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The big picture: The Jaguar was Atari's final attempt to stay competitive in the increasingly crowded home console market before Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Saturn took over a year after its 1993 launch. Though it never found commercial success, the Jaguar still maintains a dedicated fanbase that appreciates its unique technology and standout games like Tempest 2000.
Well, those fans are in for a treat, as the Jaguar's legacy is about to get a new lease on life – on iOS. Rich Whitehouse, a programmer with a passion for digital preservation, has been hard at work developing a Jaguar emulator for Apple's platform. And from the looks of it, the project is nearly ready for prime time.
Whitehouse, who also serves as the head of digital conservation at The Video Game History Foundation, recently shared a screenshot of his emulator running Tempest 2000 in all its retro glory. While he admits there's "still lots of work to be done," he aims to have the app ready for release on the App Store sometime in October.
It's alive! Still lots of work to be done, but I'm hoping to have this ready to go sometime next month. pic.twitter.com/xwsNI9Hh9P
– Rich Whitehouse (@DickWhitehouse) September 26, 2024
The upcoming emulator is the latest in a wave of retro gaming apps to hit iOS since Apple relaxed its policies a few months back. Previously, the tech giant had banned any apps running external code, which meant no game emulators at all. But now that they've opened the floodgates, multi-system emulators like Delta, along with dedicated recreations for classic consoles ranging from the Sega Saturn to the Nintendo 3DS, are available for everyone to enjoy.
As for the "unique tech" mentioned earlier, Atari heavily promoted the Jaguar's 64-bit support through flashy ads. However, this marketing strategy backfired, with many accusing the company of deceptive practices.
While some components indeed processed data at 64 bits, the CPU itself was only 32-bit. To make matters worse, the Jaguar's unconventional hardware and poor development tools made it a nightmare for developers to create games, leading to a very limited library and ultimately sealing the console's commercial failure.
Still, the Jaguar produced cult hits like Alien vs. Predator, Battlemorph, and the standout Tempest 2000. There's certainly an appetite among retro gamers to revisit these classics on modern hardware, and thanks to Whitehouse's work, they'll soon have the chance to do just that.