Jaguar

Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 by the Atari Corporation. It was intended to compete with the Mega Drive/Genesis and the Nintendo Entertainment System in processing power. The console was released in November 1983, in selected U.S. Cities, and to the rest of the country in early 1993. Despite its commercial failure, it enjoys a huge fan base that produces homemade games, which has transformed the Jaguar into a cult classic.

The Jaguar was the last gaming console to be marketed by Atari Corp. They had approached Martin Brennan and John Mathieson, of Flare Technology to make a cost effective console superior to the SNES, or Sega Master Drive, The only way , was to close Flare and with Ataris funding, start a new company called Flare 2.

The system was marketed under the slogan “ do the math”, Claiming to be superior to competing 16 bit systems. But due to the difficulty in game development, and the Jaguar's small library of game titles.

Only 250,000 consoles were ever sold.

The Jaguars controller was said to be too busy, with 15 buttons, Other features/extras include 2MB RAM, storage cartridge up to 6 MB, and a memory track cartridge released In 1995, containing 128K EEPROM, allowing Jaguar CD games to save preferences and save games.

Technical Specifications:

• "Tom" Chip, 26.59 MHz
  • Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4 KB internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
  • Object Processor – 64-bit RISC architecture; programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
  • Blitter – 64-bit RISC architecture; high speed logic operations, z-buffering and Gouraud shading, with 64-bit internal registers.
  • DRAM controller, 32-bit memory management
• "Jerry" Chip, 26.59 MHz
  • Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architecture, 8 KB internal cache
    • Same RISC core as the GPU, but not limited to graphic production
  • CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
    • Number of sound channels limited by software
    • Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
    • Full stereo capabilities
  • Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
  • A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
  • Joystick control
• Motorola 68000 "used as a manager."
  • General purpose 16/32-bit control processor, 13.295 MHz
• RAM: 2 MB on a 64-bit bus using 4 16-bit fast page mode DRAMS
• Storage: Cartridge – up to 6 MB
• Support for ComLynx I/O