Not sure where to drop this / ataribox

[Not sure where to drop this / ataribox]

Silly people. Oddly, my first Unix-y setup was on my Mega STe where I actually had managed to get X11 and Emacs running. Though time has made my memory fuzzy on if I had managed to get them to work both at once, I remember Emacs being a HUGE memory hog (considering 4mb of ram).

Strangely enough, so was mine. I think it was c.1990, with Minix from (IIRC) a Page6 PD disk. Might have been an ST Format cover disk, but it was definitely Minix on the ST.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

But until then it is good.

Not really. The problem is that nobody knows when the Chinese government may have a change of heart. Might never happen; might happen next Tuesday. From the standpoint of a company selling gaming hardware (and possibly software) in China, that makes developing a long-term strategy for the platform next to impossible because three minutes after launch you might not be able to put it on sale.

 

If the rumors are true then Nintendo teamed up with Nvidia are already trying to do it from outside.

And I wish them the best of luck. But I'm fairly certain that they've already developed an exit strategy if the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decides that Nintendo may no longer operate in China due to historical unpleasantness in Manchuria or similar. There's a solid chance it may be needed.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

What about Chinese gamers that fairly recently were legally allowed to have more gaming options?

That's only good for as long as the Chinese government decides to allow it. One legislative change and it's back to throwing people into the happy fun death van for playing Halo or whatever wasn't in favor that week.

 

This device could be only meant to target Western developers with the gamers targeted mostly being Chinese.

Doesn't make economic sense. Given the vagaries of selling into the Chinese economy from outside of it, development (and marketing / sales) would be best conducted entirely within China itself. Cuts down on the nonrecoverable costs associated with mass piracy of both the hardware and software.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Netflix was mentioned. It's funny that SteamOS is the only gaming platform out there that doesn't really have it's own netflix/amazon/hbonow plugin. Yet it's definitely the closest to being a 'real computer' vs the xbone and ps4. But I'd agree that who cares? It's not like there aren't an abundance of smartTVs, Bluray players, etc that can't already play the streaming channels.

 

All that crap costs licensing anyhow, unless they plan on having some sort of Android compatibility layer.

From what I recall regarding Android and licensing: the userspace components are provided under a different FOSS license (Apache 2.0) to certain other components (mostly to do with the Linux-based parts of the core OS) which are GPLv2. There are also licenses that cover both commercial and non-commercial contributions to the codebase and ownership thereof. Android's only a free platform to develop for depending on the type of development taking place.

 

Hell, this literally could be a platform for emulating all the old things that they still have rights to. Yar's Revenge HD/4k would be cool though...

With modern broadband, delivery of most older titles could be literally instantaneous (or near enough as doesn't matter) into an emulation VM, or other architecture perhaps along pluggable lines a la retroarch. Stick a Netflix-alike or similar UI onto it, license game IP from multiple holders, and basically do exactly what you're proposing for back-catalogue titles. Ship with, say, the 2600 back catalogue thrown in for free, then pay for pluggable upgrades to allow running other emulated architectures. That would be unique, but given how things like this have worked out so far on existing platforms I'm dubious as to whether or not it would be enough to sustain a dedicated hardware platform.

 

Thinking about it, though, UI could be the killer app (no pun intended) that makes this acceptable to the mass market. Hell, it worked for the iPhone and iPod - they weren't the first to do what they did, but they got the look and feel right, and that's where their success was really derived from.

 

That said, I believe that the emulation station idea was somewhat mooted earlier in either this thread or one of the others. Not that that couldn't have changed, though.

[New Atari Console that Ataribox?]

Let's take a step back a moment. I was referring to it not being a streaming device when I said that unless something changed, this is not meant to stream games. That was obviously in reference to guesses that this would be a game streaming box/service (which is actually something of a challenge/cost prohibitive). By the very nature of this being a PC-based device, of course it should be able to run the usual suspects like Netflix and what-not. Whether it will, who knows?

I realise that we're playing what-if here, but the mention of Netflix and similar streaming services brings the following scenario to mind:

 

Atari announces the Ataribox. It slices, dices, mashes, dashes, and... Has Netflix. And Amazon Video. And Pandora. And <insert other video / audio streaming services here>.

 

When I can look at my desk and see four devices (laptop, TV, phone, and tablet) in just that one location that all support each of those services, none of those services are a value-add for the Ataribox.

 

Granted, those are my circumstances and others' may (and almost certainly will) vary. But in an era where even a $149 TV can do all of these things, that's really not enough to sustain a standalone device in the marketplace.

 

Software is what sells hardware. The Ataribox needs software, and it needs to be software that can't be found elsewhere. It also needs launch titles that compel purchase of the hardware in order to drive software (physical or downloadable) sales. Angry Birds on one more platform isn't going to cut it.

 

As I have said elsewhere, I'm really hoping that this isn't a repeat of past mistakes. I'd like to see this succeed. But to succeed in the modern marketplace, the Ataribox is going to need to have one hell of an ace up its sleeve to even make a splash let alone a wave.

[Not sure where to drop this / ataribox]

Even that was better than what we have now. Tramiel did release products that were taken seriously... at first anyway.

