Unreleased Jaguar Games.

[pacman000]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:23 PM, Greenious said:

I ran a small mailorder business dealing atari back in 90-94 ca while I was in high school. In sweden there was a massive shortage of jaguar stuff to sell, hardware aswell as software. whenever I managed to get something it was basically sold the same day. I had people calling me almost daily asking for AvP, Tempest and other games.

 

I never understood the shortage, not then, not today, especially since B&C, Best, telegames etc still is selling a lot of these games manufactured ages ago, even though some of the hardware and games has sold out in recent years.

My understanding:

Atari wasn’t sure the system would be a success, & they were cash-poor, so they initially held back production to judge demand & save money.

 

Later, Atari won some lawsuits, so they had money needed to produce more consoles. When Atari got a deal to go into Walmart, they ramped up production, but by then it was too late. The PS1 killed their sales, & Walmart returned the unsold Jaguars.

[Lost Dragon]

5 hours ago, pacman000 said:

My understanding:

Atari wasn’t sure the system would be a success, & they were cash-poor, so they initially held back production to judge demand & save money.

 

Later, Atari won some lawsuits, so they had money needed to produce more consoles. When Atari got a deal to go into Walmart, they ramped up production, but by then it was too late. The PS1 killed their sales, & Walmart returned the unsold Jaguars.

IBM faced manufacturing issues with the Jaguar hardware at the start, not due to problems within their own plant, as is often reported, but due to a shortage of components from external suppliers. 

 

Chip yields of the Tom and Jerry chips, which only a few fabrication plants could actually manufacture, had been poor. 

 

 

Atari had in the years before been burnt by Taiwanise manufacturering plants making the Falcon computers i believe, cheaper to make them in Taiwan than the USA, but the initial production runs had failed Q. A testing and delayed the launch of the Falcon and it later turned out the issues lay with the testing equipment, not the Falcon hardware. 

 

Or that's what's been reported. 

 

 

Atari indeed wanted to save money and were very limited, resources wise when the Jaguar launched, everything they had was put behind it, Falcon projects abandoned or put on pause. 

 

 

They had the in-pack game, Cybermorph cut down so it could fit on a smaller cartridge for later runs. 

 

 

Didn't Bob Brodie when he left Atari, issue a big farewell statement detailing things like the Walmart deal and unsold stocks of Jaguar games coming back to Atari in squashed boxes, stickers on etc  making them unusable to be sold on again? 

 

 

I'd need to look that up,but seem to remember the deal being about guaranteed sales, Walmart not shifting stock over the essential Xmas market and returning stock to Atari. 

 

 

Might not of been Bob, but i do remember it coming from a high profile Atari person after his departure. 

 

He went through his time with Atari and why Jaguar had failed. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[+Stephen]

5 hours ago, Lost Dragon said:

Might not of been Bob, but i do remember it coming from a high profile Atari person after his departure. 

 

He went through his time with Atari and why Jaguar had failed. 

Believe that was Don Thomas.

[Lost Dragon]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

Believe that was Don Thomas.

I'd wager you were right. 

 

Had a brief look online and found a few comments from Bob, but nothing that rang with what i remembered. 

 

 

Spent last few months deleting what I had stored on Jaguar, off my systems. 

 

Don Thomas sounds promising. 

[Lost Dragon]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

Believe that was Don Thomas.

Your a legend. 

 

Found it:i

 

 

DId you hear anyone say "Goodbye"?

==================================
by Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (10/4/96)

It's odd to imagine an institution, which was as big and as powerful as
Atari once was, to have been shut down in recent days. The real amazement
for me is that it was all accomplished without a measurable flinch from
within or outside the gaming industry. I can understand that gamers wanted
to push Pong out the door early in the timeline. I can appreciate that the
classics such as Missile Command and Asteroids do not push 32-bit and
64-bit systems to any technological limits. I know all these things
intellectually, but the heart cannot face the truth that the world and the
corporate machine known as Atari could not find an amicable way to coexist.

