How long has your Jaguar passion run? How far has it to go?

[justclaws]

Hello,

 

How long have you been a Jaguar fan?

When did you get yours?

Are you moving on, taking a break yet?

 

I ask in particular because a lot of my old Jaguar die-hard friends

seem to have fled the scene in the last couple of years, and a new

scene with many post-Atari Jaguar fans who discovered it after

Atari folded, and go Jaguar's at clearance prices, replaced them.

 

For me, over 10 years.

I got the system in 1994, in the UK.

I'm still playing games, for now.

 

Cheers,

JustClaws.

[Starcat]

Hi Justclaws!

 

I got my Jag in 1999, about a year after getting a PSX actually

Still I anticipated finally getting a Jag (which was quite hard, as I didn't have internet back then and no store that I knew sold them), very much.

I had a few old EGM magazines and even looking at all the adverts and an AvP preview made me want a Jag badly.

A good friend of mine had a Jaguar however and when he finally agreed to sell it to me (to buy a PSX too) I was quite happy to get his unit with some games. Although many games that I had been looking for, turned out to be not so great, there are some titles like the Iron Solider games, Battlemorph, Tempest 2000, Super Burnout, Missile Command 3D and a few others that I really liked a lot on the Jag.

 

These days I don't play Jag much anymore, I spend most of my time developing for the Jag instead.

 

Regards, Lars.

[The_Laird]

Got my Jag in 1993, it was one the first batch to come into the country and i think i paid £250 for it from Telegames and then it was a long wait for games to come out, but i do remember being amazed in someway by each one. I gave my Megadrive to my little brother but still kept all my other Atari's - an STFM, Lynx and 2600. My main reason for getting a Jag was because of the Lynx. I did buy a Saturn and a Playstation afterwards too but got rid of them a few years back. Always still played on my Lynx and Jag so even when the PS2 and such like came along i went against the masses and didn't buy one instead sticking to my trusty Atari's. I picked up a 7800 about 6 months ago and now have every hgame for that as well. I'm waiting for a 65XE at the moment so i can begin to learn to program all over again. I was top of my class at school for computer studies and did it at college as well, i learned to program first on the Sinclair Spectrum ( Had games put on magazine cover tapes too) then the ST and on the P.C at college but never got passed Basic or Pascal as this is all we were taught! Somewhere along the line my dream of becoming a games programmer died, mainly due to money and family problems but recently my desire has come back and really want to learn so i can program for the true gods of video gaming the ATARI!

[racerx]

My wife picked mine up at a Kaybee clearance for $25 in '96 or '97...she had no idea what is was but knew I wanted one.

 

I've been collecting for it off and on and am just now starting to pick up the Songbird and B&C stuff. There are a couple easy games I'm missing (Battlemorph, DD5) but I figure no rush on those.

 

It's fun when someone comes over to our house...I've got a DC, Xbox, Gamecube, N64, and PS2 on one side of the TV and the reaction is usually, "Is that a Jaguar?" when they look on the other side.

[goatdan]

I became a Jaguar fan in 1996, I think, when I and a friend both bought Jaguar systems with games because I had read an article about it years earlier being the "end all" console and hearing about it on Jaguar Interactive (the first one). Since the price was only about $40 for a new console, and $10 for most games, we happily got them.

 

Even though it didn't live up to that hype, we both fell in love with certain games -- Tempest being the big one. I ended up going to Jagfest 99 with my friend that bought one and it was a blast. In 2001, I held Jagfest in Milwaukee.

 

Since then (and at least partially because of the fallout of it), I haven't paid as much attention to my Jaguar. I still enjoy the system, but I don't have space to hook it up at my apartment right now and a lot of the people that I talked to have moved on. I still enjoy it, but my attention has turned to the Dreamcast now more than anything.

[Gunstar]

it's been ten years for me, I bought mine in January of 1995 with money that was SUPPOSEd to be for my college books for the semester, but it was worth it and I never regretted it (I met a lot of girls by "studying" with thme since I had no books of my own that semester). I had been reading about, and drooling over, articles on the Jaguar since 1992. I've been an Atari fanatic since 1985 when I got my first Atari computer, the 130XE. I owned a 2600 before that, but didn't consider myself an Atari fan before buying the computer; I would have rather had a colecovision instead of a 2600 (at least until the 5200 came along).

