Jaguar CD units - Were they ever made in any other colours?

[Beeblebrox]

A quick question - we're all Jaguar CD units made in the matching black colour, or were any made in other colours by Atari? 

 

 

[+Stephen Moss]

As far as I know there were all the same colour as the Jaguar, it makes more sense to make them matching rather than an odd assortment of colours so that the look like they are meant to go together.

 

If you were putting together a home theatre sounds system would really go for an ugly mismatched set that looks like it was thrown together from random odd and ends being comprised of a Red power amp, green sound bar and black speakers over the neatness and classic looks of the componets being a matching colour (typically black).

 

There may be some different coloured ones out there but that is usually because the owner decided to repaint both their Jaguar and CD unit in a different (but matching) colour.

[Beeblebrox]

@Stephen Moss  sure, naturally that is my thinking as all units are matching black for all the obvious reasons you state.  

 

It's only I have acquired a silver Jaguar CD unit. It's on it's way and I've only had some low res images, so I can't tell if the unit was painted or not just yet. It has some cosmetic damage, so until I see it I won't be able to tell if it's a post factory owner paint job.

 

The original owner of the Jaguar console and Jaguar CD console who sold it to me was connected to someone who appears to have been a developer, or involved in developing Jaguar games back in the day. The Jaguar console itself is standard black but was modded for the Alpine development board. By contrast the CD unit is silver. As such I wondered if the unit was a pre release prototype. It does have a label although the low res image I have doesn't give much away.

 

I expect it will turn out to be a paint job, but if so it was a very good one, (before it got it's wear and tear). Just curious.

 

Also it was sold as untested, so might not even work.

 

    

Edited February 15 by Beeblebrox

[Boris K.]

The production run was so small that it is highly unlikely they produced anything other than the matching Jag color. In other words: There is no evidence for such a thing. I've seen some custom paint jobs, some of them decently made, some not so much. They did not even make Jags in any other colors during the Atari days, so why would they even bother doing that for the CD? Exactly.

[Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, Boris K. said:

The production run was so small that it is highly unlikely they produced anything other than the matching Jag color. In other words: There is no evidence for such a thing. I've seen some custom paint jobs, some of them decently made, some not so much. They did not even make Jags in any other colors during the Atari days, so why would they even bother doing that for the CD? Exactly.

makes sense. Must be an owner's custom paint job I guess. Will find out when it arrives. It's been 25 years since I had a Jaguar CD unit. I still lso have my original Jaguar bought in 1994. (I am mainly an Atari 8 bit computer fan, but I do love the Jag too. Doom rules. Can't wait to see the homebrew Doom games released!)

[Beeblebrox]

Well the boxed "silver" Jag CD unit arrived today ...and it works!   Plugged it into my original and first 1994 Jag i've had all these years.

 

It has turned out to be sprayed silver. Kinda made sense. Will likely leave it is despite ideally wanting to get rid of the paint to see if I can return it to it's original colour, It's likely not possible without risking damaging it further.

 

I've not got any Jag CD games, so I have ordered VidGrid as got it cheap. But certainly the VLM plays audio CDs and works fine. Plus a cart works via the pass through cart slot. So assuming Jag CD titles will work.

 

Very happy as got this boxed for a fraction of the money I've seen the Jag CD units go for.

 

    

 

 

Edited February 20 by Beeblebrox

[+Stephen Moss]

8 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

It has turned out to be sprayed silver. Kinda made sense. Will likely leave it is despite ideally wanting to get rid of the paint to see if I can return it to it's original colour, It's likely not possible without risking damaging it further.

I don't know how you would get the silver paint off without adversely marking the case, maybe a fine grain/bead shot/sandblaster would work, but if you want it back to close to the original colour with minimal chance of marking the case then your best bet is is probably to try and find a colour that is close to that of the Jaguar and have it spray painted that colour.

 

If you are not skilled at spray painting your self perhaps look for a local modelling club, the more serious and detail orientated model makers often have their own air brushes, an small tin of suitable coloured model paint probably would not cost that much (they may even be able to mix it to an more exact colour match) and maybe a few pounds for their time should yield a better result than you may get from doing it yourself with an aerosol can of car paint.  

