New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[keithbk]

So, just to make certain I'm not missing anything...

 

Still no news?

[roots.genoa]

Don't worry, you won't get Rickrolled, you'll get this instead:

(it's even worse than what I remembered ?)

[+Nathan Strum]

2 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

So wish him well and hope he gets a taco soon.

Words to live by.

[+frankodragon]

Instead of Atari Vault, a Rick Roll video boots up when the pigeons finally get their AtacoVCS and turns them on.  Some guy pulled a similar prank by burning a fake PS3 game.

 

 

[JaqenHghar]

6 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

So is Atari's intention to still not let us down today?

"Have you been played by Atari today?™"

[Paul Slocum]

6 hours ago, TankedThomas said:

my bigger question is who leaked it, and why. 

 

I was thinking it was just somebody at Atari as a jab at naysayers who previously said there were no memory slots on the board.  Maybe they were drunk posting?  And then they or Atari's lawyer decided it wasn't such a good idea and took it down.  It was only up for about 6 hours. 

 

But the theory about Rob Wyatt having the board is interesting too.

[Flojomojo]

I would take just about anything anyone says about this project with a grain of salt -- especially anything that purports to be "official" or from a technical expert. They haven't shown anything truly substantial, even after all this time. 
 

So I was in Micro Center yesterday and fell for this $99 laptop. The sales manager tried to talk me out of it, but I persisted. I don't mind low-end hardware (I would use it to play KOTOR II on airplanes and stuff) and besides, the screen was bright and sharp (NOT typical at this price point) and the body reminded me of the 11" MacBook Air I used to love. Amazon reviews were bad, but Micro Center reviews were good. I fancy myself more like the Micro Center crowd, after all. 
 

How was it in person? Well, it wouldn't boot or even light up the screen, even after a long time on the charger. It was clearly a lemon, and went back the same day. Sales guy was like, "I tried to warn you!" Fun times. 

 

When "ATARI VCS" arrives with some inevitable first-gen problems, the eager buyers won't be able to take it back to the store the same day, let alone get a refund. We should all be grateful for what we have. 
 

Happy Thanksgiving, you beautiful taco-eaters!!! ? ? ?

[JasperAK]

13 hours ago, TankedThomas said:

So, Taco Bell opened their first store in New Zealand a few weeks back..........

I'm so sorry to hear that.

[Curt Vendel]

On 11/25/2019 at 9:09 AM, PlaysWithWolves said:

 

This is a continuation of one of Atari, SA's lawsuits, and has nothing to do with @Curt Vendel's source (unless Target brings a new suit, but I doubt that).

 

 

Nope... this is brandy spanking new one.

 

BTW, I was subpoenaed as a witness to help Hyperkin against FauxTari...

 

I gladly overnighted 2.3Gbs of data to their lawyer ?

[TankedThomas]

4 hours ago, Paul Slocum said:

 

I was thinking it was just somebody at Atari as a jab at naysayers who previously said there were no memory slots on the board.  Maybe they were drunk posting?  And then they or Atari's lawyer decided it wasn't such a good idea and took it down.  It was only up for about 6 hours. 

 

But the theory about Rob Wyatt having the board is interesting too.

Whilst that's possible, they went to the trouble of creating a burner account just for the sake of posting it. Someone who posted the original link saw it but didn't save the image at the time (forgot who, and the search is frankly unreliable - @The Historian, perhaps?) so they should be able to at least tell us if it looked legitimate. 

 

Unfortunately, so far, I've turned up nothing as far as tracking down a copy. If it were up for six hours, you'd think SOMEONE would have nabbed it. I hate to suggest this, but maybe the Facebook cult got a copy they could "share". Then again, if they had it, they'd probably have posted it 20 times by now. 

2 hours ago, Curt Vendel said:

Nope... this is brandy spanking new one.

 

BTW, I was subpoenaed as a witness to help Hyperkin against FauxTari...

 

I gladly overnighted 2.3Gbs of data to their lawyer ?

You're killing us with the anticipation!

 

(Also, it really says something when everyone and their mother is rooting for Hyperkin). 

