119 replies to this topic

[LinkoVitch]

Mark T, on Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:38 AM, said:

I absolutely love my Jaguar! I hear talk of all these other games coming out for it and Atari Owl working on games but I dunno where to find or buy these games ...anyone can point me in the right direction?

When the AA store was open I see their section of 2600 Homebrews but NONE in the Jaguar section? Is there future plans to purchase homebrews/aftermarket/reproduction games for the Jaguar when the AA store comes back?

I'd imagine when a game is released the person/team releasing it will give details of where it can be obtained via their site. I know for my stuff I will be announcing it and making it available from my own website.

[Mark T]

LinkoVitch: Hmm well I usually check the marketplace alot and I haven't seen any post of recent Jaguar games coming out. Do you post your stuff in the marketplace or just your own website?

I do however, see ALOT of Atari 2600 stuff lol

[LinkoVitch]

Mark T, on Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:06 AM, said:

LinkoVitch: Hmm well I usually check the marketplace alot and I haven't seen any post of recent Jaguar games coming out. Do you post your stuff in the marketplace or just your own website?

I do however, see ALOT of Atari 2600 stuff lol

Not actually released anything yet. But when I do (hopefully not too long ) I will announce it all over the place and details of how to get it will be included.

My stuff is likely to be available in a variety of flavours including free downloads etc, but physical copies are possible as well. Until I have something to release ....

[Mark T]

LinkoVitch: Sounds good!

[CyranoJ]

Mark T, on Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:38 AM, said:

I absolutely love my Jaguar! I hear talk of all these other games coming out for it and Atari Owl working on games but I dunno where to find or buy these games ...anyone can point me in the right direction?

Hi Mark,

Welcome to Jaguar Land. You can find all of our releases on our website, here - and also all the Jagware releases on this site.

All are available for free download, some have had a boxed release, and others are donationware. Have fun!

[Mark T]

Awesome! Thanks!

CyranoJ, on Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:56 AM, said:

Mark T, on Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:38 AM, said:

I absolutely love my Jaguar! I hear talk of all these other games coming out for it and Atari Owl working on games but I dunno where to find or buy these games ...anyone can point me in the right direction?

Hi Mark,

Welcome to Jaguar Land. You can find all of our releases on our website, here - and also all the Jagware releases on this site.

All are available for free download, some have had a boxed release, and others are donationware. Have fun!

[Willard]

Mark T, on Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:38 AM, said:

I absolutely love my Jaguar! I hear talk of all these other games coming out for it and Atari Owl working on games but I dunno where to find or buy these games ...anyone can point me in the right direction?

When the AA store was open I see their section of 2600 Homebrews but NONE in the Jaguar section? Is there future plans to purchase homebrews/aftermarket/reproduction games for the Jaguar when the AA store comes back?

Our website has a links section that is supposed to feature all homebrew and proto release groups who have websites. You can find it here.

Still working on it as some obvious ones are missing (such as duranik, 3DSS if they still have a site .etc). I don't ever recall the AA store being a big source of post-atari Jaguar releases though... usually they are only made available from the original developers/release group. We've also got a few upcoming projects this year too which should keep some Jag owners busy

[Mark T]

Willard: Nice! Thanks for the link! I'm surprised the original developers/release group doesn't contact Al about selling the homebrews in the AA store...I would think it would be a great selling point.

[Punisher5.0]

You can buy homebrew as well as unreleased games from Songbird.

[CyranoJ]

Willard, on Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:11 PM, said:

Our website has a links section that is supposed to feature all homebrew and proto release groups who have websites.

Quite a few missing, maybe your links page needs a reboot?

[Mark T]

Well looks like I gotta get a WORKING Jaguar CD now

[johnodd]

I loved my jaguar i am currently looking for another one because i had mine fry which sucks i loved my jaguar and my jaguar cd yea it wasn't the fastest nor the best system but for fun it kicked some major butt

[DCUltrapro]

to me, the Jaguar was actually quite a nice little machine, I enjoyed playing some games for it but it became apparent quite quickly that the games were drying up and I soon moved on to other things. I'm not a Jag fanboy but I definitely feel that it still has a much reputation even today than it actually deserves. I think its a shame, if people could look past all its marketing shortcomings and the fact that Atari must have been smoking something when they decided to insist that it was 64bit and therefore hundreds of times more powerful than 16bit and 32bit consoles, they'd see that its not a bad little machine with a lot of nice little games for it

this is actually the first time I've ever decided to get into the Atari/Jaguar scene online, to be honest I never thought there was much interest out there. I'm a big Dreamcast nut and have been involved in that scene for many moons but I finally decided I'd see if I could find some fellow jaguar enthusiasts and so here I am

[LinkoVitch]

DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 5:14 AM, said:

Atari must have been smoking something when they decided to insist that it was 64bit and therefore hundreds of times more powerful than 16bit and 32bit consoles

TBF, it IS 64 bit. The memory data bus is 64 bits wide, and the OP and Blitter can access it at that full width

The width of a systems databus is a pretty naff metric for its awesomeness however, it just means the system can shift a lot of data about. You can understand why they chose to use it as marketing (markateers do like being able to say something is bigger or faster without understanding WTF they are talking about )

For me, I don't think we have seen the full potential of the system, a lot of what was released were games that were most likely rushed on a new platform that wasn't that well understood, time was probably not spent optimizing code or working around bugs and glitches. I am having a lot of fun finding glitches and limitations in the system myself, thankfully I don't have some exec breathing down my neck pushing for a release so I can take my time trying other approaches to achieve what I want.

[DCUltrapro]

LinkoVitch, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 7:46 AM, said:

TBF, it IS 64 bit. The memory data bus is 64 bits wide, and the OP and Blitter can access it at that full width

The width of a systems databus is a pretty naff metric for its awesomeness however, it just means the system can shift a lot of data about. You can understand why they chose to use it as marketing (markateers do like being able to say something is bigger or faster without understanding WTF they are talking about )

For me, I don't think we have seen the full potential of the system, a lot of what was released were games that were most likely rushed on a new platform that wasn't that well understood, time was probably not spent optimizing code or working around bugs and glitches. I am having a lot of fun finding glitches and limitations in the system myself, thankfully I don't have some exec breathing down my neck pushing for a release so I can take my time trying other approaches to achieve what I want.

sorry I guess I get a bit carried away when I say that its not 64bit. I basically mean that its graphical performance in no way shows that it could be capable of 64bit graphics, I know the architecture technically is 64bit but due to the complexity of the machine it never reached its full potential, as you say. Sorry I always do that, blurt out "its not 64bit" you know what I mean lol

[LinkoVitch]

DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 8:09 AM, said:

sorry I guess I get a bit carried away when I say that its not 64bit. I basically mean that its graphical performance in no way shows that it could be capable of 64bit graphics, I know the architecture technically is 64bit but due to the complexity of the machine it never reached its full potential, as you say. Sorry I always do that, blurt out "its not 64bit" you know what I mean lol

No need to apologise It's kinda what I meant by "64bit being a naff metric".. after-all what are 64bit graphics? The graphics card I had in my 1st PC was 64 bit, it did 2D only..

Also given the huge jump in performance from the '8bit' systems and '16bit' systems, it is easy for '64bit' to mean a further jump similar in comparison to the one already seen at least.. which it wasn't.

Still a fun system though, and despite what some may say a doddle to code for.

[DCUltrapro]

cool so have we seen the best graphics possible on the console in such games as Skyhammer and Battlemorph or is there some more room under the hood of the Jag yet for more impressive graphics?

I love the little machine, its great fun, I REALLY desperately want a CD add on but can't justify spending the ridiculous prices on ebay lol, I made a seperate thread about that though to see if anyone can help me find a cheaper one

[Rex Dart]

Opinion of the Atari Jaguar
As a piece of hardware? Pretty cool.
As the gaming platform that actually materialized? Pfffffff.

Still a neat underdog/loser of a system, much like the 7800 and Sega's 32x setup.

[LinkoVitch]

DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 8:44 AM, said:

cool so have we seen the best graphics possible on the console in such games as Skyhammer and Battlemorph or is there some more room under the hood of the Jag yet for more impressive graphics?

Time will tell I guess, people are working on stuff all the time, trying new things and experimenting. 'best graphics' is another dubious statement IMHO.. I think like Battlemorph and skyhammer look like arse, Rayman and Pitfall I think look awesome, I am sure others will disagree with me and prefer others.. its each to their own. There are some cool graphics systems being worked on in homebrew titles too, search around for some shots and videos of "Atari Owl Project", combination of voxels and texture mapped 3D on a jag.. V impressive stuff..

DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 8:44 AM, said:

I love the little machine, its great fun, I REALLY desperately want a CD add on but can't justify spending the ridiculous prices on ebay lol, I made a separate thread about that though to see if anyone can help me find a cheaper one

It is the unloved step child as far as consoles go but I love it (even tho it hates me more than I would like ), exciting times too, there are a growing number of developers and projects from the looks of things, and some fun things in the pipeline too. Hopefully its library will get to grow over the next few years with fun and shiny

I have a stack of JagCDs, alas they are all in need of TLC, one day I may get around to fixing them

[orpheuswaking]

LinkoVitch, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

I have a stack of JagCDs, alas they are all in need of TLC, one day I may get around to fixing them

Or send them to someone else who can give them TLC

[DCUltrapro]

Rex Dart, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 9:09 AM, said:

Still a neat underdog/loser of a system, much like the 7800 and Sega's 32x setup.

