790 Meg Tune-Up

The Jaguar CD is often described as an 'ill-fated' add-on. I personally cannot stand that phrase (when do you ever use such language except to describe a console peripheral that didn't sell much?!), and hate it almost as much as 'moribund,' and 'bedraggled' when it comes to writing about games systems. However, the the truth is that the Jaguar CD was an unsuccessful attempt by Atari to extend the lifespan of the Jaguar base system. In principle it looked like a pretty sound investment - you've already got the base unit, and adding the CD drive makes it a console equipped to touch gloves with the new heavyweights from Sega and Sony, right? That's what Atari wanted consumers to think anyway...even though the Mega CD was already on it's arse and about to be superseded by the Saturn...and that's essentially what the Jaguar CD was.

I do recall going into a branch of Silica in the Manchester branch of Debenhams (another game shop from the past) and seeing a stack of Jaguar CD boxes but being uninterested because I already had a Sega Mega CD at the time *cough.* If I knew then what I know now...well, I'd more that likely have done everything I could to secure at least a truck load. Only 20,000 Jaguar CD units were produced and so the add-on is now a highly desirable item for Jaguar enthusiasts. Reports of a high failure rate with the hardware still haven't dampened my ambitions to one day own a Jaguar CD, and I really want to play Battlemorph because it looks fucking amazing...but for now, I'll console myself with watching videos on Youtube and reading old adverts like this:

Trivia: 4 of the games shown here never came to the Jaguar CD officially. You buy? YOU BUY?!

One thing's for sure now though - you won't get a Jaguar CD for $149 (or the equivalent £3.79) these days...!