This is the home of the Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt portable Jaguar emulator which is based on the source code released by David Raingeard (Cal2) of what used to be Potato Emulation (URL kept for historic reasons). You can usually find the latest release of the emulator as well as sporadic news about the development of it here. For discussions concerning development and/or use of VJ, please use the official SDLEmu forum over at emuforums.
If you would like to contribute something to the Virtual Jaguar cause, you can send some Bitcoin style lovin’ to this address, or Litecoin to this address. ;-)
| 2014-10-10 | Virtual Jaguar 2.1.2 is released! This is a bugfix release; see the README for details. |
| 2014-10-08 | Virtual Jaguar 2.1.1 is released! Major changes to gamepad support is the main feature this time around; we’ve gone from a Jaguar controller centric configuration to a device centric configuration. What this means is that you can configure your gamepad devices and Virtual Jaguar will remember them all (including the keyboard!). See the README and built-in help for full details. :-) |
| 2013-07-03 | The latest version (2.1.0) for Mac OS X is now available. We Apologize For The Inconvenience. ;-) |
| 2013-05-20 | The next iteration of Virtual Jaguar is just around the corner. This will bring some needed fixes to gamepad support, and some minor improvements to the core. And yes, the toolbar will be gone in full screen mode as well. |
| 2013-02-05 | Virtual Jaguar 2.1.0 is released! Major improvements to sound is the main feature this time around, as well as support for gamepads and fullscreen. See the README for full details. :-) |
| 2012-07-15 | We’ve switched the Virtual Jaguar repository from SVN to GIT, since all the cool kids are doing it these days. Not wanting to miss out on this particular bandwagon, we jumped right on that sucker with a vengeance! Details on how to work it are down below. :-) |
| 2012-04-28 | Some fairly major changes are coming to Virtual Jaguar in the DSP handler. It should give better performance (and sound!) on multi-core systems. Assuming all goes well, this will be included in the upcoming 2.1.0 release. Plans are also in place to add a few remaining missing things, such as full screen capability and gamepad support. |
| 2012-01-05 | Virtual Jaguar 2.0.2 is released! We fixed some stuff that broke on the last release, and improved a few things. Vague enough for you? :-) See the README for details. ;-) |
| 2011-10-17 | Virtual Jaguar 2.0.1 is released. Since it’s a point release, you can expect the changes to be minor, and indeed, they are. See the README for details. ;-) |
| 2011-10-12 | We are pleased to announce the release of Virtual Jaguar 2.0.0! Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the forums. We hope you enjoy it! |
| 2011-08-25 | r391 marks our second release candidate for 2.0.0! Unless any showstoppers pop up at the last minute, this will be our 2.0.0 release. Speak now, or forever wait for the next revision! ;-) |
| 2011-08-01 | With r386 we have our first release candidate for 2.0.0! Please try it and let us know in the forums if you have any issues. Links for Win32 and MacOSX executables can also be found at Atari Age in the Jaguar forum as well. |
| 2011-07-07 | It’s getting very close now, still some polish and testing is needed. Also, we have people to build Mac and Win32 versions, so those of you stuck on those platforms will be able to join in the fun. ;-) Also, the experimental branch worked out so well that we’ve decided to merge it back into trunk. All action will be in trunk from now on, at least until Shamus decides to branch off again. ;-) |
| 2011-06-23 | Virtual Jaguar 2.0.0 is coming! We have a few more things to polish, like the configuration dialog, but once that’s done we’ll have an official release. We hope you like it! |
| 2010-08-18 | Wow, has it really been two years since we last updated this page? How time flies! It’s like Deja Vu all over again! ;-) At any rate, Shamus is working deep in an experimental branch on the next version of Virtual Jaguar, which will be 2.0.0. Can’t say much more than that, other than we hope that you’ll like it! ;-) |
| 2008-10-14 | Wow, has it really been two years since we last updated this page? How time flies! That means that Shamus’ son was just edging towards the two year old mark! But I digress. The big news this time around is that while we’re waiting for Niels to show up, we’ve temporarily moved the main development trunk to SVN sitting on Shamus’ server! Details on how to get the development source can be found down below, near the anonymous CVS checkout procedure. Yes, now you too can experiment with broken code! |
| 2006-09-22 | Things are quiet—a little too quiet… At any rate, development of Virtual Jaguar has only slowed down to a glacial pace, not stopped. Yes, we’re still here, and if we were going away we would let you know in no uncertain terms. The next release will be 1.1.0, since it’s a major rewrite of the blitter (and hopefully the last, since it’ll be correct this time!). No ETA as of yet, because Shamus is going through some major life changes at the moment (as if having a baby isn’t major enough!). We’re also hoping that Ryan will switch the project over to subversion soon (Mmm, subversion…). Stay tuned… |
