To those of you who own/collect Atari Jaguar systems and games, what's the appeal of the console, and how did you get into it?

[RetroSonicHero]

I'm a bit of a novice game collector. It's something I enjoy, but as a college student, money is tight so I need to be careful about what I purchase.

 

But to those of you who invest in the Atari Jaguar console, and by extension the notoriously unreliable JagCD, what got you into collecting for it? How did you start? How difficult is it to get ahold of the system and the games? I was thinking of potentially collecting for it many years down the line when I have stable income.

[Senneman]

I delved into collecting for more niche consoles and games because they offer a unique challenge and satisfaction to collect for. Unlike more common systems with near-perfect emulation like the NES or Sega Master System, consoles like the Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, and Philips CDi require original hardware to truly experience their games.

The Jaguar, in particular, caught my eye because it's kinda elusive, you know? There's this excitement you get when you stumble upon them. However, with emulators like BigPemu getting better and better, some folks wonder if it's still worth collecting for the Jaguar. For me, though, it's still a blast, especially because of the homebrew scene. Those aftermarket games and the dedication of developers at Atariage are seriously impressive!

That said, collecting for the Jaguar can get a bit pricey, and it's definitely more about passion than just filling up your shelves with games. But if you're into a challenge..., the Jaguar's where it's at! 

[sirlynxalot]

Once upon a time it was not that expensive to collect for Jaguar. You could get a used system for around 30 bucks and games like Raiden and tempest for 30, stuff like cybermorph and club drive for like 10.  This lasted from the late 90s until around 2015.  Many of the forum users here started collecting during that time, as it's enticing to explore these rare systems when cost of entry is just pocket money.  

[+LS650]

What sirlynxalot wrote.  I have a couple of Jaguars, along with perhaps 60 games, many complete, and a gaggle of various items such as the JagGD, a Skunkboard, controllers etc.  Most of these I bought around 2005-2010 when you could pick up a console with cables and a couple of loose commons for maybe $35.

 

As for why, I was always an Atari fan, and the console has such an interesting and weird life story.  Jaguar items are far, far more expensive now, and at this point I wouldn't start collecting for it, especially if I were a broke college student.

[bluejay]

I generally dislike the Jaguar both as a system and especially as a system to collect for. I always held a vague fascination for the system and decided (like you) that it'd be an interesting system to own at some point. So I took the opportunity when eightbit offered one up for trade, and went ahead and got myself a GameDrive too as I had no intention of spending the many hundreds of dollars buying games for the thing.

 

And yeah, I don't see the point. Don't get me wrong, it is still a fascinating system in many facets, but I really can't see the appeal of choosing to collect for it over any other mainstream system in 2024 besides just the sake of doing so. I still have yet to find a game for the Jag that's genuinely exciting to play that you couldn't have a similar if not better experience with on another platform (as opposed to, say, a 32x)—which is a huge turn off for me. I just can't justify spending so much for games I know I won't enjoy. So mine just sits there in my little tower of consoles only getting occasional use of 15 minutes at most every month or so.

 

The homebrew scene seems to be where all the excitement is at nowadays, but while I have genuine respect and appreciation for the developers here and elsewhere who dedicate their time and effort into crafting these games, I personally see little value in them both as collector's pieces and video games in general. Again, not to belittle the work that is put into these games, but I consider them little more than toys for existing owners as opposed to something you'd sink a lot of time into let alone put the dough and effort of getting a Jag for in a world where there is a limitless supply of excellent games to play and systems to collect for.

 

tldr expensive, little to no worthwhile games, infinitely better alternatives

[zzip]

2 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:

Once upon a time it was not that expensive to collect for Jaguar. You could get a used system for around 30 bucks and games like Raiden and tempest for 30, stuff like cybermorph and club drive for like 10.  This lasted from the late 90s until around 2015.  Many of the forum users here started collecting during that time, as it's enticing to explore these rare systems when cost of entry is just pocket money.  

At one point you could even get a brand-new clearance system for $49 and same price for a JagCD.   That's when I picked mine up.   Unfortunately the library wasn't enough to hold my interest so I sold it.   Kind of wish now I hadn't.   oh well.   