I'm still a big fan of the Jaguar, it gets played every bit as much as my more modern and other classic consoles, if not more still. I will be a Jaguar fan until the day I die, unless the hardware&software gives out before me and I am unable to repair or replace it. I'm a fan of ALL things Atari, owning alomost every system (console/computer) at one time or another and I still own at least one model of everything but the 2600 and 5200 now, but can play 5200 games on my 130xe/1200xl and 2600 games on my 7800. So I'm covered. I even have the 800/5200 DC emulator. The Jaguar has been my favorite of the Atari systems since I got it though, and still is my favorite, but I love them all. i was lucky enough to pick the GOOD game early on, except for Checkered Flag, so my Jaguar gaming experiences were never disappointing for the first year or so, except for CF. Later, as I started collecting everything, I only then, came across some of the bad games in it's library, so my initial experiences lived up to the "hype" for me, and my respect for the system never faded, only my respect for certain Jaguar developers...

[+Stephen Moss]

I have been a Jag fan from the time they were first advertised in the Atari magazines so since 1994 I guess although I could not afford one at the time.

I probably purchased my first Jag in 1998 (second hand) and my second Jag (new with a CD unit) in 2000/2001.

My passion for the Jag still has long way to run espicallly as there are some new and exciting/interesting software like Eerievale and Clicks under developement and the possibilities for expaning on the current range of harware.

[YarsRevengeFan]

How long have you been a Jaguar fan?  

When did you get yours?

Are you moving on, taking a break yet?

 

Hi justclaws!

 

I became a Jag fan when I went to PC3 and met Carl Forhan of Songbird games there. He had his display set up with Protector SE running and told me he developed the game. I fell in love with the game and system right away! I got my system from an AA member with 13 games, some CIB.

 

The next year I went to PC4 and met Randy Femrite who had 3 Jags with 3 t.v.s hooked up for network Battlesphere. I fell in love with that game, and he let me borrow a copy of Battlesphere for a long time. He has also hooked me up with lots of Jag promotional stuff too!

 

I don't have my Jag hooked up, but I always want to play it after spending time reading on AA. It also seems that I spend more time with my PS2 more than anything else. I have gotten several new games and have been playing them lately.

 

I want to keep collecting, especially Songbird games, and Battlesphere would be nice too! Money is tight right now since leaving the military and having my wife stay at home doesn't help either. Oh well.

[masschamber]

For me I wanted a jag since I saw the first ads for tempest 2000 , (the them them them...them, you ads)

 

But until now I really haven't had the money to get, but now that I have one I plan on eventually getting everything commercially released for it, except maybe battlesphere , already have 28 so I think the other 16 original released won't too hard,

 

Either way I'm currently learning assembly and I eventually plan on doing some programming for it ( even if I just use the 68000)

[ftovar]

The fact that it was made by Atari although by then it was under the third ownership of the Tramiels after Bushnell and Warner Communications, was the reason I got it. I've had my Jaguar since the limited release of NY and SF back in Dec 93. My local Atari dealer in L.A. got a few for us here. However, they ended up being defective when Doom would not function properly and I'm not talking about the networking. Atari knew of this problem and they sent me a new one in February of 94 direct from the company. 2005 seems to be the less usage I ever had on it. I used to use it for karaoke parties quite a bit but that has waned. I will probably use it when Erieville gets published. My stuff is literally gathering dust but then again so is all my other Atari products with the exception of this [/img] Please excuse the messy room.

[SteveW]

I wanted a Jaguar since I saw the early preview they did in Electronic Games Monthly. Dallas was in Atari's test market, so I managed to get one in either November or December of 1993. I was there, through all the early days, with no games for months and months.

 

Gamefan Magazine used to gush over the Jag in early '94, and kept saying that there would be a flood of games by the end of that year. They said companies like Jaleco had signed on, and were going to port all sorts of games. Of course, once the programmers at Jaleco figured out how difficult the Jag was to program, I'm sure they tossed that idea right out the window.

 

I picked up games like Club Drive when they first came out. It was different enough from anything I'd played before, that I didn't mind it's problems. I was forced to like those early games, because there were so few of them out there, I had plenty of time between releases to get into them.

