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racerx

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Posts posted by racerx

  1. Posted

    18 minutes ago, Tavi said:

    The frustrated part comes in that it seems no small number of people are still willing to throw money to Chesnais on demand like trained seals.

     

    I keep hoping the AA Facebook page will someday rise above the usual wasteland of "Yars' Revenge, amirite?" posts, but I posted the link there and got just one reply, literally "Yawn."

     

    The much-ballyhooed token release was at best incompetent, and at worst a pure pump and dump scam, and no one cares. Just keep buying that sweet, sweet merch.

     

    Makes me wonder if ol' PowerDubs doesn't have it right after all...if suckers are desperate to be separated from their money, oblige them. 

    • Like 6

  3. Posted

    8 minutes ago, fultonbot said:

    Who is the audience for this?

    I don't know, but I'm amazed that the same generations that complain about the cost of housing/education/healthcare apparently don't have an issue paying real money for literally nothing. We fogies laughed at Supreme but it looks like they were on to something.

     

    This is genuinely marketing genius. We're now selling imaginary products that cost nothing to make, and charging more for imaginary scarcity. The kids are actually buying the emperor's new clothes. Sheer brilliance.

    • Like 6

  5. Posted

    56 minutes ago, jhd said:

     

    Everything has collectible value to someone -- even if it may take a while to be realised.  

     

    Yes, but those examples are collectible/valuable because people didn't collect them. Same with the original Star Wars toys that people didn't think to leave sealed.

     

    This crap goes immediately onto someone's shelf to gather dust. The sheer fact that people are buying them for that reason ensures they won't ever be worth much. It's just compulsive collecting.

    • Like 5

  6. Posted

    12 hours ago, godslabrat said:

    Does someone out there want Pong?  I'm sure of it?  Is it worth more than a fast-food meal in any form?  I doubt it.

     

    I've already seen people salivating in the FB groups. I don't understand the urge to collect stuff that doesn't seem to have any collectible value, but they're out there.

    • Like 2

  7. Posted · Edited by racerx

    58 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

     a brand name that 99% of retail shoppers likely associate with unsold Flashbacks in the closeout aisle

     

    The wife literally just sent this to me. Outside of a tiny nerd bubble, the rest of the world uses Atari synonymously with "obsolete."

     

    IMG_20201020_140936.thumb.jpg.d82b2c0fce2857ec2e10d39cddf39f64.jpg

    • Like 1
    • Haha 4

  8. Posted

    2 hours ago, Agillig said:

    LOL.  Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

    20201020_103819.thumb.jpg.efff240746c9763845ec854fbcddbca5.jpg

    How long can a company coast on a 40-year-old reputation selling products made by other companies?

     

    I get it...nostalgia's a helluva drug, but it can't be milked forever. At some point those of us who care(d) will be gone, and Atari hasn't really produced anything original and relevant since the Warner years.

    • Like 8

  9. Posted

    5 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

    I agree with this statement. There's very little here that would be appealing to non-adults. There are better game consoles, better computers, better targeted DIY computer-like devices, etc. This is arguably primarily for nostalgic middle aged people with very specific use cases in mind. Nothing wrong with that ultra-niche market, although there are of course still people out there who think this has broad appeal for some reason.

     

    "Ultra niche" is right. Those of us that are middle aged but never stopped gaming don't have much use for this cynical exercise.

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    Yeah, but it wasn't exactly a glowing article.

     

    Quote

    The company is facing economic headwinds. While Covid-19 has led to a surge in people staying home and playing games, many millions have lost their jobs or fear losing them. That could limit their spending this holiday season and push consumers to opt for major players’ new consoles, instead.

     

    There’s also the pricing. Atari’s all-in bundle, which includes an 8-gigabyte Atari VCS, a wireless controller, a wireless classic joystick, and 100 classic arcade and console games, costs $390. The Xbox Series S starts at $300.

     

    “I am kind of pessimistic, to be honest, because you are going head to head with Xbox and PlayStation 5,” said Lewis Ward, an analyst at researcher IDC. “Obviously if you are a huge fan of Atari games, there’s always a nostalgia basis. But simply on a price-to-value ratio, I don’t see how this becomes more than a niche product.”

     

    Covid-19 had already delayed the VCS -- it was previously scheduled to ship in March. What’s more, Atari faces looming competition even in the retro category. Intellivision Entertainment plans to release its Amico player early next year with a starting price of around $249. That player “is looking more impressive,” Cole said.

    Atari’s foray into cryptocurrencies could also be hit or miss. Past efforts to marry tokens with video games haven’t panned out.

     

    • Thanks 2
    • Haha 1

  12. Posted

    Friendly ball-busting aside, there were always fun games in the arcade, 90's included. Still, "peak arcade" was definitely in the early 80's, and it's hard to describe how big it was to anyone that wasn't there. There were games in gas stations and outside the checkout at Kmart, for Pete's sake. Games like Pacman and Donkey Kong got breakfast cereals, Saturday morning cartoons, and bedsheets.

     

    Still, it was the song list that prompted the biggest *oof* from my inner fogey. I simply can't connect any of those with the arcade experience, at all.

