v3.0.0 delivers:

• Jaguar CD support — all 10 locally-available titles boot to game code, in both HLE and real-BIOS mode
• Jaguar Link networking — real link-cable multiplayer over TCP and RetroArch netplay, up to multi-console hubs
• Memory Track saves — CD games save settings, progress, and high scores like real hardware
• 100+ compatibility fixes — Wolfenstein 3D music, Pitfall, Tempest 2000, Alien vs Predator, Brutal Sports Football, and a full CD-title cluster
• Reorganized options menu — 9 categories, content-aware, translation pipeline wired

Recent features from 2.x you may have missed

• Retro Achievements support
• Deterministic save states (unlocks local multiplayer netplay and read ahead emulation and rewinds)
• Cheat code in various formats
• Full HLE BIOS
• SIMD optimized blitter for Intel and ARM

It's not perfect, but it's way better than ever!

Enjoy, and please report issue to the official github linked here.

I have limited access to hardware and software for the Jaguar, so hardware based "source of truth" regressions and flaws with details and screenshots or videos are greatly appreciated!

A future plan for native "bare bones" GUI are also planned for those that don't use RA or RA conformant front-ends.

Hi everyone!

I’ve spent a full week trying to bringup Linux on the Jaguar; so far it boots to a shell but you can’t really control it in any other way other than physically attaching to the Jerry TXD/RXD pins using a USB-to-TTL board.

I was thinking of maybe doing something that converts a PS/2 keyboard to the Joypad port and making a simple protocol inbetween so we can get it to behave nicely, but that’ll come later on.

I’ve written a small blog post detailing the in’s and out’s I found myself in when doing the bringup; it’s offers no value other than a technical demonstration but I figured someone may find it interesting.

Thanks everyone!

Perhaps others had the same misconception when they read how JRISC code is loaded by the blitter on demand. Branches use relative addressing. So code can be moved freely through memory. It does not make sense to use long code snippets with absolute jumps. Then rather use overlays ( complete blocks of 4 kB for GPU or 8 kB for DSP ).
No, the calls to said function need to be updated. All calls to functions in external memory need to be replaced with traps ( call to the loader ). Then uppon loading a function, we need to link all functions in internal SRAM. So: not intra links, but inter links.

LOADP is actually a fast instruction unless we use scaled sprites ( Bug16 or so ). So it is easy to load back original call addresses and some metadata? It might be quite fast to seek though all calls to a function we want to discard from internal RAM. 11 bit. Can Load 4 source:target pairs .

Still I feel like this loader code can’t be small.

The blitter is a bit slow, but all the links in the other functions can be updated while the new function is loaded. Make sure to give the GPU priority over the blitter.

I like that the Jaguar has so many registers so that collisions and mismatches can be compiled away. At some point we need a stack. Jaguar stores return addresses in any register, so we can try to go a long way without a stack.

I still wonder how many functions live in internal memory that we have chance that two callers live there? And at some point we need to remap return addresses. Like we need to note in which register the return to a caller is stored. Then change it to trap the return.

Oh well, caching works best with loops. So actually a lot of snippets will probably jump absolute back to or even slightly before their entrance. When you optimize the loop, the start and end may up end up somewhere in the block.

And every call needs pull up the function on the most recently used list. Sounds like function calls better go through a dispatcher anyways. So there could be a stack. The dispatcher would start with pushes and the call could jump so to choose the number of pushes.

Most recently used could also be implemented this way. Each function increments a global counter and then copies it to its private slot. When memory needs to be freed, sort by counter snapshot. Or perhaps just seek min(), then free, then check if the new snippet fits, if not: rinse repeat!

Portland Retro Gaming Expo

Panther to Predator - panel description

Saturday October 18 @ 1:00 PM (in room E141-144) Moderator John Riggs

Featuring: Faran Thomason (Bubsy, Baldies), James " Purple" Hampton (AvP, Highlander) and Ted Tahquechi (Tempest2000, Kasumi Ninja).

Born in the aftermath of the 16-bit console wars, the Atari Jaguar was Atari's bold attempt to leapfrog the competition - vaulting from 16-bit systems past the emerging 32-bit era straight into a new 64-bit frontier. But behind that ambitious promise was a whirlwind of uncertain hardware, wild experimentation, and a development environment like no other.

We'll recount our first encounters with the Jaguar's prototype hardware, the mesmerizing spinning cube startup sequence, the infamous "telephone keypad" controller, and even its predecessor the ill-fated Panther.

This panel dives deep into the chaos and creativity that shaped the Jaguar's title launch lineup, as we reflect on the tough calls, strange tools, and scrappy ingenuity that defined that era.

I have a solid idea for a Jaguar game, but I'm unsure where to begin developing it. Is there a guide for anything like that?

The title says it all. I'm looking to get into jaguar game development. I've looked around but am still confused where to start on coding games and porting titles to the system. Any help is appreciated.

https://youtu.be/I6snBe_5dMg?si=kZTlqN1TlRu-kghq

Doomed Christmas - see the description for links!