On Tuesday, July 30, 1996, Atari Corporation took each and every share of
it's company (ATC), wrapped them all in a tight bundle and presented them
to JTS Corporation; a maker and distributor of hard disk drives. On
Wednesday, the shares were traded under the symbol of JTS. Within a few
weeks, the remaining staff of Atari that were not dismissed or did not
resign, moved to JTS' headquarters in San Jose, California. The three
people were assigned to different areas of the building and all that really
remains of the Atari namesake is a Santa Clara warehouse full of unsold
Jaguar and Lynx products.

It was only as long ago as mid '95 that Atari executives and staff believed
things were finally taking a better turn. Wal*Mart had agreed to place
Jaguar game systems in 400 of their Superstores across the country. Largely
based on this promise of new hope and the opportunities that open when such
deals are made, Atari invested heavily in the product and mechanisms
required to serve the Wal*Mart chain. But the philosophical beliefs of the
Atari decision makers that great products never need advertising or
promotions, put the Wal*Mart deal straight into a tailspin. With money tied
up in the product on shelves as well as the costs to distribute them to get
there, not much was left to saturate any marketplace with advertising.
While parents rushed into stores to get their kids Saturns or PlayStations,
the few that picked up the Jaguar were chastised by disappointed children
on Christmas day.

In an effort to salvage the pending Wal*Mart situation, desperate attempts
to run infomercials across the country were activated. The programs were
professionally produced by experts in the infomercial industry and designed
to permit Atari to run slightly different offers in different markets. In
spite of the relatively low cost of running infomercials, the cost to
produce them and support them is very high. The results were disappointing.
Of the few thousand people who actually placed orders, many of them
returned their purchases after the Holidays. The kids wanted what they saw
on TV during the day! They wanted what their friends had! They wanted what
the magazines were raving about!

In early 1996, Wal*Mart began returning all remaining inventory of Jaguar
products. After reversing an "advertising allowance" Atari was obligated to
accept, the net benefit Atari realized was an overflowing warehouse of
inventory in semi-crushed boxes and with firmly affixed price and security
tags. Unable to find a retailer willing to help distribute the numbers
required to stay afloat, Atari virtually discontinued operations and traded
any remaining cash to JTS in exchange for a graceful way to exit the
industry's back door.

Now that JTS has "absorbed" Atari, it really doesn't know what to do with
the bulk of machines Atari hoped to sell. It's difficult to liquidate them.
Even at liquidation prices, consumers expect a minimal level of support
which JTS has no means to offer. The hundreds of calls they receive from
consumers that track them down each week are answered to the best ability
of one person. Inquiries with regard to licensing Atari classic favorites
for other applications such as handheld games are handled by Mr. John
Skruch who was with Atari for over 13 years.

In spite of Nintendo's claim that their newest game system is the first
64-bit game system on the market, Atari Corporation actually introduced the
first 64-bit system just before Christmas in 1993. Since Atari couldn't
afford to launch the system nationwide, the system was introduced in the
New York and San Francisco markets first. Beating the 32-bit systems to the
punch (Saturn/PlayStation), Atari enjoyed moderate success with the Jaguar
system and managed to lure shallow promises from third-party companies to
support the system. Unfortunately, programmers grossly underestimated the
time required to develop 64-bit games. The jump from 8-bit and 16-bit was
wider than anticipated. In addition, Atari was already spread thin
monetarily, but were required to finance almost every title that was in
development.

After the initial launch, it took Atari almost a year before an assortment
of games began to hit store shelves. Even then, having missed the '94
Holiday Season, many of the planned titles were de-accelerated to minimize
problems caused by rushing things too fast. Consumers were not happy and
retailers were equally dismayed. The few ads that Atari was able to place
in magazines were often stating incorrect release dates because that
information changed almost every day although magazines deadline their
issues up to 120 days in advance.

