Skip to content

Jaguar and 3DO ​

The Atari Jaguar and the 3DO do not belong to the main console families. Jaguar games run much of their code on two RISC co-processors. Ghidra has no module for them. The 3DO uses an ARMv3 CPU, older than any ARM language Ghidra builds in. The handhelds are in the Handhelds section.

The platforms ​

PlatformYearCPUMediaGhidra module or loaderEmulator with a debugger
Atari JaguarNovember 199368000 at 13.295 MHz; Tom and Jerry RISC at 26.59 MHzCartridge68000; no Tom or Jerry moduleBigPEmu (closed), Virtual Jaguar
3DOOctober 1993ARM60 (ARMv3) at 12.5 MHzCD; Portfolio OSARM v4 and up onlyOpera (not confirmed)

Atari Jaguar ​

Hardware ​

The Jaguar 68000 uploads code into the local RAM of the Tom and Jerry RISC cores

The 68000 runs at 13.295 MHz. Tom and Jerry are 32-bit RISC cores at 26.591 MHz, with 4 KB and 8 KB of local RAM. The console has 2 MB of RAM. A memory controller flaw makes it awkward to run RISC code from main RAM, so developers ran more of their code on the 68000 (Wikipedia: Atari Jaguar). The main loop runs on the 68000 and uploads RISC code (Game Tech Wiki: Jaguar). Tom has two banks of thirty-two 32-bit registers (not confirmed) (Jagdox general).

Tools ​

Ghidra builds in the 68000. No Ghidra module is known for Tom and Jerry (GitHub search). MAME's jaguar core file carries a BSD-3-Clause header.

BigPEmu is Rich Whitehouse's closed-source Jaguar emulator, written for Digital Eclipse's Atari 50. Whether it has a debugger is unknown. Virtual Jaguar is the open alternative, now maintained by Joseph Mattiello, with GPU, DSP and blitter timing models (Game Tech Wiki: Jaguar).

For an exact reimplementation ​

Game code is split across the 68000 and the RISC cores. Find and export each CPU's code separately. The RISC code is often taken from a RAM dump after the 68000 uploads it.

3DO ​

Hardware ​

The ARM60 is ARMv3, one version older than the first ARM language in Ghidra

The ARM60 is an ARMv3 core at 12.5 MHz. The Madam and Clio chips hold the cel engine. Games run on the Portfolio OS (3DO Interactive Multiplayer).

Tools ​

Ghidra's ARM languages start at v4, so the ARM60 has no exact built-in match. Opera runs the games (not confirmed).

Projects to learn from ​

rawgl by cyxx reimplements the Another World engine and reads the 3DO data among others. It was archived on 28 June 2025 (cyxx/rawgl).

Code: Apache 2.0. Content: CC0 1.0. No game material: bring your own copy.