[Beeblebrox]

4 hours ago, Stephen Moss said:

I don't know how you would get the silver paint off without adversely marking the case, maybe a fine grain/bead shot/sandblaster would work, but if you want it back to close to the original colour with minimal chance of marking the case then your best bet is is probably to try and find a colour that is close to that of the Jaguar and have it spray painted that colour.

 

If you are not skilled at spray painting your self perhaps look for a local modelling club, the more serious and detail orientated model makers often have their own air brushes, an small tin of suitable coloured model paint probably would not cost that much (they may even be able to mix it to an more exact colour match) and maybe a few pounds for their time should yield a better result than you may get from doing it yourself with an aerosol can of car paint.  

Yup, I was thinking of a respray, after lightly sanding with perhaps emery paper to make the current surface smooth. 

 

TBH I am just so glad it works, and that it came with the box. Given the ridiculous prices I've seen every single listed boxed JagCD unit go for over the last 2 years, I was amazed I got this at the price I did.  I know relatively only a small number of units were made, (where that was the same for the Jaguar itself), but still.

[Machine]

I would be worrying about dust getting into the unit if you sand it or some of the other suggestions. If the gray paint isn't chipping, you could just spray it.

Either that, or paint your Jaguar gray and you have a matching ultra-rare gray Jaguar/CD.

[+Stephen Moss]

14 hours ago, Machine said:

I would be worrying about dust getting into the unit if you sand it or some of the other suggestions.

Not sure why that would be an issue, surely any sane person would take the time to remove the case when prepping and painting it, not work on it while fully assembled.

[Machine]

Sane people and Jaguar owners are not copacetic. But yeah, smart people would prep it properly.

[+cubanismo]

I know the desire to perfect things is strong (I suffer from this myself, and even just today nearly messed up 4 hours of tedious cable management work trying to redo a cable crimp that wasn't err... pretty enough for me), but when it comes to Jaguar CDs, if it ain't broke... don't go disassembling it and trying to fix it. They're not hard to take apart or put together, but they can be fiddly. Sometimes the lid will never close quite right or rub on the CD when closed for no clear reason after reassembling them, or the little lid spring may fly out somewhere and never be seen again. None of this is likely, but I speak from experience opening a few handfuls of Jaguar CD units. I haven't rendered one useless yet, but I've had a few close calls where I had to come up with clever solutions to unexpected things happening. Lot's that can go wrong that will make things worse than it just being the wrong color.

 

As an alternative, maybe if you can document the previous developer owner in more detail, you'll find someone (not me) who's a serious collector that might be willing to swap you a normal colored unit for this slightly special one.

[Major Havoc 2049]

Maybe use some paint thinner on the bottom and see if the paint comes off?   If it looks like it works, do the whole thing.  Worst case scenario, it looks like crap and you could just repaint it. 

[Zerosquare]

If you do so, make sure the paint thinner is okay to use on plastics. If it's acetone-based, it may cause the case to melt. (Whether this degrades or improves the looks and functionality of the JagCD is up for debate.)

[Bratwurst]

You might be able to soften the paint and rub it off without adversely affecting the plastic with rubbing alcohol. This could take time- and you might not like what you find under the silver coat anyway, because the previous owner might have sanded the plastic surface to start with before he painted the thing.

[Lost Monkey]

To get the paint off, you can soak all the painted parts in Super Clean.  Just do a Youtube search for removing paint with Super Clean for some tips on how long to soak etc.  I removed paint from a Jaguar a few years ago with this method and it left the factory logo and text intact, which you might also get with the Jag CD. 

 

Just be aware, as Bratwurst pointed out, that there is a good chance the case was previously damaged and thus was painted.   At worst you would have to paint it again.  

 

Another thing to note - some console plastics tend to get brittle over time when they have been painted - take care replacing screws in a console that has been painted as you could potentially overtighten and break a post.

Edited February 27 by Lost Monkey

[+madman]

This seems like a candidate for the first vinyl wrapped Jag CD.

[Judas-Prime]

This paint color is a near exact match to the Jag's grey plastic.

 

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