Why Did The Atari Jaguar CD Fail !? - Gaming History Documentary 

I haven't fired up my Jaguar CD in a couple years but I never had any issues with it working. Looking at the prices working ones are going for on E-Bay makes it tempting to sell it but then my Jaguar would be all alone without his little buddy.

I've owned my Atari Jaguar CD unit for over 20 years and never had any issues! I believe most issues are due to mishandling of the unit. I purchased mine from Go Atari in 02. Battlemorph is a terrific title. Skylar only makes an appearance when she has something to say and is not the annoyance she is in Cybermorph. Primal rage is fun with two players and two pro controllers. Protector Resurgence adds a lot to the awesome Protector. Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands is an underrated title that is much better than Hover Strike. Baldies, Blue Lightning and Dragon's Lair are also fun. An unlicensed Gorf is also available for the Jaguar and is another nice title to have if you own a Jaguar CD player.

I remember playing Highlander a lot with a friend that owned a JagCD and it didn't feel nearly as bad as people say it is. Back then we compensated for shit-controllers and horrendous camera systems much more than we can now.

Love the way Lady decade holds up the systems. I wonder if she ever worked for a gameshow like the price is right?

Good video, but just wanted to add 2 things. First is that the Jaguar CD was a backup design. Phillips and another CD drive manufacturer promised to supply CD drives for the first Jaguar release but at the last moment broke their arrangement and decided to throw the drives into the trash piles (you may know the trash piles as the "CDi"). Plus Atari themselves cut the development of the Jaguar main processors short anyway, which was part 2 of the disaster. The second thing I wanted to mention was that when I bought my brother a new Jaguar CD there were no problems, and Tempest 2000 is still one of the world's best games, but I don't believe there was a reliability problem with the CD drive, if you want to talk about that the first Sony Playstation has catastrophic drive failures due to design. I believe the problem with the Jaguar CD is the fragile construction. Few used units today have the protective packaging designed to protect the unit originally, and if i remember that cardboard coffin tray in that big empty box was awful. if they had used soft foam or styrofoam I bet many of the original units would still work. Also if you ship one of those units to another country I expect it will shake itself to pieces along the way. So the Jaguar CD addon problem was it was not robust because it was never supposed to exist in the first place and Atari, being short on funds, ended up finding the cheapest solution to the very last problem they would ever work on. Oh and Iron Soldier 2 was a lot of fun too, but hey you can buy IS3 on the Playstation 1 and that game actually has textures.

I have a Jag CD that works. Well, it works when you tape the drive shut. I sure as hell am not gonna repair it since it still works for now.

My Jaguar CD is still working fine and in mint condition, picked it up a few years ago 😊 However I'm mostly using the Jaguar GameDrive to preserve it.

Never knew about the Jaguar VR headset, that's absolutely wild

I still have both my Jaguar and Jaguar CD. Had them since 1998 and I have kept them both in good condition. Not the best console ever, but it had it's moments.

At least Lady Decade’s peripherals never disappoint.

If only the hardware of the Jag wasn't rushed and they fixed the buggy hardware.

I simply want to know what Atari was thinking when they agreed on that number pad controller

Ah the Jag CD - some good games, like Iron Soldier 2. However, it should probably have been a stand-alone console. I had 2 Jag CDs which worked just fine - sold 1 to cover the cost of both, and then the other went (along with the Jag) to help cover the costs of moving

I suspect that the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 CD add-on was likely the most successful games media add-on in industry history. They claim to have sold about 2 million CD units in Japan alone, and I'm not sure if that includes PC Engine Duo units (that came with an integrated CD-ROM drive). The Famicom Disk System likely sold more total units, but the ratio between PC Engine and CD will almost certainly have been better than the ratio of Famicom to Famicom Disk Systems.

I worked in video games at the time and Atari asked my company to port one of our games on to the Jag CD. When asked how many Jag CD units they where going to sell they told us 2 million, I do love optimism but they'd have to sell 1,850 000 to people that didn't even have a Jaguar.

