x=usr(1536)

Funnily enough, the last time that I can remember seeing an actual dumpster on actual fire, I was headed South on Broadway somewhere in the region of 26th or 27th Street. It was in the street, up against the curb, merrily blazing away. So not exactly Compton, but I was pretty much headed in the right direction.

See, here's the thing: when I see a dumpster fire, I look at it and think, "Holy crap, that's a dumpster! And it's ON FIRE! HELL YEAH!" It's at least entertaining in the sense that you don't see a dumpster on fire every day, or, at least not in our neck of the woods. But Atariboxcorp, Inc... Yeah, the term 'dumpster fire' still definitely applies. But the entertainment value is more along the lines of, "heh, didn't see that one coming from a mile off..." This really has nothing to do with anything in particular, but now I want to watch an actual dumpster fire. It's been a while.

Dude, you're gonna be, like, so rich!* * In Botswana.

This is all well and good, but that 'really difficult post to write' isn't going to write itself. Atariboxcorp, you know what to do.

(Emphasis above is mine; wanted to keep as much of the original quote as possible for context.) Online delivery of software is not free by any stretch of the imagination. The data has to be housed somewhere. In a modern context, that means multiple geographically-distributed datacentres, each sucking down power and occupying land. Bandwidth isn't free, either: the various carriers providing it each want their cut, and charge each other for traffic ingressing and egressing their networks. Then there's the back- and front-end infrastructure that has to be built so that an end user can click 'buy' and start the whole process, as well as the internal and customer-facing support processes that make sure that the buy button actually works. There's a lot more to it than that, but saying that online content delivery is free is absolutely incorrect.

Interesting footnote regarding Blaster: it was originally developed for the Atari 8-bit range (and 5200), then subsequently ported to the arcade hardware; more info here and here.

Adding a few to the list: Bubbles Circus Charlie Cloak & Dagger Congo Bongo Gaplus Mouse Trap Pepper II Zoo Keeper

That's the thing: I have no issue with consoles (or games, depending on platform) being Internet-connected. In a modern context, there are a number of practical reasons for doing so. But what I really dislike about it is, as you point out, the way that this leads to impermanence of the content. Doesn't matter if it's executable code, game assets, player data, or anything else: once it can only be useful if Someone Else's Computers (aka 'The Cloud') are there to support it, then you have zero control over the lifespan of your device and/or data. It's going to be interesting to see what the emulation scene looks like in about 20 to 25 years from now. Up to about the PS2 era, there should be fairly decent coverage of both hardware platforms and the software that ran on them. But from approximately the PS3 onwards, expect to see less and less preserved software.

This is why I kinda giggle at the 'STOP PICKING ON ATARIBOX!!!' and 'SHUT UP ABOUT TACOS!!!' comments that occasionally crop up here. What people like alexkeaton don't realise is that the initial Ataribox announcement was taken seriously in this thread, and there was a significant amount of fairly insightful commentary surrounding both the product and company. Granted, that commentary contained a healthy dose of skepticism, but, given the track record of projects like this one, that's understandable. Overall, though, the general air was one of, 'yeah, looks like it might be another failed attempt at marketing nostalgia waiting to happen, but, who knows, maybe they'll pull it off. Looks nice, though'. Then everything related to Atariboxcorp, Inc. descended into the traditional pattern of shitshow project mismanagement that we've come to recognise as being the signs of a company that has absolutely no ability to execute on bringing a product to market. Once they went into that tailspin and clearly weren't going to be pulling out of it any time soon, we went for tacos. And here we are. So, on that note, I strongly suggest to alexkeaton that he takes up Flojo's recommendation, goes back to the start of the thread, and reads from the beginning. The tacos don't start until somewhere around page 120 if memory serves, so at today's page count you only really need to read through the first half or so of the thread in order to understand why we're just sitting back and waiting for the next round of ineptitude surrounding the Ataribox to surface.

Just take up modern pinball; it's nothing like that! Oh, wait...

I'm just here for the tacos. And only the tacos.

Ex-800 and -800XL owner here, and I'll pretty much agree with this approach. One variance: don't go with a 600XL unless it has the 1064 memory expansion. For a starter machine, I'd lean more towards the 800XL. Nothing wrong with the 800, but the extra 16K of RAM doesn't hurt. Either way, start with a stock machine, run it for a while, and figure out what upgrades you want to do after you've spent some time with it.

When arcade gaming devolved into endless cycles of repeating the same gameplay formulae (driving, fighting, bullet hell shooters, etc.) only with improved graphics every few months, that was my first round of disillusionment with the videogame industry. Round 2 came about when those formulae ended up becoming SOP for computer and console games. I don't mind games that fall into particular categories, but I do mind repackaging the exact same idea over and over and being expected to open my wallet for each iteration.

Tonight was homemade nachos. Granted, nachos aren't tacos, but they are nachos. And nachos are pretty damn good. No pictures because we ate them all.

Ooh! Ooh! I'll start! 1) Jaguar hardware

My first job in IT was working the Computing Services helpdesk at University. Said University had a number of computer labs: some had PCs, some had VAX terminals, some had Macs. There were also two Archimedes labs. We used to say that the Archimedes labs achieved the highest reliability of them all because nobody ever switched them on.

His hands exist in different timezones.

FIFY

Going by the "PC in disguise" guideline and adjusting for the hardware of the era, the Atari 5200 would have to be disqualified from being a 'real' game console by virtue of the fact that it's essentially a cut-down Atari 400 computer. Ditto the Amstrad GX4000 and Commodore 64GS. Realistically, almost every console ever made has used at least some off-the-shelf componentry shared with computers - and even the PS2 (and, later, the PS3) was capable of running Linux with its manufacturer's blessing.

Call me when they do the Wagon Queen Family Truckster edition. Until then, it's just formica to me.

In all honesty, I don't remember. And, being perfectly frank about it, I'm not certain that I ever did know. But the statement about getting the disks from Maplin's stuck in my head because we didn't have Maplin's in Ireland at the time. That about gels with my memories of the time. Receiving bricks of disks in the post at school from the Continent and UK, then copying the hell out of them and uploading like mad to the local BBSes... That was a fun time.

Can't see the image.

Used this elsewhere, but think it's just as relevant here:

I'm watching the video now, and holy shit is this awesome. This is easily one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in the retrocomputing arena, and soon as I can free up the time I'll be signing up an account and exploring it. The one thing that strikes me about PLATO: it's clear where a lot of the inspiration behind Teletext came from. Many of the concepts are very similar, though PLATO has a level of interactivity that Teletext could never have achieved - at least, not without external connectivity. Out of curiosity, what is the terminal shown on the left-hand side of the video? That would literally be a lifetime project for one person. You'd have to start a company and hire people to make it feasible.