[krslam]

I didn't have any particular interest in the Jag, but I did have an interest in trying out all the systems I'd skipped over the years.  There was a short period when you pick up Jaguar systems and games cheap at flea markets/garage sales/thrift stores.  I bought my first set (boxed console + about 10 games) for, I think, $30 at a flea market and added most other games for under $5 each at thrift stores.  Never found a JagCD, though.

[jhd]

 

Slightly O/T, but what about buying a Jaguar console as solely an investment? Does anyone expect that prices will continue to climb into the future?

 

It may be worth buying a console and just keeping it untouched in secure storage for a few years (or even decades). If someone is young enough, this strategy could pay-off in a big way.

 

[alucardX]

I wouldn't call myself a Jag collector as much as just a fan. I've had a Jaguar / JagCD since 1997 when they were available and affordable. I was a fan as a teenager and really enjoyed having access to some of the games that were only on the Jag.

[Kelevance]

Honestly, the 2600+ and Atari 50 has gotten me deep into Atari for the first time. So I started going down the YouTube rabbit hole of Atari's history, its systems, its great games, its not-so-great games. So I sort of have been keeping an eye out for opportunities to collect for both the 5200 and the Jaguar (aka things the 2600+ can't do).

 

I had been following a number of gaming accounts on Twitter, and someone was selling their childhood Jag console and collection, and I bit the bullet and bought the console and a few games. I also picked up a GameDrive.

 

I remember being fascinated by the Jaguar as a kid when it was on display at KB Toys, but my parents wouldn't let me get one. So take that, parents! I'm an adult now and can spend money on all the 30 year old game consoles I want! 😄

[LynxJagLunatic]

I got into the Jaguar in April of 1994. Went to the game store to buy a Lynx game actually when I saw the Jaguar sitting on a shelf. Bought it on site without knowing much about it. In my mind it was from Atari so I’ll buy it. My initial thoughts were disappointment. Cybermorph was decent but my friends said how bad it looked compared to StarFox and the 64 bits were a joke. By 1995 I had maybe five games. Cybermorph, Checkered Flag, Dino Dudes and Tempest 200. By mid 1995 I sold off my Jaguar and bought more Lynx stuff. In the early 2000’s I remember seeing the Jaguar again in a KayBee toy store. Both Jag and Jag Cd were $50 and games were $5 each. I bought it and bought games I never got to play when I first owned it. Loved it and played it often until prices became insane then I lost interest and stopped collecting for Jaguar. Unfortunately I sold all my Jaguar stuff in 2018 to help pay for my daughter’s braces. I’m so glad for the Atari 50th and the new emulator or else I wouldn’t be able to play the Jaguar again. I’m hoping now that there are more options to play Jaguar games that the prices may go down on the physical media. If not we can still play them.

Edited February 10 by LynxJagLunatic

[+grips03]

Got into because when I was younger had C64 and Sega Master System and didn't understand why the Jag console got a bad rap.  Now I see why, as some of the original games were not that good and seem rushed.  Given that, there are some really nice homebrew games, and now I play Jag every couple of weeks. 

[mickster]

On 2/9/2024 at 1:50 AM, RetroSonicHero said:

I'm a bit of a novice game collector. It's something I enjoy, but as a college student, money is tight so I need to be careful about what I purchase.

 

But to those of you who invest in the Atari Jaguar console, and by extension the notoriously unreliable JagCD, what got you into collecting for it? How did you start? How difficult is it to get ahold of the system and the games? I was thinking of potentially collecting for it many years down the line when I have stable income.

This a very good and very bad time to be interested in starting to play the jaguar.

 

The bad is that,  the prices have gone up considerably in the last 7 years.  All the overstock has finally been sold, and $50 jaguars (CIB) are no longer around.  

 

The good is that there is now a decent emulator and the gamedrive cartridge.  For a very long time, a person had to buy the games to experience it.

 

My recommendation is to goof around with the emulator, if you still want more, then pick up a jag system (probably $400+ at this point) and a gamedrive cartridge ($200).

 

The next step in collecting the games themselves and a cd player are probably not going to be worth it.

 

I will say, I love the gamedrive.  Even though I have a decent jaguar collection, it is very nice to be able to leave them in the boxes and just use the multicart.

 

Good luck with the jaguar!

