godslabrat

Well, to be fair... the Polymega is aiming to play games people actually care about. I think that's why P&I gave it a pass for so long.

Oh good, I really needed another way to play the Atari 100 pack, AND pay a monthly fee for the privilege.

Of course a frontline agent knows nothing. Not only are they usually the last to know about such developments in their own company, there's no way they'd have insider info on what's going on with an outside company. That said, if you think it's in your best interest to keep your pre-order, wal-mart is your best bet. If this project goes south, you can count on Wal-mart to give you a refund.

Well, it isn't like l'Atari has been honest about... ANYTHING throughout this whole ordeal. "Conspiracy" might not be the best word, but they've been actively covering up a lot of their own ineptness.

TLDR: Polymega is asking exisiting pre-order customers to cancel Walmart orders and re-order Polymega directly through them. This includes a price hike of $50 and no clear benefit to the consumer. I agree with Cosmic Owl... Polymega likely NEEDS the money to fund the production and has no way to get it otherwise. I suppose the Angel Investors, assuming they ever existed, have decided not to foot the bill anymore. It seems like a REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA to be encouraging customers to not use the retailer of their choice, especially when being on Walmart.com was a source of bragging rights for Polymega for so long. Also, as a rule, small businesses shouldn't try to pick fights with Wal-Mart. The chances of it ending well for them are very not good.

The Retrofreak was able to store games on an SD card and play them right out of the box. The R5 could sort of do the same thing, if you loaded the ROM as a save file while playing another game. This all came about because Hyperkin had needless paranoia about getting sued by Nintendo for selling an emubox (which is perfectly legal). Of course, when the system was first released, the emulators weren't properly licensed (which is not at all legal). In more ways than one, corners were cut on this machine because Hyperkin was worried about the wrong problem. I'm just mildly curious to see if they'd take the obvious opportunity to release a better system. I'm sure I'll be disappointed.

Nope. I mean, I haven't seen any specs, but it's built to be a software emulation machine, so it can't work with Everdrives. It's possible, but unlikely, that the SD card could be used to load roms directly, eliminating the need for an ever drive.

Just saw this. The Retron 5 might have been hot when it came out, but it's a tough sell in 2021. Would be really curious to know if they did more than change the color scheme and add a wired controller. Personally, I think they should have cut the wireless controller entirely and tried to rebrand it as a budget system

But not physical media of the game.

"Please don't use this extremely common, advertised feature because you might screw your entire system." I guess that's where the "play and stream like never before" came from.... because it's true, I've never heard that before.

Cart port, but latest firmware

What's the current compatibility with games from the AA store?

"We got the angles right!!"

I'm sure with proper care, they'll be fine.

And seeing as we're now looking at August at the soonest, a lot can change on the software front between now and then.

There really isn't a shortage of extremely cheap ($10 or less) games available. Looking at my Switch library right now, I have seven of them. More if you count re-releases of games from other platforms. None of them have ads. They're all really good games, too. I'm certain the other systems have a similar number of cheap, quality, ad-free games. Mobile too. I realize digital marketplaces are crowded spaces, and it takes effort to read reviews or watch gameplay videos. But if the central point is that you have more time than money, that's covered. I hate ad-driven games, but from what I can see, they're only a problem if you want them to be.

The only misinformation and slant I ever remember hearing came from the project itself.

The Ataribox gets its new slogan!

"From the fanboys who brought you 'Dreamcast 2'...!"

I don't even know what you mean by that.

"Thousands". Lol. What they sold was insignificant.

What the fans and critics think means a lot. They're the ones with the money.

Negative. L'Atari did not get specific about what the device would exactly be until very late in the process. A huge amount of the buzz they did generate centered around the complete lack of definition of the project. Again, even Atari themselves didn't know. Stadia is a red herring. Streaming was never going to take the gaming world by storm, and anyone who could look at a map and do basic calculations about bandwidth could tell you that. It's irrelevant to the conversation. I'm going to take a bit of a leap (not much of one) and suggest that, beyond the logo, the single most compelling thing about the VCS was always its case design, and it's for a combination of those two things that most people made their crowdfunding pledges. Those are also the two things that require the least amount of technology, so really, they could have been included in any device. If the logo and case were the same regardless, I doubt I could have done *worse*. Personally, I say the first change that needed to be made was the price. That $400 needs to take a flying leap. $100-$200 was the range here. And Atari really should have embraced the product that actually sold well-- the flashbacks. People like them well enough to keep buying them, even if there seems to be a slowdown as of late. Ideally, they should have taken a FB, given it a beefier architecture, something that could have supported Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, and that likely wouldn't cost a whole lot more than what an existing FB cost. If you could add an app store for semi-modern games, you'd have something that would not only appeal to the people in this forum, but maybe a modest number of people on the street as well. Remember, Atari got less than 11,000 people to support the VCS. Outdoing that is not really a high bar to set. I think it's safe to say that, if you could sell the same logo and the same case, but with filling that actually provides real value to people, at half the price, there's no way you don't sell more. A lot more. You and I can disagree on the value of the "Open" aspect all day long, as well as how much the world at large is asking for a PC in an Atari shell. There's room for discussion there. But I think it's clear that Atari had the chance to provide more value for a lower price, and had they done that, the product would have been more popular.

I'm actually going to agree with you here: they can't compete, they shouldn't, and the Box as it stands is the best l'Atari can expect to do. Then why is their messaging running completely counter to that? This wasn't branded as a novelty PC (where it achieves some base-level success), it was branded as a game console and streaming box (where it fails at both). Atari's approach to this could charitably be called "hubris" and I'd strongly prefer words like "disingenuous" or "sleazy." Truth be told, I'm betting if they put you in charge of making this thing, I bet the end result would be more focused and practical. I know I've had some ideas for how this COULD have gone, that would have resulted in it not being total clownshoes. If this was the best Atari could do, why did they do it? I'm sure it was a quick buck, but it doesn't speak well of the long-term value of the brand or company. One day you're making a George Foreman Grill computer, the next you're slapping your logo on a foot bath.

I am sorry, Nintendo has given up support for the switch? Could you please elaborate on that?I am sorry, Nintendo has given up support for the switch? Could you please elaborate on that?