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New Atari Console that Ataribox?


Goochman

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I think the IoT thing is SEPARATE AND DISTINCT from AtariBox, per the above translation from the French original.

 

The fact that it's being crowdfunded to avoid risk increases the likelihood it won't even happen at all.

Not sure where you are getting the devices aren't related, but I am in agreement with you that this device needs to fail.

 

Take a dead video game company. Add a mystery device with no specs, and head to crowdfunding. What could possibly go wrong??

Before this fiasco is over, we will have more names to carve into the wall of shame besides Mike Kennedy and Chris cardillo. Different brand name, same BS.

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I still plan on making all the games for Ataribox if development is open and it plays normal games.

 

Prepare your faces for such marvelous titles as "Juiced! Baseball 2018", "Lobster Zombie Apocalypse", and "Butt the Butt".

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i only figured arm/linux cause this thing could live or die on its price point. i ain't no marketeer or nothin, but trying to leverage the power of an established corporate name and running a crowdfunding campaign seem to be two things that would conflict with eachother. i guess it minimizes risk but it does have a cost of confidence in the brand

I see it as a cheapening of the brand. It also means they may not have the resources to develop software for it either.

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i'm sure most people won't write them off entirely without seeing their pitch, but i do hope they're prepared for some intense scrutiny.

 

deep in my heart i'd like this thing to be at least passably respectable :< i'd like to make a game for it too, even if it is just cause i got hypnotized by the woodgrain

Edited by RainbowCemetery
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Crowdfunding??

 

Maybe video games are no longer their strong point.

 

Might I recommend they just sell stickers and T-Shirts?

 

It's a more popular idea.

 

It definitely changes the meaning of,"A brand new Atari product. Years in the making." Before reading about it being crowdfunded it meant something like,"We spent thousands of hours perfecting it and soon it will be launched." But after reading about it being crowdfunded its meaning changed to something like,"We spent thousands of hours and have nothing to show for it other than a 21 second video about wooden plastic. That is why we need your help."

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Not sure where you are getting the devices aren't related, but I am in agreement with you that this device needs to fail.

Sounds separate because of their phrasing in their investor report:

 

"Connected Objects: Development of a new hardware product

On May 30, 2017, at the publication of its annual turnover, the Atari group announced the "... Preparation of a public relations campaign and crowdfunding to test the viability of a new product Hardware for video games ".

The Group has since broadcast a video unveiling a first design of this new product, whose functionalities and technical characteristics will be announced according to the progress of the works. https://www.ataribox.com

The Group believes that it is able to develop an attractive product, using the brand awareness of the Atari brand in hardware .

To limit risk taking, this product will initially be launched as part of a crowdfunding campaign .

The Group also works on other connected objects, integrating innovative audio functions, or the Internet of objects (Sigfox)."

 

The Internet of Things bit reads as unconnected and separate, almost an afterthought.

 

I'd like to know more, but their whole "tease" approach without details or money up front bodes poorly. I'll play the game "Butt the Butt" though.

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I'm pretty sure by now that the Sigfox thing is a totally separate project. 'Crowdfunding' however can work well, as the example of the Atari-branded smartwatch has shown (Gameband): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gameband/gameband-the-first-smartwatch-for-gamers?lang=de

 

Us Atarians have to understand (and accept) that today's Atari is no longer a pure hard- & software company but they try to turn it into a 'lifestyle' company. The biggest challenge will be to make the brand interesting for a younger audience. They try to achieve that with deals like that: http://www.atari-investisseurs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CP-2017-06-22-Codebreaker-TV-show-final-CP.pdf

 

'Atari' & 'Discovery' doesn't sound like a bad partnership to me ;)

 

Taking into account how much a 'from scratch' development of a new console would cost, I understand the crowdfunding approach. Today's Atari just generates small profits (compared to its glory past) and this way it can 'test' the acceptance of such a new product before going into a larger production cycle. Plus each of your backers usually promotes the new product ('word of mouth marketing').

 

Whatever the Ataribox will be, its announcement (or the announcement of the Discovery deal) has send Atari's stock-price North: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ATA.PA?p=ATA.PA

 

I agree with some other users of this forum that we first should wait and see 'what the Ataribox' really will be before calling for the grave digger...

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Sounds separate because of their phrasing in their investor report:

 

"Connected Objects: Development of a new hardware product

On May 30, 2017, at the publication of its annual turnover, the Atari group announced the "... Preparation of a public relations campaign and crowdfunding to test the viability of a new product Hardware for video games ".