[Gunstar]

I wanted a Jaguar since I saw the early preview they did in Electronic Games Monthly. Dallas was in Atari's test market, so I managed to get one in either November or December of 1993. I was there, through all the early days, with no games for months and months.  

 

Gamefan Magazine used to gush over the Jag in early '94, and kept saying that there would be a flood of games by the end of that year. They said companies like Jaleco had signed on, and were going to port all sorts of games. Of course, once the programmers at Jaleco figured out how difficult the Jag was to program, I'm sure they tossed that idea right out the window.

 

I picked up games like Club Drive when they first came out. It was different enough from anything I'd played before, that I didn't mind it's problems. I was forced to like those early games, because there were so few of them out there, I had plenty of time between releases to get into them.

 

I think I was actually LUCKY not to have had the money to buy a Jaguar before January 1995. As I said,I'd been following it in Atari computer magazines since it was still in the engineering/development stages and wanted one when they were released in limited test markets in '93, but all I could do was drool of the pictures and "hype." Apparently I was lucky becuase by the time I COULD afford it, there was already a reletively healthy library, post Christmas '94. So when I finally bought my Jaguar, I was able to get games like AvP, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Tempest 2000, Raiden, Cannon Fodder, Skiing&snowboarding, Cybermorph of course (the pack-in),Iron Soldier and some of the others, so I pretty much bought all of the above in the first few months and so checkered flag was the only "disappointing" title I came across for a while, then by the summer and fall of '95 games Super burnout, Power Drive rally, Rayman, and basically all the other great titles that came out near the end of the Jag's life were coming out, so I never had to deal with a game "shortage." I did come across a few of the bad games by then, but the ratio out of the games I chose was still highly in favor of GOOD Jaguar games. I guess that's why I never understood some people's "disillusionment" with the Jag, becuase I knew EVERY system has it's bad games, and the Jaguar didn't seem any worse to me than others. I was never disappointed in the Jaguar, just a few games on it, just like other systems I'd owned. I guess I just "timed" it right!

[masschamber]

I'd say the jaguar is second only to probably the 32x in terms of percentage of good games (in my opinion), maybe 25~30 percent good games (I give the 32x over half good games but with a library of 30 it's not that hard to get a good ratio) compared to say 10 to 15% on nes and less than 1% on playstation

[+Sauron]

Gunstar's story follows mine almost exactly. Being a lifelong Atari fan, starting off with the 2600 and moving to a 130XE, then to the ST series and the Lynx, the Jaguar was simply a natural progression for me. I wasn't able to buy one when it launched. Although it was supposedly only out in "test markets", it seemed like every Babbage's across the country had at least one or two in stock, which seemed to be quite sufficient supplies given Atari's marketing (or lack thereof). Even though I wasn't able to purchase one right away, I had plenty of play time on a Jag thanks to a few others in my Atari user group with Jags as well as a few local Atari shows.

 

I wasn't able to buy a Jaguar for myself until January of 1995, which was literally the first thing I did after getting home from boot camp. I purchased AvP and Tempest 2000 along with the Jag, so those two as well as the pack-in Cybermorph held me off for a while. Being stationed out in the middle of the Southern California desert during the Jag's heyday, I missed out a bit on all of the new releases, as the only Jag retailer that I knew of anywhere near myself was a Toys 'R Us an hour away in Palm Springs, who had the same 7 games in stock the entire time I was there. Having bought up 6 of the 7 games (I took a well deserved pass on Club Drive), I lingered in Jaguar obscurity for quite a while.

 

A week before I was set to be discharged from the Marines, I found out a CD Wherehouse store in Palm Springs had a pretty sizeable collection of Jag games, and even a Jag kiosk running Doom! All of the games were on clearance at the time I found it, and even the kiosk was up for sale. If I had a way of transporting it back to Texas, I most definitely would have bought it. I had to make due with increasing my Jag collection by a bit and regretting having never bought the kiosk while I could.

 

After getting out of the Marines I finally was able to find the Jag community online and quickly became an active member of it. I ended up becoming an organizer of three different JagFest events (2000, 2002, and 2003) before finally burning out on the community for good. I still pop in every now and then, seeing what's up with everyone, and wondering what happened to all the old-timers back from JI2. Even though I don't really consider myself a part of the "community" anymore, I'm still quite active with my Jag, and probably always will be.