| 2005-08-10 | It’s been quiet, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is going on (as usual ;-). Shamus has been busy with a rewrite of the blitter, and it’s looking very promising. Once it’s stable, we’ll probably do a 1.1.0 release. Keep an eye out! |
| 2005-05-24 | Development continues, albeit slowly at the moment. Shamus hasn’t had much free time over the last six months—hmm, I wonder why? ;-) Virtual Jaguar is getting a new timer based execution core which will hopefully fix up some lingering timing issues as well as a much needed facelift to the GUI. As a result, CVS builds may or may not work well. You know where to send the patches. ;-) Thanks go to Aaron Giles for the timer idea (yeah, yeah, we know—it’s been around quite a few years and we’re a little slow on the uptake ;-). |
| 2004-11-30 | Development on VJ has slowed down for at least one of the VJ developers and we can’t blame him too much: Shamus’s wife gave birth to their son on 13 November 2004! Mother, father and son are all doing well, in spite of a lack of sleep and energy and the general crankiness that comes with it. ;-) And to the naysayers we say: The emulator is not dead. Indeed, it can’t die because it’s open source. And of course, everyone is invited to try their hand at improving it. You know where to send the patches. ;-) |
| 2004-10-07 | It’s been over a year since the last official release, so here comes Virtual Jaguar 1.0.7! See the Downloads section to get it. And good to see you again, Niels! ;-) One thing to note about this release is that it’s now sensitive to file extensions and will not work properly if your files have incorrect extensions. Read the relevant section of the README or click here for an explanation. |
| 2004-07-07 | Things have been slow on the development front… What’s most likely to happen is a 1.0.7 release with a more feature-complete 1.0.8 release later. The reason for this is that there are filename and configuration file path search brokenness in 1.0.6 that have long since been fixed but keep biting the newbies—a 1.0.7 release would address those problems (besides fixing a few other things ;-). In the meantime, the kind folks over at CVS Compile have taken it upon themselves to do CVS releases of Virtual Jaguar—which means that we don’t have to. ;-) We will, of course, still publish official releases here. |
| 2004-01-07 | In order to keep things moving along, I’ve tentatively decided to make CVS binaries for the Win32 platform available on a semi-regular basis for those people who are unable to build it from CVS. Check the Downloads section to get it! Keep in mind that the unofficial builds may be buggy and do nasty things with your coffee maker—you have been warned! If they do, be sure to let us know about it in the forums. ;-) |
| 2004-01-06 | Things are brewing... Stay tuned! |
| 2003-11-08 | The upcoming 1.0.7 code is looking good, and will feature a nice new GUI and the usual Jaguar chipset fixes. I’ve been going through checking for good ROMs and have come across a few that are more than likely bad dumps. These have been noted down below in the Compatibility section. I’ve also been looking at a bunch of these so-called “PD ROMs” as well and been cleaning up and adding headers where necessary. I may release these cleaned up homebrew programs in a single pack in the near future because a lot of them actually work with VJ, and you shouldn’t have to memorize/enter a run address to enjoy them! |
| 2003-10-03 | MacOS X download is finally up. Been having some problems with my ISP, and will hopefully have them sorted out by the weekend. In the meantime, CVS has been updated with a preliminary 1.0.7 snapshot. Not for the faint of heart! |
| 2003-09-23 | A Debian package of the 1.0.6 release has been prepared by Ryan Underwood. Check the Downloads section to get it! |
| 2003-09-22 | Virtual Jaguar 1.0.6 release. See the Downloads section to get it! |
| 2003-09-05 | Lots of development on Virtual Jaguar has been going on, and a partial list of goodies that will be in the 1.0.6 release is OpenGL support, fully virtualized screen, configuration file support, and various graphics fixes. Most of the focus in the past few days has been on the DSP core and getting it to work with various ROMs. Once these are ironed out, a new release may be forthcoming... |
| 2003-08-28 | Virtual Jaguar 1.0.5 release. See the Downloads section to get it! |
| 2003-08-22 | The Virtual Jaguar home page is finally up! |
The current Virtual Jaguar developers are Niels Wagenaar (Win32/Linux), Carwin Jones (BeOS), Adam Green (MacOS), and James L. Hammons (Win32). The Virtual Jaguar GCC/SDL portable Jaguar emulator has been successfully ported and run on the following platforms:
The original source was based upon Aaron Giles CoJag driver from M.A.M.E. and used the Starscream 68000 emulator core. Since then Starscream has been replaced by the more portable Musashi 68000 core and lots of improvements and changes have obscured the underlying code’s CoJag origins (to be fair, Mr. Raingeard had made quite a few changes from the CoJag driver before we got our hands on it)! The Musashi 68000 core has since been replaced with a heavily customized version of UAE’s 68000 core.
