New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[kevtris]

6 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Well, that's one way to offer sold-off Atari assets such as Battlezone. This seems like good publicity for AntStream, but unlikely to move the needle on "Atari VCS" sales. It seems to me that the die-hard retrogamers already have emulation solutions (including the $30 Raspberry Pi), and that a subscription is too much to ask of casuals (as is the $250+ "Atari VCS"). Their list of games is a Super Retrocade style stack of stuff that I might enjoy messing with, but nothing I would want to pay for. 

 

I liked the dude in this discussion on the emulation subreddit that said streaming old games was a worse idea than DIVX, ?

 

@kevtris penny for your thoughts about the image of the pre-production board? In your experience, how likely is it that "Atari" will achieve backer distribution by the end of the calendar year, as they've been saying they will do? The IndieGogo campaign marker still says "Prototype phase," and hasn't been moved to "In Production" yet. 

the board looks good.  does it work is the question?  (I don't know if they showed it running yet) I also don't know if it will fit in their original plastic box.  There's no way they will reach consumers by the end of the year if it is not in production right this second.  What's another 6-12 month delay at this point? haha.   There's no cooliing solution shown either, but there are mounting holes for it.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

19 minutes ago, bmadgames said:

I never thought the board was going to be difficult to produce given that they are using an off the shelf architecture... I still don't understand why people are thinking it's not going to release. They can pump something out--the quality of the consoles and the availability of games are where it will struggle.

A few years ago, some guys in Michigan came together and put some pinball machines together. They claimed to have obtained the license from Fox for Predator, and had a working game to show. They took over $1 million in pre-orders before vanishing; turned out they didn't understand how to run a business and lied about the license. It all looked and sounded legit, but a lot of people had to lose a lot of money before they figured out that it was a scam.

 

In terms of Atari, I suppose you could say that many here have looked at their history, seen many other scams out there and are jaded. 

 

Atari SA knows licensing really well, but they haven't had any direct experience in creating a piece of hardware and learning from that process. The Flashback's were all licensed out to someone else, so they didn't have to work on those details. Then you had the Gameband come along, a successfully funded campaign that was quietly killed; Feargal Mac was working on that and the VCS then had their falling out, so Atari had to scramble and found Rob Wyatt. Then they changed a bunch of specs, but people who know hardware have stated that it shouldn't take as long as it has for the VCS to be a reality already. Given Atari playing coy, banning people, lying about interviews, deflecting, delaying, ignoring requests for info and not living up to their end of the IGG terms, I think that's where skepticism turned into belief as to this not shipping. For a product like this, they should have working boards that are being tested right now, at this point. That wouldn't be a hard picture to take or video to take. Instead, we get someone holding a circuit board - something that should have been shown months and months ago. Not 60 days before your system is shipping out to backers. 

 

It may still ship, but I'd rather play the Doubting Thomas at this point so I'm not like one of the Predator pre-order guys. Of course, for me to buy a game console or a PC, it needs to offer content on that device that I can't get anywhere else. As such, my money's on the Amico. Sure, that could also not ship, but that is still 1 year out from it's release date, and they've shown original games, remakes, and let people play and handle the console at E3. Atari setup something in a box in a dark room near E3, then controlled the narrative about what could come out (and still fumbled the ball with all of the unconsole nonsense). Take that all for what you will

[OverMuch]

Jesus Christ. ?

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by OverMuch

[Flojomojo]

LOL, "checkmate." I would assume he's being sarcastic, but it's hard to tell with those pinheads. 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

7 hours ago, PlaysWithWolves said:

Backers rejoice!  The long silence is over.  There's a new update on Indiegogo!

 

 

Oh, and there's this:

 

 

Ugh. I hate it when there's an actual update. Then I have to waste several minutes skipping over the pages of posts that have been added to this thread, only to find no tacos at the end of it.

 

Anyway, to summarize in case somebody at Atari is reading this and is as impatient as I am:

1. Plug it in
2. Play some games
3. Or shut up

[TheVgaTv]

5 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

Jesus Christ. ?

 

 

 

Apparently "winsauce" is code for lead paint chips

[DurradonXylles]

9 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

Jesus Christ. ?

If you're joking, Mr. Arturo: good one.

 

If you're not: you have an openly stated prototype board 60-85 days out from early bird release without any demonstration that it works as intended, nevermind been properly QA tested, and no real software at launch except for Atari Vault, Tempest 4000 and a mediocre and expensive retro game streaming service that may not even be available for customers outside Europe. I hope you enjoy the tacos with winsauce, I'll be playing the VCS launch titles and all of those retro games through RetroArch on any of the many, many devices that can run those in my possession. If you don't like my response, find Atari and demand them to:

5 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

1. Plug it in
2. Play some games
3. Or shut up

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by DurradonXylles

[Tidus79001]

7 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

Personally I am excited about this new console and looking forward to receiving mine.

