Agillig

If I were Fred, I'd purchase about 10,000 Raspberry Pi units, slap them inside VCS cases, and call it a success. Judging from the responses to "Atari Dude's" well done hoax, most of the supporters would be perfectly fine with it.

Honest question. Why not just buy a PC? The much vaulted "Sandbox Mode" is just the ability to play games on Linux or Windows. The only way people are going to be able to play Star Wars on the Atari VCS, assuming it comes out, is to install an emulator and rom. Not exactly official and legal, but it is what it is. I'm not condoning that course of action, but if you're going to do it, why not just do it on your PC. If you want to play the games on your HD tv, get an HDMI cable and connect it to your computer. Is it the nostalgia of buying a product with the Atari name on it that is the stumbling block?

Doesn't he also make that sweet puzzle game? There's nothing more I'd like to play than a game where you put together pieces of a puzzle to form a screenshot of Doom on the Jaguar. I can't imagine what kind of licensing voodoo is necessary to make this game happen legally.

And...comments for that thread are now disabled. There was some concern about whether backers would get their systems this year, and you can't have skepticism. They don't want negative posts, but what is there to post about, other than their infatuation with us "trolls"? Certainly nothing positive. Heck, even John Phelan released a video on YouTube today saying if the system isn't out by April, he's going to boycott Atari. Looks like the dam is starting to break.

If he's a paid shill, he's terrible at his job. He should be buttering people up and sweet talking them into buying a VCS, not getting nasty with people asking simple questions. When he bans people, he prances around, boasting like he won an Academy Award. Who does that? I still maintain my contention that nearly everyone supporting this thing has some kind of mental health challenge. In the case of the Werner Brothers, I'm guessing they don't have anything in real life where they feel respected or valued, so now they can use an internet forum to force people to play by their rules, for fear of getting banned. Kinda sad, really. In terms of *NAMES REMOVED*, maybe some development issues in their brain. I admire their child like blind faith, but they're going to be very disappointed at some point. I feel bad for those two. The Werner Brothers, along with Lucas and Andy, frankly deserve to learn the lesson Atari is going to teach them.

Almost time for Atari's daily Facebook post. Any bets on which 5 month old post they'll recycle today?

You mean they actually pay someone to review and approve the crap they've been blasting out on social media?

That guy has truly elevated trolling to an art form. It's an obvious fake, but it's a sliver of hope for the loyalists to grab on to. Maybe Atari would just be better off throwing a Raspberry Pi into the VCS shell and shipping it?

The supporters Facebook page started dialing back expectations a few days ago. The thought is that as long as Atari backs the December ship date, that's what matters. I can't really argue with that line of thinking. But when Atari keeps missing deadlines, doesn't a prudent person have to wonder why the December ship date will somehow be the one they make?

Oh, don't worry. The first day of fall is coming. When Atari fails to deliver their big announcement, it will be raining tacos.

People are getting excited that Chesnais had a meeting with a company that makes mobile games. That's some serious desperation right there.

And now they have their own "Official" Atari VCS subreddit. I guess they need something they can censor. I don't understand why they can't see how bad this sort of thing makes them look. When you go around censoring critics, it reinforces the narrative that this is a scam.

The last day of summer is next week. If the only thing we see is more recycled 5 month old social media posts, there might be a revolt. Or...more excuses.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to make a prediction, and you can write this one down: As each day passes, it's becoming obvious Atari has nothing to show. When the December deadline comes and goes, Atari will blame the Intel chip shortage. The backers will eat it up, and it technically won't be Atari's fault. Since no one can say when Intel will be caught up, Atari can use this excuse to string backers along indefinitely. Of course, no one has seen a functioning prototype, so they have no use for this chips anyway, but that's beside the point.

Considering how toxic their behavior is, and how aggressively they silence anyone who doesn't march in lockstep with them, I'd say this is a valid question. I was pretty surprised at how your banning went down.

Yeah...but who would want to play those games? I'll play any crap on my cell phone to kill time, but when I'm at home, the games I play on my tv are what I want to play. I think it was Review Tech USA who asked what the market was supposed to be for this system. Taking it a step further, what does mission accomplished look like for the backers? A system that can play vintage Atari games, as well as modern games? My PC or Xbox One can do that, and Borderlands 2 will play much smoother on either. Do people just want something with the Atari name and logo slapped on it? Ok, I guess. How did that work out for Nintendo fans who bought the Virtual Boy? Is "Sandbox mode" the big draw here? Because I can use whatever OS I want on my laptop. If I plug my laptop into my tv using an HDMI cable, is there a reason for the Atari VCS to coexist with it? I guess the honest question I have for whatever people who are excited about this system is this: If the system wasn't released by a company called Atari, would you even care about it?

Realistically, Atari already has some canned excuses ready to unleash. Their die hard fans have believed every excuse and lie up to this point. No reason to think that will change in 4 months. Atari will say the backers get the benefit of being early testers, they will use their valuable feedback for the main launch in the spring, and everyone will be happy. That is, assuming this thing is released to backers this December. There's nothing remotely impressive about the technology here, so it should be no problem. Maybe they're too busy working on Defender Remastered to put on the Atari store for John P. to buy.

That website isn't exactly promising.

Considering how many people I've seen ask about shipping to other countries, you might even make a profit off it.

Well, according to John Phelan, whom I genuinely feel sorry for, it's a simple matter to transfer the hardware from a PC to the Atari VCS hardware. I'm not sure what this guy is thinking, he is going to have a rough winter. At the end of the developers blog, they say they're going "overseas" to meet with the factory these things will apparently be made. I wonder if this will be the justification for the next delay. "We were all ready to go, but we want only the finest child laborers working on our un-console."

I just like to see a good dumpster fire, and the Shen Mue 3 Kickstarter train wreck isn't enough to hold my interest.

I knew I should have fixed that typo in the second line.?

No, I got blocked by their Twitter page. They are calling their Walmart exclusive the "Kevlar" model. Kevlar is a trademark of Dupont, and Dupont protects this trademark very vigorously. Since this new Atari are such trademark Nazis, they should understand this concept. My response to Dupont with the @ to them was to notify them of Atari's post.

Well, I got blocked by the Atarivcs Twitter account. They made a post about their "Kevlar" model, and I replied with an @ to Dupont.?. Must be a rough Monday for the intern.

Doesn't help that the moderator of the group appears to have serious issues. The guy's power tripping something fierce. If you feel so inadequate in life that you have to find validation by being a hammer fisted mod in a Facebook group of 40 people, you probably should take a sabbatical from video games and take a look inside yourself. Once again, my statement that EVERYONE who supports this system has serious issues is proven correct.