Panther Dev Kit

[Sabertooth]

The Atari Jaguar FB account posted photos of an Atari Panther dev kit acquired by a collector. The dev kit was intended for developer Psygnosis and includes a manual saying "16 Bit." This is interesting as the Panther is commonly described as a 32 bit platform. Here's the link for those interested:

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1792770507416923&id=858046584222658

Edited September 13, 2017 by atarilbc

[Clint Thompson]

The Atari Jaguar FB account posted photos of an Atari Panther dev kit acquired by a collector. The dev kit was intended for developer Psygnosis and includes a manual saying "16 Bit." This is interesting as the Panther is commonly described as a 32 bit platform. Here's the link for those interested:

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1792770507416923&id=858046584222658

 

You know, I hadn't even realized that it said 16-bit as I was posting it! Nice catch, I wonder what the real story behind that is then or if it's because the processor was 16bit and something else was 32? It's mentioned as having the same Blossom video processor as the ATW800?

[Clint Thompson]

Also it's really interesting that the same people who made the very cool Wipeout was working with Atari. It's really too bad that didn't translate into any Jaguar games from them... 

[Clint Thompson]

Shadow of the Beast was apparently the title to be worked on for the Panther. What a really cool game choice to have had!

[Video 61]

The Atari Jaguar FB account posted photos of an Atari Panther dev kit acquired by a collector. The dev kit was intended for developer Psygnosis and includes a manual saying "16 Bit." This is interesting as the Panther is commonly described as a 32 bit platform. Here's the link for those interested:

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1792770507416923&id=858046584222658

 i have one, along with the paper work. when i got it out of atari, they told me it was going to be a 16 bit machine to compete with sega and nintindo. i have had mine since before the launch of the jaguar. it  looks kinda like a vcr, in a all metal black case.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Clint Thompson]

Hi Lance,

 

Do you have the manuals that came with it and software? If so, could you possibly posts these to share so we can try to get the unit working?

 

Also, were you able to get anything running on yours?

 

Thanks!

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Hmmm...I have a theory.  Maybe Panther was the concept before Jaguar.  

[RickR]

Wow, how fascinating! 

 

Here's the wikipedia page about the Panther:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Panther

 

What's really interesting to me is how games on the Atari 520ST really look and feel like Genesis games to me.  I'd imagine this Panther system, if it was really based on the ST, would have been great competition for the Genesis and SNES.  Probably too late, though. 

Edited September 14, 2017 by RickR

[RickR]

As for the dev kit saying "16 bit", I think it was pretty common for early dev systems to be based on older hardware.  It would have allowed a developer to get the bones of a game going while they ironed out the real hardware design.  The hopeful result would have been some third party games available with the launch of the console. 

[Video 61]

Hi Lance,

 

Do you have the manuals that came with it and software? If so, could you possibly posts these to share so we can try to get the unit working?

 

Also, were you able to get anything running on yours?

 

Thanks!

 i have no software that i am aware of. harry dodgson and his wife came to visit me at christmas time after i told him about it. we booted it, nothing, it may have had a hard drive in it, i cannot remember, there is firmware on the motherboard though. we never got that far with it once it looked like no software was on the drive. that may have been about 25 years ago.

 

 i have dev. paperwork. just getting it all scanned is a problem right now.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Video 61]

Hmmm...I have a theory.  Maybe Panther was the concept before Jaguar.  

 yes. but atari told me that they were making so much headway on the jaguar, that they abandoned the panther.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Video 61]

Wow, how fascinating! 

 

Here's the wikipedia page about the Panther:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Panther

 

What's really interesting to me is how games on the Atari 520ST really look and feel like Genesis games to me.  I'd imagine this Panther system, if it was really based on the ST, would have been great competition for the Genesis and SNES.  Probably too late, though. 

 correct, to late as usual. check into to the sega genesis, its basically a ST.

 

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Video 61]

As for the dev kit saying "16 bit", I think it was pretty common for early dev systems to be based on older hardware.  It would have allowed a developer to get the bones of a game going while they ironed out the real hardware design.  The hopeful result would have been some third party games available with the launch of the console. 

 atari told me that the panther was to be a 16-bit system, but they canned it because things were moving so well with the jaguar.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Clint Thompson]

Hi Lance,

 

I'm not sure if you would mind sending it to me so I could scan it all into a PDF to share with the community and then send your original documents back? Unless you mean problematic otherwise somehow. Would be great to preserve!

 

Thanks

 

 i have no software that i am aware of. harry dodgson and his wife came to visit me at christmas time after i told him about it. we booted it, nothing, it may have had a hard drive in it, i cannot remember, there is firmware on the motherboard though. we never got that far with it once it looked like no software was on the drive. that may have been about 25 years ago.

 

 i have dev. paperwork. just getting it all scanned is a problem right now.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

Edited September 14, 2017 by Clint Thompson

[Video 61]

Hi Lance,

 

I'm not sure if you would mind sending it to me so I could scan it all into a PDF to share with the community and then send your original documents back? Unless you mean problematic otherwise somehow. Would be great to preserve!