The Group has since broadcast a video unveiling a first design of this new product, whose functionalities and technical characteristics will be announced according to the progress of the works. https://www.ataribox.com

The Group believes that it is able to develop an attractive product, using the brand awareness of the Atari brand in hardware .

To limit risk taking, this product will initially be launched as part of a crowdfunding campaign .

The Group also works on other connected objects, integrating innovative audio functions, or the Internet of objects (Sigfox)."

 

The Internet of Things bit reads as unconnected and separate, almost an afterthought.

 

I'd like to know more, but their whole "tease" approach without details or money up front bodes poorly. I'll play the game "Butt the Butt" though.

 

Whew.. And that crowdfunding campaign - how low class can ya' get?

 

What practical, useful, exciting things does "innovative audio" mean. To me "audio" = a speaker that makes sound. And there are currently 500,000 ways of feeding power and signals into a speaker to make that sound. So innovative audio my ass!

 

I feel sorry for the people being blinded by "atari", "classic", "woodgrain", and whatever other marketing bullshit they spew forth.

 

Real Atari is 30 years dead.

Edited by Keatah
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Real Atari is 30 years dead.

 

This is something I'm curious about. When does "real" Atari begin and end for most people? Is it just Bushnell and Dabney Atari? Warner Communications? Tramiel Atari? Hasbro Atari? Infogrames? Atari Interactive? Atari SA? Someone show me the cut off point.

 

I might be getting a little blasphemous here but it's all Atari to me. Sure, there was the golden era that I will always cherish. That era begins and ends at certain arbitrary points of my choosing. But I'm just glad that the brand is still alive and relevant in the modern era. The idea of walking into a store and seeing Flashback products and game collections makes me happy. Maybe it's just cheap nostalgia but I'm grateful my old friend is still around in one form or another.

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It definitely changes the meaning of,"A brand new Atari product. Years in the making." Before reading about it being crowdfunded it meant something like,"We spent thousands of hours perfecting it and soon it will be launched." But after reading about it being crowdfunded its meaning changed to something like,"We spent thousands of hours and have nothing to show for it other than a 21 second video about wooden plastic. That is why we need your help."

 

That's Definitely what I thought too.

 

And while I really am adopting a "wait and see" attitude,..And will hope for the best...

 

It's like their greatest idea so far was to present us with a mystery. Not a bad idea, per se, But a lot of that depends on execution. I like to think I'm a regular Hardy boy; Why when I was 6 years old I figured out that the Phantom was really a guy in a mask using the old legend of the haunted amusement park to scare away others and get the gold, unlessin' those meddling hippie kids came along in their stoner van and set up an elaborate trap (usually one that snags Shaggy and Scooby by accident while goofy music plays before semi-functioning properly and also getting the grumpy gold digger with his curmudgeonly ways underneath this crazy scheme))) ...but perhaps I'm a few run on sentences over even half explaining myself properly...

 

The Mystery should have been solved by now. And a crowdfunding idea was not the reveal anyone was hoping for (especially not here). Begging for funds does strain credibility, does tarnish a brand, does erode consumer confidence, and all for something that hasn't even yet been revealed.

 

I'm generally a positive person. And I'm a 40 something, (Christ am I really that old?)...Also I think it's safe to say that I'd rather have a woodgrain box and a chrome Atari logo in my house than a cell phone app, Maybe I'm even a part of their target audience is what I'm getting at. But by now even I've lost more interest than a housing crisis in 2008...

 

And when I think of "lifestyle" brands (like say Harley-Davidson), I am reminded of my ColecoVision stickers, my Atari t-shirts, and my Turbografx coffee mug from back in the day, and that thought that if they'd sold more items like that (that promote the brand and are fun and cool) they might have done better against The Crash...I have no idea what they're promoting here, but if it's something a hipster would line up for, or a way for me to stream video to my refrigerator or something, I'm going to be staying far away...

 

 

Take a dead video game company. Add a mystery device with no specs, and head to crowdfunding. What could possibly go wrong??

 

Kept hearing this in my head.

 

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This is something I'm curious about. When does "real" Atari begin and end for most people? Is it just Bushnell and Dabney Atari? Warner Communications? Tramiel Atari? Hasbro Atari? Infogrames? Atari Interactive? Atari SA? Someone show me the cut off point.

