Jaguar 18 button controller

[sirlynxalot]

I was reading this promo for the jaguar that focuses on how great it is that the controller has 18 buttons.  Am I missing something? Doesn't the controller have 17 buttons?  Can someone please tell me where the secret 18th button is?

 

 

[captainblack]

I guess they could the pad as 1. Kinda ironic they included it in an add called "do the math". 

[+CyranoJ]

850 million pixels-per-inch!!!!

 

Size does matter.

[+jgkspsx]

I don’t think I’m making this memory up, I really think I remember making fun of this error with my friends when these leaflets came out. “Do the math.” It was an epically bad ad campaign. Even worse than the Saturn’s.

[+madman]

It's amusing that they decided to focus on what is probably the most mocked part of the system. I don't mind the controller at all, but I'd rather have had a proper 6 button controller or a 4+2 shoulder button controller than the mostly useless keypad. And what system on that table has a "knob" for a controller? Oh, Atari, you meant well.

[+jgkspsx]

I don’t think the people behind the promotional material were actually into games. Perhaps that’s an unfair assumption. But I think there’s a lot of evidence for it.

[+madman]

2 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

I don’t think the people behind the promotional material were actually into games. Perhaps that’s an unfair assumption. But I think there’s a lot of evidence for it.

Yeah, I get it, they're marketing, but as someone in the tech field, marketing should at least have a general idea of their product and the market they're selling to. I also find it funny they said computer games like Doom can be ported over. In other words, "you know those games you already own on your computer that you love? Well, you can buy them again and play them on the Jag!" It's like nobody in ANY department at Atari at that time had a clue what they were doing. Quirkiest system ever!

[+jgkspsx]

On the other hand, large TVs were a lot more common than large desktop monitors then. I remember a 15” monitor being the height of excess at the time. I don’t think it’s crazy that people wanted to play Wolf3D or Doom on their consoles. As the sales figures and prices for those games (not just on the Jag but on the Saturn and the PS1) show, there’s still a lot of people who want to play them on consoles. Heck, the Switch has had rereleases of classic Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 64, and I think they sold very well.

[+CyranoJ]

6 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

On the other hand, large TVs were a lot more common than large desktop monitors then. I remember a 15” monitor being the height of excess at the time. ......... Heck, the Switch has had rereleases of classic Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 64, and I think they sold very well.

And now people want to play them on smaller screens. Crazy.

 

https://www.altchar.com/game-news/heres-the-original-doom-running-on-a-pregnancy-test-asWDE7C1Zqxw

 

 

[sirlynxalot]

The pro controller was probably out when this ad came out considering the jag CD is in it. Maybe they should have used that controller as an example, with a whopping 22 buttons its practically a keyboard (yeah yeah they aren't all independent inputs but judging from the Jaguar marketing copy that probably wouldn't have mattered).

[sirlynxalot]

Ok guys I think I've actually figured out this 18 button thing...   Doing a close re-read, the paragraph says "Now with a total of 18 buttons, the Atari Jaguar system offers more gameplay options..."  17 buttons on the controller plus 1 power button on the console itself = 18 buttons to use with your Jaguar system. 

Edited March 7, 2021 by sirlynxalot

[+madman]

29 minutes ago, sirlynxalot said:

The pro controller was probably out when this ad came out considering the jag CD is in it. Maybe they should have used that controller as an example, with a whopping 22 buttons its practically a keyboard (yeah yeah they aren't all independent inputs but judging from the Jaguar marketing copy that probably wouldn't have mattered).

I have very little memory of Jag marketing other than the "do the math" campaign obviously and seeing it for sale in the back of Die Hard Game Fan. When the Pro controller was released, was there much marketing around it? I remember the Jag CD existing back then, but reading nothing about it. At that time I was in college and had purchased a PSX so the Jaguar wasn't even on my radar. If it wasn't in Next Generation magainze, I probably had no clue about it.

[phoenixdownita]

18 buttons better than 3 or 6 or etc... what were they thinking?

Thanks that line of marketing died a painful death more or less even if after a decade or so these were a thing (yeah slightly different use case, but you can definitely play PC games with these)

 

how many buttons is that? 

To be frank I was looking forward to controllers that used toes, heels, knees, elbows, shoulders, forehead and tongue but that didn't happen ... probably for the best as those could have cause no small amount of mutilations, self-inflicted maiming and whatnot.

 

 

NOTE: I am pretty sure the 5200 controller has more buttons:

I count 19 (3 top, 2 each side [who cares if left/right are the same] and 12 keypad )

[+LS650]

14 hours ago, madman said:

"you know those games you already own on your computer that you love? Well, you can buy them again and play them on the Jag!"

Plenty of people in 1995 didn't own a PC capable of running DOOM...

[sirlynxalot]

 

By the way, does anyone know the game that is immediately below the words "You've never"?

 

[+jgkspsx]

Huh. Guitar Hero? ?

[Isgoed]

1 hour ago, sirlynxalot said:

 

By the way, does anyone know the game that is immediately below the words "You've never"?

 

Isn't that just Trevor McFur, the final level?

[sirlynxalot]

Yeah it looks like it is Trevor Mcfur with some kind of blur and maybe saturation effects applied to the image.  I've never gotten that far in the game myself, but here's a snapshot from a youtube video 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by sirlynxalot

[leech]

16 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:

Ok guys I think I've actually figured out this 18 button thing...   Doing a close re-read, the paragraph says "Now with a total of 18 buttons, the Atari Jaguar system offers more gameplay options..."  17 buttons on the controller plus 1 power button on the console itself = 18 buttons to use with your Jaguar system. 

Pretty sure button 18 is the combo button of * and # for reset, right? 

[dilinger]

They probably consider the 4 direction pad as a button by itself.

[Zerosquare]

Which makes absolutely no sense. In other words, par of the course for Atari's marketing.

[+cubanismo]

On 3/7/2021 at 3:07 PM, dilinger said:

They probably consider the 4 direction pad as a button by itself.

 

On 3/7/2021 at 4:08 PM, Zerosquare said:

Which makes absolutely no sense. In other words, par of the course for Atari's marketing.

Right. It's obviously 4 semi-independent buttons, one for each direction, bringing the total to 21 (22 with the 64-bit powa button).

[+CyranoJ]

On 3/8/2021 at 6:38 AM, leech said:

Pretty sure button 18 is the combo button of * and # for reset, right? 

That isn't a combo button. It's done in software and 100% optional.

[BladeJunker]

That is odd, 18? ?That does seem like poor math.

 

Don't mind keypads but they should have gone with an optional approach, focused on the game controller angle more with keyboards as secondary accessories. Looking back on keypads it seems like the INTV did it best while the rest found it hard to fill all 12 keys much of the time. Been working on some keypad designs and 3x3=9 or even 3x2=6 is plenty for most games that can use hotkeys, 12 is a lot for one player.

[+jgkspsx]

“Best”, I don’t know about, but certainly most essential. The poor INTV has such limited portability to other consoles due to the unique controls.