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      ||JAGUAR____(_)___      || 
       |     / /|\ATARI \     |
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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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