Atari Jaguar emulators

Atari Jaguar

Developer	Atari
Type	Home video game console
Generation	Fifth generation
Release date	November 23, 1993
Discontinued	1996
Introductory price	$249.99
Predecessor	7800 ProSystem, Panther
Successor	VCS
Emulated	✓

The Atari Jaguar (AJ) was a fifth generation home video game console released by Atari in 1993. 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	Latest version	Atari CoJag	Hardware features and accessories	Enhancements	Compatibility	License	Active	Recommended
x86
BigPEmu	1.15	✗	✓	✓	100%	Proprietary	✓	✓
BizHawk (Virtual Jaguar)	Dev builds 2.10-rc1	✗	~	~	?	MIT GPL	✓	~
Virtual Jaguar virtualjaguar_libretro	libretro core 2.1.2 Unofficial builds	✗	✗	~	95%	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	~ ^{[N 1]}	~
Phoenix	2.8.JAG	✗	✗	✗	95%	Proprietary	✗	✗
MAME	git artifacts^{[N 2]} 0.270 libretro core	✓^{[N 3]}	✗	~	?	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✓	✗
Project Tempest	0.95	✗	~*	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
Tempest 2000 Emulator/T2K	0.06	✗	~*	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗ ^{[N 4]}
ARM
BigPEmu	1.15	✗	✓	✓	100%	Proprietary	✓	✓
Virtual Jaguar virtualjaguar_libretro	libretro core 1.01 git	✗	✗	~	95%	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	~^{[N 1]}	✓
IrataJaguar	1.0.7	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
Virtual Jaguar X2	0.1a	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
Virtual Jaguar EX	1.0	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
MAME	libretro core	✓^{[N 3]}	✗	~	?	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✓	✗
Console
virtualjaguar_libretro	libretro core	✗	✗	~	95%	Proprietary	✓^{[N 1]}	✓
DCJag (Virtual Jaguar port)	N/A	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
pJag (Virtual Jaguar port)	0.1	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Libretro core is still active.
↑ CI-Windows CI-Linux CI-Macos
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 MAME 0.270 version compatibility status for CoJag.
↑ Works perfectly for Tempest 2000 and the Jaguar CD VLM, but does not support other games.

Comparisons[edit]

BigPEmu: The newest and most compatible Atari Jaguar emulator by Rich Whitehouse, boasting 100% compatibility, and one of the best emulator when it comes to enhancement capabilities and supports all of the hardware features, peripherals. Written for Digital Eclipse as the Jaguar emulator for Atari 50, meaning it's not FLOSS due to its private contractual obligations.
Virtual Jaguar: An open-source emulator based on the original by the same name. Use the link given as "libretro core" on this page and choose the most current version from there.
Phoenix: 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.

Enhancements[edit]

Name		BigPEmu	BizHawk	VirtualJaguar	MAME
Graphics	Resizable Internal Resolution	✓	?	?	?
	Widescreen hack	?	?	?	?
	Texture Replacement	✓^{[N2 1]}	?	?	?
Performance	Overclock	✓^{[N2 1]}	?	?	?
Performance	Internal Framerate Hack	✓^{[N2 1]}	?	?	?
Post-Processing	Post-rendering AA (FXAA, TXAA and MLAA/SMAA)	✓^{[N2 2]}	?	?	?
	Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and FSR 1)	✓	?	✓	✓
	Filters	✓	✓	~^{[N2 3]}	✓
	AI-powered filter compatible (Freestyle)	?	?	?	?
	Shader Chain	✓^{[N2 4]}	✗	~^{[N2 3]}	✓
	Inverse tone mapping compatible	✓	?	✓*	?
TAS features	Macros/Scripts/Lua	✓	✓	?	?
	Rewind	✓	✓	?	?
	Fast-Forward/Turbo Speed	✓	✓	?	?
	Savestates	✓	✓	?	?
	Movie recording/playback	✓	✓	?	?
Controls	Input lag-mitigating technique	✓	?	?	?
	Mouse Injector Compatible	~^{[N2 1]}	✗	✗	✗
	True/dual analog control	~^{[N2 1]}	?	?	?
Quality of life	Per-Game Profiles	✓*	✓	?	✓
	Command Line Options	✓*	✓*	✓	✓
	Streamable compression format	✗	?	~^{[N2 3]}	✓
	Built-in Graphics mod editor/manager	?	?	?	?
	Built-in Cheat Manager	?	?	?	?
	Built-in Patch Manager	?	?	?	?
	Big Picture Mode	✓	✗	~^{[N2 3]}	✓
	Built-in Custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows OS you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility".	~^{[N2 5]}	Exclusive to libretro cores and GroovyMAME at the moment. Also there is a project for achieving software emulators like libretro cores and GroovyMAME send the raw RGB data over a network to a core running on MiSTer, it basically turns the MiSTer into a GPU for the emulator allowing for easy setup and use with CRT TVs/Arcade monitors.
Misc	Netplay	✓	?	?	?
	EmuVR support	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	AI Service With the help of OCR and other techniques, the AI service can provide a live translation of a game, or text-to-speech capabilities for the visually impaired among other things, either on demand or automatically.	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	Free Look Free Look is a enhancement feature that allows manipulation of the in-game camera.	While freecam would be technically possible, it will require per-game patches. Said patches would require a significant amount of time to reverse the game's engine, which means that only someone talented with enough dedication to a single game could do it.
	RetroAchievements Atari Jaguar, Atari Jaguar CD	✗	✓	~^{[N2 3]}	✗
	Debug Features	✓*	?	?	?