 

Thanks

 the problem is digging it out. i cannot right now. so once i am back to work, then i will try to put it on my to do list.

 

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Clint Thompson]

Thanks Lance!

 

PDS#7 testing is currently underway for any of those wanting to see updates:

 

www.facebook.com/AtariJaguar64/

[Video 61]

Thanks Lance!

 

PDS#7 testing is currently underway for any of those wanting to see updates:

 

www.facebook.com/AtariJaguar64/

i checked out your facebook page. nice by the way. one thing i noticed was your post on the panther coming out of chicago. you most likely know this, but if not. at one time atari had a office/warehouse/development dept. in lombard illinois.

 

 that is where atari had me dealing with first. the lombard complex told me that they needed me to help repair the damage to atari's vender/customer relationship.

 

 untold numbers of vendors and customers had ditched atari from lack of support. its how i ended up in distribution. by the early 1990, atari told me i was the largest purchaser of 2600 games in the world.

 

 of course it was a much smaller market by then, but i still sold tens of thousands of 2600 games all over the upper midwest, and parts of canada. then one day lombard disappeared without a trace.

 

 not one word from them. just a disconnect message on the phone. this was typical jack t. in action. i had to call sunnyvale to see what happened, and they transferred my distribution information to the main warehouse, and told me lombard was no more.

 

 they never even contacted their main distribution support in the upper midwest, just closed the place down in one day without a word.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Clint Thompson]

i checked out your facebook page. nice by the way. one thing i noticed was your post on the panther coming out of chicago. you most likely know this, but if not. at one time atari had a office/warehouse/development dept. in lombard illinois.

 

 that is where atari had me dealing with first. the lombard complex told me that they needed me to help repair the damage to atari's vender/customer relationship.

 

 untold numbers of vendors and customers had ditched atari from lack of support. its how i ended up in distribution. by the early 1990, atari told me i was the largest purchaser of 2600 games in the world.

 

 of course it was a much smaller market by then, but i still sold tens of thousands of 2600 games all over the upper midwest, and parts of canada. then one day lombard disappeared without a trace.

 

 not one word from them. just a disconnect message on the phone. this was typical jack t. in action. i had to call sunnyvale to see what happened, and they transferred my distribution information to the main warehouse, and told me lombard was no more.

 

 they never even contacted their main distribution support in the upper midwest, just closed the place down in one day without a word.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

 

Super fascinating to hear, thanks for sharing the story! I had no idea their Atari Entertainment Division existed in Chicago until just last week after researching more about the Panther.

 

Do you have any idea why they would have created the development manuals or maybe even distributed the kits from that location? It seems like such a small office but maybe looks are deceiving from Google maps:

 

[Clint Thompson]

Leonard Tramiel has confirmed that the video processor is in no way linked with the Panther. I've attached a video display sub system specification PDF - credit where credit is due: Leonard was kind enough to scan this document so it can be shared and TXG/MNX was kind enough to post it to the Panther group.

 

 

 

Panther - Display Sub-Sytem Specification - march 5, 1991.pdf

[Video 61]

Super fascinating to hear, thanks for sharing the story! I had no idea their Atari Entertainment Division existed in Chicago until just last week after researching more about the Panther.

 

Do you have any idea why they would have created the development manuals or maybe even distributed the kits from that location? It seems like such a small office but maybe looks are deceiving from Google maps:

 

AED.jpg

you are welcome.

 

 i am not sure about all of ataris operations in the Chicago area. i know they were in development, its where i got some of the information on the unreleased games for the 2600/7800, and the xe. there was even some work on the lynx also.

 

 the picture of the office, may have been only of the actual office part. and other facilities may have been in another part of the area. i asked them once what about their Massachusetts operations once, and why was the development from the u.k. being handled in chicago instead of out east. they never responded to me as to why, its just what atari wanted to do.

 

 by then the east coast operations may have already been terminated.

[Video 61]

Leonard Tramiel has confirmed that the video processor is in no way linked with the Panther. I've attached a video display sub system specification PDF - credit where credit is due: Leonard was kind enough to scan this document so it can be shared and TXG/MNX was kind enough to post it to the Panther group.

that was sure nice of him, thanks for sharing.

 

lance

www.atarisales.com

[Clint Thompson]

 

Rendering of the prototype design Panther console shell - notice the top 3 ridges and how they look exactly like the top of your Jaguar controller? 

[RickR]

Wooo, that console prototype shell looks good!  Any idea on what the controllers would have looked like?

[Clint Thompson]

Wooo, that console prototype shell looks good!  Any idea on what the controllers would have looked like?

 

Yeah, the Jaguar controller

[DegasElite]

The prototype shell says the Panther is 64-bit. Interesting, since it was supposed to be 32-bit. Someone must have goofed on the rendering.

Edited September 28, 2020 by DegasElite