It was very much the flaming wreckage ploughing a several-mile-long furrow in the landscape that I had in mind when I wrote that. The takeoff went OK, but that landing was a real bitch.

[Not sure where to drop this / ataribox]

This year, unlike the past 25, is DEFINITELY the year of the Linux desktop. Definitely.

I've managed to avoid those disappointments over the years by sticking with Windowmaker. Makes it easier to not care about KDE/Gnome usability issues because I'm in a window manager so obtuse it's almost openly-hostile.

 

(No, the sarcasm wasn't lost on me )

 

But seriously, Windows 10 isn't going anywhere and I think the idea that Windows 10 S is anything more at this point than an attempt to compete with Chromebooks is rather overblown. It could certainly be the future course of Windows, i.e., to be more like iOS and Android in terms of a closed to semi-closed ecosystem, but that's unlikely given a lot of factors, including of course full Windows 10 is just a simple upgrade away on Windows 10 S machines.

What we're seeing in the Windows 10 world is a rather polarizing division between how Windows is approached in Enterprise environments vs. how it's approached in consumer ones. TL;DR, expect editions below Pro to continue being treated more and more like appliances by Microsoft; Pro on up will let you regain some of that control, but really only in Active Directory environments.

 

As for the upgrade path from Windows 10 S to 'regular' Windows 10... I can see that being offered as an option, at least on some ARM and most x86/x64 platforms. Of course, I can also see where that may be something that is either allowed or disallowed by a hardware lock or fuse, so may be a per-manufacturer, per-device possibility.

 

Returning to the Ataribox for a moment: I really don't care what it runs, and I'm going to hazard a guess that the vast majority of potential purchasers don't either. But (and this one we've learned from history many, many times) without a comprehensive set of launch titles on hand and committed developers actively expanding that library, it's going to have one giant hurdle to overcome before it even gets to market. It's not clear if even that basic consideration is taken care of.

 

There also needs to be a compelling reason to buy it - unless it offers something the others don't, I'm going to vote with my wallet and buy something else. Streaming video apps and Twitter-on-your-TV aren't compelling when nearly every $49 Blu-Ray player does that. But an x64 box with an Atari logo on it isn't compelling either when it's just repeating that sort of functionality.

 

That's not to mention the capital and operating might that's going to be needed to make any sort of suitable run at Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony. I'm not talking about market domination: I'm talking about just being *noticed* in the marketplace enough to even build momentum. It doesn't sound like those considerations are in place, but I will admit that I am in no way privy to any information that supports or denies that assertion.

 

We'll see what it is when we see it, and hopefully it's not a repeat of the Tramiel / JTS era.

[Your guess on what OS will Ataribox be using?]

BeOS.

[I need help with CLRMAMEPRO.]

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Hahaha. It's theoretically possible to back port those games, but if you're running a device so underpowered in 2016 that you need 0.34 none of them will run well. Stop being cheap and buy a nice BRIX or NUC with a Core i7 and run real MAME 0.176.

Butbutbut... Maybe she just really needs to get those games running on that powerhouse of a 60-in-1 board! For her own personal use, naturally. In Shenzhen

[I must be missing something here...]

Atadim 3.05 drag and drop atr on to atadim link or send to>atadim.

 

Search forum it has been posted in the last month-year.

 

Thanks, I must have missed that one in my forum searches!

 

Tangental to this, but related: I've wanted this functionality as part of the OS for a long, long time.

 

What might be ideal would be to develop support for .ATR, .XEX, etc. images in FUSE. I haven't really looked into it since I just don't have the time right now to make it happen, but the image formats are well-documented so one hurdle is at least already cleared. Where this is cool is that you could conceivably mount other types of Atari images as well (cartridges, for example).

 

FUSE really only works well under Linux presently (MacFUSE is pretty horrible, IMHO, and I have no idea about the Windows port), but it may be a quick route to making this a real possibility.

[Looking for a specific Atari bootloader]

I think this might have been created with "Musical Menu Maker". I have it somewhere on disk so will try and create you an image

 

[Edit - try here http://pokeysoft.no/games/atari/a8util.htm disk U010a is the kiddy]

 

Oooh... I think we've got a winner!

 

It seems like the music used in the first video was actually what I was looking for, but until I heard the Musical Menu Maker version (song C, "Masters of Time") with its distinctive chirping sounds, I couldn't be certain. I definitely remember the menu loader I had having them, which is probably what threw me with the video.

 

Thanks for that - appreciate the find!

[Looking for a specific Atari bootloader]

Posted this to comp.sys.atari.8bit a few days ago, but didn't get the info I was hoping for.

 

I'm trying to find (without any success so far) an Atari disk image that contains a very specific bootloader. Here's what I remember of it:

 

- Graphics 0 text

 

- Background was vertically-scrolling rainbow colour bars

 

- Had music similar to what's in this video:

 

- Had the same flying swan as in this video:

 

Unfortunately, I can't remember which titles were on the disk that it was the loader for, so narrowing it down that way isn't really a possibility. If it helps, I would have had the disk that it was on c.1985-6 in Ireland, and probably got it via the Atari Users' Group of Ireland in Dublin.

 

Any help appreciated - I've been trying to track it down for literally years, and the vast majority of my Atari stuff is long-gone so recovering it is not an option.

 

Thanks!