63 replies to this topic

[Dr Manhattan]

Consoles are like women. Each one is beautiful in its own way.

1up.com you are too negative.

Edited by Dr Manhattan, Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:52 AM.

[Karyyk]

 goatdan, on Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:26 AM, said:

Also, while the Jaguar marketing for the most part was pretty stupid, *all* video game marketing from that era was pretty stupid. The 'Sega Scream' commercials were just as dumb if not more dumb. So I don't blame Atari for being out of touch with those at all, more of just a sign of the times.

I actually liked some of Atari's marketing, which is more than I can say for 90% of the other crap out there. The Doom, AvP and Stimulus TV commercials were downright funny...

As for the list, I read it and just groaned my way down the list. That the Jaguar entry was basically "it sucks" without any kind of expanation as to why (well, a good explanation) was exactly what I was expecting. How many times have I read this regurgitated list since '97?

[doctorclu]

 Karyyk, on Sat Aug 13, 2011 8:56 PM, said:

I actually liked some of Atari's marketing, which is more than I can say for 90% of the other crap out there. The Doom, AvP and Stimulus TV commercials were downright funny...

I think the problem with the Jaguar commercials is not that they were all bad, just that they were not seen at all. I honestly don't remember seeing them.

Lynx commericals were at least in the back of my favorite comic books and I saw that. But the Jaguar, I have seen a dozen commercials, non of which I remember seeing.

But in retrospect of the commericals:

Kasumi Ninja - Funny!! One of my favs.
Doom - My favorite commercial of the Jaguar stuff.
Tempest - That was pretty good with the contrast of color with black and white video clips.
AvP - Quite good!
Stimulus - Actually liked that one. "Get off my lawn!!"
Teacher one - Probably the weakest of the commercials but still creative for the message they were trying to get out.

There were the commercials where they show the various game shots. Nice! Not as creative, but nice.

Then there were the commercials where they say "After the Atari Jaguar, some things are just not the same anymore"

And in one they have a guy next to a blow up doll and in another a monkey having sex while thinking about the Jaguar. My wife and I got a good laugh of those videos.

So while I did not see the commercials (the biggest problem in my book) and while there were the 64 bit is better than 16 bit (which is an interesting selling point back when 64 bit was unheard of) I have to say I liked the commercials that were made. Primarily the Kasumi Ninja and Doom commercials.

[retrorussell]

I hadn't even heard of half those consoles/handhelds. I've been happy enough with the Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, PS and PS2 to even think of buying other consoles.

[goatdan]

 doctorclu, on Sun Aug 14, 2011 1:25 PM, said:

So while I did not see the commercials (the biggest problem in my book) and while there were the 64 bit is better than 16 bit (which is an interesting selling point back when 64 bit was unheard of) I have to say I liked the commercials that were made. Primarily the Kasumi Ninja and Doom commercials.

Here was the major problem with the commercials though -- they basically said stuff like, "Anyone can see that 64 bits is better than 16!" The problem was that if you took, say, Cybermorph and compared it to Star Fox, or Trevor McFur and compared it to Donkey Kong Country, no one could really tell what 64 bits meant. The whole NES is 8 bit, Genesis / SNES are 16 bit thing worked because the games really looked a heck of a lot better, but it wasn't like Sega and Nintendo were trying to actually explain to people what those additional 8 bits did. So, people just sort of blindly believed that power was associated with the 'bits' of a console, so when Atari came out with this 64 bit system that looked moderately better than the 16 bit systems instead of four times better than the 16 bit systems, people didn't understand what the hell Atari was talking about.

That is the reason that to this day, people come out and say that the Jaguar wasn't really a 64 bit console. It was, but that particular fact is only one of about 50 different factors determining the graphical prowess of a system, and I would strongly argue that processor speed and available system RAM are MUCH larger factors affecting the way that a system can display graphics. Otherwise, the Jaguar could output better graphic than the 32 bit Xbox could.

[MCHufnagel]

When I saw that article I knew there would be "hell to pay" here on the Jag boards. Sure, this article stated a lot of bs; but we all know that the Jag is a "red-headed stepchild" in the console world (and honestly this is a bit deserved).

I know that people say that the Jag had great potential, but people don't spend their hard earned money on potential, they spend it on enjoyment. I rate a console on the amount of good to great games it has in it's library. In this regard, I would have to place the Jag in the bottom tier of consoles. Not the worst, but nowhere near the best.

[Rex Dart]

 Dr Manhattan, on Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:43 AM, said:

Consoles are like women. Each one is beautiful in its own way.

1up.com you are too negative.

