Mockduck

I never had a Lynx because it was for the rich kids, best I could get was the Tiger/LJN portables.

Can't say I loved qomp2, but it's not really my kind of thing. Well made with a unique core mechanic set against a fairly familiar challenging puzzle platformer background:

Awesome, excellent price for that given today's prices. Enjoy! I seem to recall seeing a pic online of someone with literally hundreds of E.T. carts, so that's a goal.

Having a real CRT TV makes a big difference in terms of recommendation. Were I to start fresh, I'd see if my budget and opportunity allowed for the purchase of a so-called "Heavy Sixer", which is the original version of the console released. Or, keep an eye out for any boxed four or six switch Atari. I'd get the ones with the wood grain rather than the all-black or junior units, but they work well too. I actually like my Jr. a lot, main advantage is it has a removable RF cable port on the back, which can be nice. Also, slightly newer given when it was released. Mostly, I'd keep an eye on local Facebook marketplace style opportunities, and pick up the first cheap one that seems good and has with it the power supply and controllers.

I think Asteroids and Centipede will at least do well, they are among the best-ever arcade machines, so a cool new looking version with fun lights and sounds seems like it'd sell at an arcade.

Have fun with it! You should be basically fine whichever Atari 2600 you end up with. If it isn't modified, you'll need to figure out how to get a picture from it. If you have an old CRT TV use that, if you don't, you can get a connector to hook it straight into the Coax/"cable" port of your newer TV. The 2600 doesn't look great unmodified on a modern TV, but it'll work. Get one or more of these: https://www.amazon.com/Maxmoral-Female-Connector-Straight-Adapter/dp/B07X9LFS1Y/ref=sr_1_1_sspa This avoids needing to use an old style switch box to take the RF into Coax. Depending on how "retro" you want to go with it, I'd probably suggest picking up the new Atari 2600+ from Plaion/Atari as it has HDMI output and still plays the old carts. It's great, and might be the easiest way to get into the 2600 in 2024. But if you are set on vintage hardware, you'll have fun with that too.

Yeah, and that bodes well for the Recharged arcade games, because it was working and feeling GREAT on Avian Knights. They talked a bit on-site about what it takes to sell Avian Knights cabinets to arcades, one of the things being flexibility in terms of taking credits, quarters, and spitting out tickets either through a card or physical. These are definitely being made for arcades in addition to wealthier home collectors (the Avian Knights cabinets are about $6-10k depending). Yes, Alan-1 knows their stuff for sure. Great match for these Recharged games IMO.

Some pics I took of the Avian Knights four player cabinet at Flynn's Retrocade in Roy, Utah for the tournament by Alan-1. The lights, wind, pinball knockers, etc. worked really well and I thought it added a lot to the experience, I loved it myself. The knocker in particular was sweet for Avian Knights.

Team glue stick, or clear elmer's school glue.

I would say six or so, there's plenty of room up on the top, they would be loose rather than fitted but it'd work fine. Not enough height to store paddles, though. This is probably the one to get then. I still think I will probably end up keeping the case but re-doing the foam insert to instead fit a VCS 800 (the 2020 release mini pc/console), Classic Controller, Modern Joystick, and cables. Will get more use as the new VCS is a great little portable console and PC to use while on the road, just need to plug the HDMI into the hotel TV and use cell hotspot to access online.

I like the emails, it gives these third parties a chance to pitch their product to people who signed up to get this kind of news. Sure, I suppose you could subdivide your mailing list into "games only", "games and clothing", "games and clothing and merch", but it's also possible for people to only open emails they are interested in. Never woulda purchased the Artovision stuff without the email, and I love that they include VCS discounts as well sometimes.

So, are we ever going to get an official release, or is this "Beta" the only planned way to update the firmware of the 2600+?

Here's my look at it. One of the more interesting cheap puzzle games on the VCS:

Released 3/1/24: Snake Core $8.99 The latest release from Orange Pixel! Some kind of mission-based take on the vintage game Snake.

I completed the game as well back a few years ago, it definitely gets pretty difficult by the end, but doable. The addition of local co-op is a really great idea.

Here's my look at NeoSprint: Some thread thoughts: - I found the Classic twist support to be not great, although it helped a lot when I set the sensitivity to be high. This is done from the screen where you select your race car and driver color. I couldn't figure out how to drift brake using the classic, anyone figure that out? - Track builder is sweet, could end up being the best part of the game. - The February update made a HUGE different in both polish and generally improving gameplay. Game went from not fun to pretty fun imo. - I liked the zoomed in camera ok although I noticed it caused some poor game performance. The zoomed out was harder to play I thought, but I'm not great at this kind of steering wheel racer.

Released 2/23/24: Atari Club Free After getting a vote to do it by Atari Club members, the Atari Club is now available in the Apps section of the VCS Store! Similar to most other "apps" in AtariOS, the "app" is just a link to the Atari Club in Chrome, which you can access by going to app.atari.club. That said, it'll get you there with a controller button press. Once there, a keyboard and mouse is required to log in and navigate the web site. Features including a profile, an achievements system for doing things through the Club site, and the ability to play some games for free (Currently Speed Runner 133, Basic Math: Recharged, Atari Room 133, and Atari City Center.) This site began as Atari's way to sell NFTs and Crypto, but has since become a location for marketing, promotion, community-building, and limited exclusive merch sales.

We have a second release today! Released 2/23/24: Annihilation $4.99 The latest release from TreeFall Studios (Perplexing Orb, Gem Collector, Tilting Tiles). Top-down arcade shooter!

Released 2/23/24: Cosmic PANIC $9.99 An indie 1-4 player arcade-style party game from a new deveoper for the VCS! Sumoshell Bombfunk is a two-person team that released the game on Steam and Polycade on February 15th, and now on the VCS.

Released 2/20/24: Qomp2 $19.99 The sequel to Qomp arrives on the VCS! Qomp is an indie PC and Linux game released in 2021 by Graphite Lab using pong-style ball physics as a multi-level obstacle and maze puzzle game. This new sequel expands greatly on the idea. Bounce around the stages trying to get to the end! Timing and dodging are the key challenges. NOTE: Game does NOT support the Classic Joystick.

One of the most common questions we see in the Atari Discords and forums is from users looking to add an m2 wanting to know which ones will work for the VCS, so the idea of "just buy this one it is guaranteed to be compatible" is probably the reason for the offering.

I use it several times per week without issue, dunno why your experience is different.

If you don't have atari 50th this is the coupon to use! If not maybe check out days of doom. Use with a more expensive game!

It will come down to how well it works and how compatible it is with Stella and Steam/Epic/etc. If I can just plug it in and play Atari 50th using it, fantastic! If it's the latest in a long line of "PC compatible" controllers that I plug in and nothing happens without programming knowledge and hours of fiddling with settings, it has far less value.

I had no idea Demon Attack came out for the Odyssey 2! I'd get that one in a heartbeat.