So, how was Atari Jaguar tech? (and general Jag discussion)
- Thread starter Rangers
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Would you be willing to elaborate :smile:
Looking at the games, it appeared to be sort of a half 2D half 3D console, not suited for 3D when compared to the likes of PS1 or Saturn, yet far more capable at 3D (in the right hands) than SNES+chip/Genesis/SegaCD/etc. An interesting concept itself I guess.
Of course many of the games simply looked horrible because the production values were atrocious. Persuing some youtubes the best looking game I saw was Rayman, which looked very nice. Certainly appeared to perhaps be above any SNES 2D.
Spot the massive fail (later the Jaguar CD was released, but then it was too late):
Technical specifications
From the Jaguar Software Reference manual:[6]
"Jaguar is a custom chip set primarily intended to be the heart of a very high-performance games/leisure computer. It may also be used as a graphics accelerator in more complex systems, and applied to work-station and business uses. As well as a general purpose CPU, Jaguar contains four processing units. These are the Object Processor, Graphics Processor, Blitter, and Digital Sound Processor. Jaguar provides these blocks with a 64-bit data path to external memory devices, and is capable of a very high data transfer rate into external dynamic RAM." (page 1)
Controllers
Processors:
"Tom" Chip, 26.59 MHz
Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4 KB internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
Object Processor – 64-bit RISC architecture; programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
Blitter – 64-bit RISC architecture; high speed logic operations, z-buffering and Gouraud shading, with 64-bit internal registers.
DRAM controller, 32-bit memory management
"Jerry" Chip, 26.59 MHz
Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architecture, 8 KB internal cache
Same RISC core as the GPU, but not limited to graphic production
CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
Number of sound channels limited by software
Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
Full stereo capabilities
Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
Joystick control
Motorola 68000 "used as a manager."[7]
General purpose 16/32-bit control processor, 13.295 MHz
Other Jaguar features:
RAM: 2 MB on a 64-bit bus using 4 16-bit fast page mode DRAMS
Storage: Cartridge – up to 6 MB
Support for ComLynx I/O
Of course, there was also this (from the same wiki):
Technical specifications
From the Jaguar Software Reference manual:[6]
"Jaguar is a custom chip set primarily intended to be the heart of a very high-performance games/leisure computer. It may also be used as a graphics accelerator in more complex systems, and applied to work-station and business uses. As well as a general purpose CPU, Jaguar contains four processing units. These are the Object Processor, Graphics Processor, Blitter, and Digital Sound Processor. Jaguar provides these blocks with a 64-bit data path to external memory devices, and is capable of a very high data transfer rate into external dynamic RAM." (page 1)
Controllers
Processors:
"Tom" Chip, 26.59 MHz
Graphics processing unit (GPU) – 32-bit RISC architecture, 4 KB internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
Object Processor – 64-bit RISC architecture; programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
Blitter – 64-bit RISC architecture; high speed logic operations, z-buffering and Gouraud shading, with 64-bit internal registers.
DRAM controller, 32-bit memory management
"Jerry" Chip, 26.59 MHz
Digital Signal Processor – 32-bit RISC architecture, 8 KB internal cache
Same RISC core as the GPU, but not limited to graphic production
CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
Number of sound channels limited by software
Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
Full stereo capabilities
Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
Joystick control
Motorola 68000 "used as a manager."[7]
General purpose 16/32-bit control processor, 13.295 MHz
Other Jaguar features:
RAM: 2 MB on a 64-bit bus using 4 16-bit fast page mode DRAMS
Storage: Cartridge – up to 6 MB
Support for ComLynx I/O
Of course, there was also this (from the same wiki):
So 6MB was a hard limit?
And if it was BYTE not bit, that would have been decent, yes? Would have allowed up to 64 megabit carts?
To this day that is still my all time favourate Aliens game - bloody brilliant in every respect, and sadly ignored due to the platform it was on!
I agree. One of the only suspense shooters to really "get" me in terms of nervousness at the next corner (playing as the Marine).
Riddlewire
Regular
"In practice, what many of us did with our titles was use the 68000 for AI and gameplay logic, and have the custom chips drive the rendering to screen and 3D code."
