The European Atari Jaguar Festival, “ejagfest” is back! It took place on October 21st and 22nd in Korschenbroich (between Düsseldorf and Mönchengladbach), Germany. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Atari Jaguar this year which has been released in 1993 in the USA.
The European Atari Jaguar Festival is a noncommercial regular festival for all Atari and retro gaming fans from all over Europe and the World. It was established in year 2000 and the focus of attention is on Atari and all systems of the cult lable. But we don’t want to miss other retro-systems, as well. The more exotic, the better. The motto is: Bring your favorite retro console and have fun!
All of you who would like to play again on retro consoles and trusty home-computers systems of the 70s, 80s or 90s, this is the right place.
Highlights of this year:
- SainT (RetroHQ):
- SainT showed last time his Jaguar GameDrive (SD-Card adapter), which will be at the show again.
- This year, new on display was the Atari 7800 GameDrive (SD-Card adapter) and the Mega7800-adapter.
It contains additional audio-chips, an RGB-video- and audio-output, as well as a save and chat feature.
In addition to that, the adapter enables the player to use Mega Drive- and MasterSystem-Controller as well as a Master System Lightgun with the 7800 system.
- Jasper van Turnhout:
- Showed and sold his Atari Lynx games like Wyvern Tales and Critter Championship.
- Further he shoed us his new projects like an early build of Wyvern Tales for the Atari Jaguar, as well as Wyvern Tales 2 for the Lynx.
- Yastuna Games:
- The Homebrew publisher & coder of games like A Bug’s Trip (Lynx), Asteroids Chaser (Lynx), Rai On Tri City (Lnyx) and many more visited the European Jagfest for the first time.
- He showed and sold some of his latest work, as well as some of the games he publishes for Atari Lynx, Atari Jaguar and Game Boy / Game Boy Color.
Games such as a playable build of The Carribean Tavern (4 players) and BlackHole Reignited (8 players) for Atari Jaguar.
- Marco Willig (McWill):
- Showed and sold his VGA-Screen Hardware Mod for the Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and GameBoy Color.
It improves the screen quality a lot. Further it provides an VGA-output to play Lynx on an external display. - On Sunday he modified systems on side and gave a modding workshop.
- New on display the Game Gear Full-Mod incl. new PCB and IPS640x480 with integer Scaling, new Powerboard incl. LiPo Accu, optional Analogstick, RGB LEDs on each button, new Soundboard with Tantal Caps.
- Showed and sold his VGA-Screen Hardware Mod for the Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and GameBoy Color.
- DragonBox Shop:
- The Dragonbox shop presented the „MIST FPGA“ Computer. This device emulates the most known and unknown 8 and 16 BIT computer and consoles with an FPGA chip.
- Everyone was able to try this device out at the show.
- Gameplan:
- The publisher is well known for high quality books about retro video games and home computer in germany. They offered some of the books at the ejagfest.
- Zone 3 Zockecke:
- Thanks to “Zone3” we presented you a gaming area with beanbags for gamers and full of retro-gaming highlights.
- Alex Thissen:
- Showed and sold some Lynx parts and games
- ArpaDeluxe:
- YouTuber ArpaDeluxe visited us and shot some videos for his channel.
- Worldwide Distribution:
- Provided us with a tryable game station for the Retron77 (Atari 2600) from Hyperkin.
- ST-Computer Magazin:
- The german ST-Computer magazine was there as well.
- Retrospiel:
- Visited us later on Saturday and again on Sunday.
- Wolfsoft:
- The well known retailer and hardware-mod specialist for retro consoles showed and sold a selection of goods from his store.
- Karri Kaksonen:
- Showed his latest projects for the Atari Lynx and Atari 7800.
- Michael Lünzer:
- Showed his Atari XE system with plenty of games, some using a Light gun.
- And some Homebrews as well, like On Escape and The Last Squadron.
- Atari Shop NL (Mr. & Mrs. Atari):
- They showed an Atari 800 playing Videos like Star Wars in 8K.
- As well as some 8-Bit Games.
- Also to mention some articles for sale like cardboard-stands with an autograph of John Romero.
- Lars Hannig:
- Gave us an insight in his latest book and games projects.
- Männerquatsch Podcast:
- Björn and Maik from the german Männerquatsch Podcast invited all listeners to a community meeting.
- Silvio Laute:
- Showed some exhibits from his collection, some Pong machines like the Atari Pong – C-100, Atari Super Pong – C-140, Atari Super Pong Ten – C-180, Atari C-402 Ultra Pong Doubles, Atari C-380 Video Pinball and the very rare Sears Pinball Breakaway.
- Brian S:
- Beside his retro-hardware, he brought a retro-cake with him. A Jaguar cake for the 30th birthday of the system. And the CD-drive was even detachable.
- Christoph P.:
- Showed his Amstrad Mega PC 386-DX (Mega Drive and PC in one device).
- Alexander Grade “AnderLex”:
- Showed the latest build of Jumping at Shadows for the Atari Jaguar.
- As well as Gravitic Mines for the Atari Jaguar.
- Beside this, some demos of work in progress games.
- Anciend World & Ander Lex:
- They showes the latest version of the upcoming shoot’em up Odynexus for Atari Lynx.
- Further they showed and sold the physical ejagfest edition of RED for the Lynx.
- Thorsten Butschke:
- Showed his new game problemlöser on Atari VCS (PC).
Further exhibitions:
- A transparent Jaguar case on display. It’s a special edition, which was produced in spring of 2015 with the original Jaguar tooling. This limited run was sold to support the “RVGS” console. The system was later renamed to the “Colecovision Chameleon” and it was planned that they would also use this tooling. After some problems during the production of the console, the project was canceled. What is left, are this nice cases for the Jaguar.
- Custom Made Atari Jaguar Arcade Stick (Sanwa Parts).
- Silver Jag: A custom painted 50/60 Hz modded Jaguar in a silver case. The system uses a blue LED.
Competitions:
- Checkered Flag (Lynx) – Mr. XY Cup
- Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube)
- Critter Championship (Lynx)
- Mattel a-Mole (Mechanisches Spiel)
This year marked the event‘s 20th anniversary, and it took place for the 6th time in the location in Kleinenbroich. Let’s celebrate Atari! You got two days of retro fun with lots of exhibitors, a tombola on Sunday and free drinks like coffee and water over the weekend.
Find your way to the ejagfest: Directions and Hotel recommendations (link)
Adress of the Event:
Hochstraße 26
41352 Korschenbroich
Saturday we start at 9:00 AM until 12 PM (midnight).
Sunday we start at 10:00 AM until 5 PM.
Source(s): ejagfest.de,retrogamingevents.de