    I was working on some machines in my arcade last night and jotted down the tracks that played while I worked. It's quite a difference a decade or so makes.  😉

     

    Golden Earring: Twilight Zone

    Boston: Long Time

    Blue Oyster Cult: Burning for You

    Toto: Hold the Line

    Loverboy: Turn Me Loose

    Fleetwood Mac: Rhiannon

    Styx: Blue Collar Man

    Journey: Stone In Love

    Rolling Stones: Start Me Up

    Def Leppard: Photograph

    Billy Squire: In the Dark

    Foreigner: Hot Blooded

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    2 hours ago, Keatah said:

    The best arcade years for me were in the very late 1970's through the mid 80's. After that it started winding down and stopped completely in the mid-90's.

     

    Yep. I genuinely feel bad for people that missed the good years.

    • Like 4

  17. Posted

    5 hours ago, jamm said:

    "Atari never said they were going to deliver an actual door stop - just the idea of a door stop with an Atari logo on it.  And that's all I ever wanted, so I'm thrilled with my purchase!"

     

    Look...it's a niche product. The idea of a doorstop was never intended to compete with mainstream doorstops.

    • Thanks 1
    • Haha 8

  19. Posted

    14 minutes ago, jamm said:

    Is there a significant market for parents who can't afford a decent laptop for their kids but can afford a low spec games console for $400?  Wouldn't that theoretical market be better served by any of the vastly more powerful consoles out there that have a ton of actual games and are also cheaper?

     

    It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which people go to try and justify this thing's existence.

     

     

    Inb4 zzip's "niche product" routine.

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1

  21. Posted

    46 minutes ago, zzip said:

    Exactly.   If they went the Amico route with some proprietary system that depended on Atari to release games for it..  who would want that? 

     

    That's what most people would've wanted, I'd imagine, because that would've given it a reason to actually exist. "Reimagined classics" was a big part of the original pitch, and I don't think stuff like the free-to-play-on-mobile Missile Command Recharged or the nearly 3-year-old-on-everything-else T4K is what people had in mind.

     

    What significant games other than Battlezone have they sold?  The bigger issue is that lots of games people want are actually third party games, and Chesnais would've had to track down rights and pay licensing fees.

     

    So, yeah. It's taken them three years plus to crap out a gimped pc in a nostalgic case that brings nothing to the table that 95% of consumers can't already do with what they already own. Even at the uncompetitive pricing, they can't be making much on hardware, and the new focus on the "sandbox" aspect means they won't make much on the software side either. I can't think of a better case in recent times of a DOA product.

     

    It's no wonder they've had to dip further into the sleaze with the crypto aspect. There's only so many possible ways to try and eke low effort profits...

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    21 hours ago, Soccer1214$ said:

    I would be ok with that; consider its rarity.
    Thank you for the post  

    Yeah...it's nowhere near rare enough to reasonably command that kind of scratch.

     

    Wait for the bubble to burst.

    • Thanks 1

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, zzip said:

    They legally own the name

    Was Warner Masquerading as Atari?

    Tramiel? - it was literally a different company after he bought it!

    Infogrames? 

     

    This is just the latest in a long line of owners.  I don't see them as any less or more Atari than anyone else since the Tramiels.

    Every transaction through Tramiel was just a change in ownership of the existing company. Granted, Tramiel just got the consumer half, but it was personnel, it was engineering, it was offices. It was a real company, that had a running line of continuity through the death throes of the JTS merger.

     

    Yes, this iteration is legally "Atari," but to equate the transfer of musty four-decade-old branding and IP with the buyout of an active company is silly. Moreover, the "masquerading" charge is because this is largely Infogrames with a name change. Is that "more Atari" than a sub-brand of Hasbro? Maybe, but it's certainly not enough to spark any kind of misplaced loyalty.

     

    It's literally a company completely unrelated to the Bushnell,  Warner, and Tramiel led Atari(s), which draws us all the way back to one of the original Ataribox questions...would this fare well as an Infogrames GameBox with the exact same specs, with the exact same price, with the exact same streaming partners?

     

    I think the answer to that is clear, and it's why it's destined to sell poorly, and it's why it tends to get mocked here (and elsewhere).

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 2

  24. Posted

    On 9/2/2020 at 8:57 AM, davidcalgary29 said:

    No one took an interest in the Jag when it was on the shelves. :)

    Sad but true.

     

    I was already out of college when the Jag came out. I remember Jag ads in the gaming mags in the run up to release and being surprised that A) Atari still existed and B) would even attempt a console release at that point. It was just so obviously doomed from the beginning.

     

    That said, the wife got me one for $25 at a KayBee clearance and I picked up several more. I've had a lot of fun with them, but few people, consumers or developers, took it seriously during its lifetime.

  25. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

    The original pitch from Fergal Mac had nothing about it being a PC in a VCS-like case. That only came around after Atari didn't pay Fergal and found Rob Wyatt to come up with something.

     

    To be fair, the tagline Game, Stream, and Connect Exactly Like You Already Can With The Hardware You Already Have wouldn't have had the same ring.

    • Like 1
    • Haha 9
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