[SteveW]

I didn't really mean to buy one in late 1993, it just....... happened. Me and my friend went to the Incredible Universe store, and they had finally gotten a few in, and had one set up for demo. We looked at it, fooled around with whatever game was playing, and that was that. But a few days later, I started getting the urge...... The idea was, I'd set a little money aside each week, and build up the $250 slowly. I had bills to pay, so I really didn't need to drop that much cash all at once. But ........ the urge....... New Atari hardware is sitting on a store shelf....... I had to work overtime that week, and I had a little more cash that week, and I just couldn't control my checkbook. Bing badda boom, I had a Jag!

[Gunstar]

I didn't really mean to buy one in late 1993, it just....... happened. Me and my friend went to the Incredible Universe store, and they had finally gotten a few in, and had one set up for demo. We looked at it, fooled around with whatever game was playing, and that was that. But a few days later, I started getting the urge...... The idea was, I'd set a little money aside each week, and build up the $250 slowly. I had bills to pay, so I really didn't need to drop that much cash all at once. But ........ the urge....... New Atari hardware is sitting on a store shelf....... I had to work overtime that week, and I had a little more cash that week, and I just couldn't control my checkbook. Bing badda boom, I had a Jag!

 

YEP! YOU KNOW IT! It was that "urge" for NEW Atari hardware that got me too, even if it was 1995 when it hit. It was just that I had $700 dollars cash on me for college books, and I just couldn't shake off the idea of using the money for a Jaguar and a bunch of games instead...I figured I could borrow books from friends and girls anyway...so Bing badda boom, I had a Jag!

[Gunstar]

Although in my case, I bought all those cool games for it off the bat too, the ones I mentioned above... so I felt the money was spent very well. It also helped me meet a LOT more women that semester... :wink:

[Albert]

How long have you been a Jaguar fan?  

When did you get yours?

Are you moving on, taking a break yet?

 

I've been a Jaguar fan since well before the system was released, eating up as much information as I could online and off. I bought a system the day they were made available at a Framingham, Massachusetts (where I was living at the time) Nobody Beats The Wiz. I believe I paid $249.99 for the system, but I don't remember now if that was the initial price or if it was $199.99. Anyway, I bought the system and a handful of games, although, urr, there were only a handful of games available at the system's launch.

 

Like many Jaguar fans, I eagerly awaited each new release and picked up most of them. My favorite game at the time was Tempest 2000, which I played the hell out of. Eventually I became disgruntled with Atari's drought of titles and sold my Jaguar, before Alien vs. Predator was released (which is a title I was waiting for). It would not be until about 2000 that I'd get back into the Jaguar, and now I have just about every Jaguar and Jaguar CD game, including most of the newer titles released by Songbird and Telegames, as well as Battlesphere and Battlesphere Gold. I don't play the Jaguar as often as I'd like, but that's mainly because I have so many game systems, classic and modern, vying for my attention.

 

..Al

[Dan Iacovelli]

Atari fan since 1977(got my first atari(2600) when they first came out for xmas.)

after that all my systems been when they came out(except the 5200 and xegs, I passed on those)

got my jaguar from mars merchanding back in 1994(around the time of the national rollout)

have a teken a break from playing it (yes and no) Yes, at home I have rested for while from playing it(on occasion I do play it a bit but not all the time) No, when Itake my jag to events like MGC or VGS I usally play it for a while over at the shows)

[Gunstar]

Atari fan since 1977(got my first atari(2600) when they first came out for xmas.)

after that all my systems been when they came out(except the 5200 and xegs, I passed on those)

got my jaguar from mars merchanding back in 1994(around the time of the national rollout)

have a teken a break from playing it (yes and no) Yes, at home I have rested for while from playing it(on occasion I do play it a bit but not all the time) No, when Itake my jag to events like MGC or VGS I usally play it for a while over at the shows)

 

Mars Merchandising RULED! It was my Atari home away from home...I really miss riding my bike down the prarie path to Mars to pick up the latest Atari games and hardware! Those days ruled! I remember us talking about how it was hard to believe we never met since we both went there a lot...ahh, the 80's, Atari and Mars Merchandising...greatest time in history...I wouldn't trade those memories for all of Bill Gate's money.

