Some Jag Questions

chairmonkey4406 · February 3, 2004

First off, how much is a good price for a Jaguar with a game and a controller? Second, is the Jaguar regional? Lastly, I don't really get the graphics of the Jaguar, I know its 64 bits but I looked at some screens and while some do look 64 bits, most look like a step above super nintendo. Am I right? Thanks a lot for the answers I really appreciate it.

LinkoVitch · February 3, 2004

First off, how much is a good price for a Jaguar with a game and a controller? Second, is the Jaguar regional? Lastly, I don't really get the graphics of the Jaguar, I know its 64 bits but I looked at some screens and while some do look 64 bits, most look like a step above super nintendo. Am I right? Thanks a lot for the answers I really appreciate it.

1) Good price for a jag isn't that much, in the UK you can buy a brand new unit for £19, so I would guess around the $30 mark. I have seen them on ebay going for £20-£50 with one or more games

2) Nope it's not regional... well the PSU is but as long as you hav ethe right PSU your laughing, this goes for the CD unit too. But be careful some of the CD games (Readysoft Dragin Lair and Space Ace) dont' work too well on a PAL jag. Oh yeah, you can get PAL or NTSC, but they will play any game.

3) The jag has a 64bit memory bus, which is used by 2 of the 5 CPU's at it's full data width. So yes it is 64 bit. GFX wise, it's down to the game and what it's doing. If it's a 2D platform game done well, it should look more like an Arcade machine than a SNES due to the increased colour palette, smooth scrolling and many layers. But quite often the games will look just like a SNES, especially if they are a port, after all it's cheaper to use the same graphics and not have to recolour them x number of times, once for each platform.

The 64 Bitness realy shows up in the 3D aspects of more advanced 3D games (like BS, and Iron Solider et al). These show the procesing power of the jag better, even Cybermorph I think would not be possible on a SNES (remember that needed additional hardware to do Sky Fox, and that was basic solid 3D gfx).

Well thats my views anyway

agradeneu · February 3, 2004

Linkovitch is right.

There are many 16 bit ports which arent particularly impressive although they have solid gameplay (Zool 2, Pitfall, Cannon Fodder etc.)

However there are some true gems which should show you some power of the system: Iron Soldier II has the best polygon gfx to date, Battlemorph isnt bad too and we have Doom and AvP.

Cybermorph couldnt be achieved on a SNES even with SFX 2 Chip.

Regarding the "64-bit" myth: I think you can totally skip this as a measure for quality:

its just a marketing phrase which invented a fetish category. It shouldnt affect your view on the quality of games. The Jaguar isnt a N64 (altough damn close ;-) )