 

Mickey

 

  

[dariusxg]

The Atari line of machines starts from basically the beginning of it all. Theres something very warm about having its swan song.

On top of that, how it went open source a bit after its demise to then bring on a big hobbyist community all around the world, is kind of special.

As for the retail library, there are some hidden gems. And some great games.. and best ports. Im also fond of the controller, it fits nicely!

 

 

So as stated it can be expensive to be completest with the machine, but if you can appreciate it you'll love it a bunch.

However not everyone can handle all 64 bits at once.

[Editorb]

This is the Saga of Editorb's Atari Journey as submitted to Jaguar Game by Game Podcast:

 

I shall attempt to be succinct in a Jaguar origins story. I was obsessed with a friend’s VCS in ’80-’81, and got my own in 1982. The Crash of ’83 did not register in rural, downstate Illinois. Everyone at school still talked about and played Atari. I noticed there were lot of bargains when we visited cities. I knew Atari lost a lot of money, but I failed to make the connection. In fall 1984, I was stoked to buy a 5200 at Wal-Mart for $79, having no clue it was discontinued. I happily bought games for it when I could and played for many hours. I only broke one joystick button in a couple of years, likely due to Joust marathons. I finally grasped there was a problem with the market when my mom brought home Missile Command, Qix, and Countermeasure. She wasn’t sure if I had them, but figured she couldn’t go wrong for a dollar each. I had none of them and loved them all, but it was still the “uh-oh” moment for me.

 

In a few years, I got a C64c, then an NES for 50 dollars. I resented Nintendo for cleaning up the abandoned market, and was not enamored of the console or its games, but enjoyed it in a pouty fashion. I got a 7800 on the cheap in college, and the early cartridge releases for it were faves, at least until Genesis and Road Rash entered picture in 1991. (Road Rash is still insanely great. I’ve long warned my wife that if a new console had a sequel, I’d have no choice but to procure it.)

 

This set stage for Jaguar. I had long crowed that flicker and slowdown were issues on every one of my consoles save the 7800, and when Jag news appeared, I was stoked. Slow-forward to summer 1994: An old video-game friend offered his Jag, extra controller, and Tempest 2000 for $300. That was steep for used stuff, but I made the plunge. I felt partly responsible for his poor purchase decision as I had hyped Atari’s greatness so much I think he started believing. He said he was tired of waiting for games (before quickly adding there were many amazing titles in the pipeline).

 

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed Tempest, and were unimpressed by Cybermorph. I took up the mantle of waiting. Finally, in November, Alien v. Predator was released, and I paid 70 dollars. (You’ve occasionally mentioned inflation while discussing game prices: I’d like to note $70 in 1994 would be $130.64 in 2021; 70 dollars in 2021 would be $37.51. I often run figures through an inflation calculator, if nothing else than to rationalize sketchy collecting purchases.)

 

I continued to wait for games. I played some Wolfenstein 3D but was not into first-person shooters. I loved Ruiner Pinball, Irony Solder, Defender 2000, and Missile Command 3D. One of the last two I ordered from a Radio Shack. Just like every other Shack I visited (for any of the myriad reasons one paid such visits) they had no idea what I was talking about, then discovered it was an item they could order from headquarters. It took so long to arrive I’d given up and was happily surprised when they called.

 

Addendum: I moved on to Playstation in '98. A few years ago, a friend commented on my "awesome" Jag collection, which consisted of 16 games, 11 CIB. I thought, this collection isn't awesome, it sucks, then proceeded to get every official release CIB save AirCars and Atari Karts. Unfortunately, before I bought Game Drive, I unsealed either Sensible Soccer or Fever Pitch, as well as one other I can't recall. I thankfully retained enough of my wits to leave Dragon Bruce Lee and Double Dragon V shrinkwrapped.

[DoTheMath]

Got my first Jag because it was cheap enough that my mom would agree to buy me a new console, i sold it later on to finance a Saturn and regretted doing so for decades(loved the Saturn but the Doom port was a downgrade😅). Bought an other one maybe 8 years ago and as many brand new games as i could before it became too expensive to even consider.
I probably wouldn't do it today. I have 20+ games if i count different versions of some.
Part of the appeal for me is nostalgia.
As already stated, there is a very good emulator that you should try before you decide if this system is for you.