Nice dig at the Amico! Love all your videos. Very interesting how badly the jag cd was a flop

I remember when AVGN tried reviewing the Jaguar CD and he couldn't get one that actually worked. Was there no quality control at all at Atari? Given the embarrassingly awful Jaguar pack-in game, Cybermorph, they clearly didn't invest much in game testers. It's such a shame that Atari fell so far. The Lynx was actually pretty awesome, and I never understood why it couldn't compete with the ugly monochrome Game Boy, which I think is the most overrated system ever. 😕

although I enjoy your videos, Lady Decade, I have to say that i kind of find this video to be incredibly misleading to the Jaguar CD. After having mine for 2 years it still functions and works exactly as it was intended and disks have ran flawlessly. I realize that they're rare and do often require parts but I am also finding that this video is incredibly biased. Not to say this as a fan, but I feel you're not giving the CD Addon the credit that is due. Primal Rage is a fantastic port, sound qaulity is great, world racing tour is amazing, Battlemorph outdoes itself, the Hover Strike and Iron Soldier 2 port does itself justice, Blue Lightning is actually very well done as a tech demonstration and there are also some decent minor games like Baldies and Myst on the system too.

Another video that every other RU-vidr has done

KB Toys at the time were flooded with Jaguar products for super cheap and they couldn’t give it away.

Remember when soja boy thought he owed the company atari

Mine works fine. It’s a standard Phillips CD pickup and there’s nothing wrong with it’s design whatsoever. They were used years before the Jag CD and years after. The reason they break is because they use a magnetic lockdown and people try and snap the CD on like a PlayStation. This ends up putting the drive out of alignment.

Still have my jag cd. I know it gets beat up but I still like it.

Funny you said they are all broken; I purchased mine brand new at GameStop and it still works fine to this very day.

For all the vids of 32 and 64 bit consoles I feel like we all owe you steak and ice cream or whatever the equivalent is in your home. Because these vids are steak and ice cream.

I've watched many reviews of this system on so many other channels and this one is one of my favorites it's so indepth and very well written and beautifully produced thanks for sharing this video with us all

Not only this is as brilliant as ever- your remark @10:52 had me spitting my tea at the screen. XD You're awesome!

I've had mine for years and somehow it still works. VLM is fun

Atari should have made a consolised version of the Lynx hardware 🤔

Seen a jag shell hanging in my dentist's office. I guess a dental equipment supplier bought the un used shells.

Actually the reason why the Jaguar didn't do well was because of the stupid number digit controller. I mean, its supposed to be competing against the SNES, Genesis, PS1, but did these other consoles have number pads on their controllers? Just think if the PS1 had a big ass number pad on the controller, everyone would have thought that Sony were out of their minds. So the number pad was just a huge mistake and didn't help the Jaguar at all. They needed a better shaped controller, heck even a 6 button Sega Genesis controller adapter would have been better than the original Jaguar controller. And what really are you going to do with that number pad, play games with it? Yeah, right. It's more like you need to call for help because someone sold you a terrible controller.

"Where did YOU learn to fly?" "YOU, ALRIGHT?! I learned it from watching you!"

Bought one like 3 years ago complete with box with a new laser already installed. One of my best purchases, the jaguar is one of my favorite consoles

Just when you thought anyone couldn't do worse than the Sega 32X...

I remember the crappy Atari Jaguar. I was 9 in 1994 was playing NES and SNES and loving them with such classic games like: The Legend Of Zelda : A Link To The Past (SNES) The Legend Of Zelda (NES), Street Fighter II , Any Mario game (NES & SNES), Mortal Kombat, Mortal Konbat II. I'm still playing and loving The Legend Of Zelda : A Link To The Past but the Gameboy Advance Port.

It's redeemed entirely by Battlemorph, best game of the entire Jaguar library save perhaps for T2K

Personally, I love the look of the core console and the cd add on. The controller on the other hand, now thats a different story. Ick

Jaguar + toilet = failure; do the math

The Lady Decade show, a necessary for gracious living in south Texas.

My lid switch is broken on mine but it still works if a stack a few books on top to hold the lid down which is not bad for being a 27 year old cheaply made device. I thought it had potential to compete with PSX and Saturn but Atari simply gave up on it too early. Battlemorph was a nice upgrade over Cybermorph and the CD version is the preferred way to play Hoverstrike. There's a Protector Resurgence CD from Songbird Productions that works in tandem with the Protector SE cartridge so this feature actually did happen. I thought it looked more like a spaceship as opposed to a toilet.

So rare to see them up close 😉 Really enjoy your videos, you make them fun and give great details, must take a lot of effort. I'm always on the lookout for something wierd or rare to play, knowing how it came about makes it that much cooler. Thank you for what you do.

