OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 AHEM I been calling this one out since the first mention of the guy behind it. Other than the name and some renders and a lot of HYPE they got NOTHING. Just more whoring of the Atari brand name to nostalgic fans who will shell out money for anything "officially licensed" and of course the minute you question or call it out or ask questions those with dreams and wishes will quickly label you anti ATARI or call you hater etc. NO, my history and current collection verify I am a HUGE Atari fan and want only the best for the name and company except this "ATARIBOX / ATARI VCS" is has has never been anything more than a marketing train wreck created by Fergal MacConuladh who merely licensed the name for use on this project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ZhU2K7Gyk&feature=share 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Just more whoring of the Atari brand name to nostalgic fans who will shell out money for anything "officially licensed"... Just to play devil's advocate.. but hasn't Atari been doing this since the 5200? I mean, ever since the 2600's life span had played out, Atari's been doing nothing but playing to old sensibilities and nostalgia, recycling the same tired franchises to death without much innovation. Heck, even in the Jaguar's lifespan, they were still relying on franchises like Missile Command and Defender. See, I don't see this as a negative, per say. I get where you're coming from, but this is all Atari has left, essentially. If they don't play that card, they don't have much else. This is marketing 101 here, and while you can see through it, most of your brain dead consumers won't. And it's a card they frankly can't afford to not tap into. There's a reason why the console looks like an old VCS, and they're including controllers that look psychically, or at least in color scheme, like Atari pads. Not saying they won't have good games... or any games, at this point (who knows! lol). Just saying that to critique them of playing off something that gets media and consumer attention is no different than AtGames putting a giant picture of classic Sonic on their knock off Genesis clones. It sells. Period. Why the heck not rely on that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) "ATARIBOX / ATARI VCS" is has has never been anything more than a marketing train wreck created by Fergal MacConuladh who merely licensed the name for use on this project. And your wrong. Atari SA is behind this. Feargal might have been in front of the camera, but Atari SA is 100% running the show. So, sorry to burst that bubble. Edited March 20, 2018 by The Historian 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 This is the kind of sentiment I see, over and over again. One has to wonder how many Davood Williamses are out there, and how many will actually put their money where their mouths are. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I got tired of the constant "Ataribox is Cool/Pointless/A Scam/Tacos!" in this thread awhile ago. I'm just taking a wait and see approach to see if they release anything cool. If they do, great! if not oh well. But I agree with others who said this should not be called the VCS. Maybe VCS 2, VCS 3 (if the 7800 is VCS 2) "VCS 360" or whatever, or people might think it's a way overpriced flashback clone of the 1977 system. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSchoolRetroGamer Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) And your wrong. Atari SA is behind this. Feargal might have been in front of the camera, but Atari SA is 100% running the show. So, sorry to burst that bubble. lol it fine , no "bubble" has been burst, I still have zero faith anything of worth will come out of any of this The fact Atari SA is running this shitstorm increases my confidence by 0% Edited March 20, 2018 by OldSchoolRetroGamer 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 And your wrong. Atari SA is behind this. Feargal might have been in front of the camera, but Atari SA is 100% running the show. So, sorry to burst that bubble. Of course they're behind it, they would have to be. Define "running the show" - isn't it Feargal who presented this whole idea to Atari and was then allowed to present it on their behalf as a result? is it not linked through his FM2 Games company somehow that is also responsible for the Atari Gameband watch that is also experiencing lengthy delays? More than bubbles are going to have to burst but at least it's a starting point. Maybe once everyone gets through all the steam and hype, reality will clear the air. The better question is why the hell isn't Feargal himself or anyone from Atari SA on these forums to make public statements and set the record straight in answering questions... and before we take that question seriously, I already know the answer to that... along with a laundry list of other poor excuses or 'reasons' why. "Stay far far away from some of those Atari fans, they're rabid!" 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) Define "running the show" Atari SA is managing the project, start to finish. FM2 Games has nothing to do with the AtariBox/Atari VCS, but with Feargal being out in front for both I can see why there would be confusion. The latest press quotes are coming from Michael Arzt, Chief Operating Officer of Atari Connected Devices. EDIT ** Let's put it this way... I've never signed an NDA with FM2 Games for anything remotely related to AtariBox. EDIT 2 ** From the press release © 2018 Atari Gamebox, LLC. All rights reserved. ©2018 Atari Interactive, Inc. Atari wordmark and logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. Edited March 20, 2018 by The Historian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Yeah, but you also said Daddy Mac wasn't on the Ataribox project anymore. Sounds like back peddling on that now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Yeah, but you also said Daddy Mac wasn't on the Ataribox project anymore. Sounds like back peddling on that now. Honestly, I don't know 100% of the details on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 © 2018 Atari Gamebox, LLC. All rights reserved. ©2018 Atari Interactive, Inc. Atari wordmark and logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. AtariBox, Atari VCS, Atari Gamebox... maybe this isn't the last name change. "Let's change it to something that will really stir up the crowd before ultimately changing it to Gamebox! Let's keep the momentum going!" There seems to be a lot of different companies involved for a single box of any kind: Ker Venture (owned by Freddy) > Atari SA (ran by Freddy) > Atari Gamebox So who runs Atari Gamebox? Also Freddy? or Feargal? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Well, it will be interesting to see if any of them learned anything from the marketing sh#t show that they executed (poorly) on the lead up to the aborted crowdfunding /(Pre-Order) launch. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 So who runs Atari Gamebox?MasterBlaster? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman000 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Just to play devil's advocate.. but hasn't Atari been doing this since the 5200? I mean, ever since the 2600's life span had played out, Atari's been doing nothing but playing to old sensibilities and nostalgia, recycling the same tired franchises to death without much innovation. Heck, even in the Jaguar's lifespan, they were still relying on franchises like Missile Command and Defender. See, I don't see this as a negative, per say. I get where you're coming from, but this is all Atari has left, essentially. If they don't play that card, they don't have much else. This is marketing 101 here, and while you can see through it, most of your brain dead consumers won't. And it's a card they frankly can't afford to not tap into. There's a reason why the console looks like an old VCS, and they're including controllers that look psychically, or at least in color scheme, like Atari pads. Not saying they won't have good games... or any games, at this point (who knows! lol). Just saying that to critique them of playing off something that gets media and consumer attention is no different than AtGames putting a giant picture of classic Sonic on their knock off Genesis clones. It sells. Period. Why the heck not rely on that? When the 5200 came out those were still current games. Atari Corp did that a bit with the XEGS; they had an ad which noted that it could play "classic games," but they were also developing real hardware to compete against the Mac and a few new games for the 7800. The Jaguar did have nostalgic remakes, like Tempest 2000, but also new games like Alien Vs. Predator. I'd say Hasbro was the 1st company to see Atari primarily as a nostalgia brand, but even Hasbro tried to make new games which had the same easy to play/difficult to master qualities of Atari's old games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Gull Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I would like to make some predictions to this series of announcements as they go but every time I try something vastly odd happens. From what I have read and seen though I have mixed feelings on this endeavor. Its like they want to have something tangible to relate to the Atari fans while trying to bring back the brand into a new century. The question of the century though is what do consumers and game enthusiasts really want now? (Insert taco here and if the channel ribs were bigger on the top of that box it could hold tacos) I dunno consumerism on the game standpoint is viscous at best and poorly directed by the latter. Anyway I can't wait for this to be sold at Toys R Us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoRacer Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) When the 5200 came out those were still current games. Atari Corp did that a bit with the XEGS; they had an ad which noted that it could play "classic games," but they were also developing real hardware to compete against the Mac and a few new games for the 7800. The Jaguar did have nostalgic remakes, like Tempest 2000, but also new games like Alien Vs. Predator. I'd say Hasbro was the 1st company to see Atari primarily as a nostalgia brand, but even Hasbro tried to make new games which had the same easy to play/difficult to master qualities of Atari's old games. I never said the Jag didn't have other titles. Some of it's best titles were unique IPs, for sure. I'm simply saying that they heavily relied on them since the 5200, as in... while having some other titles, the old ones were used over, and over, and over again. While the NES was building new genres or at least doing old genres in new ways, Atari was living in the past. That's what I meant in regards to the 5200 and 7800. It's part of the reason both those consoles failed. People were bored of those games at that point and wanted something new. Go to a used game store. Most of the carts there for the 5200 and 7800 are just nicer renditions of classics people already bought and played on the 2600. Edited March 20, 2018 by MotoRacer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) Yeah, but you also said Daddy Mac wasn't on the Ataribox project anymore. Sounds like back peddling on that now. I understand now.. I messed up on my original comment, I meant he was out in front of both Gameband and Ataribox in the past. I don't know what his current role with Atari is, I only talk to him about Gameband these days. Edited March 20, 2018 by The Historian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I understand now.. I messed up on my original comment, I meant he was out in front of both Gameband and Ataribox in the past. I don't know what his current role with Atari is, I only talk to him about Gameband these days. Why not ask him about his current role within Atari then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 My guess was that Atari SA wanted to destroy someone else's dreams (Dreamcade) so they went looking for someone to do the job. They couldn't find Mike Kennedy and The Mysterious Mr. Lee may have been in prison, so they went to Feargal Mac. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 At any rate, Despite what the press releases do, which is attempt to convince some people that there will be a console and games etc., I see them in the same light as meetings at a company I used to work for. I had a manager who could talk for about 30-45 minutes and say just shy of nothing, as if his brain was on autopilot, in "time wasting" mode...Sometimes I'd analyze a sentence or two when I'd check back in every 10 minutes and I don't even think the guy was listening to himself!! Rather than a slick company back in the hardware game, I'm picturing 10 employees crowdfunding something...And then IF the thing even gets made, I doubt it will be in Best Buys or WalMarts across the country, but will probably be stacked in a storage shed somewhere waiting for occasional sales off a website... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 This is an excellent point, Goldleader. There are so many problems with this plan that distribution seems like a distant thought... but it is a problem all the same. If it launches, but you can't get it at a regular retailer... how far does it go? And what developers will flock to a platform that can't be purchased easily? Ouya "made it" into wal-mart, but actually seeing one was almost a unicorn prospect. Maybe Bigfoot, that sounds about right. They'll likely get onto Amazon without too much fuss, but Wal-Mart, Target and (if they're still around) GameStop will be a real barrier. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 My guess was that Atari SA wanted to destroy someone else's dreams (Dreamcade) so they went looking for someone to do the job. They couldn't find Mike Kennedy and The Mysterious Mr. Lee may have been in prison, so they went to Feargal Mac. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBeefy Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I like the look of it. Does anyone think the right analog stick in the picture looks like it could maybe have a spinner around it? Like for paddle games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I meant he was out in front of both Gameband and Ataribox in the past. I don't know what his current role with Atari is, I only talk to him about Gameband these days. I sure hope he's still with Atari... he's my favorite AtariLand™ character! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I sure hope he's still with Atari... he's my favorite AtariLand™ character! Ferg_Mac.jpg Epic LOL moment. Scared my bird, wife looked and thought WTF? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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