 

6 hours ago, racerx said:

I'm actually going to put the snark away for a moment and genuinely ask, "Why?"

- Full version of Windows 10 x86/x64 or Linux x86/x64 distro  vs a custom ARM based OS

- Not an ARM CPU like a Raspberry Pi that has limited processing power

- AMD graphics as vs limited graphical capabilities of an Arm based SoC

 

6 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

Even if it does fail I will be ok with that as I my other intended use for the console will be booting into Windows or Linux and using those OS'es to run any video game emulator I want.  Having a system that interfaces easily with my TV and those 2 Atari VCS controllers (classics and modern) is going to make playing old school games a joy.  Best to have another usage scenario for the console and I do certainly have mine and it will fit the bill well.

For me this is the perfect retro gaming emulation device and is going to be a nice and flexible solution for playing all those old games on my TV.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

7 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

Jesus Christ. ?

Thanks Joseph, I will be enjoying my Amico and my Switch, with their loads of unique, interesting and fun games, while you touch yourself over having a $300 Atari Vault and artifact compression streaming machine. 

[JaqenHghar]

You gotta know that if that board had been available sooner they would've shown it sooner. That's gotta be hot off the press prototype. Maybe at best it's a QC master before the manufacturing run but I wager it's even earlier than that. Either way the thing I'm wondering about... government certification was mentioned upthread. That's gotta take a couple months doesn't it?

 

Anyway from the beginning I've never thought they were deliberately lying. I always just figured they were in over their heads. After months of scrambling they found an outsourcer to rescue them and get them to the next stage. Antstream is also basically the outsourced solution to including software.

[+Nathan Strum]

9 hours ago, bmadgames said:

I'm actually somewhat excited by this. Atari specifically mentioned games from arcade, home, and portable consoles. Does that mean we might see some Lynx games?

There wouldn't be that many. Most of the Lynx games were licensed from others (keep in mind Atari was not Atari Games). You can download their IP catalog here. Based on a quick comparison of that and AtariAge's Lynx game list, it would amount to:

• Basketbrawl
• Centipede (unreleased prototype)
• Scrapyard Dog
• Super Asteroids & Missle Command

Annnnnd... that's it.

[PlaysWithWolves]

24 minutes ago, kevtris said:

the board looks good.  does it work is the question?  (I don't know if they showed it running yet) I also don't know if it will fit in their original plastic box.  There's no way they will reach consumers by the end of the year if it is not in production right this second.  What's another 6-12 month delay at this point? haha.   There's no cooliing solution shown either, but there are mounting holes for it.

 

Appreciate the response.  Here's some details @aramis.  If correct, it's going to be a very long year for Ataribox supporters:

 

3 hours ago, aramis said:

That PCB barcode only contains this string: 440377100008MPA1938A0100009

 

Nothing too exciting.

 

It may be interesting that it appears that the bare fab was made in week 35 (August 26-September 1) of 2019.

It was populated sometime after that.

 

Also, that UL file E239218 (shown in the board's silkscreen) is "owned" by Aoshikang Precision Circuit Co Ltd (AskPCB), who can do quick-turn prototype assembly too.

 

In other words, several signs point to this likely being a quick-turn prototype / low-volume board shown in the picture, made very recently.

 

(oh, and Hi everyone)

 

[ColecoJoe]

Lets stay on topic guys!

 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

1 hour ago, Lodmot said:

Actually I was wondering about this too-- what's their testing/QA procedure for this thing? They need to make sure these consoles don't set on fire when people plug them in/start doing heavy gaming on them (or what would constitute as "heavy gaming" on an AMD Ryzen).

Silly! You don't plug it in.

 

It's from Atari.

[aramis]

8 minutes ago, JaqenHghar said:

<snip>

government certification was mentioned upthread. That's gotta take a couple months doesn't it?

<snip>

In my experience, "a couple of months" is a real fast-track effort for EMC work, especially when you consider the time to get a quote, get on the schedule for the test agency's EMC chamber, and then wait (typically 4-8 weeks) for the final report to come back. The Product Safety testing has its own independent timeline.

 

Depending on the type of testing/certs required (the products I work with would be in a whole different category, so I can't say for sure), they may be able to do a full set of testing once, and then have various certificates (for different regions / countries) written against that one set of test data. That can save time. I believe that some countries still require a sample to be sent and testing to be done in-country, though.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

17 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

There wouldn't be that many. Most of the Lynx games were licensed from others (keep in mind Atari was not Atari Games). You can download their IP catalog here. Based on a quick comparison of that and AtariAge's Lynx game list, it would amount to:

• Basketbrawl
• Centipede (unreleased prototype)
• Scrapyard Dog
• Super Asteroids & Missle Command

Annnnnd... that's it.

