New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[+GoldLeader]

I think everybody should just think about it like this:  Soon* there will be a way;  A magical "Atari" way,... to play 2600 accurate Centipede on your living room TV, from the safety of your wonderful couch, with a slightly different controller and some wood grain... and an Atari logo**...

 

 

 

 

*Weeks...It'll all happen weeks from now...

 

 

 

**The logo might even light up!  So there is that I s'pose...

[+frankodragon]

All this circuitry on this board and all it does is light up the logo.

 

 

 

[aramis]

Here's what the "competition" has in store...I thought this was ridiculously impressive. Real-time rendered footage from a PS5, showing off Unreal Engine 5 / Lumen / Nanite.

 

 

 

To me, that's not just graphics for the sake of fancy graphics...it's a whole new level of immersion and suspension of disbelief.

 

Oh, and TACOS!

Edited May 14, 2020 by aramis

[Bill Loguidice]

31 minutes ago, aramis said:

Here's what the "competition" has in store...I thought this was ridiculously impressive. Real-time rendered footage from a PS5, showing off Unreal Engine 5 / Lumen / Nanite.

 

(video)

 

To me, that's not just graphics for the sake of fancy graphics...it's a whole new level of immersion and suspension of disbelief.

 

Oh, and TACOS!

 

This is true. The next Xbox and PlayStation will be stunning, along with the current state-of-the-art on the PC side. Considering the Atari VCS won't even have parity with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and costs around the same is telling. Of course, that's been said since the project became public, so that's nothing new, but still, this just drives it home all the more.

 

And even though I have my issues with Amico (even though I'm on the earliest adopter track), they've had a clear plan to differentiate themselves from the start and might be able to carve out a sustainable niche in such a competitive environment. The Atari VCS has yet to define its place, let alone a potentially survivable niche. Of course, there's speculation that that was never the plan in the first place, even though some would say that such speculation is overly cynical...

[+frankodragon]

Even for satire, the Onion wasn't too far off with their date of 2016 when they wrote about the PS5 back in 2002.

 

https://local.theonion.com/ghost-of-christmas-future-taunts-children-with-visions-1819566694

[Paul Slocum]

Just pointing out that the Plutonium Pirates game allegedly coming to the VCS was scheduled to have been released in 2018 but has been vaporware so far.  The perfect game partner for Atari!

 

 

https://pixel.lu/plutonium-pirates/

 

[Paul Slocum]

I jumped the gun on this one before, but now the Covid-delayed TurboGrafx Mini is officially arriving in the U.S. this week:

 

https://www.engadget.com/konami-turbografx-16-mini-may-22-release-date-194516277.html

 

Every Covid-delayed project I was monitoring is now available, and still Atari can't even provide a delivery window estimate.  Last time they said anything on Facebook, it was "probably this year".

Edited May 16, 2020 by Paul Slocum

[bmadgames]

1 hour ago, Paul Slocum said:

I jumped the gun on this one before, but now the Covid-delayed TurboGrafx Mini is officially arriving in the U.S. this week:

 

https://www.engadget.com/konami-turbografx-16-mini-may-22-release-date-194516277.html

 

Every Covid-delayed project I was monitoring is now available, and still Atari can't even provide a delivery window estimate.  Last time they said anything on Facebook, it was "probably this year".

The TurboGrafx Mini was complete. The VCS is not. I would expect Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 at this point.

 

I really don't think the comparison makes sense.

[Paul Slocum]

18 minutes ago, bmadgames said:

The TurboGrafx Mini was complete. The VCS is not. I would expect Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 at this point.

 

I really don't think the comparison makes sense.

Huh? That's my point -- that it's not complete and Atari is just using Covid as an excuse.  The original ship date for the Atari VCS was July 2019, and we still don't even have an estimate of when it will ship.  The original release date for the TurboGrafx Mini was March 2020, and although the US version was delayed for 2 months, it's done now.

 

Previously Atari kept acting like the VCS was complete and about to ship, then there's some excuse about why the shipping date got blown.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Paul Slocum

[digdugnate]

what was it.. weeks, not months?

[Agillig]

1 hour ago, bmadgames said:

The TurboGrafx Mini was complete. The VCS is not. I would expect Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 at this point.

 

I really don't think the comparison makes sense.

If they had 500 systems to send out to developers, I'd say it was pretty darn close to completion.   I'll grant it may not have been 100 percent, but there shouldn't have been much left to finish if they had systems to send to third parties.

 

Certain electronic devices, like Xbox One controllers are in short supply, so I don't have an issue with the actual hardware being AWOL, but if people can work from home, it stands to reason they would have SOME kind of progress to show on the software side since the hardware is all but finished.

 

Does anyone else think it's strange we don't know who those developers are?  Usually when a new console is announced, the creator is all about letting everyone know who's on board.   If Atari was sending out 500 systems to developers,  that means they should have at least 50 third party companies on board, right?  And we don't know a single one?  That's not something there would be any reason for secrecy.   But, oh well.

