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                                 JACK's PUSSY
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I know, this  is not  really  ST related, but it has  got everything  to do with
Atari. I  like to  talk a  bit  about  Atari's final  effort, the  64 bit Jaguar
console. I  bought myself  such a toy  last year, and every  time I  boot up the
thing, I just wonder how Atari managed to fail to stay in the buzz in such a big
way.

Was it bad technology?

Definitly not. The  Jaguar was  the first  64 bit machine, and  it  was  already
released by the end of 1993, one whole year  before Sony's Playstation. Although
it has  been discussed  more than  once if the Jaguar  really was the first true
64bit system, since  the system was build on two 32bit processors. But anway, it
was the most powerful thing  on the  market at  the time, with games like "Alien
vs Predator"... This wasn't even seen on a PC!

Was it bad marketing?

Some people say so, marketing was a weak spot of Atari. But after seeing some of
the commercials downloaded from the net, and some of the adds in magazines, I'm
really  starting to have my  doubts. The commercials just  look great. And  they
have a high coolness  factor in my book. They  might not be  as effective as the
scream commcercials by Sega some 10 years ago, but the constant hammering on the
number 64 was an effective technique. The "do the mat" commercials had their own
quality, and if you're still not convinced, what about the great Atari parody to
support the "Alien vs Predator" game? I would have loved that as a kid.
And approach to the older public, and the most daring of  them all, was the clip
of the guy with the inflatable doll on his lap. With a voice saying, and I quote
"Atari Jaguar, suddenly nothing else seems fun anymore". This  might  not be for
the little ones, but it is something that catches the eyes and sticks with you..
Although admittedly, I never saw one of them on television here in Belgium.




The console  itself looked  attractive too, and the  red scratches  were another
nice thing... If only AVP  was released  on time  to be bundled  with  the final
product...

The lack of support?

Maybe. Atari are known for this. Releasing  computers with  bugs (the famous STE
fiasco), releasing systems without  any software  for it. And it's  a known fact
Atari was already in financial trouble at the time of the Jag release, and there
wasn't  even a decent  development kit  around for  developers  to use for their
games. The  only  thing available was an  Atari TT dev. kit, and  most companies
refused to use it. Another thing was  Atari's bad  attitude, attractive projects
which were almost finished just got thrown  of the bandwagon. Software companies
lost motivation and interest in the end...

Jack Tramiel?

Now here is an interesting  thought. Was it  all a consequence  of Jack Tramiels
lack of knowledge of the game  business? We've  all heard about the famous crash
of 1984, which was almost entirely caused by Atari themselves.
Personal computers  were  the  business. And so  Jack Tramiel entered the scene.
Tramiel was not interested in  gaming consoles, he was  not interested in games.
He canned the Atari 7800 (only to revive it later on, when it had aged too much)
he dismissed  the  proposal of Nintendo  to create  a console for them (very bad
move - The NES did so well). He  even abandoned the Atari games arcade division,
which was  a stupid thing to do, since  this division  would have  come  in very
handy when the Lynx and Jaguar got released some years later.
We all know  Jack Tramiel designed the Atari ST as a counter attack for the loss
of Amiga technology, which  was bought  out underneath  his nose  by  his former
company Commodore. The  Atari ST did  pretty good, but it  didn't sell nearly as
well as the Commodore Amiga.
So when the company was starting to  go the wrong  direction, the Tramiel family
went  for the  consoles  again. But can  somebody  who has  no interest  in this
subject be succesful in this business? It might be a stupid thought, and I might
be completely missing the ball here, but it  is worth thinking about... It seems
so sad after  all the gossips  before its  launch, after  all the interests, the
console did fail to deliver in the end and Atari died...
Even the  CD add on came  too late. Too  bad, cause  judging from the unreleased
prototypes, Atari had some big plans for the future.

The quick demise of the Jaguar has got some positive  side to it. These days you
can get one very cheap  over www.ebay.com. And  if you are  interested in seeing
some of Atari's other  hardware, you  should  definitly get one, it's great fun.
Most games  can be bought for a few bucks, though there  seems to  be a tendency
of a price increase, now that stocks are running out!

The Jaguar has some  great games  in its library. I can even go as far as saying
it is  worth buying a  system  for "Tempest 2000" and "Alien vs Predator" alone.
"Tempest 2000" is a Jeff Minter remake of the classic arcade game "Tempest". And
it features everything you come  to expect  from a Minter game. Fast  action and
loads of psychedelic colors, taking advantage of the Jaguars' hardware!




"Alien vs Predator" on the other hand  is a frightening  1st person shooter. You
can either play  as an Alien, a Predator or a  Marine. A bit like the PC remake,
but without the true  3D engine. Never  before looked a  1st person shooter this
good on a console!
"Alien vs Predator" is one of  the most frightening  experiences I've had with a
game. And  it's true  to the  movies. I like  the Jaguar version  more  than the
remakes on the PC, even though they are graphically more advanced.

But there is a lot more. Did you know the best looking  version of "Wolfenstein"
was released on  the Jaguar? It  surpasses  the PC version  without any trouble.
And Jaguar "Doom" is  as good as the Playstation counterpart. The Jaguar had its
own karting  game, to compete  with "Super Mario Karts"  on the SNES. It was the
same  type of  game, but  this  version  was  grphically  more  advanced. And it
featured Bentley Bear from "Crystal Castles"!

Even  now  there  are  still  occasional  new  releases, and  releases  of never
finished games. Companies  like  Songbird and  Scatalogic  are still  developing
games for the system. Just  check out  the cool "Protector". Or  what about  the
amazing  "Battlesphere", a  remake  of the  classic "Star Raiders" and  the most
advanced game for the system!

There are  way  too many cool  releases to be  mentioned here, maybe we'll check
some of them out more indepth in the next issue of UCM. Until  then, try and get
your hands on a Jaguar... It's worth it, I'll guarantee it!

For a complete history on Atari check out http://www.atariexplorer.com
For more Jaguar screenshots, go to http://www.atariage.com
For some commercials got to http://www.emuitalia.com/stgraveyard

Other references:

http://www.songbird.com
http://www.scatalogic.com

                                                                 Maarten Martens
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