Support the show on Patreon: / implantgames IMPLANTgames.com implantgames implant In today’s video I dive in to see if the Atari Jaguar really is one of the worst game consoles ever, enjoy!
implantgames agreed I have played through many missions and have only heard it just a couple times. I'm not sure if the other youtubers have figured out how to fly...
Here's my takeaway about the system: No, it's not a good game system, but it isn't a terrible one. While the system is capable of playing some awesome gems like the aforementioned Tempest 2000, Super Burnout, and Rayman, the lack of developer support meant it didn't have legs to stand on. To paraphrase Mark's words: It was 4 years, too late.
@cool man You must have played a Flawed copy because I played it on a Friends Jaguar and it was near flawless, It isn’t great or as good as PlayStation but it isn’t as bad on the Jag as U say it is.
@@DonnyKirkMusic Rayman on Jaguar side by side to playstation is near identical, just some color differences in the backgrounds and sound effect differences.
I LOVE my Jaguar too death, and I got the deal of the century back in April 2008 when I bought one off eBay for $60. Complete in box, a second controller, the rare OEM S-Video cable, Alien vs Predator, Doom, Wolfenstein, Tempest 2000, Cybermorph, Kasumi Ninja, Skiing/Snowboarding, Raiden, and Zool 2 all complete in box as well. A week or so later I was at my local game store, and found Iron Soldier, Hover Tank, Checkered Flag, Ultra Vortek, and I-War all complete in box for $5 a piece. Of course I bought them all. Playing it for the first time I immediately recognized the fanatical following the thing has to this day, and just how much potential it had/has. While it's technically not my favorite console of all-time, if I rank my absolute favorite consoles of all-time purely based on blind fanatical fanboyism, I put the 32X at #1, and the Jaguar a VERY CLOSE #2. 3DO would be #3 as well on the "blind fanboy list". Nowadays, I proudly own over 66% of the retail Jaguar library, all complete in box. Long Live The Jaguar!!!!
This was an entertaning and informative watch. I kind of think of the Jaguar as a Nintendo 64 that failed, much like the 3DO can be thought of as a Playstation that failed. Although, it can be argued that the Playstation hastened the end of the struggling 3DO, the Jaguar was already gasping its lasts by the time the Playstation hit the worldwide scene. I'm guessing that Atari simply lacked the funds to support their console. The Jaguar was supposed to be Atari's big comeback, where they'd take their spot as a worthy contender in the emerging 32-bit era. Alas, they failed quite miserably. Was Atari in over their heads, developing and producing a console their finances couldn't adequately support? Was it a gamble, a hope to attract devs and investors whose contributions would keep the company afloat, if not bestowing them with the prosperity of their golden Atari VCS days? Or was the Jaguar's opportunity simply vanquished by paltry software? The Jaguar was a capable console, far outperforming its contemporaries, but most games failed to harness this power. Something about poor documentation from Atari contributing to developers not realizing the potential of the console by assigning the running of the game to a chip that was never meant for it while the powerful 32-bit chips (Tom & Jerry) were left entirely unused. I suppose it'd be like a 500 hp sports car whose driver doesn't know he can shift from second gear. I'd like to hear someone more knowledgeable than me to talk about the Jaguar-and the 3DO. Speaking of which, any plans to give the 3DO the same lengthy video like you did with the Jaguar?
I'm not as well versed in the 3DO library as I am the Jag, but a massive 18-game epic 3DO video is certainly coming in the future :) I think I own like 40+ 3DO games at the moment...
You should both check out the 'Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast'! It's very thorough and goes in to detail with regards to the system's marketing and the composition of the games.
I've found out how Checkered Flag is supposed to be played: Hold the accelerate button until you get to a speed you are comfortable with Hold the cruise control button to stay at the speed you like Use the brakes to slow down at the sharp turns and go back to the cruise control button
implantgames I collect for a lot of consoles but Jag is the only one where if I come across a boxed game that I don't have, I buy it. It makes collecting for it a little extra special because coming across stuff in the wild doesn't happen too often. Thanks and keep up the good work. By the way, I'm still waiting on you to do a How to XRGB Mini Dreamcast w/ just RGB Scart and no VGA box! 👍
This feels like a crossover between "Is It Underrated?" and "5 ___ Games," which is a good thing, since those are my two favorite shows in your channel. Good analysis as always, keep the views coming!