Edited February 10 by DoTheMath

[Warmsignal]

Unlike a lot of regulars here, I was not an oldschool Atari guy from way back. I didn't start gaming until the SNES generation. However, the 32-bit era was and still is my favorite generation of gaming to date. I'm still fascinated with all of the game consoles from that generation, and the transition from the old side-scroller 2D era into the realm of 3D games. The only consoles I had from that generation was the N64 and PS1, but I felt like I had missed out on Saturn. In the early 2000s, I was scouring the more primitive Internet looking for info and places to buy a Saturn and what games it had to offer, when I found a website mentioning the Jaguar and how it was Atari's "64 bit" console. At the time I thought "Wow, Atari has returned to challenge the Nintendo 64?!" Little did I realize, the Jag was already a long gone failed attempt.

 

When I became a collector years later, I just sort of stumbled on a classified for a Jag with Checkered Flag for sale locally. I think I paid around $90. Went on eBay and thought the games were outrageously priced back then (they were actually very affordable). When you're used to $5 and $10 for most games, shelling out $20, $40, or $60 for a game seemed ridiculous at the time. Huge regret. Years later I went back and start collecting more determinedly, and had to pay WAY more to get the bulk of the games I wanted. I got super lucky when my brother found a Jag CD at a game-con about 10 years ago for dirt cheap. Since he didn't have any games, he let me test it with my console and miraculously it works.

 

I honestly would not recommend it, unless you're a hardcore fan of mid 90s era console gaming, and you just want to experience the depth of everything that was on offer. For most folks, I'd say the N64 and PS1 should satisfy the nostalgia trip for that era, and honestly you'd be getting higher quality gaming experiences with those consoles without even destroying your bank account in most cases. Only true masochists who either love 32-bit gaming, or are oldschool Atari fanatics collect Jaguar today. It's a cool system, but I wouldn't call it essential for retro gaming in general.

Edited February 11 by Warmsignal

[+LS650]

21 minutes ago, Warmsignal said:

I honestly would not recommend it, unless you're a hardcore fan of mid 90s era console gaming, and you just want to experience the depth of everything that was on offer. 

I have to concur.  20 years ago it was a very cheap and easy system to collect for - but it sure isn't now.

The BigPEmu emulator does such a great job of emulating the Jaguar, I'd also strongly recommend checking that out thoroughly and make sure you really enjoy the system before you commit to buying anything for it.   https://www.richwhitehouse.com/jaguar/index.php

[Warmsignal]

On 2/10/2024 at 2:01 AM, LynxJagLunatic said:

I got into the Jaguar in April of 1994. Went to the game store to buy a Lynx game actually when I saw the Jaguar sitting on a shelf. Bought it on site without knowing much about it. In my mind it was from Atari so I’ll buy it. My initial thoughts were disappointment. Cybermorph was decent but my friends said how bad it looked compared to StarFox and the 64 bits were a joke.

Honestly, anyone claiming that back then was huffing the "my game system can do that" copium. Cybermorph holds up, Star Fox not so much. I went back and played SF recently, and man the frame rate combined with the sloppy directionless shooting at grainy small polygons in the background leaves a whole lot to be desired from that game. CM looks better, runs better, plays better, and besides it's a free roaming game with strategy, objectives and collectibles. It's just a more advanced game in every sense, other than not having the hype music of SF. CM could not have been done justice on the SNES.

 

But yeah, I'll take Cymbermoprh / Battlemorph over Star Fox / Star Fox 64 without question.

[Major Havoc 2049]

I was into Atari back during the ST and Lynx days, so I closely followed the development of the Jaguar and bought a launch batch one in 1993. With the mild success and then the demise of the Lynx, and the TT and Falcon failing to reverse the fortunes of the computer line, I wasn't hopeful, but figured I would ride the sinking ship to the bitter end. It pretty much played out like I thought it would, but the Jag and the Jag community was still fun and I'm glad I bought the Jag.  I still have my launch day Jaguar and Jaguar CD combo.  It has never been in storage and has been hooked up to a TV this whole time, except during moves of course. 

