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Atari 400 / 800 Mini Possibility?


Hwlngmad

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Not sure I see the point. I love the original hardware, all the celever design points, the quality and look of the boxes, documentation etc. If it's not original, with that warm fluffy feeling, it may as well be an emulator on your PC. I can't see what cloned hardware gives us that an emulator doesn't apart from a few edge cases where you might have one to use with the main TV as opposed to your PC monitor.

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If it was going to be an emulated Atari then whose emu would be used and depending on the emu, how close is it to the real thing..

 

I'm one of those people that wants an item that works very well and not just something that works well with a selection of stuff that is hand picked for it.

 

I'm sure many would like the idea but as I have hardware and the best emu out there I don't need it but I'm sure there would be a small market for it..

 

Edit: As the Atari roms would really need to be used and they have not been made public domain, how much would that cost for such a small market..

Edited by Mclaneinc
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Not sure I see the point. I love the original hardware, all the celever design points, the quality and look of the boxes, documentation etc. If it's not original, with that warm fluffy feeling, it may as well be an emulator on your PC. I can't see what cloned hardware gives us that an emulator doesn't apart from a few edge cases where you might have one to use with the main TV as opposed to your PC monitor.

 

That's always in the back of one's mind with these things and always a valid point, but the reality is is that there is a demand for new hardware. For all its charms, vintage hardware can be finicky, and there is certainly some streamlining that can happen with the newer stuff that makes the experience smoother, if not quite as authentic. Certainly an FPGA experience is a more idealized realization than a specialized "soft" emulation box, but ultimately it's just a different approach to the same problem, at least until the FPGA stuff is more common.

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If a retro 400/800 system were to be done, I would much prefer something along the lines of the ZX Spectrum Next or the Armiga 500 that I came across. I just think with the retro market heating up, I think a Atari 400/800 product is a no-brainer. But, I do wonder if it could be something viable and able to be pulled off.

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If it was going to be an emulated Atari then whose emu would be used and depending on the emu, how close is it to the real thing..

 

I'm one of those people that wants an item that works very well and not just something that works well with a selection of stuff that is hand picked for it.

 

I'm sure many would like the idea but as I have hardware and the best emu out there I don't need it but I'm sure there would be a small market for it..

 

Edit: As the Atari roms would really need to be used and they have not been made public domain, how much would that cost for such a small market..

 

Some things.. The Armiga box is geared toward game playing. I couldn't see it being used for much more. And I'm not sure how well the on-screen keyboard works. And that's ok. I'm sure it does well in its position in the market.

 

I'm essentially the same way as yourself, but with Apple II hardware and AppleWin emulator. They both complement and bridge each other very nicely. And emulator accuracy compared to real hardware is always a paramount consideration. Perhaps these mini-boxes can complement real hardware and emulators.

 

As far as which emulator goes. It would have to be using the most full-featured one. And likely that'd be Altirra at present. And I understand that Altirra has it's own BIOS and OS, among other additional 3rd party DOS'es like SpartaDOS. So I think that covers the ROM/BIOS issues.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Atari corp should be kissing AtariAge's ass, this site keeps that company relevant in ways inconceivable to them (not much really left of the OG Atari team anyhow LOLZ)

 

It's my understanding the relationship between Atari and AtariAge is very good. That does not extend to unauthorized outside hardware, however, nor should we expect it to.

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Some things.. The Armiga box is geared toward game playing. I couldn't see it being used for much more. And I'm not sure how well the on-screen keyboard works. And that's ok. I'm sure it does well in its position in the market.

 

I'm essentially the same way as yourself, but with Apple II hardware and AppleWin emulator. They both complement and bridge each other very nicely. And emulator accuracy compared to real hardware is always a paramount consideration. Perhaps these mini-boxes can complement real hardware and emulators.

 

As far as which emulator goes. It would have to be using the most full-featured one. And likely that'd be Altirra at present. And I understand that Altirra has it's own BIOS and OS, among other additional 3rd party DOS'es like SpartaDOS. So I think that covers the ROM/BIOS issues.

 

I think any Atari 400/800 mini would be mainly geared toward game playing. Having an on-screen keyboard is pretty nice to include, but not sure how well that works on the Artmiga either. From what Bill said earlier, the folks at Artmiga seem to be doing well, so I would think a 400/800 mini could be doable too. Now, who and/or when it could be done remain to be seen.

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  • 3 years later...

reviving an old thread. I bough an NES mini knock off from Ebay during the holiday's I never owned an NES it's pretty much after my game playing days.  this thing has 600 games on it some of the Atari type of games I remember and the graphics rival that of the 400/800 series games kind of... A mini ataru to play all the games is something that I would buy if it were made. this chineese knock off was less then $50.00 and I have played a few games and my kids like it as well...  

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even a mini unit that played 5200/7800 games they are close in resolutiuon to the 400/800 games. I have a labrary of disks that has hundreds of games on them would be nice to have a unit that has all the games loaded in it. maybe a library for each type of unit gonra . Like I mentuioned above this knock of clone for the NES for my kids is really a cool machine not a real old nintendo game fan but it has some of the same games I had foir atari. the ATgames units are ok but they only have 100 games loaded in them looking for that nitch of games . I have a flashback atari 2600 maybe version 7 or 8 .. I know that the 400/800 was a "computer" but it played some really cool games for it's day. the computer side of things has it's place in my heart as well but really enjoyed the games I ghd to play on it. when i got burned out coding in "basic" I could kick back and play some game and relax

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On 1/30/2021 at 4:03 PM, tcpuccio1 said:

reviving an old thread. I bough an NES mini knock off from Ebay during the holiday's I never owned an NES it's pretty much after my game playing days.  this thing has 600 games on it some of the Atari type of games I remember and the graphics rival that of the 400/800 series games kind of... A mini ataru to play all the games is something that I would buy if it were made. this chineese knock off was less then $50.00 and I have played a few games and my kids like it as well...  