Brilliant channel, brilliant video! Personally next to my much loved NeoGeo CDZ and AES the Jaguar is up there as one of my favourite consoles full stop. Being 34 I remember it clearly from being a kid and after re-buying one recently I have to say, I love it more now than I did as a 'nipper'! Its certainly doesn't top my 'worst console' ever list thats for sure. As for the Pads both the standard and Pro Pad, I really really like them. Next to the Saturn (Japanese) pad, Its up there with my favourite video game controllers ever! I'll stop jabbering now but the Jag really isn't as bad as some, most people make out, its actually pretty in-fact very good! :) ... Tempest2000... Brilliant!! MJ
It's refreshing to see a video of the Jaguar that's not completely negative (actually, quite positive)! I picked up a Jaguar around when it was released, and I literally had to convince the guy behind the counter to sell it to me. I took it home with the pack-in game and Aliens vs Predator, and had a blast with the system. Later on I got Raiden as a free sendaway, and played the hell out of it! I picked up a few other games (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story [bad, but playable] and Kasumi Ninja [simply horrible]), and was always on the lookout for more games, but shortly after it became very difficult to find any Jaguar games in stores in my area, sadly.
Great vid Kris, love your in depth reviews. Really thoughtfully written stuff, with respect for the developers and publishers of the time. Just bashing a system/game is so much easier, I like your nuanced approach.
That Atari Karts game does technically run at 60 fps in split screen, but each frame alternates between only updating the track on odd frames and only updating objects on even frames, so in split screen it's effectively only 30 fps
Not quite. The objects and backgrounds update every frame. The track alternates: player 1's update on the first frame, then player 2's on the second frame.
Great and fair assessment of the system by looking at games most people have heard about when it comes to the platform. I got into the system back when Telegames, Songbird and a couple others were keeping it alive with some releases (Zero 5, Skyhammer, Towers 2, IS2, BattleSphere, etc) Would love to see you do this for the Jaguar CD library - too bad the games now are hard to come by at a reasonable price. But that portion did have gems in the likes of BattleMorph and the improved Hover Strike.
Haha, I hear you. My JCD hasn't worked for a good 5+ years - it died right when I got my hands on Robinsons Requiem so I've never been able to see how the Jag version of that played. It is interesting to see some of the "second/third generation" games since the Jaguar didn't get to enjoy polish like that too often as you mentioned. Hover strike CD does use the real-time lighting effects in all levels with textures so it is impressive in that regard; BattleMorph in particular held my interest to the end since it felt like less of an easter egg hunt, etc. Not sure why I wasted the money on Space Ace and Myst though. :P
Good, fair and on spot summary. The library was indeed pretty bad, with just a few excellent games. Main problem was (exactly as with the Sega Saturn) that the hardware architecture used was too difficult to program, so that most programmers didn't get out of the hardware itself what it might have been capable of, resulting in on average subpar games. That Atari was going bankrupt and thus not being able to assist, which is in direct contrast to Sony who did everything to support PS1 developers and ease of development surely didn't help a lot either. In direct comparison to the other "failure" the Saturn, the Jaguar looks even worse. A shame, an icon like Atari went out this way.
Great video, really enjoyed this fair and balanced view on the system! Wish "Data Discs" would release the Super Burnout Soundtrack on vinyl - that one is just awesome!
Great vid as usual. It is a shame that the best game on the Jag by an absolute country mile is a game that nobody ever mentions & i dont think i noticed it in the comments either & that game is Sensible Soccer. Tho not as good as the legendary Amiga original it is superior to all the other console ports on the Megadrive, Mega CD & Snes which those themselves are the best footy games on their systems. I think only the Mega CD version got released stateside under a different name. Definitely worth trying out even if football/soccer isn't your cup of tea.
I've owned a Nuon, and Ballistic, but never at the same time, nor have I owned a controller. To this say I always scan the DVD players at thrift shops hoping to score another Nuon... but have continued to come up empty handed. Some day.