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 BigPEmu offers an option to increase blitter speed, making low frame rate titles (e.g., Alien vs. Predator) much more playable. Also features a powerful scripting system. BigPEmu version 1.092 added analog/mouselook support to the AvP, Wolfenstein 3D, Iron Soldier scripts (includes always-strafe and always-run options). To use the new AvP/Wolf3D mouselook, enable the respective script, set either input device 1 or 2 to "Analog" as the device type, and bind the first 2 analog inputs to whatever you choose. Mouse, analog stick, whatever.
↑ Existing RetroArch AA shaders work with it after automatic conversion with the tool.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 Only available for libretro core. Virtual Jaguar libretro core RetroAchievement support.
↑ There is a project called duimon-bigpemu which implements some of the Mega Bezel shader presets to BigPEmu, by Duimon.
↑ BigPEmu will auto-detect available display modes (resolutions at ideal frequency) and present them, which should include vertical resolutions down to 200p.

Hardware features and accessories[edit]

Name	BigPEmu	BizHawk
JagLink	✓*	✗
VR	✓*	✗
CD	✓	~^{[N3 1]}
Pro Controller^{[N3 2]}	~	~
TeamTap	?	✗

↑ Only a few Jaguar CD games work and playable. All other Jaguar CD games have issues and are nearly unplayable.
↑ This controller's extra buttons map to the keypad . Therefore, it can be treated as a standard controller.

Jaguar CD[edit]

The Jaguar CD has a double-speed (2×) drive and built-in VLM (Virtual Light Machine) software by Jeff Minter, using a spectrum analyzer for a sophisticated video light show for audio CDs.[1]

See this dedicated page for more information about home media playback support for emulation softwares.
See Ripping games.

External Links[edit]

Consoles: Atari 2600 • Atari 5200 • Atari 7800 • Atari XEGS • Atari Jaguar • Atari VCS
Handhelds: Atari Lynx
Computers: Atari 8-bit • Atari ST

[active-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Libretro core is still active.

[2] CI-Windows CI-Linux CI-Macos

[MameCojag-3] 3.0 ^3.1 MAME 0.270 version compatibility status for CoJag.

[t2k-4] Works perfectly for Tempest 2000 and the Jaguar CD VLM, but does not support other games.

[BigPEmuScripts-5] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 BigPEmu offers an option to increase blitter speed, making low frame rate titles (e.g., Alien vs. Predator) much more playable. Also features a powerful scripting system. BigPEmu version 1.092 added analog/mouselook support to the AvP, Wolfenstein 3D, Iron Soldier scripts (includes always-strafe and always-run options). To use the new AvP/Wolf3D mouselook, enable the respective script, set either input device 1 or 2 to "Analog" as the device type, and bind the first 2 analog inputs to whatever you choose. Mouse, analog stick, whatever.

[6] Existing RetroArch AA shaders work with it after automatic conversion with the tool.

[LibretroEx-7] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 ^3.4 Only available for libretro core. Virtual Jaguar libretro core RetroAchievement support.

[8] There is a project called duimon-bigpemu which implements some of the Mega Bezel shader presets to BigPEmu, by Duimon.

[9] BigPEmu will auto-detect available display modes (resolutions at ideal frequency) and present them, which should include vertical resolutions down to 200p.

[10] Only a few Jaguar CD games work and playable. All other Jaguar CD games have issues and are nearly unplayable.

[11] This controller's extra buttons map to the keypad . Therefore, it can be treated as a standard controller.

[N 1]

[N 2]

[N 3]

[N 4]

[N2 1]

[N2 2]

[N2 3]

[N2 4]

[N2 5]

[N3 1]

[N3 2]

Atari Jaguar emulators

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Enhancements[edit]

Hardware features and accessories[edit]

Jaguar CD[edit]

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