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Received this in my INBOX moments ago. More BS and delay tactics I suspect ???

https://mailchi.mp/atari/atari-vcs-here-come-the-games-36581?e=d39baf12da

 

Atari Speaks: Q&A with our Chief Operating Officer

 

Hello Backers, Fans, and Followers! As the Atari VCS teams travel to and from our partner factories in China, working overtime to finalize the many pre-production tasks, we wanted to take a moment to share an update from Atari VCS Chief Operating Officer Michael Arzt. The Atari VCS communications team asked Michael to personally address a number of questions from the community about the status of the Atari VCS project. This official Q&A provides a glimpse into exactly where we are in the development process, what Indiegogo backers can expect from the first wave of products shipping exclusively to them, what the full retail launch in 2020 will bring, and the company's broader vision for the Atari VCS. Michael also shares some exclusive first images of the Atari VCS pre-production test units coming off the assembly line!   Head over to the Atari VCS Developer Blog on Medium to read the Q&A with COO Michael Arzt and get the inside story.   You can find all the previous Atari VCS Developer Blog posts here. Thanks again for your ongoing support! Happy Thanksgiving! ⁠— The Atari VCS Team

 

[TACODON]

I read the update. Yay for delays. Though are we shocked by this?

[lingyi]

TLDR; We're not shipping in December 2019!

 

Edit: "No matter what, we are talking weeks here, not months,..." Translation: We can push the first batch to Feb 27, 2020 and claim it's weeks, not months!

 

"When we adjusted our schedule in March 2019, we were aiming for year-end 2019 delivery goal for the Indiegogo backers. Today, given the work still to be done, including the final stages of our certification and testing cycles, we now realize we will need a few more weeks than anticipated. Our teams, factories, and supplier partners are all working incredibly hard to make it happen; but as we all know, the devil is in the details, and we can win or lose a few days during each remaining step and will update our Indiegogo backers as soon as we have a final date.

 

No matter what, we are talking weeks here, not months, and the Indiegogo backers remain our top priority. Backers will definitely receive their Atari VCS systems before the general public. We will also try to come up with some kind of bonus to reward our backers for their patience."

Edited November 28, 2019 by lingyi

[Marc Oberhäuser]

Developer-SDK off the shelf "Linux Unity Engine"

[roots.genoa]

New press release as well:

http://news.calyptus.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CP-2019-11-28-VCS-UNITY-English.pdf

short version: releases March 2020 in the US, compatible with the Unity engine (wow).

[+Spriggy]

5 hours ago, Curt Vendel said:

Nope... this is brandy spanking new one.

 

BTW, I was subpoenaed as a witness to help Hyperkin against FauxTari...

 

I gladly overnighted 2.3Gbs of data to their lawyer ?

 

 

1 hour ago, OldSchoolRetroGamer said:

Received this in my INBOX moments ago. More BS and delay tactics I suspect ???

https://mailchi.mp/atari/atari-vcs-here-come-the-games-36581?e=d39baf12da

 

Atari Speaks: Q&A with our Chief Operating Officer

 

Hello Backers, Fans, and Followers! As the Atari VCS teams travel to and from our partner factories in China, working overtime to finalize the many pre-production tasks, we wanted to take a moment to share an update from Atari VCS Chief Operating Officer Michael Arzt. The Atari VCS communications team asked Michael to personally address a number of questions from the community about the status of the Atari VCS project. This official Q&A provides a glimpse into exactly where we are in the development process, what Indiegogo backers can expect from the first wave of products shipping exclusively to them, what the full retail launch in 2020 will bring, and the company's broader vision for the Atari VCS. Michael also shares some exclusive first images of the Atari VCS pre-production test units coming off the assembly line!   Head over to the Atari VCS Developer Blog on Medium to read the Q&A with COO Michael Arzt and get the inside story.   You can find all the previous Atari VCS Developer Blog posts here. Thanks again for your ongoing support! Happy Thanksgiving! ⁠— The Atari VCS Team

 

 

The MEDIUM pic showing what seems to be an Ashoebox production line, appears to have been photoshopped.  I found the original untouched photo. [Below]

 

 

 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

2 hours ago, OldSchoolRetroGamer said:

Received this in my INBOX moments ago. More BS and delay tactics I suspect ???

https://mailchi.mp/atari/atari-vcs-here-come-the-games-36581?e=d39baf12da

 

 Head over to the Atari VCS Developer Blog on Medium to read the Q&A with COO Michael Arzt and get the inside story.

There is just way too much there to parody right now. My Thanksgiving vacation is only four days long.

 

But I'll just leave you with this T-shirt-worthy quote from Michael "it's pronounced Arrrrh-zzzitt*" Arzt:

Quote

If there was one thing I’d want people to always know, it’s that “no news is good news” where the Atari VCS is concerned!

So... it looks like they're doing fantastic!

 

 

* Just think of a pirate being electrocuted.

