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New Atari Console that Ataribox?


Goochman

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The answer is that AMD has been in competition with Intel and NVIDIA for years now and AMD has been losing money for the last few years. They are becoming more and more desperate to show shareholders that they are gaining an advantage, any advantage over their largest competitors. I have reviewed many annual reports over the years and while certainly not the norm, I have seen many companies report highlights that do not actually involve any money changing hands. For whatever reason, the name "Atari" still resonates with people and I'm sure AMD just saw it as a positive thing to include because in the recent media at least, this current incarnation of "Atari" sounds a lot bigger and more prolific than it really is.

That makes more sense. I laughed at a friend of mine earlier for buying AMD. He said they always tend to be cheaper, and I said yeah, but not just in price... Apparently there is some work around for using the Samsung GearVR for SteamVR, but for some reason it only works with nVidia graphics cards. I've always bought them because every time (like twice?) I've gone with ATI/AMD, their drivers just stunk, or they deprecated cards too soon moving them into the unsupported legacy branch. nVidia also has fantastic Linux support, while AMD has been trying really hard to make the people who only will tolerate open source through and through happy (though they still need closed source firmware blobs..) but the performance is just not quite there, and hasn't been for years.

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I already posted on-topic once in this thread today. That's pretty-much my limit.

 

However... just to prove I'm not completely taco-obsessed... let's think for a moment about how Atari could have come back as a relevant game company.

  1. Talk to Sega. See how their hardware business has been doing lately.

So there you go, Atari. Don't reach for the stars until you can learn to tie your own shoes. Or something like that. :roll:

 

Now, it's time for tacos.

Actually a good idea might be if they worked WITH Sega. If there were any other company outside of Atari with their IP to make a game console I may be interested in, it'd be a Sega one.

 

I somehow used to always have the luck of trying to back the one that ends up getting out of the business (Started with Atari and mixed it up with some Sega during the Master System - Genesis days)

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I already posted on-topic once in this thread today. That's pretty-much my limit.

 

However... just to prove I'm not completely taco-obsessed... let's think for a moment about how Atari could have come back as a relevant game company.