The green cybermorph 'where did you learn to fly' is a voice prompt that is rare to hear. you'd know this if you played the game. And it controls fine.

Had both, had fun, no complaints then and now. I think LD is just bitter.

Never had one but the connection problem reminds me of the ZX81/16K ram pack wobble issue. This amused me somewhat - not!

I noticed a mistake, the Atari company that was sold to WMS Industries was not Atari Corporation, but rather, Atari Games, and these two companies have nothing to do with each other. Atari Games was the arcade division.

The home brew community makes me think that Analogue should get to work on a one piece, structurally sound reproduction of the Atari Jaguar CD. They've made a lot of other reproduction consoles and it seems they do good work.

Excellent work on retro consoles, please do more of these sorts of failure breakdown videos

Never understood why they made an add on to a system that didn't sell well at all, the main problem with the system is it did not offer anything better than the 16-bit rivals at all in all honesty it was a big heaping pile of crap

I remember see these at Circuit City waaayy back in the day as a kid and how everyone in the 90s were obsessed with how many bits a system had. We used to argue and debate if the PSX was ACTUALLY weaker or stronger the the N64 or Saturn. I think the Jaguar, 3DO, and CDi really shows a game company needs to be lead by people who actually play games. You can tell just by looking at the controllers of these systems that they don't play games at all. INTERSTELLAR Main Theme Guitar ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xfB4Ez9IaI0.html Killing Arasaka... | Cyberpunk 2077 Rebel Path Guitar MV ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X3_JrXwr4k0.html Alucard and Trevor Battle Baroque Guitar MV (Lost Cathedral) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KyBRZSNjIFs.html

cool video! never played it or regular Jag.. Genesis and SNES were still wicked popular in 95 .. Most kids and young adults were gonna stick with our Segas and maybe get a PS1 or hold out a year or two lol.. i always laughed at the whacky prices of Jag, 3DO , Neo Geo and Phillips CDI back then even as a kid .. some systems were higher than computer prices back then i couldn't understand it to be honest.

Yep, it was a stupid idea due to the reasons you mentioned in the video. The all-in-one console should have been released instead of just the add-on, but it wouldn't have mattered. In 1995, it was all about the PS1 (and Saturn if you live in Japan.) They had no chance at that point (cue Vince McMahon's entrance theme.)

Woah nerdy metal mum! Nice new video features! Loving the transitions and window borders! As always, many congrats on the continued success of your channel! Still growing and speeding towards 100k!!!!! :)

Never seen a Jaguar in real life here in U.S

Apple did it a couple years later with what retro collectors lovingly refer to as the "toilet seat" iBook clamshell.

Saying it looks like a toilet and then ranting about it for at least a minute is one of the dumbest things I have heard in a while.

My Jaguar CD hasn't given me any troubles though it's been in storage for a few years!

Do a video of the cancelled Atari Jaguar 2

"A black plastic toilet" Best Ebay description ever.

Jaguar CD is a very weirdly designed console. They had some neat ideas. But that game library was unique. You're right, Lady Decade, its design definitely resembles the royal throne.

Tells me, maybe add-ons aren't a good idea; maybe they should've been whole new separate systems. Like the Sega CD - maybe the Sega CD should've been a whole system by itself. It did seem to operate like it was half a system attached to something else. So it seemed to operate more shoddily because of that. I know some people use to bang on it to get it to work. Attaching something new to something old isn't a good idea either. Needs to be completely new, hence advancement. Wanted ta say somethin'... By the way, when I said '16-Bit Version of The Legend of Zelda', I meant the 16-Bit Remake of the first Zelda on NES. There was a 16-Bit Remake of the first Zelda exclusively for Satellaview (if I spelt that right). Would like to play that myself 🙂

Thanks for the video. So many tongue twisting adjectives in one video!

At this rate, Atari should be developing for IKEA and Walmart. I can just imagine, Atari branded toilets. There’s probably people out there that would buy it just because it has the Atari label. So when you go to over to your friends house, your friend says hey if you need to use the Atari, it’s in that room.

Also I am a rpg fan none I can recall on the Jaguar.

The Jaguar Duo...haha, actually, instead of Sega's 2-in-1 consoles, that reminds me more of the PC Engine CD, or the Turbo Duo in America. NEC seem to be the odd company out in the console wars, doing good business in Japan if not elsewhere. And their library of games was comparable, if not superior to the Sega CD and especially the Jaguar. All I know is that I wanted a Turbo Duo so badly when I was a kid, and I remember the games consistently getting good ratings.