[JBerel]

It's funny, I couldn't even read that lengthy update without my mind skipping large sections to bypass the colossal bullshit you instinctually knew you were reading which was going to lead up to the obvious delay announcement they sought to bury deep within the mountain of distracting crap. Just like the joke, that update was taylored to the eternal optimist children looking for a Christmas pony in a giant pile of shit. It's amazing how many words they used to say, not shipping as promised. Also remember, a year is only 52 weeks when we're talking weeks not months.

 

No surprise there of course, but it does suggest two very likely contributing factors.

 

1. I bet their new update with "no news" is again a response to other news circulating. Could be the pending lawsuit.

 

2. Even these knobs realized they aren't shipping squat before Chinese New Year like I and others have been saying for almost a year.

 

One can easily pick apart a bunch of other crap in that update, like them putting off most of their deliverables until retail production which will never happen, but who really cares anymore? This is too stupid to care anymore. So, speaking of turkeys, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

[Agillig]

Well, judging from the pictures, at least the shells are being made. As the Coleco Chameleon taught us, once you've got the shells taken care of, everything else just falls into place. 

[PlaysWithWolves]

Yeesh that was a whole lot of words to say the AtariVCS would be delayed again and not Netflix-mom friendly.

 

The paragraph to stakeholders felt weird and perhaps a response to @Curt VendelVendel urging to sell.

 

"No news is good news" is said when you're expecting the worst but hoping for the best--like a loved one in surgery.  Not something I'd want to put out into the aether, but I'm no marketing and business leader like Michael Artz writing questions to himself.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by PlaysWithWolves
Added stakeholders quote, for posterity's sake.

[lingyi]

44 minutes ago, Agillig said:

Well, judging from the pictures, at least the shells are being made. As the Coleco Chameleon taught us, once you've got the shells taken care of, everything else just falls into place. 

They're not just shells. They have six units with filling! Ummm...shells...filling...drool...tacooooossssss! 

 

 

 

This pic really gets me. The woman is touching an upside down unit and the other two guys are holding a package that's too thin to be a unit. And next to the keyboards are three, what appears to be monitors and there's someone on the other side of the woman holding something that's not a VCS. ???????

.

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by lingyi

[TankedThomas]

This update fascinates me, especially since the usual people are already using it as "evidence" (check out "AtariArtist" on the now-unofficial reddit page. Pretty sure he's wearing a tinfoil hat).

I'm going to break it down just because I'm bored, so feel free to follow along and chime in, or just skip this inevitably lengthy post. ?

 

First of all, Mike Arse (that's his name now, deal with it) talks about how "the Atari VCS design and engineering teams just returned from extended trips to China", as if the teams are more than two or three people, and as if anyone is actually left in engineering. I'm betting they just got the poor factory workers to figure the thing out for them, and paid them peanuts for it in return (probably literal peanuts, given Freddo Frog's reputation).

 

Arse's next point is about why they switched to the AMD Ryzen SOC. Here's a hint: it wasn't because of the backers (you really think most of those guys know anything about hardware?), "internal user research" means literally nothing, device testing means "we had an AMD dev board this time last year and it required the least amount of work for us", and they have no development partners. Then they mention AMD pushing them. Here's what likely happened: AMD said "here's our new chips and they cost the same as the old ones, also we're not making the olds ones any more, also this email is going out to all our "partners" because we don't keep track of who most of you are, ATARI WHO?"

 

Next point is how these units are just pre-production samples, worded in a way that makes it sound like they're the first of their production units. The most we can see in any single photo (assuming each of those stacked containers contains a VCS) is 24 units. That means they made 24 in pre-production. I'll take bets on this mirroring the Vega+ debacle (a win-win for me because I have no money, so nobody gets paid if I lose the bet ?).

 

Notice that whatever that little button was, on the opposite side of the PCB to the power button, is no longer present in the "final" version. Either it's obscured inside the shell, or the PCB we saw wasn't final (gasp! Say it ain't so).

The next photo shows a bunch of factory workers putting things in anti-static bubblewrap bags. Okay. But what would they be putting in those? You don't put the PCB in that and then put it in the shell. Maybe they were taking them out? But they have a stack of empty bags and a roll of tape, and appear to be packaging it. Methinks this is the answer: the worker in the background appears to be putting protective film on (or just rubbing, I dunno) the plastic VCS shell. So the pink bubblewrap bags are... the packaging for Indiegogo backers? Maybe they couldn't afford proper packaging for $3m.