  1. Research the gaming industry as it exists today. Examine the different markets - hardcore PC gamers, dedicated console gamers, casual console gamers, casual mobile gamers, retro gamers, hobbyists, etc.
  2. Find out where the largest potential profit is, given the least possible investment. This would be mobile games, incidentally.
  3. Determine what assets Atari has. Specifically: your name, which carries a certain amount of buying power due to familiarity and nostalgia; and a handful of games that were popular 30+ years ago, and are still somewhat regarded as cultural icons. Learn to accept that most of your games are obsolete relics as far as the general game-buying public are concerned.
  4. Examine how other game companies with old IPs have managed to stay relevant. Nintendo, for example. Take note of their mistakes - like the Wii U. Take note of their successes - like the new Mario and Zelda games for the Switch, which are being universally lauded as excellent. Is that because of the Switch? No. It's because of the software. Those games would still be good anywhere.
  5. Talk to Sega. See how their hardware business has been doing lately.
  6. Read up on the Ouya.
  7. Walk through a Bed, Bath and Beyond, and see what the public face of Atari is today: The Flashback. Note the price.
  8. Figure out if you really still want to try to develop, manufacture, and market a $300 console, without an engineering department, a programming division, any support infrastructure, a marketing team, third-party software, licensing partnerships (the Blade Runner SpeakerHat does not count), serious retail presence, or recent history of any sort of mainstream success whatsoever.
  9. The answer to #8, by the way, is "no".
  10. Sell T-shirts. Coffee mugs. Key-chains. Cut the price of the SpeakerHat (if you must sell it) to $29. Get your logo out there. Everywhere. More films. TV shows. Wherever you can be seen, be seen. Sell iPhone cases, PS4 dust covers, wallets, Xbox skins, tea cozies. Build the brand's awareness in the public eye - even if it's just a logo. But do it well. Work with a design firm that knows what it's doing. Attach yourself to quality products. Don't make crap.
  11. Remember that research? Look for the hot mobile games. Find out who's developing them. Dig into your pockets, and partner with them to put their next game out under your brand name. It's their game. They get the lion's share of the profits. They get to keep the IP. You get your name out there. You begin to become associated with modern, relevant gaming again.
  12. Once you've established a reasonable reputation as a publisher of quality indie mobile games, and have saved up some money from the t-shirts, then start hiring some of these developers to create new properties for Atari, and all-new takes on your better classic properties. Give the developers creative freedom. This is when the original Atari was at its best. This is what has been driving the best of mobile gaming - innovation and creativity. Now Atari not only builds up a reputation as a publisher, but as a creative force. Start dipping your toes into markets beyond mobile gaming. But keep the games simple, fun, and addicting. "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." This is your niche. Leave the AAA titles for the big boys. Don't overextend yourselves. Keep the quality high. Treat the developers fairly. No shovelware. Manage your expectations. Let others bear the burden of hardware and ecosystem development. If you get tempted to build your own console again, read up on the countless failed ones that litter the landscape. Some already say "Atari" on them.
  13. Now that you've got some new IPs of your own, and have re-established some of your old ones in new, relevant ways, consider buying up some others - specifically, other classic arcade IPs. Williams, Midway, Atari Games, Stern... see what might be out there that you can buy or license for your first actual venture into new hardware:
  14. The Arcade Flashback. Effectively, MAME in a sub-$50 box with 100 arcade classics on it. Throw in some of the better 2600 titles as an Easter Egg if you want, but that's not the point here. This is where the new Atari says to its fans, "Hey - you liked the SNES Classic? How about some actual classic arcade games?" Want to do a portable version? Publish it for smartphones, and knock $10 off the price. Publish it for consoles, PCs, cereal boxes if you can find a way to do it. This is no longer your primary business. But it's part of your legacy. Treat it, and your fans, with respect. Know your audience. All of it.
  15. Speaking of which, stop with the legal action, unless someone is actually, genuinely causing you harm. Work with the community. Not against it. Recognize that positive exposure is a good thing. Even if you're not being paid for it, you're still profiting from it.

So there you go, Atari. Don't reach for the stars until you can learn to tie your own shoes. Or something like that. :roll:

 

Now, it's time for tacos.

 

 

^OMG! This post!!

 

How perfectly Awesome and truthful and correct is this? You should be on their payroll!

 

I keep thinking thousands of us should be cutting + pasting This Post and Tweeting and Facebooking it to Atari!!

 

 

Not me of course as I'm not on either of those...But everyone else!

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That makes more sense. I laughed at a friend of mine earlier for buying AMD. He said they always tend to be cheaper, and I said yeah, but not just in price...

 

AMD is Intel's bitch. Intel keeps them around so monopolistic charges aren't filed. AMD has always been second-rate as are the supporting chipsets.

Edited by Keatah
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I think it's just "Atari's" way of saying, "Well, we ran into a snag and...(looks into book of excuses..)... but we have an issue of [insert technical problem here] so we have to delay it by next season."

 

And what a coincidence it happened on the same day as preorders were scheduled.

 

 

post-18158-0-10699600-1513332913.jpg

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But you can't go from planet 8 to planet 10 without having a planet 8.1!

 

I think at first Microsoft removed Pluto entirely from the solar system with 8. Then later after complaints they added it back in as the .1 in 8.1 as a comet moon without a planet thingy to give back that Classic Shell navigation that NASA is used to. But it was too little too late because most of us down here on Google Earth didn't even notice.

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I AM GOING TO SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT MODERN ATARI

 

I think the Flashbacks are great. Also, Roller Coaster Tycoon Pocket is a nice mobile game. It seems to be selling strongly.

