did atari make more revenue from patent suits than it did with the jaguar?

[Anarchist420]

just wondering. i was guessing so, but i am not sure because tom kalinske, one of the best CEOs ever (even if he promoted the 32X at the expense of the Saturn, neither could've existed had he not gotten the genesis running and kicking nintendo in the ass for awhile), was smart enough to settle out of court with Sam Tramiel in 1995 rather than pay Atari Corp. damages in USD.

the jaguar had one of the worst libraries of any console ever (it made the Nintendo 64's library look good) although it had a few excellent games and some of the games that are commonly said to be complete excrement werent as awful as they are said to be.

the 3DO had an excellent library though and it was an excellent piece of hardware for its day.

 

[shortylickens]

Would not surprise me. The Jaguar bombed horribly and sunk their hardware division.

Though I dont agree about the 3DO. It had a meh library and the hardware might have been decent, but underused and underappreciated.

 

[shortylickens]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_failures_in_video_gaming

 

[mmntech]

Hey now, the N64 had an excellent library. All be it a small one. I actually prefer it to the original PlayStation. I really need to fine an s-video cable for mine, and break it out again.

The Jaguar had a number of problems. First, it oversold itself on its performance. They claimed it was 64-bit, which turned out to be nothing more than a marketing gimmick. The only 64-bit component inside was a non-programmable chip that handled video output. It could barely handle 3D, and really wasn't a substantial leap over the Genesis and SNES. Especially games that used the FX Chip/Virtua Processor.

The cartridges were also quite small, about 6MB according to Wikipedia. That would have been a huge limitation for developers. Everyone knew the next gen was going to be CD based. Even the N64 had 64MB cartridges, and developers still complained that wasn't enough. Which is probably why they ended up releasing the Jaguar CD. Of course nobody wanted to fork out $150 for an add-on that should have been built into the console from day one.

That and the games just plain sucked for it. "Where did you learn to fly?"

Reading the list of failed video games, it really breaks my heart to see Okami and Grim Fandango lumped into the same category as ET and Daikatana.

 

[Zor Prime]

Jaguar had a few gems that were pretty awesome.

Tempest was badass. I got the Jaguar for this game alone.

Iron Soldier was awesome.

AvP was a system-seller game for some people. It was stunning, but low FPS pissed me off and everyone else.

Jaguar had the best port of Doom according to Carmack himself.

Guess which console Rayman landed on first? Yup, Jaguar.

It's also home to one of the most highly sought games, Battlesphere.

System was notoriously complex to develop for ... 5 processors, mix of 16/32bit stuff with 64bit system memory and the blitter had 64bit registers. Strange stuff. It also had fun errata which developers would stumble across.

As for the court stuff, not sure. I know Atari sued Sega over the Genesis controller pinout, or some such thing.

 

[Exophase]

As for the court stuff, not sure. I know Atari sued Sega over the Genesis controller pinout, or some such thing.

That's funny. I remember I used to use a Gemini controller plugged into a Genesis for player two on Sonic. Worked decently for Sonic since the game only used one button, even if a joystick isn't always a great substitute for a dpad.

For the vast majority who have no idea what I'm talking about, Gemini was an Atari 2600 clone made by Coleco. The controller had both a joystick (and a much better one than the 2600 model, IMO) and a paddle integrated together.

 

[Zor Prime]

That's pretty funny. I actually do believe I remember trying an Atari controller in a Genesis once and hey, it worked.

I had a ColecoVision with an Atari 2600 add-on thingy ... it was like the Laserdisc system of the past. I remember a paddle but I could have sworn it had dual buttons, one on each side.

Gorf on Colecovision was AWESOME ... !!! but yea, that's a different topic. =)

 

[mmntech]

That's pretty funny. I actually do believe I remember trying an Atari controller in a Genesis once and hey, it worked.

I had a ColecoVision with an Atari 2600 add-on thingy ... it was like the Laserdisc system of the past. I remember a paddle but I could have sworn it had dual buttons, one on each side.

Gorf on Colecovision was AWESOME ... !!! but yea, that's a different topic. =)

I still can't believe Atari allowed that ColecoVision addon. That would be like Sony selling an Xbox One emulator for the PS4. It definitely was the wild west back in the early 80s.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I never did own any atari consoles. Probably one of the few brands I never had myself.

 

[mmntech]

I never did own any atari consoles. Probably one of the few brands I never had myself.

You and everyone else after the 2600. ^_^

When I was in junior high, my best friend at the time had one. Think it was his dad's. It was pretty cool. I remember playing Combat and Asteroids on it.

One day I'm going to set up my HTPC to emulate a bunch of old consoles. Bit of a pain in the arse to get it working through XBMCbuntu though.

 

[Exophase]

I still can't believe Atari allowed that ColecoVision addon. That would be like Sony selling an Xbox One emulator for the PS4. It definitely was the wild west back in the early 80s.

Atari did in fact file a lawsuit with Coleco, but they settled out of court. Coleco agreed to pay Atari royalties.

Software emulators, on the other hand, haven't ever been successfully beaten in court, although I'm sure they'd still try something if a direct competitor did it. Then again, since the real money is in licensing fees, adding compatibility for the competitor's games isn't awfully attractive...

 

[cmdrdredd]

You and everyone else after the 2600. ^_^

When I was in junior high, my best friend at the time had one. Think it was his dad's. It was pretty cool. I remember playing Combat and Asteroids on it.

One day I'm going to set up my HTPC to emulate a bunch of old consoles. Bit of a pain in the arse to get it working through XBMCbuntu though.

A friend had an atari. We both had NES and I also had a Commodore 64.