 

BTW, the durability of the Jag CD gets a bad rap.  We pretty much figured out many moons ago that the vast majority of the Jaguar CD failures were caused by the user and not faulty hardware.  Instead of just placing the CD onto the CD tray spindle, many users would try to push the CD onto spindle like you do with some CD players, and click the CD into place. When users didn't hear/feel that click, they would push harder.  So many users would push down on the spindle with enough force to break it. Many "broken" Jaguar CD players were easily fixed. 

[JagChris]

I never understood the confusion. I used PC CDs, .PSXs and Jag CDs. All 3 are different. But I never got confused and tried to shove the CD down on the JagCD tray. It never even occurred to me.

[alucardX]

I should test my JagCD as I haven't connected it for a while because of the game drive, but mine has worked flawlessly since I've owned it. I would have to agree with @Major Havoc 2049 and @JagChris about the spindle issue.

[Ground Zero]

I just started collecting Atari Jaguar this year. Got a new Atari Jaguar PAL console and a few games. Cybermorph, AvP, Wolfenstein, Towers 2 enhanced and Asteroite. At the moment Towers 2 is my favourite game, Asteroite is also very good. Makes much more fun than

Metroid Dread in my opinion.

I will try to buy a Jaguar game each month - at the moment i wait for Kings of Edom to be delivered.

 

What got me into collecting and playing Jaguar: I never had a Jaguar console before and also none of my friends had one. I like that it's game library is somewhat different - unique between SNES/Genesis and Saturn/Playstation. 2D gaming in it's height and testing what's possible in 3D. The games i have are really fun to play. 

 

What's also cool is the game support and that there are still a good bunch of new games released on cartridge each year. I simply like to be part of this cool and active community.

Edited February 12 by Ground Zero

[+cubanismo]

On 2/11/2024 at 10:18 PM, Major Havoc 2049 said:

Instead of just placing the CD onto the CD tray spindle, many users would try to push the CD onto spindle like you do with some CD players, and click the CD into place. When users didn't hear/feel that click, they would push harder.  So many users would push down on the spindle with enough force to break it. Many "broken" Jaguar CD players were easily fixed. 

This was my experience exactly. Got my first JagCD and immediately broke it by pushing it down too far. Then again, I was immediately able to fix it by prying the spindle back up with some tweezers:

 

On 2/12/2024 at 1:15 AM, JagChris said:

I never understood the confusion. I used PC CDs, .PSXs and Jag CDs. All 3 are different. But I never got confused and tried to shove the CD down on the JagCD tray. It never even occurred to me.

The problem is the JagCD *is* pretty sketchy about reading discs. So yeah, at first I lightly set the disc in there, thought it was sorta janky how it sat there loose, but meh, what do I know, and tried to boot it up. When I inevitably got the '?' disc, I tried the 'ole elbow grease, and broke it. Later I realized the correct fix is to just wipe the CD on your sleeve and/or just turn it off and on again, maybe let it 'warm up' a bit *then* turn it off and on again, or the opposite: Let it cool down from your previous session before trying again, etc. I've never had one actually stop working completely, but they still aren't exactly the most robust hardware out there.

 

---

 

I'm not an old-skewl Atari fan either. I didn't seriously get into games until NES, and I didn't get my own console until the SNES. That lasted me for quite some time, but by the time the next gen was coming out, I was fully bought in to gaming, picking up GamePro and EGM from the supermarket whenever I could talk my mom into it (Was still pretty young back then, and all my own cash had to be hoarded for games and consoles. Couldn't be wasting it on magazines.). This was around late 1993/early 1994, so the Jag was already out, and man, the advertisements in those magazines looked awesome. Unfortunately for Atari (Probably fortunately for me at the time), before my brother and I could scrounge together the cash for a Jaguar, we had a chance to play Daytona USA in the local arcade/mini-golf place, and then I started seeing the Saturn previews in magazines. I COULD PLAY DAYTONA AT HOME@!#$! That settled things. The 64bits Vs. 32bits almost won me over if I'm being honest, but Daytona was Daytona, and I'd played the Arcade and Genesis port of Virtua Racing at a friend's house too, and the Saturn port could only be better, right? I digress. I liked the Saturn a lot, but always kinda wished I could have tried the Jaguar too. I never once saw one in the wild back in the 90's. All I had to go on were the small screenshots in the magazine ads and reviews.