 

http://www.pockettactics.com/reviews/review-rollercoaster-tycoon-classic/

 

post-2410-0-68023700-1513337872_thumb.jpeg

 

Not only that, I'm moderately interested in Jeff Minter's Tempest 4000, this new published by Atari. I'm sure it will feel very familiar, but sometimes (not all the time), that's okay.

 

I mostly agree with Nathan's numbered rant, though I suspect he's not following mobile very closely. Atari has Code Mystics' "Atari's Greatest Hits" on mobile, though it's not well supported, particularly in Android. Plus I think Atari shouldn't even think about touching the Williams/Midway games, which are perfectly fine (if somewhat underexposed) at Warner.

 

END PRAISE

 

Speaker Hat is a joke and so is the AtariBox crowdfunding project. :lolblue:

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I honestly think the ataribox should have been an actual console with joysticks and 6 new titles. With some specs and a delivery date for shipment before announcing anything.

 

 

Ever watch dragons den? No one would invest in thin air.

"For that reason I am out!"

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I think this is another strike against Feargal and his compatriots. Definitely another sign of lousy project management, if not intended fraud. I've seen some suggestions on other boards that their marketing company was providing data on the social media respones that may have driven their special limited offer as interest was waning leading up to the launch of the crowd funder start. Further data probably indicated no positive appeal with the exclusive offers and the thing was scrapped. This makes the most sense to me by far. It would also explain our local volunteer endorser officially moving over to the gameband since he acknowledges he is working for Feargal, not Atari. While he may deny being lied to, by his own admission he knows little or nothing more than the rest of us except what he's been told by Feargal. That makes him a highly unreliable source of information in my book, and I don't believe Feargal is involved in the Ataribox whatever any longer.

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I think this is another strike against Feargal and his compatriots. Definitely another sign of lousy project management, if not intended fraud. I've seen some suggestions on other boards that their marketing company was providing data on the social media respones that may have driven their special limited offer as interest was waning leading up to the launch of the crowd funder start. Further data probably indicated no positive appeal with the exclusive offers and the thing was scrapped. This makes the most sense to me by far. It would also explain our local volunteer endorser officially moving over to the gameband since he acknowledges he is working for Feargal, not Atari. While he may deny being lied to, by his own admission he knows little or nothing more than the rest of us except what he's been told by Feargal. That makes him a highly unreliable source of information in my book, and I don't believe Feargal is involved in the Ataribox whatever any longer.

You are right ... its what i think too.

 

Further data probably indicated no positive appeal with the exclusive offers and the thing was scrapped.

 

Envoyé de mon SM-G920W8 en utilisant Tapatalk

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But that they put it on their quarterly earnings imply Atari actually bought hardware from them? I mean it isn't like they can just randomly say that, right? And if it is on their earnings that someone said they bought stuff, it must have been more than like 10 units or something?

 

Granted, I never said it was a strategic partnership. AMD would have tgat splashed a bit more on their pages, like I am sure they do with Sony and Microsoft.

 

I would take it to mean that it's in the pipeline. The final hardware has probably not been purchased, but if this has customized AMD processors as has been claimed, then AMD is doing the customizing and AMD and Atari would have been working together to hammer out the specs. This would indicate they are working on actual hardware and not just some "scam non-existent rendered hardware" as some around here claim.

 

I don't think AMD would splash Atari much more on their pages. They are tiny compared to Sony and MS

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I agreed as well. All the other media sites made it out like Atari had made this huge partnership with AMD, which if true could mean awesome t hings like using their fabrication plants. But I doubt any deal was like that. I am betting more along the lines of "They promised to buy a million, but we sold them 10k for now."

 

I wouldn't think yields lower than 10k would be worth mentioning at all, would it?

 

Media is stupid. I found an article saying that AMDs Ataribox win makes up for their Nintendo Switch loss. Um what?

 

Atari clearly doesn't mean much to AMD. But the fact that AMD confirmed they were involved rather than silence or a reaction of "Ataribox? this is the first we've heard of this!" I think indicates there is real hardware behind this.