 

I might be getting a little blasphemous here but it's all Atari to me. Sure, there was the golden era that I will always cherish. That era begins and ends at certain arbitrary points of my choosing. But I'm just glad that the brand is still alive and relevant in the modern era. The idea of walking into a store and seeing Flashback products and game collections makes me happy. Maybe it's just cheap nostalgia but I'm grateful my old friend is still around in one form or another.

I would think it's different for everyone, shaped by their own experiences. For me, it's arcade games, the 2600 and 7800, the Lynx, and to some extent the Jaguar. I have little interest in the computers. For years I conflated Atari Games (the arcade company) with Atari Corp (home hardware). It all dried up by 1996 and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the heirs to their legacy. Seeing "Atari" go after Jeff Minter's Tempest-like Vita game, shut down a cute VCS Berzerk-like Android game called Manik, and killing an iOS Kickstarter Battlezone-like project called Vector Tanks -- all while offering next to nothing new of their own -- didn't help endear me to their new management.

 

I still like the Flashback too, and I agree it's fun to see that in stores, just like the "new" Sega Genesis boxes. That company's best days are in the ever-more-distant past now, too. It's certainly the same with incompetent "Coleco," who can go fuck a duck. It's annoying to see them say things like "atari box is years in the making" when that just means "old brand."

 

Intellivision's caretakers seemed to better understand and respect their brand and legacy, which makes it all the more tragic that Keith Robinson passed at a relatively young age. I didn't know him but I am missing him every day I think of these old toys.

 

Nintendo and Sony PlayStation have kept the faith, and imho deserve our attention and money more than the pretend dinosaurs.

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I hope what they are making is going to be an open platform online gaming system where anyone can develop for and sell on the system. I was teaching myself to make games for the Xbox 360 with XNA game studio, and about the time when I figured out what I was doing they cancelled indie development. I'm hoping it will be something that will support homebrew development.

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This is something I'm curious about. When does "real" Atari begin and end for most people? Is it just Bushnell and Dabney Atari? Warner Communications? Tramiel Atari? Hasbro Atari? Infogrames? Atari Interactive? Atari SA? Someone show me the cut off point.

 

The cutoff point may be different depending on what part of the overall hobby one gets into. For me it would be when Atari stopped designing and building stuff in-house. When the flavor of Cyan Engineering was diluted beyond recognition. When its talents were no more. About that time or shortly thereafter. When there were more middlemen than engineers and the required business administration.

 

 

I might be getting a little blasphemous here but it's all Atari to me. Sure, there was the golden era that I will always cherish. That era begins and ends at certain arbitrary points of my choosing.

 

My personal golden era ended when the VCS and 8-bit lineup started getting repackaged over and over. This was a distinct loud and clear voice signaling that marketing flunkies and beancounters had taken control. Products became less interesting and were full of cost-cutting cheapness.

 

The dryness and shallow thought patterns of those types began showing in the products released.

 

 

Maybe it's just cheap nostalgia but I'm grateful my old friend is still around in one form or another.

 

Well that's nice to know.

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Hi peeps,

 

I often lurk but rarely post but now I HAVE to weigh in.

 

I have been interested for years in being able to play 2600/.7800/5200 games in the best possible quality. Same goes for Atari 8 bit and Atari arcade games. I got a UK PAL 7800 and managed to beg a genius to mod it for S-video making me VERY happy. When I was a teenager I always wondered what the 5200 was like..... now I know. I paid a small fortune on US ebay for an S video modded 5200 with an Atarimax cart with an already filled sd card with just about every 5200 game. It cost a smaller fortune to ship over to Merry Olde England and I had to buy a 110v transformer but again I was twice as happy as I was before.

 

Now I know I can play most of this stuff on emulators but I love the old hardware. Did I mention I got the 5200 trakball in my package?

AWESOME stuff!

 

Now if there was a happy medium between emulation on any old boring pc and the original hardware costing a fortune to obtain and mod, I would be interested...

 

From this quote above:

"Preparation of a public relations campaign and crowdfunding to test the viability of a new product Hardware for video games ".

The Group has since broadcast a video unveiling a first design of this new product, whose functionalities and technical characteristics will be announced according to the progress of the works."

 

I'm pretty sure they haven't finalised the "functionalities and technical characteristics". So I think instead of saying I hope this total unknown device fails, maybe we can influence what it might turn into because I'm not sure they really know what will sell.