Currently all the major subsystems found in a real Jaguar are emulated to some degree. There are of course some problems remaining—some that we are aware of, and many more that we are not! See the Compatibility section to get a feel for some of the undiscovered problems…
In the near future, various technical aspects of a real Jaguar will be posted here as well.
Here are a few screen shots showing VJ in action:
The latest official release is 2.1.2. Pick your poison:
* If your preferred Linux distro doesn't have Virtual Jaguar packaged yet, you can gently encourage them to do so. Currently we know of packages for Gentoo, Funtoo, and Debian.
Those of you who like to live on the bleeding edge can grab sources from anonymous GIT. To download from GIT use the following command:
git clone http://shamusworld.gotdns.org/git/virtualjaguar
Sadly, it seems that CVS Compile is no longer tracking anything other than DosBOX these days. Their contribution to this little adventure was greatly appreciated and they will be missed. :-( In the meantime, we’ve started making quasi-automatic builds of the latest GIT for Win32, which you can get here; many, many thanks to LinkoVitch and ggn! An alternate place to get them, if the preceeding is too slow and/or not working, is here.
Also, the CVS repository on icculus.org is pretty much dead, and will probably stay that way—at least until Niels gives Ryan the go-ahead to switch it to GIT. ;-) Please keep this in mind if you plan to contribute patches; build against GIT, not CVS! :-)
Here’s the latest compatibility stats for VJ (GIT version!). Please note that this list was checked against VJ with the DSP on unless otherwise noted. Also note that in the case of homebrew programs (PD), I have listed only the latest version that I have personally fixed—these are always in .jag format (unless otherwise noted). Click here for an explanation of the various Jaguar file formats.
| Title | Works? | Caveats |
| Alien vs Predator (1994) | Yes | Requires DSP to prevent freezes whenever you try to use an elevator or vent |
| Arkanna Demo (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Assassin Demo, The Part 1 (1999) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Assassin Demo 1.0 Release 2 (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Asteroid (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Atari Karts (1995) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Attack of the Mutant Penguins (1996) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| BadCode0 by Badcoder (1999) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode1 by Badcoder (1999) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode2 by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode3 by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode4 by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode4 C by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode4 (Metal) by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| BadCode4 (New Metal) by Badcoder (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Baldies (CD) | ? | CD support coming soon! |
| Battlemorph (CD) | ? | CD support coming soon! |
| Battlesphere | Yes | Require BIOS |
| Battlesphere Gold | Yes | Require BIOS |
| Beebris | Yes | ... |
| Brain Dead 13 (CD) | ? | CD support coming soon! |
| Brutal Sports Football (1994) (Telegames) | Yes | ... |
| Bubsy - Fractured Furry Tails (1994) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Cannon Fodder (1995) (Computer West) | Yes | ... |
| Checkered Flag (1994) | Yes | Requires DSP to play, has small graphical glitch |
| Chroma-Luma Colors Picker (1996) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Chroma-Luma Colors Picker for Mouse (1996) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Club Drive (1994) | Yes | Can play a little before it dumps out |
| Cybermorph (1993) | No | Requires DSP |
| Defender 2000 (1996) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Degz | Yes | ... |
| Degz + | Yes | ... |
| Doom - Evil Unleashed (1994) | No | Requires DSP. In game, the screen is horizontally compressed to half its size (we know what the problem is, we’re just not sure how to fix it without introducing crappy hacks) |
| Double Dragon V (1995) (Williams) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Downfall | Yes | ... |
| Downfall + | Yes | ... |
| Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story (1994) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Dragon’s Lair (CD) | ? | CD support coming soon! |
| Evolution - Dino Dudes (1993) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Expressway | Yes | ... |
