Meanwhile, the oldest videogame company was also making its plans for 1993. Unlike 3DO, gaming pioneer Atari initially was highly secretive about its forthcoming Jaguar. In an early 1992 press release, Bob Schuricht, Atari’s National Sales Director, claimed that the company was considering several configurations for the Jaguar, including both 32- and 64-bit architectures. But the press release was vague about how software would be loaded into the machine, citing just about every input device imaginable, from cartridges, CDs and diskettes to keyboards and modems. Atari wasn’t taking any chances. It planned to use whichever technology the industry seemed to be heading towards. By not committing itself to any set technology, Atari planned its Jaguar to be at the forefront of the videogame industry, once it would finally be released.

By the end of the year, Atari’s offiicals were finally willing to speak openly about the Jaguar. The system would be 64-bit and was scheduled for release sometime in the summer of 1993. It would contain a RISC-based processor and new custom chips that would allow for scaling, rotation and stereo sound. It would accept cartridge-based games that would contain more memory than SNES cartridges, but less than those for the Neo•Geo.

Check out more of the rich history of the industry in Leonard Herman’s book Phoenix IV available at Rolenta Press www.RolentaPress.com and make sure to sign up to get Old School Gamer Magazine for free by clicking here!

Leonard Herman Leonard Herman (26 Posts)

Leonard Herman, The Game Scholar, is regarded as one of the earliest and most respected videogame historians. The first edition of his book Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Home Videogames, which was published in 1994, is considered to be the first serious and comprehensive book about the history of videogames. He has written articles for Videogaming & Computer Illustrated, Games Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Pocket Games, Classic Gamer Magazine, Edge, Game Informer, Classic Gamer Magazine, Manci Games, Gamespot.com and Video Game Trader, which he also edited. He has also contributed articles to several videogame-related books, including Supercade, The Video Game Explosion and The Encyclopedia of Video Games. Mr. Herman has also written the book ABC To the VCS (A Directory of Software for the Atari 2600), a compendium of game summaries. He has also written and designed user's manuals for the following Atari VCS games: Cracked, Save the Whales, Pick-Up, Rush Hour, Looping, The Entity and Lasercade, as well as the user's guide to Ralph Baer's Pinball! for the Odyssey2. In 1994, he founded Rolenta Press, a publisher of videogame books, whose catalogue included Videogames: In the Beginning, by Ralph H. Baer, the inventor of the videogame console, and Confessions of the Game Doctor by Bill Kunkel, the world's first videogame journalist. Two Rolenta Press books were included in a list of the top ten videogame books of all time by Game Informer magazine in 2008. Mr. Herman has served as an advisor for Videotopia, Classic Gaming Expo and the National Videogame Museum. He has appeared in several episodes of G4's Icons and in the documentary, The King of Arcades. In 2003, Mr. Herman received a Classic Gaming Expo Achievement Award in recognition for his accomplishments in documenting game history