New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[Lodmot]

atari.com still down...

websites are like rockets I think...

you need skilled personnel to launch it...

 

Something interesting I just noticed-- atari.com is down but atarivcs.com is still online. o:

[Inky]

The fact of the matter is, the home gaming market is already being well-served by Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC and mobile, so unless a company has some wildly inventive stuff to throw into the ring (and the capital to do so), there's no reason for them to try as the industry marches towards what could be the last console generation anyhow. Leave that to companies like Google, Apple, and Samsung.

 

Wouldn't it be delicious irony if somewhere down the road that Apple bought Atari? Unlikely to happen, but still, the thought of it is enough to make me crave more tacos.

[Flojomojo]

Something interesting I just noticed-- atari.com is down but atarivcs.com is still online. o:

 

That's because the VCS site is run by a PR contractor. If Atari cared about their public image they'd just redirect their corporate site to their stupid project site until things got fixed.

 

 

 

Wouldn't it be delicious irony if somewhere down the road that Apple bought Atari? Unlikely to happen, but still, the thought of it is enough to make me crave more tacos.

 

Apple knows the difference between shit and shinola. Neither is particularly delicious to me, but you do you.

[Inky]

 

Apple knows the difference between shit and shinola.

 

Not saying I don't agree with you.. I'm just here for the irony.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Inky

[PlaysWithWolves]

I want Taco Bell to buy Atari, just for the lols.

[00010000]

isnt sega the one that gave us a softcore porn backstory tween a hedgehog and a teenage girl, or was it the nude sarah palin devel may cry rip-off half a decade late

 

yea that's a great caretaker of a brand ... who couldn't even give us a proper next gen sonic game for 20 years or so (like its that fucking hard, go fast sideways and drop the shitty ass j-pop)

Lol well, yeah like I was saying earlier, Sonic's been a mess of a series post-Dreamcast overall, some solid entries notwithstanding.

 

I think it's probably two factors; one being Sonic Team hasn't taken the time to settle on mainstay game mechanics and build on those, the other being that Sonic Team just...seems tired of making Sonic games imho. Wouldn't mind if Sega gave the team a break to focus on another series, maybe a new Chu Chu Rocket or Burning Rangers even.

 

Also they need to stop with the bs deadlines :/

 

 

I'd think that the Dreamcast appeals to people for a lot of different reasons, not all of which make it marketable. It's certainly got some great games, coincided with the last gasp of arcade gaming, was notable for some highly innovative features, and is one of the most powerful systems that can be emulated well. However, Sega ultimately didn't sell that many of them and it had a commercial lifetime of just a couple of years. For every fan who waxes lyrical about it, there are going to be several more who still felt that they got burned because they bought it only to see the supply of games dry up very quickly. Neither is wrong as far as I'm concerned, as both viewpoints have their merits, but only one is going to be interested in buying a relaunched version.

 

So far as Atari's home computers go, they fit somewhere in between the massively successful 2600 and the other consoles, which would all generally be regarded as failures. However, making a plug-n-play system for either the 8-bits or the ST is going to have all the problems of the C64 that we've discussed before, in addition to not being nearly as successful as it. Most of the memorable games were made by third parties, and a substantial proportion of the userbase will be looking to use a keyboard, dust off their programming skills and/or run some non-games software on them. You could perhaps compare it with the various attempts to get various modern versions of the ZX Spectrum to market, some of which were more successful than others, but all were rather niche with total sales in the thousands. Enterprising hobbyists could perhaps cater to that better than a large corporation too.

 

It's hard to tell where the Atari-Llamasoft partnership will go from here. Jeff Minter is obviously a big fan of many old Atari games, so it'd be nice to see him giving others that he's already riffed on numerous times - such as Asteroids, Caverns of Mars and Centipede - the 4000 treatment. However, at the same time, relations were obviously strained by the legal wrangling over TxK so maybe he'll prefer to end things there. Either way, I don't see enough games coming that way to sell much in the way of VCS hardware, especially if they're also going to be available on other platforms. And they're going to have to be if he wants to earn more than pocket change out of it.

 

Understand where you're coming from w/ the Dreamcast; those things would certainly play a factor. But I don't think those are the only sort of people a Dreamcast-mini or HTPC-like system w/ Dreamcast emulation on it would appeal to. Again, when I see a lot of stuff about Dreamcast from others, a lot of it seems to be either people who got into collecting for it after it left the market (so maybe, mid-2000s or such), and then you've got even younger people now who've grown up playing those games and others on emulators, and discovering the library from there. So that's already two groups outside of those who had one in its heyday and didn't feel "burned" that such a product could potentially appeal to.

 

The latter in particular, a lot of the growth in appealing to those sorts comes, again, with consistency as a 3rd-party for the major consoles, iterating on some classic IP and creating new ones, and the such. And just building that rapport and clout in the overall mainstream gaming sphere, something Atari failed to do imo. Also I agree you'd still have some of the people who had it back then that'd still feel burned and not want a new mini or the such, but it's been almost 20 years now; kinda feel most of that lot have had enough time to get over those feelings and let bygones be bygones, they'd probably be interested if the price were right. You can apply the same w/ Atari fans who probably felt jipped w/ the Jaguar; most of them have moved on and would check out a Jaguar-mini if done right.

 

About an Atari plug-and-play based more around the computers, I was thinking more in terms of it just being a standard PC device, priced accordingly etc. The difference being that you could have those GUI options emulating the old OSes, and everything being pre-installed. For people wanting to use those to code or such, maybe just provide that as a software package and they can write the software to control certain parts of the OS functions (there's a video program I use called PotPlayer that lets you shut down and set timers for your PC through the program itself; never used it, but the feature is there, and if that can do it I don't see why this hypothetical program couldn't allow for similar stuff), type commands to access files and folders, etc. Basically, a software package simulating and OS so it'd have to be able to view pictures, read certain documents, view video etc. in the program, but w/ a GUI based off old Atari computer OSes you can change on-the-fly.