It was in 1983 that Warner Communications handed Jack Tramiel the reins of
Atari. By this time, Atari was often categorized as a household name, but
few households wanted to spend much money on new software and the systems
were lasting forever. No one needed to buy new ones. That, combined with
Warner's obscene spending, amounted to a *daily loss* of over $2 million.
Atari was physically spread all over the Silicon Valley with personnel and
equipment in literally 80 separate buildings; not considering international
offices and manufacturing facilities. Mr. Tramiel took only the home
consumer branch of Atari and forced Warner to deal with the arcade division
separately. Within a few years, Jack took the company public, introduced an
innovative new line of affordable 16-bit computers and released the 7800
video game system.

To accomplish these miracles for Atari, Jack implemented his "business is
war" policies. While people who publicly quoted his statement often felt
that policy meant being extremely aggressive in the marketplace, the
meaning actually had closer ties to Tramiel's experience as a concentration
camp survivor. Of the 80 buildings in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Milpitas,
almost every one of them were amputated from Atari's body of liabilities.
The people, the work, the heritage, the history were fired or liquidated.
Those who survived were unsympathetically required to fill in the gaps and
while most tried, few actually found a way to be successfully do what a
dozen people before them did. Atop the mountain, Jack pressed with an iron
thumb. All Fed/Ex mailings were required to be pre-approved by one of a
handful of people. "Unsigned" purchase orders went unpaid regardless
of the urgencies that inspired their creation. Employees found themselves
spending valuable time trying to find ways around the system to accomplish
their jobs. Many of them lost their jobs for bending the rules or never
finding a way to make things work. As horrible as it all sounds, it
actually was the only way to protect Atari as a company and give it a
chance to survive, as it did and did very well.

Jack's introduction of the 16-bit computer was initially hearty in the
United States but it went extremely well in Europe. Europeans were not
accustomed to "affordable" technology and although the Atari computers were
not IBM compatible, it didn't matter because people could afford them.
Jacks' private laugh was that the computers were sold at prices much higher
in Europe than Americans were willing to pay. As a result, most of the
machines made were being shipped to European destinations to capture the
higher margin. This enraged the people in the United States that had been
Atari loyalists. While waiting months for stores to take delivery
domestically, international magazines were touting ample supplies. Those in
the know within the U.S. became dismayed. The remainder never knew Atari
was slowly abandoning the value of Atari's name recognition as it became
easier and easier to forget, some assuming Atari had long filed for
bankruptcy.

On a technical level, Atari 16-bit computers were designed beyond their
time. For less than $1,000, consumers could enjoy "multimedia" before the
phrase was ever really widely used. The icon-based working environment
proceeded Windows popularity although the essential attributes of the two
environments were very similar. MIDI was built-in and became an instant hit
in the high-end music industry. Tasks were activated and manipulated with a
mouse and the system accepted industry standard peripherals such as
printers, modems and diskettes.

With all the genius that went into the technology of the machines, very
little of equivalent genius went into the promoting and marketing the
machines. Mr. Tramiel was the founder of Commodore Business Machines. When
he introduced the PET computer in 1977, Jack discovered he didn't have to
call a single publication. Instead they all flocked to his door demanding
an opportunity to see the product. News magazines. Science Journals.
Business newsletters. Newspaper reporters. They were all there with
microphone, camera and pen in hand. And they kept coming back. Adding a
switch, announcing a new 4K application or signing a new retailer were all
big stories the press wanted to handle.

Today, a new video game announcement may generate a request from any of the
dozens of gaming magazines for a press release, but a lot of costly work
has to be done to assure fair or better coverage. Editorial people are
literally swamped with technical news. Samples are mailed regularly to
their attention. Faxes fly in through the phone lines and e-mail jams up
their hard drives. It takes a lot to grab their attention.