 

After Saturn, I left consoles behind for PC gaming, though we did play a lot of Duck Hunt, Lethal Enforcers, and Mario World in college when we felt like hanging out in the same room. I got a PS3, but mostly to play Blu-Ray discs and to use as a media streamer. I didn't really look seriously at consoles again until falling down a Youtube vortex in early March 2020 and seeing the Nostalgia Nerd video "Atari Jaguar Story," among others. Such excitement and welling of nostalgia. Hey, I remember that thing! What?!? People are *still* making games for it? Some people are still waiting for the machine's true power to be tapped? I've always wanted to write a game for a console! Maybe I can tap that 64-bit power! Let's go find an emulator and check it out... errr... this emulation situation is not amazing. Oh well, these things are 30 years old. I got like $5 for my SNES on eBay 5 years ago, and people liked those. They must be giving Jaguars away free on eBay. Let's have a look... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! This is more than they were when they launched!! Hey, and now that I look around, same with NES and SNES these days it seems! What is going on!?!?

 

So I found these forums, and mulled it over a bit. I watched more youtube videos (Especially the Jag Bar) and read a lot of forum posts (Like, a lot a lot. I think I eventually read the entire Jaguar forum history from that point back to 2017 before I accidentally marked the whole forum read and gave up, and have kept up-to-date since). Tried to tinker around with Virtual Jaguar a bit more, but that just confirmed that despite all the great work put into it, it just wasn't really the experience I needed to keep the nostalgia feels going. I checked out what sort of tooling there was for homebrew, since that was my primary interest. It looked to be pretty complete. The Gamedrive was still vaporware, and Skunkboards were unobtanium at the time, but BJL looked like it could be achieved with a little effort. A few days before the world officially shut down for COVID, I pulled the trigger on an eBay auction for all the original stuff (Jaguar, controller, cables, and Cybermorph, no box. I still don't consider myself a collector, and definitely wasn't then, though I have since picked up boxed copies of a few of my favorite games). At the same time, I bought an old NES and drove an hour to pick up a cheap CRT because... Duck Hunt. By the time the Jaguar arrived, we were in lockdown so I was bored as all hell, and I had the CRT all set up and ready to go. Plugged in Cybermorph with low expectations (I'd read a lot of reviews at this point), and it rocked! It was much more fun than I expected. Yeah, where did you learn how to fly, and the draw distance, and all that crap, but it was fun. I'd played plenty of Starfox, and can't say anything bad about that either (The framerate sucks now, but back then, I didn't notice it. I remember just thinking "Man, it gets hard to control in some of these big fight scenes"), but I immediately realized comparing the two was stupid. Other than both being polygonal and both involving space-planes, they're entirely different games.

 

I hadn't really planned on buying other games, since I just wanted to write some code, but I decided I had better see what I was up against. I splurged $40 each for T2K and Alien Vs. Predator, and got Iron Soldier and Wolf 3D for <$20 each it looks like. All those games were awesome. I didn't understand what everyone was complaining about. This was a 1993 system doing amazing 3D graphics much faster than my 1995-ish PC had done them back then. I was having a lot more fun than I thought I would, and didn't feel so bad having spent ~$300 with tax and shipping on this thing just to write a little code for it. Then I got a little stupid.

 