I have an absolutely mental day ahead. This video has set me up for the day. Thank you for posting 📫 ☺️ 🙏

I have one of these. With most broken and only 20,000 made I'm surprised these are not more collectable. I think they will be worth thousands someday.

Bought the JAG CD day one and today it runs with zero problems. Own every cartridge and CD released for the system. There are some really bad games (like all systems have) but many are good.

I had two. One dont work, other works and plays burnt games.😊👍👍

The Jaguar was so advertised in the 90s and I remember wanting one because I thought it looked edgy.

I went out & started to buy one but the salesman talk me out of it. I'm thankful he did. Later bought the PlayStation.

The Amico joke made me want a video about it. By next year that whole charade will be finished so......

It took vr another 25 years and its still only starting

As my little puppy Rasputin Ras for short would say that was Ruff!!

I’m shocked at hearing the CD drive was so faulty and even more shocked at the prices the base unit goes for! I’ve not yet researched the CD add on… I’ve had mine for many years and it worked without issues but the games where nothing that interested me so they just collected dust! I’ll have to dig out the cords to test it someday after my cat knocking the system behind my entertainment system cabinet 😅

Why are people defending the Jaguar CD, it was a trash system? They might like it, but the cost, number of games released, failure rate, lack of sales all show that as a console at that time, it was awful.

I heard they was thinking of doing Tomb Raider on the Jaguar CD

Still have my Atari Jaguar cd unit I bought new in 1994

I still have my jag cd. Still love this console.

Some say the Jag CD actually functions better as a toilet rather than a gaming system

I lol'd so hard when I watched AVGN episode about this thing and he said that it looks like a toilet when CD addon was opened

Ummm....not to defend Cybermorph but comparing either game to Star Fox really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. One game is completely on a rail while the other is open. Not to mention, both Cybermorph games hold a far better frame rate.

What people don't know. If you look it up. The jag was a bitch to program for. The system had 5 16 bit chips. 1 just for powering up. 4 chips equals 64 bits. The main CPU was 16 bit. Although there was a 32 bit chip. And 64 bit chip. The programmers were lazy and never used those chips

I'm curious, love the content, but whom encouraged you and set-up your channel for you? Also, who edits it? Is it all you?

No, the "last legs" are not the hind legs. It would be three legs. The second legs are the hind legs.

A British designer named Yak you say, I like this man. Also Aaahhckchtuley a water closest is the cupboard you walk into and not the toilet itself. Never seen a Cybiko before dood.

If they let those home brewers make the games, then it might have done better when it was released instead of the bureaucracy that lead to its demise.

"i hear it's going great for Tommy Tallerico" ahahahahaha wow

I bought one new back in the day. I got my $50 worth, especially after buying Iron Soldier 2! Amazing game for the time. No issues (though my gaming time has been a rarity for past 10yrs & haven't turned it on for a while).

I gotta watch AVGN take on this for the 20th time or so. Good old James, what a shame that his channel went down the drain. One day I will LEARN TO FLY

Nice video I got a funny story I had a buddy that used to have one of these Atari jaguars here in Texas and he had to throw it away because his baby brother mistook it for a toilet so he had to throw it away

I do enjoy serving pickled crap consoles to relatives I despise at Christmas. Just last year I gave one of my nephews a rather vinegary N64.

Have had mine for 20yrs. I think I paid $100 then. CIB with maybe 8 hours of use to now. Still worked fine when I checked it 4yrs ago. Only issue is some early carts are not compatible for some reason.

I think most people are not understanding what she was saying. Yes, there are a-lot of working functioning units and if you take care of it, it will work for years and years to come but back then, people didn't take care of their game systems which would cause the CD addon to stop working. It was poorly developed plain and simple. Excellent video.

They planned the disc player add on obviously lol the base unit shows the design cut out for it.

Why didn't Atari just make the Jaguar a CD system only

lol I'm just here to see ladydecade's funny faces.

Maybe if the Jaguar CD had been released in 1994 like Atari originally planned, it might have been something. Instead by the time it came out in 1995, there was the Saturn, Playstation and 3DO.

Next Episode... Why did ATARI Fail!? - Gaming History Documentary

Didn’t Atari make a video music visualiser in the 70s

Also in this regard, atari pulled a sega here, and this video should be a cautionary tale for those considering the amd64-based VCS.