Reminds me more of the ideology behind the Venture Bros -- failure is human, inherent, and beautiful.

[save2600]

 Dr Manhattan, on Sat Aug 13, 2011 11:43 AM, said:

Consoles are like women. Each one is beautiful in its own way.

Each one?

[DCUltrapro]

I've seen a lot of lists like this and video features on Youtube, all saying how rubbish the Jaguar was but I actually quite like the crazy little thing. I think its got some great games on it for its time and if you ignore all the crap about 64 bit expectation etc its really not all that bad. I love AVP, Cybermorph, Tempest 2000, Cannon Fodder, Rayman and a whole bunch of other games, does anyone remember how much it retailed at when it was released? I remember people argued at school that it was going to be 64bit, the most powerful machine ever etc but we all just laughed at the thought lol. And also, how the hell dare they put the Lynx in there? It was a great little machine!! aah well, what can you do, some people just dont know genius when they see it

[akator]

 doctorclu, on Sun Aug 14, 2011 1:25 PM, said:

I think the problem with the Jaguar commercials is not that they were all bad, just that they were not seen at all. I honestly don't remember seeing them.

I never saw normal TV commercials for the Jaguar, only those late night infomercials. Nothing inspires confidence in a product like a 2AM infomercial. What gaming demographic would buy a video game console after buying a $200 juicer or a $100 steam cleaner 30 minutes earlier? The marketers who convinced Atari to buy those time slots must have laughed all the way to the bank...

[doctorclu]

 akator, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 10:35 AM, said:

 doctorclu, on Sun Aug 14, 2011 1:25 PM, said:

I think the problem with the Jaguar commercials is not that they were all bad, just that they were not seen at all. I honestly don't remember seeing them.

I never saw normal TV commercials for the Jaguar, only those late night infomercials. Nothing inspires confidence in a product like a 2AM infomercial. What gaming demographic would buy a video game console after buying a $200 juicer or a $100 steam cleaner 30 minutes earlier? The marketers who convinced Atari to buy those time slots must have laughed all the way to the bank...

When you said this I was thinking of the demographic and thinking... probably why American Hero was being made. You know, the infomercial slot was the same time the 976 and 900 sex line commercials were being played.

[doctorclu]

 DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 5:08 AM, said:

And also, how the hell dare they put the Lynx in there? It was a great little machine!! aah well, what can you do, some people just dont know genius when they see it

Lynx was amazing. That was the one venture of Atari that had many good titles with giood graphics. It was a competitor to the Gameboy, but I think if allowed in a larger scale it might have given other 16 bit systems a run for their money. That is the way I feel after playing the Lynx with a larger screen and with a game controller under emulation.

[DCUltrapro]

Yeah I agree, the Lynx is pretty awesome, I love the games on it and I just got Slime World and a power supply for it. I really wanna get Rygar and that Zaku for it too! Love that little machine, I hate these articles/10 worst consoles of all time lists, they never reflect anything remotely resembling the truth

[doctorclu]

 DCUltrapro, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 12:39 PM, said:

Yeah I agree, the Lynx is pretty awesome, I love the games on it and I just got Slime World and a power supply for it. I really wanna get Rygar and that Zaku for it too! Love that little machine, I hate these articles/10 worst consoles of all time lists, they never reflect anything remotely resembling the truth

Well Atari, rightfully as we are seeing currently with Atari's policies to the fan base, has a bad rap. Atari has always been a bit bad with the marketing, how they treat developers, how they treated customers, etc. So all this to say there are those that grew to like other game companies by name, and Atari became some relic by name.

This is what I really think. The Lynx and Jaguar were great systems, but they were under a company name that people just didn't like or trust by the time their systems rolled out.

I remember seeing the Lynx and I though I had a 2600 and Atari 400 I was like "Atari? Are they still around?" In 1993 I saw a Jaguar in a electronic discount thrift store and thought "Yeh right... Atari? Who is that imposter making that system under the Atari name?"

Seriously. That is what I thought. The game system was like $200.00 used at the time and all the guy at the store said was "Good graphics, few games" To me I thought it was a scam of someone trying to use the Atari name, one that I thought was basically dead since I had not seen any support for the 8 bit line in years with little news of the ST line that quickly all but died in the states by 1987 (far as I saw.. mind you, no internet then) so I was actually INSULTED that someone was releasing this game system trying to ride the old Atari reputation.

So that was my experience, and honestly that is the impression I get looking at the old reviews.

"ATARI has a new game system?"
"Who is Atari?"
"64 bit? Yeh right!"

Summary, good systems, but with a company with a bad rep or no rep by then supporting it.