Seeing most of this games, the Jaguar isn't half bad. While isn't as good as the 3DO which i consider a pretty good console, the Jaguar is also pretty decent and wasn't as bad as many people think and says. Sure, like the 32x and 3DO it has some crappy games but also some very enjoyable gems. I actually love the more obscure consoles (personally i prefer the 3DO, but still the Jaguar is good). The Philips CDi, in the other hand, doesn't had any interesting games imo, but maybe i'll look at the Amiga CD32 catalogue sometime in the future.
Same here haha. I can see selling off a majority of the collection and hanging onto just 2-3 titles. I'm not sure I could ever part with Super Burnout!
so thankful i still have mine and it still works. even though kasumi ninja is your typical MK clone i actually really enjoy that game and i still find myself hooking up the system from time to time just to here show no mercy hah
Haha, Kasumi Ninja is a total guilty pleasure! I've always wanted to try Ultra Vortek which by all accounts is the more competent 1-on-1 fighter, but Kasumi Ninja definitely has a weird appeal. Nothing else plays quite like it, for better or worse XD
Think Checkered Flag was bad? You should check out Club Drive... One of the worst things Atari did during development that they never expected was using the 68000 for Tom and Jerry communication. As a result, most developers only used that chip since the system was hard to program for otherwise. The system also had multiple hardware bugs. Atari was in desperation mode and pushed this system out before it was ready; which probably wouldn't have matter anyways.
@@maroon9273 Developers would have still done the same. With rushed deadlines on a struggling system, they would have taken the quickest/way out to finish their game for release.
@@chriswheatley3146 I know with the 32-bit 68k20 it will create lazy development in software similar to the 68k. 68k20 is a full 32-bit meaning a wider bus and expanding 4x the polygons and sprites than the 68k. I wish Jaguar would have had enough money or collab with a well funded. So the jaguar can used a risc based cpu powerpc or MIPS R3000A. Also, create a proper SDK tools and documents for Jaguar coprocessor. Including fixing the bugs and issues on two of those chips as well.
Consoles almost always "fail" because of marketing mismanagement, complex hardware that alienates third party developers, or miscalculating the demand of target gamers. The Jaguar unfortunately ticks all of these boxes and has become a poster child for obscure and unsuccessful video game systems. However, despite that, the console itself is demonstrably capable of being a platform for good games, as we see with Tempest 2000, Attack of the Mutant Penguins, Rayman, one of the best ports of Wolfenstein 3D and some of the other games listed here. That the Jag has become a haven for so many homebrew titles is also a testament to its endearment.
I just played some Neo Drift out and Over Top on the Neo Geo today and I think Power Drive Rally looks pretty nice too. If I ever pick up a Jag, I will get this for sure!
nice overview of the console 👍 one thing of note though - val d'isere isn't exactly an exclusive title. an arguably better version of it was released for the SNES by electrobrain entitled tommy moe's winter extreme skiing and snowboarding.
I believe you brought this up before and Tommy Moe's is a game I've been keeping an eye out for. It looks more like a sequel to me, much like Power Drive Rally is a sequel to Power Drive. Are the tracks the same in Val I'Isere and Tommy Moe?
good question. i do believe the games have differences in their track layouts, etc, but i'm not sure if one is a sequel to the other or they're just slightly different variations on the same game. it doesn't seem there's enough difference between the visuals, etc, of the two for one to be a sequel of the other. seems like one is just an altered port of the other. TBH i'm not sure though. would love to see coverage of the tommy moe game in the future though! i feel that and other electrobrain published games of the 16 bit era were pretty outstanding, and don't get enough coverage on youtube. i wonder whatever happened to electrobrain anyway. it seems impossible to find any info on them nowadays.
I'll be watching this in parts. I also own a decent amount of Jaguar games & while it has its faults and it was a couple hardware bugs away from competing with SS/PS1, it's better to think of it as a 4.5 gen console IMO :]. It does have some very fun games which is all that matters.
I don't think it was a couple of hardware bugs away from competing with the SS/PS1 :( atariage.com/forums/topic/143667-street-fighter-iii-for-jag/page-2#entry1751151 But, like the point of the video and your final note, it's really about the games :)
implantgames Okay let me rephrase that... a few bugs away from being respectable in comparison, not on par. No delusions there. I'll read that thread but I've seen 100 of similar ones in the Jag forums lol. Always the same circular arguements. Can't argue it was very powerful at its release date but quickly overtaken.
