Paul Slocum

It's still maybe a little early for articles to be written and published for smaller stuff like the Atari VCS, although I don't know how Atari can be at CES promoting a new product without finding one interesting/related thing to post to social media today. At this point I bet Atari is really struggling to find tech writers who are likely to write positively about the Atari VCS. I wouldn't be surprised if they were networking around today trying to find the right kind of naive person to write favorably about it.

They're also apparently showing the battery powered LED cases again... (edit: beat me to it!)

I was just thinking they were probably already using Kingston RAM and talked them into sharing some table space in exchange for "Atari" promoting their booth on social media. It looked like a similar promo deal with the GAEMS case company too. If they don't show any working models on the floor and only show "working models" to invited press again, it's going to look pretty bad. If you're launching a console in "weeks" or even 3 months, there's no plausible reason to not let people actually play it other than the project being in a state of disaster.

So apparently the clear case "souped up" Atari VCS that they're going to have at different CES booths isn't actually hooked up to anything:

I'm totally fascinated to see what they reveal. At this point I honestly could see it being anything from Raspberry Pis taped under the table to them surprising us with something that sorta does what it's supposed to (albeit with a notable lack of games). Is it really the Coleco Chameleon again or do they just have the worst public relations team known to man? Tune in tomorrow...

Well, this is going to be interesting...

Somebody apparently is still around and responding to easy questions on FB but ignoring the hard questions on Indiegogo and Reddit. Also, they're shipping in weeks but can't even say what the Atari Vault games are yet?

I wasn't really expecting anything, but some backers are realizing that if production hasn't officially started towards the end of December, then there's no way they're going to get their units in "weeks not months". The Christmas message being posted without officially starting production basically confirmed that there will be another delay for backers and it will now be months not weeks (assuming the project is still viable). I think the only reason for them to not throw the Indiegogo switch to take it out of "prototype" stage is that they're still not doing anything that can legally be classified as "production"

Just wondering...

Too bad "Atari" is trying to sue the Retron 77 into non-existence, even though it was clearly trying to steer clear of Atari's trademarks. Hopefully the Atari VCS will exist when the Retron 77 gets axed due to the lawsuits being too expensive.

That's what I keep thinking! I didn't watch this one, but his answers on that CBS interview were moronic. He doesn't know anything about the product he's selling. It's painfully obvious that "Atari" is just Fred's midlife crisis.

I thought the same thing but realized it was actually worded oddly and they really meant they'd update when they get a reliable date from the factory. Still not great, but not quite as crazy as admitting that they've not yet received a single properly working unit yet. Although I'm still skeptical that they have anything working since it's totally bizarre to still not have shown a single thing running on it.

That's a good question.

It's great, but the software and drivers have got a little ways to go depending on what you're doing. I've been setting up browser kiosks on it, and it's fast enough for some stuff I'm doing but not quite fast enough for others, and it's a bit buggy compared to the 3. By the end of next year it will probably be a lot farther a long. I want to port some of my software from the 3 to the 4, but there's not really enough documentation or APIs exposed for me to do what I need. The Pi 4 works really well with the Flirc case, it's passive but with a massive heat sink and I've been able to overclock to 2Ghz without issue.

Lol, ok dad

Wait, what!? I had actually been thinking that it would be funny for the Amico to start licensing and releasing old Atari properties like Marble Madness and 720 that Atari SA doesn't own anymore (which could also feed a good antagonistic ad campaign), but I didn't the Amico to actually be licensing properties that Atari SA currently owns! I would have thought that Atari would think of the Amico as a key competitor.

I know somebody in the US who had the money and means to buy Atari and was trying to buy it during the last bankruptcy, but they told me it ended up being extremely difficult to extract the IP from France after working with a number of lawyers.

I don't know why anybody is, it's just going in circles.

FYI and DON'T read anything into this

It was locked within an hour of posting, yet they can't be bothered to do anything about the guy posting caustic Trump flamebait all over the sub. Apparently anything goes as long as it's positive about the VCS, and I'm tempted to create a throwaway account to test the limits of this policy...

The fact that they didn't clearly show the board this time and still couldn't show anything running on it is a little curious. Even the most inept engineers should be able to at least scrounge up something running on the board for the camera at this point. As little faith as I have in "Atari", I still expected them to provide more media in this update than that pitiful handful of photos.

It's standard to put this at the bottom of your press release right? /s Also, new article by Forbes:

Also, they'd call it a prototype. Atari calling it a "dev board" instead of a "prototype" makes it pretty clear that it's just a pre-made dev board from AMD that you use as a starting point to design the prototype board.

If Rob was simply fired for failing to do his job, he would be setting himself up to be sued into the dirt by going to the press and telling them that he left because of non-payment.

Some press is starting to roll in and it ain't looking good. They're not really buying Atari's BS 'interview', and a lot more writers are picking up the stuff about Rob Wyatt leaving and various concerns of backers: https://mspoweruser.com/atari-claims-no-news-is-good-news-after-months-of-atari-vcs-silence/ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-11-29-atari-vcs-enters-final-stages-of-pre-production-following-series-of-delays https://www.pcgamesn.com/atari-vcs-console-update-2019