While Atari retained hopes to be successful with the Jaguar, Atari's
marketing people were fighting established standards in the industry with
severe handicaps. Since cartridges (the Jaguar was/is primarily a
cartridge-based system) were so expensive, editorial people were required
to return them before new ones would be sent. Editorial people like to
assign review projects. So finding cartridges they sent out was not always
easy to do. Additionally, reviewers often love their work because they get
to keep what they write about. Regardless, the few magazines willing to
cover Atari products were more often turned away because of a lack of
programmable cartridges or any number of other indecisive barriers.
In-store signs and posters were sometimes created, but many retail chains
charge premiums to manufacturers that want to display them. Some direct
mail campaigns were implemented, but Atari often could not afford to keep
those things being advertised on schedule. Therefore, the advertisements
were published and distributed, but the product was not available.

Clearly, Jack's experience with the world beating a path to the door of a
company making a better mousetrap no longer applied. The world had revolved
a few times beneath him and he never noticed. The tactics used to
successfully sell Commodore computers were simply antiquated notions from
the past. Meanwhile, Sony launches the PlayStation with over $500 million
in marketing funds. Today, the PlayStation is considered the most
successful next-generation gaming machine throughout the world. Sony bought
the market. Tramiel's Atari never learned how to do that. Actually, they
never could afford it anyway.

After the 1990's got underway, Europe as well as the rest of the world,
discovered that IBM-compatible computers were becoming more powerful and
more affordable. The world always did want computers at home just like in
the office and companies like Dell and Gateway exemplified the industry's
trend toward home-based office computers. As a result, companies like
Commodore, Atari and Next couldn't compete any longer. While the dedicated
user base of each of them felt abandoned by these companies having to leave
the computer market, the inevitable prevailed. Commodore jumped ship, Next
changed business goals completely and Atari invested what they had left in
the Jaguar game system. Even today, Apple is kicking and screaming. As good
as Apple was at creating a huge niche for themselves, they focused more
heavily on education. When kids grow up and get jobs, they want business
machines. IBM was always the business standard.

When one examines the history of Atari, an appreciation can grow for how
many businesses and people were a part of the game over the years. Chuck E.
Cheese Pizza was started by Atari's founder, Mr. Nolan Bushnell. Apple
Computer was born in a garage by ex-Atari employees. Activision was founded
by Ace Atari programmers. The list goes on and on.

But for some pathetic reason Atari's final days came and went with no
tribute, no fanfare and no dignified farewells. Why? Where did all the
talent go? Where are all the archives? Where are the vaults? Where are the
unpublished games and where are the originals of those that were? Why has
no company stepped forward to adopt the remaining attributes Atari has to
offer? Where are the creditors? What has happened to all the properties and
sites? Where are the databases, warranty cards, promotional items, notes on
meetings, unanswered mail? Who owns P.O. Box 61657? Who goes to work in
Atari's old offices? Where do consumers have their systems fixed? Who is
publishing new games? Who still sells Atari products? Why are there still a
lot of people talking about Atari on-line?

I'm an ex-Atari employee and proud to have been. I'm still an Atari devotee
and proud to be. To me, these are questions which all deserve an answer,
but who will ask them?

The best people to ask these questions are those who have exposure to the
public. If you believe Atari left us without saying goodbye, contact
Dateline at date...@nbc.com. If you REALLY believe, then send this article
to 10 of your friends in e-mail. AND if YOU REALLY, REALLY believe, mail a
few to newspapers or other news programs. A letter in your own words would
be great!

I'd spend money for a thorough retrospect on Atari. Wouldn't you?

Wouldn't it at least be nice to say "Goodbye"?

--Don Thomas

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[tripled79]

Wish I could have read this back in 96 when I bought my first Jaguar. Kind of sad.

[Lostdragon]

One for Jenovi:

 

 

I did stumble across DID's Martin Kenwright, being interviewed in PC Review Magazine. 

 

 

Asked about developing for consoles, Martin said:

 

 

"yeah. The whole situation has changed. Our 3 year contract with Ocean was probably out of date after 6 months. We agreed to do Amiga CD32 and 3DO games, but now 4 exciting new magazines are on the way (Atari's Jaguar, Sony's PSX, Sega’s Saturn and Nintendo's Project Reality) that we hadn't even considered. "

 

" Obviously we want to make provision for these. "

 

 

Best I can do, it's the only time I have seen Martin even mention the Jaguar. 

