dgrubb

Ah, the "if this doesn't scare you away you can stay" approach!

It's an awesome project, I hope they pull it off. I wonder if there's any possibility of a USB-based variant (or a Jag-to-USB adapter) for emulators?

In case you guys haven't already seen it elsewhere, we're close to having some PCBs made. Hopefully by the end of the month we will have a few in hand and start building one to see how possible recreating it will be overall.
 

I'll just copy and paste what I wrote on the other forums asking the same thing:
 
"I've been working with William of Mortoff Games for the past few months in making sure this is possible (plastic injected mold design and quotes, circuit design, assembly, testing on real hardware, etc. - the works) and could be a pathway to other things down the line should the interest actually be there. 
 
The controller will be 100% identical to the originals with the exception of the Atari logo on them for obvious reasons. From a quality stand point, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two but am open to fielding concerns and quality questions so we make sure it gets pushed back and addressed. Tactile feedback was mentioned and I want to make sure it's going to have the same feel.
 
If the demand is actually there (I'm giving it until December 31st, that's almost a good 2-months) then we'll proceed with getting prototypes sent back to ensure the quality on the circuitry is as expected and update everyone accordingly along the way. If not, then I guess the $150+ on eBay option will remain."
 

There was an exciting post today over on the Atari Jaguar Facebook page. Apparently, some folks are working on a reproduction of the Jaguar ProController. If you're a Jaguar fan, you know that the ProController vastly improves on the original Jaguar controller in terms of feel and function. Many of the late releases (1995 and beyond) have ProController support that enhances gameplay. Unfortunately, these controllers regularly exceed $200 on eBay, making them out of reach for many gamers. The reproductions will reportedly cost $50-60. They are asking for an interest check now but I'm hopeful that this comes to fruition. Maybe Clint can confirm and provide more information?
 

Atari forum,

 My boss in the lab was Don and the first thing he did was put a small
 aluminum box on my desk and said "see what you can do with this".  It was
 about 4 X 4 X 2 inches, had an on/off switch on the side and a panel on
 the top with 4 leds and 4 buttons.  It was the first prototype for the "Touch
 Me" game, the forerunner of "Simon".  I played it all day.  It wasn't a very
 successful game but we had an arcade size prototype in the lab and we would
 play it as a 4 player game.  Each player was assigned to a button and as the
 game progressed everyone would forget when it was their time to press their
 button.  It was a hilarious.

 Later that week I attended an in house class that taught all new engineers the
 circuity used in Pong, concentrating on the composite sync signal.  I think the
 instructor's name was Mac.  I had a basic understanding of electronics
 including integrated circuits and transistors but much of this was new to me.

 On the wall in the classroom was a clock that was upside down, the face was a
 mirror image and it ran back words.  I thought "welcome to Atari" which was
 starting out to be different than any other place I had ever worked.

 After the class I was pretty much left alone to figure out where I could
 best contribute to the success of this amazing company.

 The production floor at Atari similar to most.  It was a large open area with
 a flow solder machine and pc board assembly on one end and final assembly for
 the cabinets on the other end.  There were probably about 100 people working
 in that area.  During break time the final assembly workers played foosball
 on a machine set up in their area.

 On the final assembly end of the building there was a model shop run by a guy
 named Holly.  He had 5 or 6 young men working for him making parts for the
 game currently in production.  In the shop there was a lathe, milling machine,
 router, thermal forming machine, table saw, etc.  Most of this equipment was
 very familiar to me because I had been a machinist at one time.  Holly and I
 struck up an instant friendship and I had the run of the shop.

 There was a large fish tank in the lobby made of inch thick plexiglass.  I
 later learned that it was made in this shop.

 With all this equipment available to me I convinced my boss that I could build
 the cabinet, mount the TV, make the wire harness, install the coin handling,
 and basically make the first complete prototype for any new game. I would just
 need help with the graphics on the cabinet because I have no art gene.

 This became my function but it didn't make our mechanical designers or
 draftsmen very happy because when I completed a prototype game I would put it
 next to their drawing board and have then measure what I made and make
 drawings.  There was no thinking or creativity left for them to do.

 I'll post more as I try to recall events from over 40 years ago.

 Thanks for viewing.
Jerryd
 

I really dislike the aesthetics of this, reminiscent of an adolescent's impression of what manly toughness is (really, you're going with "Spartan?").
 
Besides that, what makes this different to the current crop of consoles? If you're not going to compete on ideas (like Nintendo) then you're just playing a game of attrition with Sony and Microsoft who, I'm sure, have much deeper pockets.

I really dislike the aesthetics of this, reminiscent of an adolescent's impression of what manly toughness is (really, you're going with "Spartan?").
 
Besides that, what makes this different to the current crop of consoles? If you're not going to compete on ideas (like Nintendo) then you're just playing a game of attrition with Sony and Microsoft who, I'm sure, have much deeper pockets.

its simply amazing how much atari dumped into hardware, yet did almost nothing game wise. when jack t. told me and bruce at b&c computervisions that atari was working on a jaguar 2 to make up for all of the mistakes on the jaguar 1, we asked him what about games, how about supporting the jaguar first before you plan on more hardware. it looks like he wanted more hardware.
 
 he never understood that no matter how good the hardware was, you needed games, lots of games, games can be so so, good, nitch games, even great games, that's what it takes, a wide variety of games.
 
lance
www.atarisales.com

Thanks go to John Hardie for scanning this in. Confirmation that work was done on this and not just a case mockup!
 

Yeah, the Orbit controller chip is a proprietary chip but... I got a hold of someone who may have that as well. There's a lot of stuff to do and go through.
 
 

On the case design: Ira Valinksy was the designer of the JagDuo and most of the later Atari products. Sadly he passed away at an early age quite a long time ago. Some sort of page in dedication and memory is definitely in order.
 
You're correct about the expansion port - it is similar to that of the Jaguar 2 design as well. No idea what they could have had in mind for use regarding the expansion port really.
 
While it's doubtful anything will come of the efforts, I am in contact with the original board manufacturer who produced this board to see if any possible archives of the original PCB files exist. There are other options as well but obviously having the original files would be the easiest. The biggest chip challenge would be the Orbit CD controller chip that is found in the Jaguar CD units. Very little information on those seem to be available.
 
While also unlikely, it could also be possible to have new Tom and Jerry chips made thanks to wafer pooling in the modern age bringing costs substantially down and the available netlists. In a best price scenario, they would still probably be roughly $60 a chip due to such a low or limited qty run.