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Media is stupid. I found an article saying that AMDs Ataribox win makes up for their Nintendo Switch loss. Um what?

 

Atari clearly doesn't mean much to AMD. But the fact that AMD confirmed they were involved rather than silence or a reaction of "Ataribox? this is the first we've heard of this!" I think indicates there is real hardware behind this.

 

This is Drunken Hater Land. We need more than AMD's word. We answer to a higher authority. We need to see inside and for Albert to tell us exactly which capture card AMD put in the renders.

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Please elaborate on these options. Thanks.

To set it up, go under your profile name, and under 'My Settings' is a button for 'Content I Follow'. Click on that, then it should show all the threads you follow, there is a Change button on the right, and you can select the options there.

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AMD is Intel's bitch. Intel keeps them around so monopolistic charges aren't filed. AMD has always been second-rate as are the supporting chipsets.

I'd have to agree to a certain extent. Their CPUs seem to be a bit better for *specific* work loads over Intel's. But yes, ALL of their supporting chipsets are garbage. It's the one reason that the two times I decided to go with AMD CPUs I swore off not to do it again... Though the Opteron server I had was decent.

 

I definitely stay away from the Radeons though. I guess technically I have a PS4, which is AMD based, but whatever :P

 

This is similar to how Apple was used as Microsoft's bitch back when they were on the verge of dying. I wonder how different the world would be if Microsoft had infused Atari or Commodore with cash before their collapse. Then again, if I recall it was 1998? Right when Microsoft was getting all the monopoly lawsuits. Which would have been 2 years too late for Atari and 4 years too late for Commodore.

Edited by leech
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This is Drunken Hater Land. We need more than AMD's word. We answer to a higher authority. We need to see inside and for Albert to tell us exactly which capture card AMD put in the renders.

It can't be the Startech one that I bought. It doesn't work under Linux. :P

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I'd have to agree to a certain extent. Their CPUs seem to be a bit better for *specific* work loads over Intel's. But yes, ALL of their supporting chipsets are garbage. It's the one reason that the two times I decided to go with AMD CPUs I swore off not to do it again... Though the Opteron server I had was decent.

 

I definitely stay away from the Radeons though. I guess technically I have a PS4, which is AMD based, but whatever :P

 

This is similar to how Apple was used as Microsoft's bitch back when they were on the verge of dying. I wonder how different the world would be if Microsoft had infused Atari or Commodore with cash before their collapse. Then again, if I recall it was 1998? Right when Microsoft was getting all the monopoly lawsuits. Which would have been 2 years too late for Atari and 4 years too late for Commodore.

Funny story... back when I was selling computers (in the mid 2000s when AMD was often preferred over Intel) a guy came in, looked at two laptops, and asked me which one he should buy. One used a Pentium-M, the other used a Mobile Semperon. I told him the Pentium-M was the better chip by a mile.

 

His response? “Well, I work in IT, and I’m telling you... AMD chips are ALWAYS BETTER!”

 

I wonder where that guy is today.

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I already posted on-topic once in this thread today. That's pretty-much my limit.

 

However... just to prove I'm not completely taco-obsessed... let's think for a moment about how Atari could have come back as a relevant game company.