[Lostdragon]

Just a small update for putting sources to rumours back in the day. 

 

French Magazine, Consoles+ had Alone In The Dark down under speculated Jaguar CD titles, in fairness to them, it did come under the Rumours headline. 

[leech]

4 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Just a small update for putting sources to rumours back in the day. 

 

French Magazine, Consoles+ had Alone In The Dark down under speculated Jaguar CD titles, in fairness to them, it did come under the Rumours headline. 

Would have been a nice port to have.  I haven't played much of that series, didn't it play like Highlander?

[JagChris]

Probably more accurate to say highlander played like AITD

[Pete5125]

14 hours ago, leech said:

Would have been a nice port to have.  I haven't played much of that series, didn't it play like Highlander?

It looked similar graphicly, aitd. Was more of a mystery game, highlander more of a quest.  Aitd. Was the better game. Controll of character hit detection, game logic were all better.

 

Both aged badly, highlander was considered a mid level game on release where as aitd. Was considered the next leap in 3d game play, this was pre tomb raider, she then took on the title a year later, then crash and Mario showed how platformers could be successful in 3d.

 

 

[leech]

18 hours ago, JagChris said:

Probably more accurate to say highlander played like AITD

Ha, I think I only played one of tge later games on the PC.  Still seemed better than Resident Evil, where the cameras were seemingly placed in the worse places possible at times.

[Lostdragon]

19 hours ago, leech said:

Would have been a nice port to have.  I haven't played much of that series, didn't it play like Highlander?

I'd seen the original running on a friend's PC, but never got to play any of the series properly until the Playstation myself. 

 

Picked up Alone In The Dark II, hated it, it looked poor, seem to remember the hype train for Resident Evil had started. 

 

Never touched another in the series till the New Nightmare, looked nice, didn't grip me. 

 

Then i ventured into buying the supposedly improved over the 360 version of Alone In The Dark on Playstation 3. 

 

 

Dreadful. 

 

 

There were always Press Rumours of AITD headed to 32X and Jaguar CD in European Press. 

 

Think a UK Magazine retracted it's claims a month or so after stating it was 32X bound, saying they'd been given incorrect info. 

[Lostdragon]

29 minutes ago, leech said:

Ha, I think I only played one of tge later games on the PC.  Still seemed better than Resident Evil, where the cameras were seemingly placed in the worse places possible at times.

Seem to have memories of a zombie chewing on my feet early on in the Mansion, due to the bloody 'cinematic' camera angle the game used ?

[Pete5125]

On 8/27/2020 at 11:05 PM, pacman000 said:

My understanding:

Atari wasn’t sure the system would be a success, & they were cash-poor, so they initially held back production to judge demand & save money.

 

Later, Atari won some lawsuits, so they had money needed to produce more consoles. When Atari got a deal to go into Walmart, they ramped up production, but by then it was too late. The PS1 killed their sales, & Walmart returned the unsold Jaguars.

Yep, basically the 2 yr leap that they were so concerned with and had descent press during they had hardly any systems available.  Late 95/early 96, they finally got production ramped up, so they could support Wal-Mart deal. They had won Sega lawsuit, but had burnt through half that money in the first 2 fiscal quarters of the year, Sam had heart attack, Jack took back over could see writing on wall, They were crushed by Sony, Sega was number 2, Nintendo was launching 64 bit system soon, 3do had the m2 coming.

 

Atari didn't have the money to support the Jaguar, Jag cd nor launch a Jag 2.

 

Atari had stockholders that had to be appeased at the same time, so he folded into a disk drive company with promises to support Jaguar, kept stockholders happy somehow, with letting telegames release the last titles over the 96 year, then worked to have a huge tax write off by liquidating all old inventory for pennies on the dollar.