Hmm, I had thought that they had Robo-Squash, Kung Food and Power Factor, but even then it wasn't much. Guess that shows why we've never had a Lynx revival.

 

It's really odd that they maintain the copyright for unfinished/unreleased games like Akka Arrh, Black Belt and Cloud 9 though. Or Frisky Tom on the 5200? What's the point of touting that, apart from just padding the list?

[Flojomojo]

re: certifications @aramis

 

Or, they could just piggyback onto the existing certifications for the off-the-shelf parts they're putting together, right?

 

The more "exclusive" stuff they show, the more strongly I feel that most people  would be happier with a small form factor PC from a real manufacturer. 

[Flojomojo]

22 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Hmm, I had thought that they had Robo-Squash, Kung Food and Power Factor, but even then it wasn't much. Guess that shows why we've never had a Lynx revival.

 

It's really odd that they maintain the copyright for unfinished/unreleased games like Akka Arrh, Black Belt and Cloud 9 though. Or Frisky Tom on the 5200? What's the point of touting that, apart from just padding the list?

So, we could remake Checkered Flag, Turbo Sub, Warbirds, and if we were really feeling masochistic, Fight for Life? That is good to know. 

[Shaggy the Atarian]

2 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

So, we could remake Checkered Flag, Turbo Sub, Warbirds, and if we were really feeling masochistic, Fight for Life? That is a good to know. 

Hmm, speaking of that, I notice that Atari made titles like Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy, Hover Strike and Club Drive are missing. I guess they could have been sold to someone like Piko Interactive; otherwise I'm now curious who owns these games.

 

And because I've been slacking in duties, tacos:

 

[dj_convoy]

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

That reminds me, does anyone know what happened with "Dreamcade Replay: One Console to Rule Them All?" I thought I heard there was some flap with Atari over the case design. 

 

Looks like it came out, judging from the comments from backers. Those that fail to learn from history are something something. 

 

 

It came out and worked... in that it was a small form factor PC, but the front end was completely worthless, even after several supposed patches and fixes. I haven't investigated the forum in a long time to see if it has ever been improved, but I was satisfied with what I got by simply putting Retroarch on the thing and using it for a couple of streaming things for my TV (look ma, it has Netflix, just like six other things hooked up to my TV right now!) that I used to use a laptop for. 

 

My main gripe was that, since these guys are Arcade PC builders, that they would sort of have the whole "here's a front end to run a bunch of roms and emulators" thing down pretty well, but evidently not. I had visions of a preloaded version of, say Hyperspin or something like that that I wouldn't have to putz around with and configure, but they fell well short of that. I think they said they would go back to selling these things around Christmas, now that they allegedly had the bugs worked out but who knows / cares. If I really put some effort into it, I could get that same kind of effect, or just put Hyperspin on there myself, but it's enough of a pain that I haven't really bothered. I often buy stuff more as something for the missus and I to tackle together, so a nice, no muss, no fuss MAME and some other stuff solution under the TV appealed to me enough, and I could probably make this thing into that if I devoted a ton of time to it. I was okay with just doing the bare minimum and moving on. I didn't feel like I got burned, per se, but lesson learned and I certainly wouldn't purchase a full arcade set up from those folks. 

[Agillig]

53 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

. ?

 

As said in the sci-fi classic Independence Day,  "Checkmate?  How is that checkmate?"

 

Assuming this thing launches this year, and does everything it promises, it's still no where close to checkmate,  or being anything praiseworthy.   The idea that I'll be playing Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order this December while watching with envy as John Phelan streams a video of himself playing Double Dragon on his Atahi VCS is pretty laughable. 

 

I mean, if this thing launches, and people are happy with it, good.  But seriously.  The fact Atari has some kind of a board and signed an agreement with a company I never heard of before today in no way justifies the last almost 2 years  of shady business practices. Joseph might want to tone down his trash talking until the system actually ships.

[OverMuch]

15 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

So, we could remake Checkered Flag, Turbo Sub, Warbirds, and if we were really feeling masochistic, Fight for Life? That is a good to know. 

 

Do we dare hold out hope for Kasumi Ninja 2000? 

[dj_convoy]

A victory lap seems a touch premature. No one will ever be scrambling to find a VCS. Guaranteed. I can't enjoy an Amico yet; it doesn't come out until sometime next year, but, barring some craziness, I'm relatively certain it will actually come out. I will enjoy my XBox and Switch, both of which of plenty of good games I can enjoy right now, as well as "that other garbage," which I guess that guy takes to mean the forty plus years worth of other video game consoles I have at my disposal. 

 

I will continue to enjoy tacos which still, as I type this, exist, unlike the VCS.  

[dj_convoy]

5 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

 

Do we dare hold out hope for Kasumi Ninja 2000? 

God willing. 

[Flojomojo]

13 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

Do we dare hold out hope for Kasumi Ninja 2000?