Emulated arcade games on the Jaguar

[jhd]

 

One aspect of the Jag's library that seems to be seriously lacking is classic arcade games.  I am aware of the remakes Tempest 2000 and Defender 2000 (as well as later releases like Space War 2000, Gorf, and the unfinished Atari 2600 emulator), but contemporary systems all had many more of these types of titles.

 

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, for example, was released on the SNES, Genesis, PlayStation, and Saturn.  There was even an Atari arcade game compilation released for the  SNES, PlayStation, and Saturn. There are undoubtedly more examples.

 

Was there ever any discussion (in the press or elsewhere) about releasing these types of titles on the Jag?

 

[sirlynxalot]

Nothing I've ever heard about.  Although a few games like missile command and pitfall have versions of the original game on the same cartridge as the jag game.  Probably not emulation though.  The impression I get is that Atari wanted to tout and market the Jaguar as a very powerful 64 bit state of the art system, they were emphasizing 3d graphics in the later years in an effort to compete with the 32 bit console competition and deferential themselves from the 16 bit consoles.  As a result I think creating a game pack with a bunch of 2d 1980s arcade games for jaguar was probably not on ataris minds at the time and would not have gone over well with the game buying audience of the mid 90s.  There was something of an emphasis on updating and upgrading classic arcade games though, a la tempest 2000, breakout 2000, defender 2000, etc. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by sirlynxalot

[doctorclu]

To date there is one emulator for the Jaguar: VirtualVCS - Plays like 10 Atari 2600 games fairly ok with no sound.

 

 

[Agent X]

On 2/18/2020 at 1:01 PM, jhd said:

Was there ever any discussion (in the press or elsewhere) about releasing these types of titles on the Jag?

I hadn't heard about any emulated arcade games. As you and @sirlynxalot have noticed, some individual games were ported over to the Jaguar (not emulated from the original), and included with their modernized sequels.

 

Compilation packs like the Namco Museum series and Arcade's Greatest Hits series started appearing on American consoles in mid 1996, right about the same time the Jaguar was exiting the market. If the system had hung around another year or two, then maybe it would've gotten something.

 

Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits contained emulated arcade games on PlayStation and Saturn, while the SNES and Genesis versions were translated from the original code (not emulated). I got the PlayStation version as soon as it came out, and it was a marvel at the time, since arcade game emulation was still in its infancy even on computers. The emulation wasn't quite perfect, as it dropped or combined some lines of resolution, but by 1996 standards it was an impressive feat.

 

Later, I also picked up the Genesis version of WAGH, mainly to have a portable version that I could play on the Nomad. Digital Eclipse also did excellent work here, with translations that were very close to the original arcade games. If you were still stuck on 16-bit, then it was more than acceptable.

 

If WAGH had ever been made for the Jaguar, I wonder which approach the developers would have taken. Would they have gone for straight-up emulation like PlayStation and Saturn, or translated the games like on SNES and Genesis? Emulation would probably be preferable, but as the emulation was already slightly compromised on PS and Saturn, there's a possibility that emulating the games on Jaguar would've taken a bigger hit. In that case, translating the games might have given better results.

[Austin]

Are the games on PS1 actually emulated in software? I thought I read a long time ago that these were actually ported/built from the ground up, which is why they work and run so well.

[Agent X]

22 hours ago, Austin said:

Are the games on PS1 actually emulated in software? I thought I read a long time ago that these were actually ported/built from the ground up, which is why they work and run so well.

My understanding is that some of the games were emulated, while others were ported.

 

I believe all of the Namco Museums were ported.

 

The collections released by Williams/Midway vary. Williams Arcades Greatest Hits, Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection, and Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Midway Collection 2 were all emulated. Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 used both methods--they emulated Millipede and Crystal Castles, while Paperboy, Gauntlet, RoadBlasters, and Marble Madness were ported. Arcade Party Pack was all ported.

 

Atari Anniversary Edition Redux was emulated.

 

[doctorclu]

On 2/24/2020 at 11:31 PM, Agent X said:

My understanding is that some of the games were emulated, while others were ported.

 

I believe all of the Namco Museums were ported.

 

The collections released by Williams/Midway vary. Williams Arcades Greatest Hits, Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection, and Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Midway Collection 2 were all emulated. Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 used both methods--they emulated Millipede and Crystal Castles, while Paperboy, Gauntlet, RoadBlasters, and Marble Madness were ported. Arcade Party Pack was all ported.

 

Atari Anniversary Edition Redux was emulated.

 

Now that is cool.   Did they have any Atari 2600 collections on the PS1 and were any of them emulated?

[jhd]

22 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Now that is cool.   Did they have any Atari 2600 collections on the PS1, and were any of them emulated?

 

The original PlayStation received the Activision Classic Games collection (1998). There is also the Atari Anniversary Edition Redux (2001), but that is just arcade games.

 

I do not know if these are emulated or recreated games.