 

Frankly, someone buys the Atgames flashbacks so there is a desire to play these ancient games on a dedicated little box. I bought a version 5 (I think.... lost count). I leapt on the Flashback handheld because we could finally stick an sd card in, play it on the go AND plug it into a TV. ......but..... I still don't have every 7800 or 8bit computer game by a long stretch.

 

So, what I would love the Ataribox to be:

 

If it is based on a win 10 PC, well I have an older TV (I keep it because it is a Philips 21:9 aspect ratio-like the actual movies 2.39:1) that I have been thinking about buying a win 10 pc stick for. I like the look of a nice blue ASUS vivo stick but I may get the more powerful intel version.

 

Now what if we had an Atari box that served as a PC that plugs straight into the TV (so allowing netflix amazon prime etc.) ...that also emulates and includes every 2600/5200/7800 game that current Atari have the rights to.

 

Also it MUST have the possibility of sticking in either SD cards or stuff on a USB if it won't have cart ports. (Or for God's sake put 2600/7800 and 5200 cart ports on it or make a USB plug in adapter that takes carts....)

 

Also it MUST take old peripherals, I want to plug my 5200 trakball into it and make sure the emulation can take the old peripherals.

 

As we can use it as a "normal" win 10 pc plugged into the TV, lets have a nice wood grain wireless keyboard to go with it!!!!!

I just got a logitech lightweight keyboard that is wireless and bluetooth, has back lit keys, a trackpad and makes a slice of toast (oops sorry that's just another dream). I could make a nice woodgrain case for it myself! So surely Atari can do that.

 

Atari: make note of the experts on this board especially above regarding the best way to 720p HDMI output!!!!!!!!!!

 

So in the absence of this dream device I'm thinking of dropping some Great British Pounds on a Flashback that outputs 720p and/or (because the flashback 720p won't take sd cards or carts) the Retron 77 (but I wish it took 7800 and 5200 carts too! grrrrr).

 

So clearly some people will spend money on some kind of box that plays games.

 

If I had my way I would also have it take 8bit/XE carts and have as many 8 bit games built in too. (I don't ask for much do I?)

Ok I always loved Arcade Crystal Castles so lets have every Atari Arcade game on there too. I sadly don't have the money or space for a genuine old Crystal Castles cabinet (one day..... one day.....!") so I play it on Steam, oh yeah we can install Steam on a win 10 pc right? There you go then.

 

Finally if they want to make money from this somehow apart from just shifting boxes, they need to allow people to develop for this new machine and have a gamestore built in for the excellent existing 2600/5200/7800 homebrews on this site to get seen (and bought) by a wider audience and future games to be able to be sold thru the store and allow the talented writers to make a decent amount of money from it to make it worth their time and effort. (Reminds me I need to order 7800 Scramble and Moon Cresta, I LOVED those games when I was 12 years old!!!!)

 

Even more finally they need to market this right. It's not there for the Call Of Duty brigade (I couldn't give a shit about most "modern" £40+ games). I work with people who say they aren't into video games and then beg to have a go on my hand held Flashback. They just don't want to play photo-realistic warfare online with a bunch of knobs shouting at them telling them how shit they are at C.O.D!!

 

Whaddaya think? Everybody post up their dream machine and maybe those Atari bods might take our advice!

Lets hear from you all then :-)

 

What would your Ataribox be?!!!! .....and I don't mean a fridge you can play Crystal Castles on..... then again.....

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This is something I'm curious about. When does "real" Atari begin and end for most people? Is it just Bushnell and Dabney Atari? Warner Communications? Tramiel Atari? Hasbro Atari? Infogrames? Atari Interactive? Atari SA? Someone show me the cut off point.

 

In clear layman's terms, I think Atari's last struggle to be the company we knew and love happened in the Tramiel era.

 

Hasbro, Infogrames, Atari SA, Atari Interactive.. All are shell companies now relying past laurels and accomplishments. Nothing new has come from them. It's all been about licensing and IP and non-videogame people controlling and posing and pretending to be gamers in attempt to appeal to gamers. Fucking marketing companies, that's what they are!

 

You know it. I know it. Atari fans know it - even if they’re blinded by all things “atari”. Because “atari”.