[OverMuch]

Okay, so which one of you clowns is trying to unload a boxful of speakerhats? ?

 

 

[carlsson]

On 1/29/2019 at 5:31 PM, carlsson said:

Perhaps they should try to sneak in a commercial message at the Eurovision Song Contest on May 14-18, given that it is 40 years ago that Milk and Honey featuring Gali Atari won the contest, held in Israel just like this year.

I can't recall what happened at ESC 2019, but tonight on Eurovision "Shine a light" which replaces the regular contest, there were about three minutes of Atari on prime time television across all of Europe! I tried to take a picture but my smartphone camera refused for some reason.

 

(Ok, it was Gali Atari who sang Hallelujah again with some children, but every Atari counts, right?)

 

 

[+frankodragon]

Atari is the monkey see, monkey do type.  Fred Cheese-noise hears about Taco Bell-themed hotels so he too wants to make hotels with Ataco logos pasted all over.  

[DavidD]

I keep thinking there was an Ataribox "exclusive" that I've already seen released on the Switch, but I might be crazy.  PongQuest wasn't announced, right?  For that matter, Heavy Burger was never planned for the Ataribox either, right?

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, DavidDayton said:

I keep thinking there was an Ataribox "exclusive" that I've already seen released on the Switch, but I might be crazy.  PongQuest wasn't announced, right?  For that matter, Heavy Burger was never planned for the Ataribox either, right?

Indeed. No exclusive game was ever announced for the VCS afaik...

[Mikebloke]

18 hours ago, bmadgames said:

The TurboGrafx Mini was complete. The VCS is not. I would expect Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 at this point.

 

I really don't think the comparison makes sense.

I'm pretty sure the turbografx mini was announced after atari started lying about production units being made. It's since produced and shipped their units, and still no sign of the ataribox 500 units getting to people it was 'intended' for. 

 

Konami is hardly a hardware powerhouse, quite the opposite it's gone from being a software powerhouse to a plinko machine maker. Konami has had a similar fall of disgrace to atari but it still produced a competent product. Konami might have some slight advantage regarding producing arcade and plinko machines but even that might have been contracted out. 

[Shaggy the Atarian]

On 5/16/2020 at 7:54 AM, bmadgames said:

The TurboGrafx Mini was complete. The VCS is not. I would expect Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 at this point.

 

I really don't think the comparison makes sense.

I've said this previously, but bears repeating - Atari should have begun manufacturing at the end of 2018/early 2019 to meet their originally promised dates (sooner than that for the Spring 2018 dates they first promised).

 

When July 2019 came and went (remember how they promised big updates that Summer, then after they were pressured, announced Antstream?), they pushed it back to December 2019 for backers, March for everyone else. To have met those dates, they should have been mass producing these things throughout Fall 2019, well before any virus was causing any sort of disruption to manufacturing. But as we found out from Rob Wyatt's lawsuit, Atari doesn't pay people it hires, and the work that Wyatt had done had not really been completed for his part until the end of the summer.

 

After Wyatt left, they had to find a 3rd architect to work on this thing and figure out the rest, but they won't fess up to anything about these troubles, as they know it would unveil them to be the incredibly incompetent company that they are.

 

To Mikebloke's point, Konami on the other had still has an active arcade division in Japan, who creates both hardware and software for their latest music machines and whatever else they throw out. They actually have experience with hardware that they can go to within the company, as opposed to modern Atari, who only has experience in lawsuits, sending out press releases and playing games with stocks. But even though Konami doesn't have console machine experience, they've still managed to announce a product, polish it, and get it to market despite a temporary shut down in manufacturing in China.

 

Atari on the other hand, has missed three high profile release dates, lost two of their system architects because they are such tightwads that they refuse to pay out what they promise, and we're now five months past when backers should have had their product, and there is still nothing they can grab. Except for tacos. Tacos are available, even in quarantined districts, so Tacos win again.

 

On another note, is this new? I don't tend to hit up Atarivcs.com very often, but look at how they're branding the Box now:

 

 

On 5/16/2020 at 9:31 AM, Agillig said:

If they had 500 systems to send out to developers, I'd say it was pretty darn close to completion.   I'll grant it may not have been 100 percent, but there shouldn't have been much left to finish if they had systems to send to third parties.

 

Certain electronic devices, like Xbox One controllers are in short supply, so I don't have an issue with the actual hardware being AWOL, but if people can work from home, it stands to reason they would have SOME kind of progress to show on the software side since the hardware is all but finished.

 

Does anyone else think it's strange we don't know who those developers are?  Usually when a new console is announced, the creator is all about letting everyone know who's on board.   If Atari was sending out 500 systems to developers,  that means they should have at least 50 third party companies on board, right?  And we don't know a single one?  That's not something there would be any reason for secrecy.   But, oh well.

I love how they wrote that line in their blog, to make-believe that there are 500 individuals or companies out there working on their awesome unconsole. If I had to wager, I'd say that's 495 units over-the-mark.