| Fever Pitch Soccer (1995) | Yes | ... |
| Fight For Life (1996) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Flashback (1995) (U.S. Gold) | Yes | Some glitches still happen in the game |
| Flip Out (1995) | Yes | ... |
| FORCE Design - Legion Force Jidai Intro Demo 0! (2001) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Gorf 2000 (PD) | Yes | ... |
| HMS Raptor | Yes | ... |
| Hover Strike (1995) | Yes | ... |
| I-War (1995) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Impulse X | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| International Sensible Soccer (1995) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Iron Soldier (1994) | Yes | Intro screens work, but it seems the actual game itself doesn’t |
| JagFest Demo (2001) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| JagMania (Jan 06) (2001) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| JagMarble (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Jaguar Tetris (1995) (PD) | No | Shows game screen for 1 second before going black |
| JDC Demo V1 (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| JDC Demo V2 (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| JDC Demo V3 - E-JagFest Demo by Lars Hannig (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Joypad-TeamTap Test Program (2000) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Kasumi Ninja (1994) | Yes | Requires DSP. Graphical glitches on the shadows |
| Kobayashi Maru | Yes | ... |
| Missile Command 3D (1995) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Music Demo (2002) (ScatoLOGIC) | No | ... |
| Myst (demo) (CD) | ? | CD suport coming soon! |
| Native (Demo) (1997) | Yes | Requires DSP (note that even so, the demo has no sound whatsoever--it was written this way). Has graphical glitches in game |
| NBA Jam TE (1996) | Yes | Requires DSP. Has graphical glitches |
| Painter (1996) (PD) | Yes | ... |
| Phase Zero (2000) (PD) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Pinball Fantasies (1995) (Computer West) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure (1995) | Yes | ... |
| Power Drive Rally (1995) (TWI) | Yes | ... |
| Primal Rage (CD) | ? | CD support coming soon! |
| Project One | Yes | ... |
| Protector | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Protector SE | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Raiden (1994) | Yes | ... |
| Rayman (1995) (UBI Soft) | Yes | ... |
| Rebooteroids | Yes | ... |
| Rocketeer: Full Circle | Yes | ... |
| Rocks Off | Yes | ... |
| Ruiner Pinball (1995) | No | ... |
| Super Burnout (1995) | No | Requires DSP. Gets past the title screen and track selection, but then hangs |
| Super Cross 3D (1995) | Yes | ... |
| Superfly DX | Yes | ... |
| Syndicate (1995) (Ocean) | Yes | Has graphical glitches. Not extensively tested |
| Tapperesque | Yes | ... |
| Tempest 2000 (1994) | Yes | Has problems in the demo: Dumps to the game selection screen after playing the demo for a few seconds. Probably other problems as well |
| Theme Park (1995) (Ocean) | Yes | Minor graphical glitches |
| Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy (1993) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Troy Aikman NFL Football (1995) (Williams) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Ultra Vortek (1995) | No | Requires DSP |
| Ultra Vortek (Beta) | Yes | Requires DSP |
| Val D’Isere Skiing & Snowboarding (1994) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| White Men Can’t Jump (1995) | No | Requires BIOS. Hangs at demo screen |
| Wolfenstein 3D (1994) | No | Requires DSP. The old DSP core works, but to hear any sound it needs the new pipelined DSP core |
| Zool 2 (1994) | Yes | Not extensively tested |
| Zoop! (1996) | Yes | Requires DSP |
If something that was previously working breaks between revisions (and it’s not acknowledged above), or you have tested a title that we haven’t, please let us know about it in the forums.
Thanks go out to Aaron Giles for his original CoJag sources, and to David Raingeard for opening up his source code to the original Virtual Jaguar—without their work we would have nothing to show you today. Thanks also to the UAE team for their portable 68000 core. A great big thank you goes out to Sam Lantinga for his amazing SDL library which makes cross platform sound and graphics so easy. And many, many thanks to Ryan C. Gordon for hosting Virtual Jaguar’s CVS and webspace. We also owe a great debt of gratitude to Reboot, and to everyone who has supported us and helped us by giving good bug reports. Virtual Jaguar wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is now without your help!