Edited by Keatah
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I would think it's different for everyone, shaped by their own experiences. For me, it's arcade games, the 2600 and 7800, the Lynx, and to some extent the Jaguar. I have little interest in the computers. For years I conflated Atari Games (the arcade company) with Atari Corp (home hardware). It all dried up by 1996 and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the heirs to their legacy. Seeing "Atari" go after Jeff Minter's Tempest-like Vita game, shut down a cute VCS Berzerk-like Android game called Manik, and killing an iOS Kickstarter Battlezone-like project called Vector Tanks -- all while offering next to nothing new of their own -- didn't help endear me to their new management.

 

I still like the Flashback too, and I agree it's fun to see that in stores, just like the "new" Sega Genesis boxes. That company's best days are in the ever-more-distant past now, too. It's certainly the same with incompetent "Coleco," who can go fuck a duck. It's annoying to see them say things like "atari box is years in the making" when that just means "old brand."

 

Intellivision's caretakers seemed to better understand and respect their brand and legacy, which makes it all the more tragic that Keith Robinson passed at a relatively young age. I didn't know him but I am missing him every day I think of these old toys.

 

Nintendo and Sony PlayStation have kept the faith, and imho deserve our attention and money more than the pretend dinosaurs.

 

Absolutely. The bold points are spot on observances. It's nice to think that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft (whom we love to hate) have not sold out to shell companies and continue to bring us new things that might actually be worthwhile.

 

Call me crotchety and whatever names you can think of, but I have zero respect for shells like "atari, coleco, sega, and others." And that includes some individual developers flaunting their name around on kickstarters. You're glory days are over. You should take up curating and helping to ensure the accuracy of videogame history - not REMAKE it into something we're not interested in.

 

I will even tell you, again and again, that one individual emulator author has done 10x more than these IP holding companies to bring back the classics we all know and love.

 

 

Edited by Keatah
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I hope what they are making is going to be an open platform online gaming system where anyone can develop for and sell on the system. I was teaching myself to make games for the Xbox 360 with XNA game studio, and about the time when I figured out what I was doing they cancelled indie development. I'm hoping it will be something that will support homebrew development.

Like ...Windows? Or Unity?
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Like ...Windows? Or Unity?

 

Yeah but on a strictly gaming machine not Windows PC. I mean if you or I wanted to make a game for the Xbox 360 it can't be done and sold on their Indy Games section any longer. I'm not sure about the other systems what they allow, but I think it would be cool to have a gaming system that makes it easy to do that and a gaming system that many people might buy and have access to buy your game.

Edited by SignGuy81
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Yeah but on a strictly gaming machine not Windows PC. I mean if you or I wanted to make a game for the Xbox 360 it can't be done and sold on their Indy Games section any longer. I'm not sure about the other systems what they allow, but I think it would be cool to have a gaming system that makes it easy to do that and a gaming system that many people might buy and have access to buy your game.

I don't think that's going to be effective in today's market -- you need some kind of network effect to gain any momentum. Developers won't make software if there aren't enough people on the platform, and consumers won't buy it if there isn't enough software. See OUYA for a recent example of this.

 

Such a dedicated box would also compete with Android, iOS, Kindle, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, 3DS, and of course PC (and its myriad stores like Microsoft, Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc) or even the Chrome App Store.

 

A cheap pc seems way preferable to me. I guess they could be like OUYA though -- they don't need to hit a grand slam, just get enough crowdfunding and investor money to get on base.

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I don't think that's going to be effective in today's market -- you need some kind of network effect to gain any momentum. Developers won't make software if there aren't enough people on the platform, and consumers won't buy it if there isn't enough software. See OUYA for a recent example of this.

 

Such a dedicated box would also compete with Android, iOS, Kindle, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, 3DS, and of course PC (and its myriad stores like Microsoft, Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc) or even the Chrome App Store.

 

A cheap pc seems way preferable to me. I guess they could be like OUYA though -- they don't need to hit a grand slam, just get enough crowdfunding and investor money to get on base.

 

I don't think that's going to be effective in today's market -- you need some kind of network effect to gain any momentum. Developers won't make software if there aren't enough people on the platform, and consumers won't buy it if there isn't enough software. See OUYA for a recent example of this.

 

 

 

I was thinking it could come pre-loaded with Atari classics. People bought the Flashbacks. And sure big budget developers probably won't develop for it, which was my main point really something for the people to make games for. And maybe Atari could release games occasionally as well and sell for download. So basically to me it would be like a flashback that has online access to homebrews you can buy. It doesn't need to come out right of the gate and compete with the other systems. This would be a step in the right direction I believe though. AtGames didn't say we can't compete with Microsoft and Sony and not make the Flashbacks.

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