-Andrew Whittaker, programmer (AvP)
Seemed like a relevant quote.
-Andrew Whittaker, programmer (AvP)
Seemed like a relevant quote.
Not to mention, IIRC, the Jaguar had really the best version of Doom released, and was easily playable in "pure" form with the extra buttons for ease of weapon switching. (Of course you might have disliked that behemoth for other reasons.
)Even over the PS1 version which showed up 2-1/2 years later. (Though it was nice enough to support the link cable. ...but then the Jaguar version did that too.
) Great commercial for the Jaguar version, too. Hehe...I might be mistaken, of course. At the time, I was probably still trying to validate my first console purchase being the Jaguar, and had a lot of "grew up through four Atari computers, right up to the end" bias.
Played an AWFUL lot of AvP, though. Well worth it.
I played that AVP game yesterday.
I was expecting a lot better. You can't even attack when out of bullets while playing as a marine, and the attacks the Alien has are way too short ranged, and they have their own(albeit regenerating) ammo supply. The Alien's HUD is colored this really hard to make out blue. I didn't bother trying the Predator...
The hallways have the classic "early console FPS syndrome": every single hallways looks so similar that it's easy to get lost in too.
I wasn't expecting a modern FPS by any means(I've played a hell of a lot of Zero Tolerance, for god's sake.), but damn that thing was backwards compared to Wolfenstein 3d!
I was expecting a lot better. You can't even attack when out of bullets while playing as a marine, and the attacks the Alien has are way too short ranged, and they have their own(albeit regenerating) ammo supply. The Alien's HUD is colored this really hard to make out blue. I didn't bother trying the Predator...
The hallways have the classic "early console FPS syndrome": every single hallways looks so similar that it's easy to get lost in too.
I wasn't expecting a modern FPS by any means(I've played a hell of a lot of Zero Tolerance, for god's sake.), but damn that thing was backwards compared to Wolfenstein 3d!
Not to mention, IIRC, the Jaguar had really the best version of Doom released, and was easily playable in "pure" form with the extra buttons for ease of weapon switching. (Of course you might have disliked that behemoth for other reasons.
I always prefered DOOM on the Playstation, i found it to be extremely tense for 2 reasons. The music or "soundstrack" was scary as shit. No saves to the the memory card meant then tension was very high when you almost were done with a level and just didn´t want to die.
I dont think it was any technical achievement though that made that game good. Also it was probably the only genre that the PS1 and Saturn were slow at the beginning. In every other genre the Jaguar was obliterated by its competitors. Probably by the 3D0 even.
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It's kinda like a Genesis (68k) with some bugged 3D hardware tacked on. I think SNES with the SuperFX chip equaled Jaguar in a few games.
I'm not agree. Just compare Power Drive Rally, the Jaguar version is better that Amiga, Snes, Genesis and PC. More powerfull moving sprites.
I remember seeing some specs on the Jaguar 2 or whatever it was called pretty impressive, and if I remember right, well to do in terms of superiority in respect to the PS1, Saturn, N64. However the ultimate unreleased console for that era was the 3D0 M2. That thing was a beast for 1997.
Yeah, because a Marine should totally be able take out an Alien with his fists, and everyone knows that the Aliens in the movies could shoot lasers out of their eyes.
Anyway, everything I've read about the system basically concluded that the thing had way, way too many processors. Hardware bugs aside, it really was just not enough. Most of the 3D games were untextured, having played about half the Jaguar's non-crap library (which is small). Think about it from this perspective: The Saturn and PS1 were only barely able to do passable 3D. They could texture, and they could draw enough polygons to realize some semblance of a recognizable environment. The Jaguar's main CPU ran at half the speed of Saturn's, it had half the memory of either system, and for whatever reason, those multiple graphics subprocessors didn't have nearly the power of the later 3D consoles...meaning the thing was barely able to creak out a few flat-shaded polygons, putting it more on par with the 32X than anything. IMO, they shouldn't have even wasted their time pushing it as a 3D system, but compared it to Neo-Geo or something.
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