set-up costs $449.99. This is
still $350 less than the 3DO!
The following chart compares the Jaguar to other competing systems:
||| Jaguar Focus: System Comparison
||| Courtesy: Atari Corp.
/ | \ ----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jaguar 3DO SNES GENESIS
--------------+------------------------------------------------------------
Bus Width | 64 bits 32 bits 16 bits 16 bits
|
Rendering/ |
Animation | 850+ Million 64 Million 1 Million 1 Million
Speed | pixels/second pixels/second pixels/second pixels/second
|
Bus | 106.4 60 ? ?
Bandwidth | Megabytes/sec Megabytes/sec
|
Colors | 16.7 Million 16.7 Million 256 64
|
True Color | Yes Yes Yes No
Graphics | (32-bit) (24-bit) (16-bit)
|
Processors | 5: GPU + DSP 4: ARM60+DSP 2: 65C816 2: 68000
| Object Proc. 2 Graphic DSP Z80
| Blitter+68000 Processors
|
Stereo 16-bit |
CD Quality | Yes Yes No No
Sound? |
|
MIPS | 55 ? ? ?
|
Custom HW |
for 3D | Yes No No No
Objects |
|
Multi- |
Processing | Yes ? ? ?
Architecture |
|
Object |
Processor | Yes No No No
|
S-Video Out | Yes Yes Yes No
|
RF Out | Yes Yes Yes Yes
|
Composite Out | Yes Yes Yes ?
|
RGB Out | Yes ? ? Yes
|
Resolution | 720x576 640x480 512x448 320x224
--------------+------------------------------------------------------------
The companies producing games for the Jaguar are the following:
TAKEN FROM: Jaguar Frequently Asked Questions, Maintained by Robert Jung.
The following companies have been announced as official developers for
Jaguar software:
Anco Software Ltd. Maxis Software Telegames
Beyond Games Inc. Microids Tiertex Ltd.
Dimension Technologies Midnight Software Inc. Titus Eurosoft
Ocean Software Ltd. Tradewest High Voltage Software
Rebellion Software Ltd. Trimark Interactive Krisalis Software Ltd.
Retour 2048 U.S. Gold Ltd. Loriciel U.S.A.
Silmarils Millenium Park Place Productions
Ubi Soft Gremlin Software Microprose/S. Holobyte
Accolade Virgin Interplay
21st Century Software Activision Id Software
Phalanx Software Brainstorm 3D Games
All Systems Go Argonaut Software Broderbund(?)
Williams/Midway(?) Cross Product(?) Elite(?)
Sunsoft(?)
Also, Atari Games/Tengen has licensed the Jaguar architecture for use in
future arcade games.
The following games are available for the Jaguar as of January 9, 1994:
Title Players Publisher Type
----- ------- --------- ----
Crescent Galaxy 1-2 Atari Shooter
Cybermorph 1 Atari Action/Strategy
Raiden 1-2 Atari Shooter
The possible upcoming Jaguar games are the following:
TAKEN FROM: Jaguar Frequently Asked Questions, Maintained By: Robert Jung
Upcoming Jaguar cartridge games (? = Uncertain entry):
| Title Players Publisher Type
| ----------------- ------- ------------ ---------------------------
| 3D Football 1-2 Park Place Sports
| Alien vs. Predator 1 Atari Action
| Al Michaels 1-2 Accolade/Atari Sports
Announces Hardball
| Batman: The 1? Atari? Action?
Animated Series
| Battlemorph: 1 Atari Action/Strategy
| Cybermorph 2
| Battlewheels 1-2? Beyond Games Action
| Battlezone 2000 1 Atari Action/Arcade
| Blue Lightning 1 Atari Action
| Boogers and Snotnose 1-2? All Systems Go Platform?
| Brett Hull Hockey 1-2? Accolade/Atari Sports
| Brutal Football 1-2 Telegames Sports
| Bubsy in Claws 1 Accolade/Atari Platform
Encounters of the
Furred Kind
| Charles Barkley 1-2 Accolade/Atari Sports
Basketball
| Checkered Flag II 1 Atari Sports
| Cisco Heat 1 Atari? Driving/Arcade
| Club Drive 1? Atari Action/Strategy
| Cyberpunk City 1 Atari Adventure
| Dracula the Undead 1 Atari Adventure
| Dino Dudes:Evolution 1 Atari Puzzle/Strategy
| Doom: Evil Unleashed 1 id Software Action
| Dungeon 1? Atari? Adventure
| European Soccer 1-2 Telegames Sports
| Challenge
| Falcon(?) 1 S. Holobyte Simulator
| Flashback 1 U.S. Gold Action/Adventure
| Grand Prix 1? Microprose Sports
| Gunship 2000 1 Microprose Action/Strategy
| Jack Nichlaus' Power 1-2? Accolade/Atari Sports
Challenge Golf
| James Pond 3 1 Millenium Platform
| Jimmy Connors' 1-2 Atari Sports
Tennis
| Kasume Ninja 1-2 Atari Action
| Kick Off 2 1-2 Anco Software Sports
| Raiden 1-2 Atari Shooter/Arcade
| Robinson's Requiem 1? Silmarils ?
| Soccer Kid 1? Krisalis Ltd. Platform?
| Steel Talons 1 Atari Action/Strategy/Arcade
| Tempest 2000 1-2 Atari Action/Arcade
| Tiny Toon 1-2? Atari Platform
Adventures
| Ultimate Brain Games 1-2? Telegames Puzzle
| World Cup 1-2? Anco Software Sports
| Zool 2 1-2? Gremlin Platform
Upcoming Jaguar CD-ROM games:
| Title Players Publisher Type
| ----------------- ------- ------------ ---------------------------
| Battlechess 1-2 Interplay Strategy
| Dracula 1 Atari Adventure
| Space Pirates 1? Atari Action/Adventure
| Star Trek: The Next 1 Microprose Adventure
| Generation(?)
| Return to Zork 1 Activision Adventure
==============================================================================
The biggest question is if you should buy the Jaguar 64-bit Interactive
Multimedia System for $249.99. The answer is determined, as always, by the
quality and amount of games available for a video game system. As of this
writing, there are only three games available. But, in a couple of months,
there will probably be a lot more. Check out the games. If you like
any of them and you hear good things about them, get the Jaguar... It appears
to be a winner!
Updated: 01-09-94
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