[bark40oz]

i paid 249.99 for my jag, still have that one. ive gone through a few other ones also. bought the cd unit brand new for 199.99.still have my original one also.

 

i remeber spending 79.99 on cannon fodder.

correct me if im wrong.

[justclaws]

Hello,

i paid 249.99 for my jag, still have that one. ive gone through a few other ones also. bought the cd unit brand new for 199.99.still have my original one also.

i remeber spending 79.99 on cannon fodder.

correct me if im wrong.

So what currency are we talking?

I think the pricing can vary anyway by dealer to dealer, especially

in an import market like Australia from what I hear, even in the UK!

Your username suggests Australian dollars, but are you really in Oz?

79.99 sounds too high for UK GBP, but I surely paid GBP 49.95 in UK.

It's funny isn't it when people complain about prices today after that.

Cheers,

JustClaws.

[Alexius Wronka]

funny for about 5 minutes. I love Atari Systems but the Jag just rubs me the wrong way. Also I got this brother who will play Iron Soldier for hours and never stop. However, I will say that it's got a Wolfenstein that is Bar None to all others.

[Iron Draggon]

I got mine in 1994, right after the Jag CD came out. I bought the Jag and the Jag CD at the same time, along with Tempest 2000 of course. I think I ended up spending over $500 American on it all that day, but it was so worth it to me. I had T2K, Blue Lightning, and the VLM! That was enough for me until I could afford to start getting more games for it, soon after.

 

I'm still collecting for it too, but the price of the games is holding me back these days. I am hoping to get the rest of the games on my wishlist soon though. There's only about 3 or 4 that I want that I still don't have yet, not counting all the Songbird games. I'll start collecting them after I get those last 3 or 4 games that I want. I already have all the Telegames releases that I want, which is all of them except for one or two I think.

 

I won't ever sell it though. T2K and the VLM are still worth keeping it for. Besides, I already have almost all of the rarest games for it, why sell it?I'd rather go for all the ultra rare games that I don't have yet someday, like BSG and AirCars. Why not keep collecting for it when it's still cool?

 

It also helps alot that I already bought about half of all the games ever made for it way back when too. So I don't have alot of catching up to do. Otherwise, I probably would get frustrated with the high prices and give it up. The games tend to cost way more than they should for an old system.

[justclaws]

Hello,

 

I got mine in 1994, right after the Jag CD came out. I bought the Jag and the Jag CD at the same time, along with Tempest 2000 of course. I think I ended up spending over $500 American on it all that day, but it was so worth it to me. I had T2K, Blue Lightning, and the VLM! That was enough for me until I could afford to start getting more games for it, soon after.

I think memory serves you a little badly on the JagCD, as there was an

extended delay on the Jag CD shipping, so much that many people did

think it would never appear. However, the fact that you bought the CD

with the Jag and you thought it had just come out reinforces what a bad

job Atari did marketing the Jaguar in general, the Jack Tramiel saving

from "If it's cheap they will buy" and "Word of mouth works" philosophy.

 

I'm still collecting for it too, but the price of the games is holding me back these days. I am hoping to get the rest of the games on my wishlist soon though.

It seems to me that the Jaguar prices have gone mad because there's

been a general renaissance in video-gaming and "retro gaming" lately,

so collecting old systems has suddenly become hip, and prices soared?

 

I won't ever sell it though. T2K and the VLM are still worth keeping it for. Besides, I already have almost all of the rarest games for it, why sell it?I'd rather go for all the ultra rare games that I don't have yet someday, like BSG and AirCars. Why not keep collecting for it when it's still cool?

Exactly, collecting and playing, I don't go with "investment" collecting.

 

It also helps alot that I already bought about half of all the games ever made for it way back when too. So I don't have alot of catching up to do. Otherwise, I probably would get frustrated with the high prices and give it up. The games tend to cost way more than they should for an old system.

It may be though that most games still cost today less than they did...

 

Great to hear another Jag fan who collects to PLAY the games still...

 

Cheers,

JustClaws.