After looking over it more, I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle BJL-modding my Jaguar. I'd never soldered before. It looked risky, and the Jaguar had been expensive. I didn't want to buy an EEPROM programmer just to do this. Perhaps the correct way was to just buy a Jaguar CD and use that for loading BJL. Nevermind that I could have just bought a Protector cartridge. The Jaguar had its claws in me. I needed to complete the hardware with the CD attachment! Having fully justified the investment in the console to myself, the $600-700 prices for a CD add-on didn't seem so insane anymore. And then suddenly, they were gone. I'd always seen 1 or 2 on eBay every time I searched, but now I wasn't seeing any. I was panicked! Then a few more started showing up. Just one at a time, and usually for parts. Finally, I pulled the trigger on a buy-it-now for $775 that came with Blue Lightning. Even now, that's too much. Jag CD without a box can be found for $600 if you're patient, but I was stuck in my house doing nothing but huffing Jaguar fumes, and I was not. In parallel, I was braving the day-zero pandemic supply chain issues to get the parts to build a BJL adapter. I got a learn-to-solder kit and watched a lot of Youtube videos (I recommend the EEVlog's soldering tutorial episodes. Dave's the best) Thankfully, I still had one working motherboard in the closet that had a built-in parallel port. When the CD unit came, I had my $10 copy of Space Ace and the included Blue Lightning ready to test it. I went through the above process of breaking it, freaking out that I just may have broken a $775 purchase within an hour (Though at that point, I had thought it wasn't working anyway so I wasn't super concerned. I'd actually started the return process already), and then found the Linkovitch repair guides and realized what I needed to do to fix it. With a little more patience, I realized I had a working unit after all. Rejoice! Then I tried to run the BJL loader CD-R I'd burned. No luck. I'd read about the sour relationship between Jaguar CD and CD-Rs though, so I was half expecting this. I'd used the highest-quality CD-Rs I had lying around from back when burning CD's was a thing, but I proceeded to walk through all 3 or 4 types I had on hand before realizing the only ones that worked were some Sony ones buried at the bottom of a spool of cheap no-brand ones. I only had about 5, but one was enough to get the BJL loader up. I spent a *long* time soldering up my BJL adapter since it was the 2nd thing I'd ever soldered, but that worked too! I had TubeSE running on my Jaguar! Then I had it printing Hello World with code I'd compiled myself!

 

This was all pure joy in the middle of a mostly crap time for me in particular and the rest of the world in general, so I now have both modern and actual retro nostalgia for the Jaguar. I went on to buy probably more games than I had to, eventually get a Skunkboard from the last guy still making them somewhere in Eastern Europe, eventually build my own line of Skunkboards because I found I actually really enjoyed soldering and working with PCB layout tools and stuff, and have not yet written one game or even non-trivial demo for the Jaguar. I now have another Saturn (My brother still has the original one, but I've gotta have my Daytona), a Dreamcast, several Lynx, several Nuons (After lightly mocking anyone who would own one for a year or two), and several Jaguars and Jaguar CD units I repaired myself (This is the only reasonable way to get a JagCD. They're very easy to repair, but sellers have caught on and even broken/untested ones are pretty expensive now), but that original Jaguar started it all, and it's still my favorite of the bunch.

 

So.... should you get into Jaguar collecting now, as a practical matter? Honestly, no. The prices are even worse, especially for the games. When I started the systems were ridiculous, but you could still get loose carts for $15-20 if you shopped around and were patient, and even then there was a lot more collector-quality NoS available than there is now. I've watched it all sell out game-by-game over the past few years. Also, BigPEmu exists and is close to indistinguishable from real hardware if you just want to play games. Also, if you're on a student budget, there are probably other things to buy that will bring you much more joy than a Jaguar, or to be honest, any retro video games. Keep your priorities straight. Collecting vintage stuff is a fine hobby in the same way gambling is: Only do it with money you don't need. Don't pretend it's a better investment than student loans, a house, a good car if you rely on that for transportation to work/school, a retirement plan, etc. Unless you're going to make buying/selling antique gaming machines your career, don't confuse collecting with investing.

 

That said, I told the long version of the story above because sometimes there's more value to a thing than is apparent. If the Jaguar, or Atari, or retro gaming, or just collecting brings you great joy, go for it. Do what makes you happy. Maybe you like gaming/collecting a lot, and don't hate taking busses. Just be sure it's joy, not obsession, that drives it. Also, if you have no particular attachment to the Jaguar and are just looking for something to collect, maybe look around a bit more first. There are other very cool and obscure consoles (E.g., Lynx, 3DO), that while not cheap, are a little easier, financially, to collect for.

 

Also, I have to admit I find the Jaguar community simultaneously amazingly dedicated, ridiculous, hilarious, welcoming, helpful, and endearing. It's definitely something to consider when deciding whether or not to collect for the system. Whether you consider it a positive or negative is up to you, but I think it's great.

Edited February 13 by cubanismo
One more thing.

[JagChris]

Quote

I got a learn-to-solder kit and watched a lot of Youtube videos (I recommend the EEVlog's soldering tutorial episodes. Dave's the best)

Is there a special learn to solder kit? I bought a solder kit recently and want to learn to do basic soldering.

 

Ill try to find those videos.

Edited February 13 by JagChris