Shaggy the Atarian

Since the Wanker Bros. just love to compare Atari to mega-corps like Apple, let's take a look at how the multi-billion $$$ entity of Google is handling the launch of their new Stadia platform: https://phandroid.com/2019/11/14/google-stadia-will-launch-missing-many-of-its-expected-features/ But I'm sure that Atari, with just enough money to keep jetting Fred around for pointless hype appearances, definitely has the cash and brains to be able to live up to their hardware promises (where Google can't). Right?

If Andy knows any dev that is actually working on the VCS, now would be a good time to inform the class

It's too bad the Wanker Bros and Lucas don't stop on by here. I'd love to see them defend how they invested monetarily and emotionally into the VCS, only for the takers of their money to be focused on peddling Atari branded apparel.

Sega's next gun game is none other than Mission: Impossible Arcade. Comes in a huge cabinet to compete with the likes of the Halo: Fireteam Raven super deluxe, but does it in a way that is unique to Sega. It will debut a week from today at IAAPA 2019: https://arcadeheroes.com/2019/11/12/sega-amusement-to-debut-mission-impossible-arcade-at-iaapa-2019/

I can't recall exactly, but I think it had improved versions of those games that had been created just for the device like Yar's Return and Asteroids Deluxe.

"Hey everyone, check out this amazing pallet of Flashback 2+'s that we found collecting dust in a warehouse in the south of France! Now designed to mine the Atari Token. ATARI IS BACK, BABY!"

Or they'll give them the Weird Al version. Just rename it as "I lost on IGG...baby" (the line about making yourself bringing shame onto your family for generations to come definitely applies to the Wanker Bros.)

I'M SO EXCITED! WITH A GARBAGE BAG FULL OF COMPUTER PARTS, I HAVE FULL FREEDOM TO MAKE WHATEVER ATARI-BRANDED UNCONSOLE I CAN DREAM OF!!!

Summing up the whole Atari strategy so far (for anyone lost in the hundreds of pages of tacos): 1. Crowdfund an unconsole with a Fuji logo on it 2. ????????????? 3. Profit! In regards to the next update that they are working tirelessly on (haha, sure), let's be extraordinarily generous and say that the update does provide exactly what the VCShills have been hoping for: a shipping date in December, and an SDK for devs. Granted, the latter is something that should have been handed out last year, but it's ok, it's an unconsole! Revolutionary! Synergy! Best case scenario I can still see here is: They receive their Atari Vault players from Santa. Many things don't work or are unstable, particularly Steam, since the Shills made it clear that they were willing to become the beta tester guinea pigs for this thing, Atari wanted to spend as little as possible to get something working, so it turns on, but is a mess. As such, it crashes frequently, some of them have the VCS version of the "Red Ring of Death" and get to experience the joys of trying to return their system for a working model. Many backers are "shocked" that the 32GB of on-system storage won't allow for much else to fit on the system after they install the 20GB of Borderlands 2 on there. Some external hard drives don't work, as again, no one thought to test it out, and your every day VCS backer doesn't have a clue as to how to configure things in Linux. Antstream launches on the platform, but the steaming issues that the PC version has are compounded by a ton of background overhead on the VCS being dedicated to mining digital currency. No one from the AAA, AA or A-grade game development business becomes interested in having their reputations damaged by being attached to the VCS, so Atari glosses over the issues by touting emulators and Antstream, despite numerous issues that people have in getting anything to work right. Atari rushes some of their recent catalog of flops (Star Raiders 2013, Yar's Revenge 2011, Haunted House: Cryptic Graves) to say they've got something, but then it just highlights at how terrible Atari's recent output has been. All that gets swept under the rug by the Shills as "we knew we'd be helping create something revolutionary! I love POOOOONG!" But the problems are so numerous, that "more time is needed" to hash things out, so the general release gets pushed back indefinitely. The VCS becomes a footnote in WTF gaming history and the next half-baked scam from Atari comes along to further milk nostalgia from a rusty nail. Am I missing anything?

Things are swimming along so well in VCS manufacturing land that Atari is reposting the month-old "All is well!" Medium post.

