Atari Jaguar

Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar was one of the final two systems released by Atari. However, it was only Atari by name, because it was IBM that did all the hardware manufacturing; this was a unique business venture for Atari, who normally did all their hardware themselves. But the company was already down the tubes, and this was one final attempt to get some much-sought-after recognition. IBM agreed to the deal because the idea was good, if nothing else.

The competing systems of the time, Super Nintendo and Genesis, definitely had clout and public respect that Atari did not even come close to having (they were a failing company, after all). But the Jaguar system would be vastly technologically superior upon its release in 1993. It was the first 32-bit system on the market (the others were only 16-bit). This was Atari's biggest problem: they had the technology without the games or marketing to back it up.

Games themselves were another issue. After all, who would want to program for the Jaguar when Nintendo and Sega already had perfectly good systems that were quite popular. That, coupled with Atari's unpopular reputation of poor marketing and Nintendo's rugged exclusive licensing deals, gave the Jaguar a rocky start.

Still, Jaguar wasn't all that unsuccessful at first. They had ported some popular computer games of the time, such as the pioneer first-person-shooter games, Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. Jaguar was stable for a few months, releasing a few hits and selling a decent number of systems, though not nearly attaining the level of sales of their competitors. But the biggest blow to the system was when Sega and Sony released their 32-bit systems, the Sega Saturn and, more importantly, Sony PlayStation, which would ultimately beat out all gaming systems of the time. This was the final death of Atari. They sold out to JT Storage, Inc, who stopped all Atari production.