Atari Jaguar emulators
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| |
| Developer | Atari |
|---|---|
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Fifth generation |
| Release date | 1993 |
| Discontinued | 1996 |
| Predecessor | Atari 7800 |
| Successor | Atari VCS |
| Emulated | ✓ |
The Atari Jaguar (AJ) was a fifth generation home video game console produced by Atari on November 23, 1993 and sold for $249.99. It had a Motorola 68000 CPU and 2 custom RISC CPUs. It has 2MB of RAM. Despite the intense marketing efforts by Atari, the Jaguar is, in fact, a 32-bit console with a 64-bit bus. The system's convoluted architecture didn't help matters either, which led most developers to just use the 68000 for gameplay logic. The console would prove to be the final home console release for Atari until the VCS in 2021. There was also a CD addon called the Atari Jaguar CD (AJ-CD).
In 2000, the console's patents were released into the public domain, which effectively made it an open system - the homebrew scene for the Jaguar is particularly active compared to its competitors (e.g. the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and Sega 32X) as a result.
Emulators[edit]
| Name | Platform(s) | Latest version | CoJag | AJ-CD | AJ-VR | JagLink | libretro | Retro Achievements[N 1] |
FLOSS | Active | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC / x86 | |||||||||||
| BigPEmu | 
|
1.091 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓* | ✓* | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| BizHawk | 
|
Dev builds 2.9.1 |
✗ | ~[N 2] | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| Virtual Jaguar virtualjaguar_libretro |
|
libretro core 2.1.2 Unofficial builds |
✗ | ✗* | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓* | ✓ | ~ [N 3] | ~ |
| Phoenix |
|
2.8.JAG | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MAME | 
|
git artifacts[N 4] 0.259 |
✓[N 5] | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Project Tempest |
|
0.95 | ✗ | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Tempest 2000 Emulator/T2K |
|
0.06 | ✗ | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ [N 6] |
| Mobile / ARM | |||||||||||
| Virtual Jaguar virtualjaguar_libretro |
 
|
libretro core 1.01git |
✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~[N 3] | ✓ |
| IrataJaguar |
|
1.0.7 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| Virtual Jaguar X2 | 
|
0.1a | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| Virtual Jaguar EX | 
|
1.0 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| MAME | [N 7]
|
libretro core | ✓[N 5] | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Console | |||||||||||
| virtualjaguar_libretro |   
|
libretro core | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓[N 3] | ✓ |
| pJag (Virtual Jaguar port) |
|
0.1 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
- ↑ Atari Jaguar achievements, Atari Jaguar CD achievements
- ↑ Only a few Jaguar CD games work and playable. All other Jaguar CD games have issues and are nearly unplayable.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Libretro core is still active.
- ↑ CI-Windows CI-Linux CI-Macos
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 MAME 0.259 version compatibility status for CoJag.
- ↑ Works perfectly for Tempest 2000 and the Jaguar CD VLM, but does not support other games.
- ↑ Only available as a libretro core.
Comparisons[edit]
- BigPEmu (compatibility)
- The newest and most compatible Atari Jaguar emulator, boasting 100% compatibility, and features Jaguar CD, Jaguar VR and JagLink support. Additionally, the emulator offers an option to increasing Blitter speed, making low frame rate titles (e.g., Alien vs. Predator) much more playable. There is also a project which implements some of the Mega Bezel shader presets to BigPEmu, by Duimon. A debugger-enabled build is available for BigPEmu patreon supporters.
- Virtual Jaguar (compatibility)
- An open-source emulator based on the original by the same name. It has excellent accuracy and performance. Use the link given as "nightly" on this page and choose the most current version from there.
- Phoenix (compatibility)
- About 95% of Jaguar titles are compatible. No support for AJ-CD/AJ-VR games. The PC version of the emulator is only available in Russian, but an English patch is available.
- MAME
- Preliminary support. Some games boot but the emulation is far from perfect.
- Project Tempest
- Was the first ever working Atari Jaguar emulator. It emulates some games, but most have issues. As its name suggests it was primarily made for Tempest 2000, with other games as secondary goals. Project Tempest is the first Jaguar emulator that supports Jaguar CD games, but only two are compatible; Primal Rage and Baldies (the latter has sound distortion though). It has not been updated since 2004.
- IrataJaguar
- The Phoenix emulation project is released as separate emulators for Android, this is the Jaguar version. Identical compatibility to PC version according to the author. Requires fast 64-bit CPU 2GHz+ or better for full speed.
Resources[edit]
External Links[edit]
- Digital Foundry's Inside the Atari Jaguar with Rich Whitehouse
- BigPEmu 1.09 - New network modes, Alien vs Predator multiplayer!
Also See[edit]
 |
Consoles: Atari 2600 • Atari 5200 • Atari 7800 • Atari XEGS • Atari Jaguar • Atari VCS Handhelds: Atari Lynx Computers: Atari 8-bit • Atari ST |
