🚀 go-pugleaf

spa...@aug.com shaped the electrons to say:
>You have to realize, the Jaguar and the N64 are not exactly on par...the
>N64 is the hottest gaming console in the world, but the Jaguar couldn't
>even keep its head above water during the 16 bit Genesis vs. SNES war.

That was bad management and marketing.  If you look at the HW itself
the Jag is better, in many ways (not all) than the PSX and Saturn 32bit
systems.  There are a few games that came late (and Games like Iron
Soldier 2 that are coming out) that really show off what the HW can do.
A lot of the early games didn't push the HW, and because Atari's 
management was rock stupid we didn't get to see many 2nd generation games
that would have started to push the HW.  This is true for ALL game
systems to date - look at the first generation games compared to 2nd or
3rd generation games on any console.  Developers need time and experience
to learn the tricks on each platform, that never happened on the Jag.

In 1993 when the Jag came out NOTHING could hold a candle to it in
performace and potential.  Even today it is still an impressive system.
Don't blame the engineers for marketing/management fuckups.  I've played
all of he current systems, a friend of mine has a Saturn and plays it
regularly.  After playing my Jaguar he bought one because he liked it
so much.  Comparing the 4 controllers - PSX, Saturn, N64, and Jag - the
Jag controller fits in my hand the best and I can play forever without
my hand getting tired.  The N64 controller is second, the PSX 3rd, and
the Saturn is last - I don't like the basic Saturn controller.  I use
the Nights/3D controller now that he has it, it feels a lot better.

The N64 is very impressive HW wise.  But I am completely unimpressed by
the games out now.  They look great, but get boring fast.  Mario64 is the
only one I care for, and I'm not paying ~$270 for a system to play one game.
I was going to buy an N64, but I'm perpetually waiting for there to be
games to make it worth the cost.  In the meantime I can get 5+ Jag games
for the same cost, or 20+ Lynx games.  I may go PSX instead since there
are games for that I like.

Atari suffered from the same problem again and again - they had kickass
HW, and couldn't sell it.

The Lynx was way ahead of its time - the only competition it had was
the Gameboy.  The next was the TurboExpress, and a couple years later 
was the Game Gear.

Don't tell me the Gameboy is better HW than the Lynx, I don't think I could
take laughing that hard.  It is directly comparable to the Game Gear, and
has features like being symmetrical (nice for lefties), and more networking
with ComLynx, etc.  But they didn't marketing it.

Their 8-bit PC line was ahead of its time, but they didn't even establish
name presence in the US market.  

The Jaguar was a 64-bit system available in 1993.   By Xmas 1994 there were
a decent number of games available.  It had networking support (currently
only Doom, but finally another is coming) and modem support (but the modem
was never shipped, though beta copies exist), the JagCD as the VLM (worth
the cost itself as far as I'm concerned), all (AFAIK) cart games can store
data in FLASH, there is a memory cart for CD games.

All things that were uncommon until the Saturn and PSX appeared.  Anyone
who makes fun of the Jag as a system is a moron, or some ignorant child
blinded by Sony/Nintendo/Sega marketing.  If Atari's management hadn't had
their head up their ass the Jag II would be out by now (it was already
underway) and if preliminary design work is any indication, the PSX and
Saturn wouldn't even be also-rans, and the N64 would be sweating bullets.

Atari was always ahead of the game with their HW, but they just didn't know
how to make the public aware of the fact that they had the best products.
Until the N54 Nintendo's products really were NOT impressive compared to
other products of the same generation - what they did have though was a
marketing department that was second to none.  They plastered their name
and image everywhere, until the public was convinced that they were the
only player.

Atari had an "If you build it, they will come" attitude - idealistic, but
not realistic.

But that doesn't change the fact that the HW *was* and *is* impressive.
I mourn the passing of Atari, because I admire their HW.  But I can't 
feel too sorry for a corporation that drove itself into the ground.  A
number of hardcore gamers have seen the Jag or my Lynx and come away saying
"How could they have failed when they had *this*??!!"  They simply fucked
up.

-MZ
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