 

Not quite the same as using one of the old machines exactly, but close enough and a realistic option. You buy the HTPC and that stuff comes inside and installed, baked into the cost etc., or just buy it for your PC at a fair price and use it there. The HTCP'd still have the form factor of an Atari computer to go give it some value.

[PlaysWithWolves]

New Sega Console that Segabox?

[jaybird3rd]

"New Atari Website that www.atari.com?"

 

Actually, they just have a splash screen so far:

 

(It only took them about a week to create it, too.)

[Flojomojo]

I want Taco Bell to buy Atari, just for the lols.

 

Ha! Me too. But seriously, THAT would be interesting synergy. Yum Brands owns a bunch of greasy food places like Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Wouldn't it be cool to see an Atari multi-cade in every fast food joint, as if it were still 1981? They could swap out the control panels regularly, or whenever they get jammed up with chicken skin.

 

[pacman000]

Even JTS had a working Atari site, & JTS only had two people working in their Atari "division." >_<

[+Nathan Strum]

They need to be more careful about who they hire to do their IT work...

 

[PlaysWithWolves]

(Way off topic here, but: )

That made me curious whether Carlsen had done something since RVGS or fell off the planet. Turns out he gave a speech at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit where he listed the Retro VGS as a ... career highlight (pp. 3).

 

John Carlsen – Career Highlights

Santa Clara, CA
August 2017 3
 Atari + founder Nolan Bushnell
 Activision/Infocom (Mediagenic)
 Media Vision, Iguana/Acclaim Entertainment
 Altera, SigmaTel (flash-based MP3 players)
 Taught game development
 Sony PlayStation, Retro VGS
IEEE Senior Member, IGDA, SMTA

 

Well when life hands you lemons, patent lemonade!

[Flojomojo]

(Way off topic here, but: )

That made me curious whether Carlsen had done something since RVGS or fell off the planet. Turns out he gave a speech at the 2017 Flash Memory Summit where he listed the Retro VGS as a ... career highlight (pp. 3).

 

 

My 2015 “Retro VGS” project demonstrated strong continued interest in cartridge-based games, technical and economic feasibility of cartridges with wide bus and large capacity (extending curves to “X”)

 

and

 

 

Interactive Entertainment Industry: What it Wants and Needs

 End Users (Players) Want:

• To play a great (big) game (capacity)

• Data retention (save game data, to play later)

• Fast installation and load times (performance)

• To avoid forced updates (due to bugs, etc.)

• Most want high value (# hours play vs. cost)

• Some want speed of online purchase & download

• Some want program retention, ability to resell

[Flojomojo]

Back on topic

 

Atari.com is back online with a whole new look. No clue why they took the old site down for so long to update it, but ...

 

 

also no mention of Tempest 4000 among their many released games. There's a prominent link for their IP catalog (from 2017), so I grabbed a copy for your perusal, attached. Atari-IP-Catalog-2017.pdf

 

"So much more than games and multimedia," yet that's the only part that interests me in the least.

 

Open it up and that's what their tab label says. "Atari - So much more than video games"

 

[PlaysWithWolves]

Atari.com is back online with a whole new look. No clue why they took the old site down for so long to update it, but ...

 

 

"Available now"

 

 

Not sure why the screencap's a bit blurry. Scroll down Atari's page to see it.

I'm curious where they're available. Woolworth?

[Inky]

 

 

Well when life hands you lemons, patent lemonade!

 

When life gives you lemons, sugar and water become DLC

[Inky]

 

Ha! Me too. But seriously, THAT would be interesting synergy. Yum Brands owns a bunch of greasy food places like Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Wouldn't it be cool to see an Atari multi-cade in every fast food joint, as if it were still 1981? They could swap out the control panels regularly, or whenever they get jammed up with chicken skin.

 

 

Don't forget a few years ago when Taco Bell gave away classic Atari games on CD...

[jaybird3rd]

"Available now"

From a certain point of view, I suppose it's true. Everything "that Ataribox?" is promised to be is already available now by other means.

[Inky]

From the TRUTH IN ADVERTISING department...

 

 

[Lodmot]

So I went and checked out the new Atari website, and when I clicked on the "ATARI VCS" section it opened one of those fake "virus" alert pages with the computerized voice saying "Security alert! Your computer has been attacked by a virus remotely, etc. etc. etc". Not even kidding here...

 

Is this shit for real? >.>

Edited July 30, 2018 by Lodmot

[jaybird3rd]

So I went and checked out the new Atari website, and when I clicked on the "ATARI VCS" section it opened one of those fake "virus" alert pages with the computerized voice saying "Security alert! Your computer has been attacked by a virus remotely, etc. etc. etc". Not even kidding here...

I think that might just be your system. The page opened fine for me.

[+x=usr(1536)]

 

 

Now I get it... Atari == Shinola!

 

And this is NSFW:

 

[Lodmot]

I think that might just be your system. The page opened fine for me.

 

I'm on my work computer... We have Symantec installed. Shouldn't be seeing THAT kind of stuff...

Also just for good measure I tried loading the site on my phone, and the new site takes forever to load.

[pacman000]

That's standard for new websites. They have less usable content, but take more bandwidth/processing power to use.

 

Atari.com's still broken for me, by the way.

[jaybird3rd]

It seems to be intermittent. I just tried it on a Windows machine to see if I got the same page that Lodmot was getting, but by then the site was down again. Given that it's a new site, we probably just need to allow enough time for DNS propagation and the like.