+m15granger: Jagosaurus' Workbench Haha my bad! I misread where you were going with the original statement :D I would have loved to see more Minter/Carmack types code on the hardware back in the day. It's a shame Atari wasn't in the financial shape needed to tweak the bugs and attract developers.
Too bad we never saw more software for the CoJag arcade hardware as I think that would have shown more of the 2D potential that the GPU had. No 68k to slow things down and more RAM. Had Tempest 2000 or Super Burnout been ported to the arcade that certainly would have been great advertising for the system.
I do have a full collection, excluding after market releases. I like the Jaguar. The controller is much better than people think and most games are decent and lots of them are exclusive. Not one of the worst consoles of all time at all. How about the C64 GS, the Amstrad GX4000 or the CDI? The Jaguar CD is nice too. Need two more games for it for a full set.
Nice, I wish I had went for a full set way back when, although I'm probably a third of the way there for a full cart set? As for worst game system, only counting what I've owned and played, the Game.com and Hyper Scan are easily tops.
Never played a Hyper Scan, but it did play the Game.com....terrible indeed. Sonic says kill me now! I don't think the Hyper Scan was sold over here. For what I've heard, it sucks. The Video Max must be terrible too. Don't have one yet.
+Casper Egaz, The Video Max was in principle just VHS with some add on, so not really truly a game console, rather just a bad joke. similar to the Mattel light gun add on for the (quite unique) TV series Captain Power. I go along with the Game.com being horrible, but among all the horrible cheap crap hand helds it really doesn't stick out too. It's just bottom of the barrel like many others. I wholeheartedly agree that the CDi was a truly horrible system. The completely library was just filled with FMVs that weren't exclusives. and of the exclusives only Apprentice was good, while the rest was abysmal. Much much worse than the Mega CD (or PC Engine CD or 3DO). You are also right with the GX4000 and C64 GS (and the Atari XEGS and possibly the rather new ZX Specrum Vega), but imho those do not really count as consoles. They were just some cheaply consolised computers (Amstrad, C64, Atari 8-Bit, ZX-Spectrum) trying to feed of the exiting game libraries for those Systems. The Amiga CD32 and CDTV were also somewhat designed in this way, but due to their focus on multi media different enough to count as a real system.
Frank Schneider The CDI was never a bad console only it had no good support. Lemmings was the only good game on it. Also it was only really meant to be a CD player, the game console was an addon just like the mega CD
I uh. I think I'm the only person who likes Checkered Flag. I get how bad the game is, I see all that. But after committing hours to figuring the game out (since it was early in my collecting for the console and didn't have much else to do with it) I learned how to enjoy the game. You shouldn't have to LEARN how to enjoy ANYTHING if it's entertainment, but the fact that it's possible with Checkered Flag, I give it SOME credit for. Club Drive on the other hand... I'll just say the words "Wanna Play Club Drive?" have become an in-joke among my friends. As an aside, I agree that the high point on CF is the music, but in my opinion I think it's quite good. I plan on recording it and a few other games soundtracks sometime off the Jag since I rarely see anyone do that.
I got the Jaguar in 1994 and the DOOM port was the best until the PS1. It was that good, also I have read that it could have even been better with a little more time in development. I will say that the Jaguar, 3do, and 32x all have some great games.
You never knew that SHEN did another game that, sadly, never got released called Nexus (in fact, the billboard called Stellar X on SB it's the codename of the game)? It's something like a much more hardcore version of Raiden in...well...just about everything.
Iron Soldier (1 & 2) are on my top 10 list of all time favorite games. Graphics, draw distance, and smooth framerate were amazing for the time. It used the number pads perfectly. They both have all weapons unlocked & unlimited ammo tricks (IIRC) which will decrease the frustration. Overall though, yeah, the Jag games were pretty poor. Glad I bought it after it "died" & the games were all $5-$10. I got my money's worth despite some being outright horrible. (Club Drive was amazingly horrible.)