 

Then, more stuff about controllers. Cool. Where are they? They're not in any of the photos. Software development? Final stages? But you guys haven't even got software developers on board, let alone started software development. Are you going to slap your logo on Linux and call it your own (and then inevitably not release your distro as open-source code so you can inevitably end up on a list of scumbags who break GPL licenses)? Nah, I think that's giving them too much credit. Just ship it with SteamOS, guys! It'll be fine. Backers are dumb - they won't notice!

Ah, but they're using Unity, so I'm sure that will turn out well. Incidentally, I remember trying Assassin's Creed Unity (made in the Unity engine; surprise) and getting stuck in a wall. Then I found out that the demo wasn't a demo but the final game. Which isn't to say the Unity engine is bad (it's not) but even Ubisoft couldn't rush their software to market without it being a mess.

And, of course, more announcements about announcements. Now where have we heard that before? Hmmm.

 

TL;DR on the next point, they never intended to ship anything by December - they'd stopped caring and have been (poorly) targeting March 2020 since they last announced a delay, but thanks for the money, suckers!

Oh, and they're still "testing" it (whatever that means) and are still working on certification. Guess they put that in there just for us.

 

TL;DR on the next point is Nintendo's passive-aggresive BS "Please Understand", followed by even moreexcuses, including some nonsense about transparency (maybe they're talking about the Atari logo with the LED behind it). You know the boy who cried wolf? Well, even he thinks Fred and Mike are full of it.

 

Oh God, there's still so much more... Uh...

4K 60fps HDR is not for gaming. It's for videos. My midrange PC I built this year can barely handle that (though it's of course dependent on the game). This toaster-quality SOC can't handle it, unless you want to play 4K60 Pong. The HDR makes the blacks and whites more... black and white.

Also, running cooler than an inferno (thanks Intel) isn't really news.

 

Then he talks about how they "subtly" changed the chassis. No, they made it taller to fit the damn CPU fan in. It'll still be a toaster either way - a system that small is going to suffocate even if you stick it in a freezer (I'm exaggerating, but the point is that they made it bigger for thermals, not to fit USB ports on the front - that's just a bonus, since those cost pretty much nothing). That level of last-minute redesign is a serious red flag.

The talk about redesigning the controllers is probably a legal matter, more than anything else, especially given the vagueness of his statement on them.

7 minutes ago, lingyi said:

This pic really gets me. The woman is touching an upside down unit and the other two guys are holding a package that's too thin to be a unit. And next to the keyboards are three, are what appears to be monitors and there's someone on the other side of the woman holding something that's not a VCS. ???????

.

 

Since you chimed in while I was writing this: I think those are the redesigned shells. The person at the rear holding a plastic thing appears to also be holding a VCS shell (you can make out the "ribbed" design on it), and they said they extended it to fit USB ports. Reminds me of some of the PS2s and PS3s in that regard. Also, I think the VCS is in that pink bubblebag - it just looks like it doesn't fit because of perspective. The systems aren't that big, and the bags are probably a bit bigger than we can see in the photo. Still crap either way~

 

Next question about social media (who is asking these questions, by the way? Is Arse looking in a mirror?) is just a bunch of nonsense. Moving on.

 

And the next question is more nonsense. Watch them repackage Debian's Synaptic Package Manager (for those who aren't aware, a package manager on Linux works like an app store, except there's more than just apps available) and call it their app store. It'd technically be true. Does anyone really believe they're going to make one from scratch? If they do, it'll be a disaster of security vulnerabilities and bugs. If it works.

 

Finally, they take a pot-shot at our friend Kieren without actually naming him (in other words, Arse has no balls). Then Arse dodges the question anyway and proceeds to imply that Netflix won't have a native app (or he just hasn't looked at the Debian repositories to see if one exists for Linux yet). He continues to say a bunch of "ifs" and "maybes" about apps actually being made, and then says Kieren is a liar. Nice bloke, that Arse.

 

FYI, you don't normally create a UI in unity. I mean, if you're programming it, sure, but... maybe I'm just arguing semantics here. It just sounds like they grabbed Unity to play around with because it's relatively easy, and are hoping they get far enough to release a product that sort of, kind of works by the time their hardware is half-baked enough to ship out in pink bubblewrap.

But it's okay, because the new UI is no longer just a mockup from E3 and it "feels like Atari".

That feeling looks like this:

 

Moving on (yes, there's still more), Mike Arse conflates digital downloads with streaming, then implies that you need something more than a modern toaster (literally, in some cases) to stream garbage like Stadia - your CPU/GPU/choice of taco doesn't matter. Of course it's compatible - just download Chromium and have fun. If Chromium runs it. I'm not sure. You might need the branded version (i.e. Google Chrome). In which case, it literally can't support Stadia. Do they know? Probably not. Do I care? Nope.

