Mockduck

Meh, that Series S is getting the hype because it is one of only a few things known at the moment regarding next gen pricing. Few people will actually buy one, most likely, and those that do will likely be people who didn't pick up the current generation so a 1/2 step is ok. It's what's called "Anchor Pricing", meaning "the new Xbox is $300" rather than "the new Xbox is $500".

FYI since this thread is getting interest due to timing in the coming weeks, I'll go through the OP and give it an update in the near future. I tend to agree with you Bill (above), but I'm not actually sure this is meant to be a mass market device, although I'm sure no one at Atari would complain if it was. Anyone who thinks this will be a player in the upcoming Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo console battle is unlikely to be proven correct. Doesn't mean the thing won't be pretty sweet though for peeps like me.

I mean this thing is 100% toy, but looks like fun, seems like it'll be a big sell-out, and has a nice visual design. Guess I'll see if I actually get one delivered to me!

I was able to preorder one through Amazon.uk with shipping to the US. Not expecting preorders to last very long, but they seem to still be available 12ish hours later, so?

So to answer the thread topic: Worst I've personally played so far has been the Worlds of Wonder Action Max. Man, that's quite the system...

You need to make sure your friend is aware of their most recent game Man of Medan, it's very much like Until Dawn.

That was the best! Saturday Morning Supercade into the D&D cartoon was so freaking huge for me. Wow both Qbert and Pole Position were truly truly awful cartoons in hindsight.

Sure, I am mostly talking about the full time employment, benefits, and general quality of writing we see from places like Verge, Kotaku, GamesIndustry.biz, Wired, Forbes, etc. It is taken more seriously than in the past, where it was mostly hobbyist hype with a little bit of uninformed mainstream news outlets looking at "those video games kids play".

This could be a longer thread than the atari taco thread. Some could argue that games journalism is more professional today than ever before, both in terms of quality of writing and independent analysis and opinion. The number of awful columns, claims, statements, and low quality bars is nearly infinite over the years. I mean, just gaming magazines from like 1990-1995 could fill pages of this thread.

The use of some words like "fad" and "toxic obsession" are odd. I mean, sure, if you consider something that is popular for a while then not as popular for the remainder of its IP life to be a fad, then most gaming is a series of fads. Fortnite is definitely a fad, as is World of Warcraft, League of Legends, etc. Why is that an issue? Also a little odd to hear about "toxic obsession" in one of the least mean collector circles I've ever encountered, that being Pac-Man memorabilia fans. There's lots out there for everyone and people have always been super cool to me.

You joke, but I hear Discord is a thing. Sort of the 2020 version of AOL IM. And yeah, Discord should run fine through this in alt os mode. I expect that they will at least have an announcement on October 31st that they have begun the process of shipping consoles to backers. Personally, I believe they might actually get this to me before Thanksgiving, but we'll see I guess. Here's my thought on the 96, been thinking about it: individual team members, venture capital backers, contracted QA workers, perhaps some IP license holders, probably some for their app partners devs like Antstream. That's probably at least half of the 96. Probably a couple to use for marketing shots, in-person press/pr events, and a couple to just keep around the office. Probably another 4-10 set aside for in-house QA and other dev work. Maybe (and gawd I'd love it if they did) give one to Jeff Minter. But I bet that 96 got filled pretty quickly. I bet they did send one or two to maybe a YouTuber or something, under a strict NDA, but I have not actually heard anything.

FYI I didn't actually plan to sub already to Antstream but I did over the summer. It's certainly niche, but is actually pretty cool. Got some obscure text adventure games and stuff too. Catalog is pretty small though given what it could be. Just a few hundred titles. Not a long-term $10/month option unless they dramatically increase their size and scope, but neat.

Wanted to bump this to expand it even more and say: For the love of pete, don't keep your removable batteries in your game devices when storing them period. Often nowadays there is no choice unless you want to tinker, but the PSP is not one of them. Had battery detached for about 5ish years now, have plugged in and charged just a few times for playing a specific thing. But yes I have seen the batteries expand and break inside of the psp personally, so don't do it.

It is a bummer that almost all of the apps that come with the VCS will have a subscription cost if you want to use them long-term. That said I genuinely expect this to be the way of the world when the PS5 and XboxoneboxsXs comes out. Thinking we'll all be having to get used to this in the coming years for our video games, movies, music, etc. Still, Plex is genuinely great at doing some things, particularly at being a cloud personal media server. So being built-in with Plex actively planning to support the VCS is good news. I too have thought about what you're saying in the 2nd paragraph. I am - guessing - that this stuff is getting shipped to California and then further OS/QA work is done. But then who's doing the boxing? Unless we are talking day one OS update, which I guess is probably not a surprise either. The folks who blast the VCS because it's like this other thing they like or own isn't that compelling an argument to me. I mean, great that you've already been using a similar device, hope it's working out awesome for you. But the whole, "why buy X when Y already exists" argument doesn't really matter that much. Maybe someone doesn't already own Y, and would rather own X instead? If this Plex thing works out the VCS at the very least will be an attractive looking media server for my home that came with a joystick currently hooked up to my PC for playing retro games. That plus whatever other fun I get out of it is fine for the $320 shipped price I paid. I actually expect it to be useful for both work and personal stream use, and as an easy to travel with mini-PC. Sure, lots of options in that space, but I like this one.

Plex is actually pretty sweet, might be one of the more interesting partnerships. Setting up a plex media server in the home and running it through the native VCS OS might be a great use for it. IIRC plex can also be a pretty good way to get large files around. From the wikipedia: "Free Plex accounts can share their personal media libraries among a user's own collection of devices or to friends, and access Plex's content library of ad-supported video on demand (AVOD). Plex Pass is the optional paid-subscription service including synchronization with mobile devices, cloud storage integration, metadata fetching for music, support for multiple users, parental controls, live TV and DVR, trailers, extras, and cross-selling offers."

Heck yeah Fall Guys on Amico would be great.

I hadn't even heard of this one until I recently picked up the SNK Collection (2018) on Switch. It's on there and plays well. What a truly weird game.

There is a mild to medium inflationary effect happening due to the baseline of pricing being Pricecharting, eBay sold listings, Mercari, etc. It seems to have raised the bottom few rows of prices over the past couple of years. Additionally, finding that inexpensive amazing rare cart is largely gone, as people are far more informed and generally optimistic about their pricing. Combined with increased scarcity and the COVID impact on flea markets and retail stores, and the general push has been online and priced by group-think aided by some amount of selling data.

How much were the Milton Bradley games with the controls? They might be up there, too. I think the adult games were likely the priciest at retail for cart-only releases, however.

The formal commitment to "shipping to IndiGoGo backers by October" is new information from the GameInformer article, at least from my view. But it is largely the same information that has been out since the release of the test units from the manufacturer earlier this year.

It wasn't until Atari Flashback Classics volume 3 that I learned Canyon Bomber was originally an arcade game.

I don't go out of my way to collect them, but definitely set aside and keep any instruction manual variations I pick up in lots and such.

I was thrilled to read this this morning. Goes to show you never know where these will turn up. Super jealous.

To answer the title of the thread: On eBay, by someone attempting to pass them off as the real thing.

Just wanted to say that this opens, edits, and saves just fine with Open Office. I am an OO user for years, and am happy this worked fine.