I agree with your opinion on most of the games to be honest a lot of the haven't aged well. However there are a few standout titles. My Top 3 1. Super Burnout 2. Rayman 3. EDIT Dragon not Flashback I have issues with Power Drive Rally it's decent but ultimately I couldn't be bothered to go through the campaign because of they stunt course levels and overall it became ridiculously difficult allowing for little or no mistakes when you get to a certain point in the game I also found Atari Karts to be really annoying when you get stuck behind floor tiles that you could barely see. The game is quite inconsistent because sometimes the objects are scaled 3D style sprites and other times just a flat texture on the floor that is difficult very difficult to avoid. Otherwise the library is mediocre I think those that had the console when it first came out there was probably a lot of wow factor but today in 2017 it's a hard sell with many of the games being quite expensive in comparison to other retro consoles and there being far less choice due to the smaller library. I guess it was an awkward transitional period where 3D games were just getting started. it would have been interesting if the Jaguar sold what kind of games could have came out to push the hardware. Especially after seeing games like Super Burnout and Rayman on the console
The stunt tracks in Power Drive Rally seem a bit out of place for sure, and the 5 second penalty for hitting a cone is a but obnoxious. The final race (35 I believe) is also insanely difficult. I don't have an issue with too many of Atari Karts flaws, but the hazard baked into the floor tile is a pretty big one. The "rocks" on the ice level, and "craters" on the planet level being the worst. I think I've only played Flashback on the Genesis, but I'd like to get the 3DO version, it seems that port has updated backgrounds but I am by no means a Flashback expert.
implantgames Also Dragon is kind of hated by a lot of people but I still like it as I enjoyed it on the Snes a day Megadrive too being a fighting game fan. The Jaguar version is the best one graphically. The main problem with the Jaguar is that there's not a lot of great games that were not available elsewhere and the ones that were exclusive if they were on other consoles of the day they would have been passed up. It reminds me that the amount of effort I put into the Jaguar I haven't with other consoles. I mean when Pitfall the Mayan adventure came out on the Snes and Megadrive I rented it for a weekend decided it was rubbish and returned it and similarly with Kasumi Ninja. If this had been on a console that had Mortal Kombat it would have had no chance. The library is small so those like me that have bought the console were forced to give a chance to games that I'd normally pass up and generally I was disappointed lol. I also did notice that some games that are better in some ways like Cannon Fodder that has higher resolution than other versions making it easier to see what's going on are better suited to mouse controls. Pinball Fantasies is not bad but again the controls aren't quite right there appears to be some lag. Ah well at least Super Burnout is a fantastic racer.
What a Shame, Only 56 Titles but Plus 41 from the Homebrew Scene (Which actually makes me want to Collect for it) and Barely Over 250,000 Units Sold! Good Grief Virtual Boy Sold Under 780,000 Units and it was a Failure! Atari was Strapped for Cash at the Time and Couldn’t Make Enough Cool Exclusives and some 3rd party Devs just Bailed in 95, What Wasted Potential and what Could have been?
I swear, is that JPEG compression on the textures and images in AvP? You see the same artifacting on Motocross Championship for 32X... very strange to see that sort of compression artifacts in a game of this era. I won't lie, I can't unsee the artifacts now that I've noticed them, and it's making AvP way uglier than I used to think it was! I'm guessing it was done to fit the higher-color images into limited cartridge space... probably stored compressed on the cart and then decompressed before loading into memory, which is something both systems would have had the power to do unlike their predecessors (unless you count SF Alpha 2 on SNES, but it needed a special chip to handle decompression).
The Jaguar was doomed to failure from the off, as it was an Atari product. Anyone familiar with the European Press at the time would remember the likes of Peter Stone (Konami) pointing out Atari lacked the marketing muscle to compete, the French Jaguar distributor head saying that in the spirt of the French consumer, Atari was dead, they no longer trusted the brand. No publisher was going to invest serious resources into a platform that they new was never going to be commercially viable.
Glad to hear it :) I think you'll enjoy the 3DO one as well. There are some updated thoughts on The Need for Speed and BC Racers and the footage quality is the best you'll find for the 3DO.
I believe at the time of making this video, everything you see in the video would be around $1500. Needless to say, there isn't $1500 worth of fun to be had. Thankfully I purchased everything back in the early 2000's when NIB Jag stuff was cheap and common, but I think the value proposition for the Jaguar ended long ago.
Glad you don't say Jagwire :P I agree that Checkerd Flag sucks, but saying that it is one of the worst games ever seems a bit harsh. Read the small book ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of'' for really bad games. Do you have a Jaguar CD too?
