greenween

I'm excited to talk about it! Gotta work early, i'll be back tomorrow!

Whoa. That sounds really cool greenween. What's the objective of the game? How does the electronic tower know what's going on in the game? I might have to get this.

It was beautiful. Up to 4 players, the "tower" was electronic and would display battle stats, etc.Random encounters, dragons, finding keys and treasure!! I found a dos version years ago, not the same but it was pretty cool.

lol that DOES look like dark tower! It just needs the little flags. 

Was that the game that looked like a pizza with Devil's Tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the middle?

Oh how wonderfully geeky!!!
 

 
 
 

I remember this being the greatest board game of all time!! My best friend had it back in 82, I've found it in perfect condition on ebay for $200 and will have it soon!!!
 

I remember this being the greatest board game of all time!! My best friend had it back in 82, I've found it in perfect condition on ebay for $200 and will have it soon!!!
 

I have 2600, 5200 and 7800. I WILL have a Jaguar one day!

I have 2600, 5200 and 7800. I WILL have a Jaguar one day!

I feel bad for you greenween, you're missing out on something great. What Atari systems do you have?

Hopefully you can someday change that!

Sadly I have never even seen a Jaguar in real life!

I must first preface this by saying I have a soft spot for the Jaguar too. Yes, it failed to steal the spotlight from Nintendo and Sega but it was a valiant effort from an underdog who put out some decent games on a console that was years ahead of its time. It hurts my heart to see it so deeply maligned, often unfairly. That happens a lot with Atari, from E.T. all the way up to the Jaguar. I love the Jag very much and respect it for what it is. With that said, I don't want what I'm about to say to sound like a bash.
 
I had a pre-release console in November, 1993 and totally bought into the Bit Wars that had been going on ever since Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 went that route against Nintendo. "64-Bit! That means Jaguar is EIGHT TIMES better than the NES!" I proclaimed to my friends, who looked at me with a tremendous amount of skepticism. 
 
It became a tradition to have all the friends over for gaming Friday after class. At first everybody wanted to see the Jaguar. In 1993 Cybermorph came across as really impressive. Tempest became a group favorite.
 
Shortly after these gaming get-togethers became routine, somebody asked about the Atari 7800 sitting under the TV next to the Jaguar. "What games does that Atari play?" asked a friend, picking up the joystick and examining it oddly like a foreign object that fell from space. A decade after its release, with everybody in the room looking on, I put in Centipede and started it on Team Play. From that point on, nothing would ever be the same. We'd still play the Jag, but EVERYBODY came to play these classic arcade games on the 7800, and they would show up energized and excited. Even 2600 games like Warlords did well. We spent countless Friday afternoons playing Dig Dug, Xevious, Joust, Galaga and the rest, but Centipede would remain the favorite among the group.
 
So to be completely honest, what I love most about "the last true Atari" is that it taught me the most important lesson I would ever learn about play value in Silicon Valley: "Graphics don't make the game."

I have a soft spot in my heart for the Jaguar. In fact, it's the only Atari console that I have a complete retail collection for. I bought my first Jaguar with Wolfenstein 3D and Raiden in 1994. Twenty years on, a Jaguar is always hooked up to a tv and regularly played. But what is it about the Jaguar - the last true Atari - that makes it so endearing?

As much as it was an epic commercial failure, the Jaguar also signified wide-eyed hope and optimism. It was Atari's 64-bit Hail Mary pass. You get the sense in reading the interviews with Sam Tramiel that Atari Corp. genuinely believed that they would be dancing in the end zone and send Nintendo, Sega and that upstart 3DO back to the lockers. I loved that about the Jaguar and I was on board.

As it was, the dream wouldn't materialize. Atari would become a logo for officially licensed product and Jaguar would be unduly maligned by countless adolescent you tubers hoping to be the next AVGN. But if you can get past the hate, there are number of great games on the system - many exclusive to the Jag.

Indeed, for every Checkered Flag or Double Dragon V there is an Iron Soldier, a Tempest 2000, a Rayman or an AVP. Better still, many great games continue to come out on the Jaguar twenty years later. Games like Skyhammer, Iron Soldier 2, and Zero 5 are all fantastic post Atari releases. Plus, there are a handful of active developers like Reboot, MD Games and Orion that are showing this cat has many, many more lives.

So Jaguar fans, what do you love about the last true Atari?
 
 

Any of you guys play Magic? I have just gotten back into it after about a 15 year absence. It's really fun, but can be expensive.