"Please don't say a Nintendo or Sega game, please don't say a Nintendo or Sega game, please..." *And it's supposed to be "There's" https://twitter.com/atari/status/1190346595381972992

Another Christmas season, yet another iteration Atari Flashback. I guess Atari could always just send FBX's to backers and claim that's the revolutionary unconsole http://8-bitcentral.com/blog/2019/atariFlashbackX.html

Yes, the company that could literally take all of the cash they have and swim through it like Scrooge McDuck any time they want is "NOBODY," and their current console which is cartridge-based keeps selling incredibly well. From an article at TechCrunch, Oct. 17th 2019: Which is 38 million more than the VCS has shipped and sold. But math & logic take a back seat in the bus to Andy's zealotry. These shills really do live in another reality.

I'm excited to see this. Growing up I had no idea that Venture was an arcade game first; learning that the 2600 version was a port was a surprise, then a little bit of a disappointment. But, I've still sunk plenty of time into it, always trying to best my personal score. Quite amazing to see that they could have done so much more on the system and get it much close to "arcade perfect." One note, I tried this now on my Atari Flashback Portable and it doesn't work. Just get the "Venture Reloaded" title screen for a moment, which seems to be stuck in a boot loop (the title disappears, then it shows up again. Just keeps doing that no matter what you press, apart from going back to the start menu). I haven't looked into it, but I imagine the AFP is hackable with a new version of Stella that might be more compatible? Either way, I'll just try it on my PC instead

I've not played all of their games, but the one I did spend the most time with as a kid and later on was Infiltrate. As mentioned, it does wear thin fast, but I love the explosive effects, sounds, the tension of waiting for an elevator to descend when a robot is on the other side and you're both shooting at each other to see who will hit first. It seems like the kind of game that would have done well to get an expanded sequel on the Atari 7800. Kudos to Shark Attack/Lochjaw as well - yeah it was a Pac-Man ripoff, but at least it went about it in a fun way.

Woohoo, happy to see this finally come to fruition. I'll have to wait a little bit before ordering...might have to make it a Christmas present to myself

Have you been embarrassed by Atari today? https://twitter.com/atari/status/1187429065180897281

We might have a new mascot for this thread:

LOL. "Great info" on two games that are in development for non-VCS platforms. I've made this point before, but in a universe where Atari has a working system, or had intended to have a working system, a title like Roller Coaster Tycoon would be touted ad nauseaum as a killer app and a launch title for the VCS. But here we are almost two and a half years after this thing was announced, less than two months before it's supposed to go to backers and they've got Atari Vault and Antstream...not even a hint that their revolutionary new gaming UnConsole will have their flagship IP on it. hint hint!

Translation: ISN'T THIS THING THAT WE HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH APART FROM GIVING IT OUR LICENSED BLESSING THE COOLEST THING EVAAAAR? Aka, continuing to gaslight the faithful

Speaking of Apple, they have Augmented Reality glasses in the works, apparently will ship Q1 2020. Perhaps it'll be a flop like all other AR glasses have been so far, but it's still a piece of hardware that is far superior to anything that Atari can make someone crap out with their meager $3m. https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-glasses-details-just-revealed-by-bloomberg

I should have used the word "claimed" for that video there, so my bad on that. Diving into the semantics, as this analysis provides, you're talking about raw image processing - yes, there is no image buffering on a CRT, but there's still the lag in a CRT of drawing the frame, which takes 16.7ms/2, or 8.3ms (at the center of the screen). But since CRTs are used as the baseline, it's always "zero" instead of 8.3ms, per industry standards. So LCDs at 9ms are not exactly "millions of times" out there on input lag as the hyperbole suggests, meaning that it's almost on par by those numbers. Unless that analyst has his math completely wrong. Equaling a CRT isn't outside the realm of possibility of course. SED technology (and a rival called FED) displays were developing a method to miniaturize the electron gun tech in CRTs so that every pixel had it's own emitter for it. Unfortunately Canon and Sony ended their research on those because they felt that LCDs (LED & OLED) displays were good enough. IMO, it would be great to see one of those technologies be made for arcades as a drop in replacement as opposed to a bulky new CRT.

Yeah, I got nothing against Woz. Here's one without him I like how on the stock tracker, the latest press release is the PANIC BUTTON release that was sent out to try and save face in lieu of El Reg.

We did it boys. Onto page 1000!