It was a weird estuary between the toys of the 16-bit generation and what came later.

A lot of problems were created by poor decisions by the Trammels (family of hardnosed businessmen who owned Atari at this point) but the game industry was about to become big business in a way that would run the old order out of town and leave the 5th generation of consoles as a peculiar footnote in gaming history. Huge mistakes were made with the Jaguar, there is no doubt but in 2022 the console, and its legacy feels misunderstood. There is an awful lot to unpack about the Jaguar, a console that regularly features on “worst console of all time” lists. It was probably at this point, 2 months after launch that Atari had messed up the slim chance, they had of being successful. This upset a lot of people who were willing to buy one, at a time when the Atari brand was mud. Demand that they couldn’t match, meaning that most of the pre-orders had to be cancelled, and most people who pre-ordered a machine for Christmas, didn’t get one. Indeed, Atari had a lot of initial demand. In the age of the Bit Wars, where more bits MUST mean a console is BETTER, the 64-bit Jaguar, retailing at 250 US Dollars, is surely a guaranteed seller. The age of the 16 Bit games machine, dominated by Sega and Nintendo is coming to an end and Atari think that their 64-bit Jaguar is positioned to take over.

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