Haha, they say "Jagwire" in my area of the US. It takes a lot of effort to pronounce it differently :D I do own a Jag CD but I just use it to play Downfall haha :) Thanks for brining "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" to my attention, the first few pages on Amazon seem pretty interesting!
Hmm, I watched dozens of your videos and can say that you really do like all the games, the mediocre, the bad. The really bad ones still get praises from you. Can you list games that you do not like? Thanks man.
Philips Vs Atari in court over Jaguar CD. Over to Jeff Minter : Atari are suing Philips, for not making CDs quickly enough I think, and Philips are counter-suing Atari. I think they are trying to say that the Jag was not up to scratch, judging by the questions they were asking me. I tried to explain why I thought the Jag *was* up to scratch, 'specially at the time of its release, but you know these lwyers, once you start talking about Gouraud shading and RISC it all starts going over their heads :-) Oh well, my bit is done now. Although it sounds like a couple of the ex-Atarians I work with might get to give their deposition too... \ (:-) - Y a K (who just got an Atari Video Music console :->) /
Totally blew over fight for life, one of the best games for the jaguar. Super fast frame rate and better more detailed textures than virtua fighter with more moves and an interesting storyline. Highlander was a bit clunky on controls but if you learned the nuances it was an excellent RPG way before its time. Also loved towers 2 plight of the stargazer and loved the storyline and atmosphere (think doom graphics with a midevil RPG). Club drive didn't have much on graphics but was a fun free world driving game with no boundaries. Also world tour racing fixed a lot of the problems with checkered flag and is way more playable.
The texture maps on Fight for Life look about as good as the sparse textures in StarFox. The frame rate is abysmal, an inconsistent 10-20 fps vs VF's nearly-consistent 30fps even on 32X. The gameplay is stiff and stilted, jerky, unresponsive, and buggy, vs VF's smooth, flowing, lifelike movement and gameplay. I'm not saying there's no merit to FFL, but omg trying to compare it favorably to Virtua Fighter is just hilarious!!! I'm with you on Club Drive, though! I could only ever find 4 Jag games when I got mine on clearance, and it was easily my favorite. It was simple yet fun, and free roaming in a driving game wasn't seen often at the time... plus who didn't giggle like an idiot the first time they saw that stupid cat that looks like a sliding shoebox with a tail?
You took the bait :P In all seriousness, I think it took me 90 minutes or so to clear the first round of planets, and Skyler never uttered those words once.
Agree to disagree.... cybermorph was terrible, and yes, the Atari Jaguar was one of the worst consoles of all time. I say that having been an original owner from day 1... actually before day 1... I got my mail ordered from New York when they were doing the test launch for it. Trevor McFur was truly abysmal as well. AvP was supposed to be a holy grail game... it was NOT. What a disappointment as compared to those claimed 64-bits.
Interesting piece of hardware, and I lusted after it as a kid in the 90s, but Jaguar fandom is pretty lame. Tho I understand the appeal, it's sad seeing people trying to pretend like weak 16 bit-looking homebrew games are actually impressive.
Steve P they are impressive because the Atari Jaguar was very very hard to program (even harder than Saturn, PS2 or PS3) and those homebrew games are great achievements for the complicated hardware.
Retrofan 99 Yeah, I do get the concept. There's a weird beauty in seeing someone master old difficult hardware, but that's the thing - nobody seems to be 'mastering' anything w the Jaguar. Most homebrew I've seen seemed to run off the 16 bit 6800 chip. It'd be awesome to see people go further w it. I feel like just getting a Genesis-looking game to run on a Jaguar is sort of a low bar to set.
The games look weird in the emulator. It's still fine for reference but even Cybermorph looks better on the actual console. No capture card? At least for the games you do own would be great. Also WHYYYYYY do you say SH'MUP ... it's a vertical shooter.! 🤦♀️
If you think checkered flag is bad you need to play club drive. I had a jaguar and while I don't hate it as much a most people (i still hate it tho) it had a few good games. Club drive was NOT one of em. Might be the worst game ever made.
I got about half way through and just had to stop. Nothing wrong with the video but it's just 1 disappointing game after another and I'm more into the positive side of gaming. I'll come back and watch the second half during the week :-)