Also, Apple Arcade has far more software than Atari and Antstream will ever have. And I hate Apple, so this isn't me defending them.

 

But sandbox mode! Unprecedented freedom! Right, totally unlike my PC which I'm running Linux on right now, have Windows 10 (ugh) installed alongside it, and have multiple Linux virtual machines too. Or a Raspberry Pi, which lets you do the same. Totally different, guys. Totally. And you can use it as a media centre, as soon as you learn how to install and set up Linux (I mean, it's not hard, but do you really think someone like ol' John Phelan is going to have a clue how that works? Dude still plays Jaguar as one of his primary consoles, judging by his videos).

 

Ooo, ooo, more about Atari OS! It's proprietary... even though it's based on Linux. So it's literally not proprietary then. Got it.

I love how they say you can boot into another operating system and manage to list two. Windows, Linux, and uh... TacOS? What else, guys? WHAT ELSE? Someone needs to make TacOS now. Maybe I'll do it if I'm bored enough.

The best part is that they want community feedback from their brainwashed cult. Those guys probably don't even know how to install Linux, let alone debug it. And I can't imagine anyone at "Atari" knows how to debug anything either.

Also, the OS usually isn't the pre-release software, and early access quite literally means it's unfinished/incomplete (or they're a scumbag AAA company doing server tests instead of fixing all the bugs that are still in their games on launch day).

 

So I know I said "finally" earlier, but I thought they would have been done by then. They weren't. But now we're up to the final question. If it wasn't Mike Arse staring in a mirror, it was probably Fred holding a gun to his head. Or just strapping Arse to a chair surrounded in really stinky cheese.

 

But this might be the best question, because they claim they have a thriving business. I guess a stock price increase of €0.17 is now "thriving business".

 

Of course, "the first-day response to the Atari VCS crowdfunding campaign in May 2018 ended up crashing the Indiegogo site", which honestly just says more about how crappy Indiegogo's site is than anything else.

But guys, 11,000 backers! That's a lot! They all DEFINITELY bought a console, and the Atari VCS is second only to the PS4, which has only sold approximately 100m units. That's REALLY close!

 

Then he ends with promises of their vacation photos. I don't want to see your stupid vacation photos.

 

It's at this point (or, more accurately, the first sentence of this "update") where everyone simultaneously felt like this:

 

(Yes, I got bored about halfway through and just started making some stupid images using other images I totally didn't steal from Google and about three hours later, I've finished writing all this trash).

[MrBeefy]

9 minutes ago, lingyi said:

They're not just shells. They have six units with filling! Ummm...shells...filling...drool...tacooooossssss! 

 

 

 

This pic really gets me. The woman is touching an upside down unit and the other two guys are holding a package that's too thin to be a unit. And next to the keyboards are three, what appears to be monitors and there's someone on the other side of the woman holding something that's not a VCS. ???????

.

 

I think its the front you are seeing. The woodgrain holder. Speaking of notice how they aren't showing that part on the ones off the line?

 

So Mr. Mike may have finally been briefed on what this product is. I mean these were beachball sized questions. Delay? Duh Mike we knew that so emd of year means now January for backers at best.

 

No news is good? Going to be breaking that rule I guess when you tell the backers 'in weeks' when they are shipping.

[TankedThomas]

7 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I think its the front you are seeing. The woodgrain holder. Speaking of notice how they aren't showing that part on the ones off the line?

 

So Mr. Mike may have finally been briefed on what this product is. I mean these were beachball sized questions. Delay? Duh Mike we knew that so emd of year means now January for backers at best.

 

No news is good? Going to be breaking that rule I guess when you tell the backers 'in weeks' when they are shipping.

Something else I noticed is that there's someone standing between the second and third factory workers with their arms crossed. Maybe it's Mike, getting briefed by factory workers? ?

[Flojomojo]

"If there was one thing I’d want people to always know, it’s that “no news is good news” where the Atari VCS is concerned!" -Arzt

 

 

October 8:

"This is an ongoing process, so most of the photos we are showing here do not represent final textures and do look far more “plasticy” than they will in the finished products."

November 28:

"I am excited to be able to share some initial photos of the first Atari VCS pre-production units, fresh off the assembly line and on their way to the extensive testing processes. We are deep into the final stages of pre-production and heading toward mass production, which is the focus of our attention today."

 

I can see why this "update" took so long to craft, there's a very high concentration of passive-aggressive weasel words in there! Late again, deal with it, no refunds. 

"We aim to make periodic updates to our community with complete transparency." ???