  1. Research the gaming industry as it exists today. Examine the different markets - hardcore PC gamers, dedicated console gamers, casual console gamers, casual mobile gamers, retro gamers, hobbyists, etc.
  2. Find out where the largest potential profit is, given the least possible investment. This would be mobile games, incidentally.
  3. Determine what assets Atari has. Specifically: your name, which carries a certain amount of buying power due to familiarity and nostalgia; and a handful of games that were popular 30+ years ago, and are still somewhat regarded as cultural icons. Learn to accept that most of your games are obsolete relics as far as the general game-buying public are concerned.
  4. Examine how other game companies with old IPs have managed to stay relevant. Nintendo, for example. Take note of their mistakes - like the Wii U. Take note of their successes - like the new Mario and Zelda games for the Switch, which are being universally lauded as excellent. Is that because of the Switch? No. It's because of the software. Those games would still be good anywhere.
  5. Talk to Sega. See how their hardware business has been doing lately.
  6. Read up on the Ouya.
  7. Walk through a Bed, Bath and Beyond, and see what the public face of Atari is today: The Flashback. Note the price.
  8. Figure out if you really still want to try to develop, manufacture, and market a $300 console, without an engineering department, a programming division, any support infrastructure, a marketing team, third-party software, licensing partnerships (the Blade Runner SpeakerHat does not count), serious retail presence, or recent history of any sort of mainstream success whatsoever.
  9. The answer to #8, by the way, is "no".
  10. Sell T-shirts. Coffee mugs. Key-chains. Cut the price of the SpeakerHat (if you must sell it) to $29. Get your logo out there. Everywhere. More films. TV shows. Wherever you can be seen, be seen. Sell iPhone cases, PS4 dust covers, wallets, Xbox skins, tea cozies. Build the brand's awareness in the public eye - even if it's just a logo. But do it well. Work with a design firm that knows what it's doing. Attach yourself to quality products. Don't make crap.
  11. Remember that research? Look for the hot mobile games. Find out who's developing them. Dig into your pockets, and partner with them to put their next game out under your brand name. It's their game. They get the lion's share of the profits. They get to keep the IP. You get your name out there. You begin to become associated with modern, relevant gaming again.
  12. Once you've established a reasonable reputation as a publisher of quality indie mobile games, and have saved up some money from the t-shirts, then start hiring some of these developers to create new properties for Atari, and all-new takes on your better classic properties. Give the developers creative freedom. This is when the original Atari was at its best. This is what has been driving the best of mobile gaming - innovation and creativity. Now Atari not only builds up a reputation as a publisher, but as a creative force. Start dipping your toes into markets beyond mobile gaming. But keep the games simple, fun, and addicting. "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." This is your niche. Leave the AAA titles for the big boys. Don't overextend yourselves. Keep the quality high. Treat the developers fairly. No shovelware. Manage your expectations. Let others bear the burden of hardware and ecosystem development. If you get tempted to build your own console again, read up on the countless failed ones that litter the landscape. Some already say "Atari" on them.
  13. Now that you've got some new IPs of your own, and have re-established some of your old ones in new, relevant ways, consider buying up some others - specifically, other classic arcade IPs. Williams, Midway, Atari Games, Stern... see what might be out there that you can buy or license for your first actual venture into new hardware:
  14. The Arcade Flashback. Effectively, MAME in a sub-$50 box with 100 arcade classics on it. Throw in some of the better 2600 titles as an Easter Egg if you want, but that's not the point here. This is where the new Atari says to its fans, "Hey - you liked the SNES Classic? How about some actual classic arcade games?" Want to do a portable version? Publish it for smartphones, and knock $10 off the price. Publish it for consoles, PCs, cereal boxes if you can find a way to do it. This is no longer your primary business. But it's part of your legacy. Treat it, and your fans, with respect. Know your audience. All of it.
  15. Speaking of which, stop with the legal action, unless someone is actually, genuinely causing you harm. Work with the community. Not against it. Recognize that positive exposure is a good thing. Even if you're not being paid for it, you're still profiting from it.

So there you go, Atari. Don't reach for the stars until you can learn to tie your own shoes. Or something like that. :roll:

 

Now, it's time for tacos.

 

Excellent points. Personally, I like point #14 the best. Putting an Atari Arcade Flashback console along with 8-bit and/or 7800 titles would be a easy to sell item. I don't think they should put 2600 titles on there, since AtGames has that covered pretty well with their own Flashback line. Just my opinion though. However, trying to do a $250 to $300 Linux console is stupid as you can get an Xbox One S or PS4 Slim for under $200. Sorry, it won't work. However, something in the $60 to $80 dollar range (like the range for the SNES Classic, upcoming C64 Mini, Retro-bit Super Retrocade, etc ) would be a much better proposition.

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