 

I think we've talked about this a few times, but yes, it's absolutely bizarre that a $300+ gaming device that's been known about for 3 years and counting, still has no developers announced for it apart from Antstream and the implication about YaK porting T4K to Linux. They used to list out their Atari partners on the VCS site, but that's since been scrubbed. Last time I think they were given heat about it, they ducked by using the NDA/contractual obligations excuse, until they realized that they could just claim that everyone making something for a PC can count as one of "their" developers, so take that haters!

 

In RealityLand, when things like this are ignored by the producer, it means that it's too embarrassing to talk about, so you just don't mention it. It would be laughable if they only had devs in the single digits for this, so just never tell anyone and problem solved!

 

Also to the point that the PS5/XSX (and maybe Switch Pro) will be out by the end of the year, the best that Atari can hope to attract is an indie dev who is worried about being lost in the sea of Steam/Epic Games/GOG/PS/eShop/XBL stores. But the number of devs who would find that worthwhile to take the risk on, for a console that will have a laughably minuscule user base, is extremely small. I don't say that to knock indie devs, as there are some who can create some great games. But if anything awesome was headed to the VCS, why would Atari be muzzling the developer in the first place?

 

The oddest thing about devs on the VCS for me is how Atari has released a few different games to mobile over the past few years (Night Driver, Pong Quest, Ninja Golf, etc), and yet none of these games have mentioned the VCS as being an intended platform to play them on. I also think it's telling that they never have mentioned RollerCoaster Tycoon as coming to it, given that RT is Atari's star money-making IP. If anyone over at Atari HQ had a brain, a VCS-exclusive RT would have been the first game announced for it. Instead, enjoy those games that you already own several times over with Mega Vault! And here I thought that Super Breakout being the pack-in title for the Atari 5200 was one of the dumbest launch moves ever...

[+frankodragon]

Janet, is that you?

 

[racerx]

It's hilarious anyone actually thinks they've "entered production" in any meaningful way.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

So THIS just popped up in my subscribed videos thread and honestly, I would actually consider getting this. At least it seems to know what it is and I would definitely choose it over the AtariVCS. Hell, maybe just get the AtariVCS shell and stick THIS inside? ??New Micro Center Raspberry Pi Retro Gaming Kit with 100 Licensed ATARI Games!

 

[+frankodragon]

You're saving over $200+ instead of buying that other -thing- which might or not be DOA by November. 

[Tavi]

On 5/16/2020 at 10:31 AM, Agillig said:

If they had 500 systems to send out to developers, I'd say it was pretty darn close to completion.   I'll grant it may not have been 100 percent, but there shouldn't have been much left to finish if they had systems to send to third parties.

 

Certain electronic devices, like Xbox One controllers are in short supply, so I don't have an issue with the actual hardware being AWOL, but if people can work from home, it stands to reason they would have SOME kind of progress to show on the software side since the hardware is all but finished.

 

Does anyone else think it's strange we don't know who those developers are?  Usually when a new console is announced, the creator is all about letting everyone know who's on board.   If Atari was sending out 500 systems to developers,  that means they should have at least 50 third party companies on board, right?  And we don't know a single one?  That's not something there would be any reason for secrecy.   But, oh well.

I certainly agree something does not add up.

You would think for the number of dev kits they are building and sending out, that there would also be something out there about who is working on it and what they are making. It is not like it needs to be a secret after all.

Pure speculation and personal opinion on my part here (so don't sue me Arzt), but seeing that Atari is already almost a year and a half behind schedule on their Atari Box and Corona is now making the needed parts more expensive; I am wondering if at this point Atari simply does not have the money needed to produce the Indiegogo backer units.

So with that in mind it is possible that the silence around the 500 'dev kits' is because they are going out to potential investors in an attempt to raise needed funds, and not to actual software developers for the console.

It would explain why they need so many units, and yet refuse to say anything about who or what they are being used for. You would think Atari would be promoting the hell out of any actual development taking place; seeing that Antstream seems to be the only one so far. Contrary to the opinion of Atari, no news is not good news. No news makes it look like you have nothing to offer; and/or something to hide, either of which is not exactly a big selling feature.

[Bill Loguidice]

The Micro Center Atari Pi Kit is a touch overpriced, but definitely significantly undercuts their own VCS regardless of whether it's a bit on the pricey side for a Pi kit. It's basically like a less powerful, less turnkey/slick VCS, so for those who like the licensed/logo parts of the VCS, this would probably be almost as appealing for the more DIY-oriented users. It's almost like they're purposely undercutting their own precarious micro-niche with the VCS.

 

https://www.microcenter.com/product/624102/micro-center-atari-pi-kit

[jamm]

28 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

The Micro Center Atari Pi Kit is a touch overpriced, but definitely significantly undercuts their own VCS regardless of whether it's a bit on the pricey side for a Pi kit. It's basically like a less powerful, less turnkey/slick VCS, so for those who like the licensed/logo parts of the VCS, this would probably be almost as appealing for the more DIY-oriented users. It's almost like they're purposely undercutting their own precarious micro-niche with the VCS.

 

You can't undercut something that doesn't exist.