I agree, Saturn is another example as is the Dreamcast, all failed financially but were brilliant machines, the Jag failed in a big way but its nowhere near as bad as the majority of the computer game population thinks it is, they just aren't willing to give it a try imo

[DCUltrapro]

LinkoVitch, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

I have a stack of JagCDs, alas they are all in need of TLC, one day I may get around to fixing them

yeah man, if any of them even remotely work let me know, second hand is fine with me! Or if you know where I can get one give me a shout in the other thread I started

[Gunstar]

jaybird3rd, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 10:42 AM, said:

remowilliams, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 10:28 AM, said:

The funny thing is the fans that still clamor for 3D games on the Jaguar that it's really ill suited for.

Yes! There seems to be the opinion--not at all unique to Jaguar fans--that a "good game" has to "push the hardware to the max", regardless of what platform it was designed for. I wrote the following in the context of arcade hardware, but I think it's applicable here, too:

jaybird3rd, on Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:31 PM, said:

I think the idea that a "good game" has to "push the hardware to the max" is a leftover notion from the 2600 and other very old consoles and computers, when you had to pull all kinds of tricks to get the hardware to do things it wasn't designed to do. This was a necessary skill for game designers because they were trying to implement new types of games at a time when the hardware was so limited, but by the time you get into the 1990s, the hardware is no longer as big a limitation as human imagination.

<snip>

Game players don't care what the hardware is theoretically capable of doing, or the extent to which the game exploits it ... they only care about whether the game they're playing right now is fun for them or not, and you don't necessarily have to "push the hardware to the max" to achieve that.

This is an especially crippling mindset in the realm of Jaguar homebrew, because it seems to me that 2D games and other ideas which don't set out to somehow "prove" the Jaguar's 64-bitness are written off as "unworthy" of the Jaguar. I've fallen into that trap myself, but I think it's important to fight that impulse, because it can make the very prospect of starting a Jaguar homebrew project seem too intimidating. Creating a 3D game with all the music and the atmosphere and the production values of a polished commercial release is an impossibly difficult job for someone working for fun and in their spare time, and as I said earlier, it isn't necessary for anyone to impose those kinds of expectations on themselves to create a fun game.

EDIT: As I stated in my clarifications below, I don't mean to imply here that developers shouldn't set out to do ambitious projects, but merely that anyone interested in developing for the Jaguar shouldn't feel under pressure to create "the next Skyhammer," or something of that scale. My apologies if I was unclear on this.

I agree with everything except your belief that "pushing the hardware is a left-over notion from the 2600..."
Of course any game is great, pushing the hardware or not, as long as it is fun, but I've seen incredible things done on the 2600 and Atari 8-bits as two examples of many, that never would have been imagined possible at their apex, things done on newer consoles, that programmers want to see if they can pull off on the classic machines. Like 3D games (Wolfenstein 3D for example) that never would have been tried 25 years ago, becuase they were thought to be impossible (or just could never imagine it, such a thing coming from that machine)until 3D hardware came along, but now there is an 8-bit Wolfenstein 3D demo for the 8-bit done in high-color, low-res that looks and moves wonderfully:


Hopefully it will get finished. For many coders, the entire point of developing for classic hardware is to see just how far they can push it, it's where they derive their joy in coding! And fan's love to see their machines used at full potential AND have good game play. I'll wait ten years for one good 3D game. In the meantime we can play the smaller, 2D, fun games that come out.

Edited by Gunstar, Fri Sep 9, 2011 8:18 AM.

[danny_galaga]

Gunstar, on Fri Sep 9, 2011 7:53 AM, said:

but now there is an 8-bit Wolfenstein 3D demo for the 8-bit done in high-color, low-res that looks and moves wonderfully:

[doctorclu]

DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 9:30 AM, said:

yeah man, if any of them even remotely work let me know, second hand is fine with me! Or if you know where I can get one give me a shout in the other thread I started

Cool to see the new enthusiam for the Jaguar. It is a lot of fun trying out the various Jaguar games and all should be tried at least once. As for the CD unit, there have been times since I have bought the Jaguar that I lost interest for a while, but the Jaguar was used as a CD player... with a really cool light show. In the years since the CD unit was good for loading a lot of amateur development games and some other CD games that have come along.

Soulstar, even the partially working game, is worth playing. And I eagerly look forward to the fixed version of Soulstar.

Robinson's Requiem is out now, which I have bought and have yet to try.

Honestly considering the variety the Jaguar is one really cool system.