I appreciate you reviving this old thread a bit.  Yeah, definitely a mini A8 is something that is a possibility.  Heck, an even better idea could be a compilation of some kind like what Atari has done already for the Xbox One, PS4, and Switch.  Volume 4 anyone?  It sure would be nice to have more modern ways to play A8 games, or even 5200 games for that matter.

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yes exactly partition it off for each platform. the 2600 and been done to death from hand held to the mini flashback's from Atgames.  obeviously with the newest technology duming down the resolution to low quality 8 bit and heck even up to the XEGS with better speed and qaulity of graphic's  I have an Android TV box and I downloade a retro game playing app and it doesn't work I had high hopes I would be able to play the 800 series games. I think its called zach morris somthing like that loaded into one box that actaully works And I would be thrilled. 

 

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Atari doesn't have enough 8-bit computer licenses left still to create a compelling enough compilation on its own. It's mostly the same games you see on the Atari 2600, 5200, and arcade sides, which are of course in many cases the same or better. You pretty much saw what they have in the Atari Flashback Classics series, and you'll note that in volume 3 it had to be supplemented with some third party stuff to make the count. They could likely do a 7800, 8-bit, and Lynx collection, as that should get them close to enough titles to make it reasonably viable, but whether that's a mass market product or not is a different story all together. I'd argue it's not and best left to niche products like the Evercade cartridges that don't need big numbers to break even.

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21 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Atari doesn't have enough 8-bit computer licenses left still to create a compelling enough compilation on its own. It's mostly the same games you see on the Atari 2600, 5200, and arcade sides, which are of course in many cases the same or better. You pretty much saw what they have in the Atari Flashback Classics series, and you'll note that in volume 3 it had to be supplemented with some third party stuff to make the count. They could likely do a 7800, 8-bit, and Lynx collection, as that should get them close to enough titles to make it reasonably viable, but whether that's a mass market product or not is a different story all together. I'd argue it's not and best left to niche products like the Evercade cartridges that don't need big numbers to break even.

You are very likely right Bill.  Gotta admit that Volume 3 for the Switch is a heck of a collection.  If I ever got a switch, I would be picking that up for sure.  But also, yeah, something on the Evercade would be good to see.  I just think it would be nice to see a more mainstream way to play older Atari titles not found on just the 2600.  But, then again, there are plenty of solutions out there if one is willing to look and work a little at it.

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18 minutes ago, Hwlngmad said:

You are very likely right Bill.  Gotta admit that Volume 3 for the Switch is a heck of a collection.  If I ever got a switch, I would be picking that up for sure.  But also, yeah, something on the Evercade would be good to see.  I just think it would be nice to see a more mainstream way to play older Atari titles not found on just the 2600.  But, then again, there are plenty of solutions out there if one is willing to look and work a little at it.

Yes, the Switch collection with 150 games is a pretty tough value to beat.

The only mainstream product I'm aware of that has at least a few licensed Atari 8-bit titles is the Antstream service. I'm not sure if they still have the offer on, but they had free 1 year subscriptions for a while.

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  • 6 months later...
On 1/30/2021 at 5:03 PM, tcpuccio1 said:

I bough an NES mini knock off from Ebay during the holiday's I never owned an NES it's pretty much after my game playing days.  this thing has 600 games on it some of the Atari type of games I remember and the graphics rival that of the 400/800 series games kind of... A mini ataru to play all the games is something that I would buy if it were made.

I recently bought a C-64 mini, which had a nice collection of games on it, many I remembered from my 8-bit days because there were 8-bit ports as well.  They have included games from several publishers - for example Hewson and Epyx.  I wonder if they license these or were able to get clearance to use them as "abandonware"? 

 

Would it be possible to build an 8-bit mini which leveraged some of the great games from third party publishers?

 

Such as:

Datasoft:

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-datasoft_publisher_1177_8_G.html

 

Synapse Software:

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-synapse-software_publisher_1459_8_G.html

 

Broderbund:

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-p_total-page-step-publisher_26-1-50-1119_8_G.html

 

Activision:

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-activision-usa_publisher_3_8_G.html

 

Sierra On-Line:

http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-sierra-on-line_publisher_1411_8_G.html

 

Heck, it might even be possible to make a deal with AtariAge to release home-brew updates for the device!

 

I don't own my original hardware (for decades now) and don't want to mess with old-school video connections and storage devices.  I do want it mainly for games - and yes I know I can run it all on my laptop (or other places).  Though many of the titles overlap games available produced for the original VCS, a carefully selected set of games does indeed have better play-ability and "arcade-like" graphics that on the 2600.

 

Something like 2 million 8-bit systems were sold!  Some amount (?) of pent up nostalgia could still be out there if an easy and inexpensive way (vs. the difficulty of using vintage hardware) to revisit those days came around.  Another ten or 20 years and the market will be disappearing for sure though!  ?  The time seems as ripe as any for a product like this - the technology is readily available and inexpensive, and retro gaming is pulling in a lot of money these days.  Ask all the Chinese hand-held manufacturers.

 

 

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