 

Their really wasn't anyway this would of changed I remeber 94, the stock was under a $1, friends uncle was all about penny stocks asking me and a friend if we thought he could make money.  That was a hard question nobody believed Atari would win with Jag, only they could do like 7800 come in a distant 3rd place and live another day.

[leech]

4 hours ago, Pete5125 said:

Their really wasn't anyway this would of changed I remeber 94, the stock was under a $1, friends uncle was all about penny stocks asking me and a friend if we thought he could make money.  That was a hard question nobody believed Atari would win with Jag, only they could do like 7800 come in a distant 3rd place and live another day.

Yeah, I mean there are so many, even at the time, that we of the buying age for game consoles that actually hadn't even heard of Atari when the Jaguar came out.  They were all about Nintendo.  Tramiel era Atari basically screwed up by waiting to release the 7800, and not pushing harder for the Lynx to succeed and continually trying to release game consoles, instead of constantly trying to out price slash Commodore.  Both companies lead to the ruin of the other, and I bet Jack was just happy that he outlasted the ol' Chicken Lips.

[Pete5125]

7 hours ago, leech said:

Yeah, I mean there are so many, even at the time, that we of the buying age for game consoles that actually hadn't even heard of Atari when the Jaguar came out.  They were all about Nintendo.  Tramiel era Atari basically screwed up by waiting to release the 7800, and not pushing harder for the Lynx to succeed and continually trying to release game consoles, instead of constantly trying to out price slash Commodore.  Both companies lead to the ruin of the other, and I bet Jack was just happy that he outlasted the ol' Chicken Lips.

Yeah, the game consoles being announced worked on and released, was part of the stock game, investors wanted to see system releases, every release would increase stock price as crazy as that sounds.

 

But Jack retired after commodore died, let his son take over, would of been cool to get the 95/96 release schedule mortal kombat, batman arcade, gotcha, lobo and a ton more were planned...

[Lostdragon]

9 hours ago, Pete5125 said:

Yeah, the game consoles being announced worked on and released, was part of the stock game, investors wanted to see system releases, every release would increase stock price as crazy as that sounds.

 

But Jack retired after commodore died, let his son take over, would of been cool to get the 95/96 release schedule mortal kombat, batman arcade, gotcha, lobo and a ton more were planned...

For Atari to say they felt they didn't nerd M. K on Lynx as they had Pitfighter and felt they had Kasumi Ninja etc on Jaguar, so weren't missing MK II, speaks volumes about Atari sadly. 

 

 

Lobo was a curious one, first annouced by Ocean for the Amiga 1200, Summer '92

 

Reported as Jaguar CD title but developer awaiting Jag CD final speculations... 

 

I'd of liked to of seen likes of:

 

Legions Of The Undead Dactyl Joust, Conan, Toki Goes Apeshit, Black Ice White Noise. 

 

 

Tetrisphere /Phear of little personal interest and didn't seem to make much impact when reviewed on N64. 

 

 

Phase Zero/Hover Hunter seems to lack much depth... 

 

 

Think i am one of the few people who got on well with Jaguar Syndicate.. 

 

 

It would of just been nice to of seen more Jaguar exclusives rather than ports from other systems, I probably would of kept my Jaguar alongside my Playstation had that been the case.. 

[Pete5125]

36 minutes ago, Lostdragon said:

For Atari to say they felt they didn't nerd M. K on Lynx as they had Pitfighter and felt they had Kasumi Ninja etc on Jaguar, so weren't missing MK II, speaks volumes about Atari sadly. 

 

 

Lobo was a curious one, first annouced by Ocean for the Amiga 1200, Summer '92

 

Reported as Jaguar CD title but developer awaiting Jag CD final speculations... 

 

I'd of liked to of seen likes of:

 

Legions Of The Undead Dactyl Joust, Conan, Toki Goes Apeshit, Black Ice White Noise. 

 

 

Tetrisphere /Phear of little personal interest and didn't seem to make much impact when reviewed on N64. 

 

 

Phase Zero/Hover Hunter seems to lack much depth... 

 

 

Think i am one of the few people who got on well with Jaguar Syndicate.. 

 

 

It would of just been nice to of seen more Jaguar exclusives rather than ports from other systems, I probably would of kept my Jaguar alongside my Playstation had that been the case.. 

Yes, not that they could of got 3d0 on board, but not having or pursuing strong sports games, fighters, or rpg. Game spoke of a company that had zero clue what gamers were looking for.  The fact that avp, doom wolf3d, t2k, burnout, mk2k, raymond and a few others turned out as good as they did when obviously, atari had very little quality control, releasing games with bugs, lack of in game music, and horrible control didn't help.

 

They needed the ports to stay in buisness nobody wanted to be a 2 system family, not releasing mk, was a bad move not pursuing street fighter 2, just showed zero understanding of the mkt.

But 96 was slotted to be a great year if they could of kept everything together for 1 more fiscal yr.

[Lostdragon]

? Phone to blame, honest need not nerd in earlier post. 

 

There were huge gaps in the Jaguar library. 

 

 

Not wishing to take anything away from Towers II, but as a previous owner of the the ST and Mega Drive, it was no Phantasy Star, Shining Force, Captive, Story Of Thor, Bloodwych or Dungeon Master.. 

 

 

I never rated Ultra Vortex, (but it did get unfairly bashed by some reviews, some review scores seemed absurd) but Sega seemed to have more of a handle on how to do games of this genre with Eternal Champions and the enhanced CD S. E. than Beyond Games. 

 

Sensible Soccer and Fever Pitch Soccer are poor offerings when 3DO had FIFA.. 

 

 

Flipout! was  mediocre Jaguar puzzle game... 

 

 

For the Jaguar to survive even as a niche, second system you owned as well as the Saturn, Playstation, PC.. 

 

it badly needed titles of it's own to warrant picking it up. 

[JagChris]

Yeah exactly. It needed maximum numbers at launch to maximize third party interest. To help counteract all those stupid, stupid decisions.

 

Atari wasn't one to learn from their mistakes. After turning down Battle sphere on the Jaguar the same people then turned it down on the Nuon. And this was right in the middle of all the buzz it was generating on the Jag when it was pitched to the Nuon people. 

[Lostdragon]

2 hours ago, JagChris said:

Yeah exactly. It needed maximum numbers at launch to maximize third party interest. To help counteract all those stupid, stupid decisions.

 

Atari wasn't one to learn from their mistakes. After turning down Battle sphere on the Jaguar the same people then turned it down on the Nuon. And this was right in the middle of all the buzz it was generating on the Jag when it was pitched to the Nuon people. 

People often talk of Atari should of focused on getting the Jaguar established in the UK, before putting efforts into the USA, but Atari turned down Audiogenic as a Jaguar developer.. 

 

 

The very company who'd brought the likes of:

 

Exile

Graham Gooch World Class Cricket 

Loopz

Exterminator 

Emyln Hughes International Soccer

 

And more to the ST. 

 

When your happy to have likes of Imagitec Design, Tiertex, ATD, Rebellion, Team 17 etc onboard and you need sports and puzzle titles, in your library, you really have to question their thinking. 

 

The way they treated Eclipse at the start is another WTF? moment. 

[leech]

6 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

I never rated Ultra Vortex, (but it did get unfairly bashed by some reviews, some review scores seemed absurd) but Sega seemed to have more of a handle on how to do games of this genre with Eternal Champions and the enhanced CD S. E. than Beyond Games. 

I rather liked Ultra Vortek.  Thought it was well done.  Kasumi Ninja on the other hand was quite terrible. Still irritated we didn't get Battlewheels for the Jag from Beyond Games though...

[JagChris]

Battle wheels. There's another jackass decision.

[KidGameR186496]

On 31 de julio de 2021 at 4:10 PM, JagChris said:

Battle wheels. There's another jackass decision.

For me, Atari's jackassery by not turning Conan into a full-fledge title and publishing is one of the most baffling decisions they made during the Jag era, among many, MANY other screw-ups...