The Atari VCS Controversies Thread

[MrBeefy]

2 hours ago, TACODON said:

Atari and Backerkit just sent me an email to confirm my shipping address. Something is going on.

They need to know where to send the...

 

This is a hard letter to write....

 

??

 

It will be nice to see them finally ship something.

[godslabrat]

44 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

Ask them to lower the price.

 

And include a game.

L'Atari:  "We can totally do that!  Of course, it'll mean delaying until 2024."

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, godslabrat said:

L'Atari:  "We can totally do that!  Of course, it'll mean delaying until 2024."

It comes with 100 games packed in! What more do people need? That's a great value and like means the console is like only $100. ?

[The Historian]

7 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

So were you actually on Atari's payroll? (I was thinking so)  Or just helping them out?  And more importantly, did they pay up?  Not asking for specifics here of course,  it just seems that they could be a horrible company to work for and they have a history of trying to weasel out of things (allegedly)...So I was just curious.

I volunteered, and was not paid. I was a backer of the Atari Game and and offered to help there... And when the Atari Box was gearing up I jumped over.

 

I do that a lot. I also run unofficial reddit communities for Arcade1Up, AtGames Legends Ultimate, as well as the one for the VCS. 

 

I tend to run communities that allow criticism because I believe that you cannot improve if you do not know what is wrong. And fixing the issues should be public too. Far to often employees take these issues personally or see them as a personal attacks and will remove the posts and/or ban the user. This makes it look like the company is trying to hide something or just not address the issue. Addressing the issues publicly shows everyone that you are aware and working to improve. I would not trust a company that tries to hide genuine user complaints, even if the language they use to talk about the issue is "colorful". Ultimately the user is on the company's side, they want things to be better... And that's good for everybody. 

 

Putting away my soapbox now...

[godslabrat]

49 minutes ago, The Historian said:

I volunteered, and was not paid. I was a backer of the Atari Game and and offered to help there... And when the Atari Box was gearing up I jumped over.

 

I do that a lot. I also run unofficial reddit communities for Arcade1Up, AtGames Legends Ultimate, as well as the one for the VCS. 

 

I tend to run communities that allow criticism because I believe that you cannot improve if you do not know what is wrong. And fixing the issues should be public too. Far to often employees take these issues personally or see them as a personal attacks and will remove the posts and/or ban the user. This makes it look like the company is trying to hide something or just not address the issue. Addressing the issues publicly shows everyone that you are aware and working to improve. I would not trust a company that tries to hide genuine user complaints, even if the language they use to talk about the issue is "colorful". Ultimately the user is on the company's side, they want things to be better... And that's good for everybody. 

 

Putting away my soapbox now...

I have a lot of respect for your approach.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, The Historian said:

I volunteered, and was not paid. I was a backer of the Atari Game and and offered to help there... And when the Atari Box was gearing up I jumped over.

 

I do that a lot. I also run unofficial reddit communities for Arcade1Up, AtGames Legends Ultimate, as well as the one for the VCS. 

 

I tend to run communities that allow criticism because I believe that you cannot improve if you do not know what is wrong. And fixing the issues should be public too. Far to often employees take these issues personally or see them as a personal attacks and will remove the posts and/or ban the user. This makes it look like the company is trying to hide something or just not address the issue. Addressing the issues publicly shows everyone that you are aware and working to improve. I would not trust a company that tries to hide genuine user complaints, even if the language they use to talk about the issue is "colorful". Ultimately the user is on the company's side, they want things to be better... And that's good for everybody. 

 

Putting away my soapbox now...

I like your approach and how you handled yourself even with impending taco talk coming your way. People could learn from your approach.

[TACODON]

New Medium post about the classic controller is out. 

[Mockduck]

Yeah, new medium post about the controller, but nothing I read seems worth passing along except for:

The majority of the products comprising the initial Atari VCS Indiegogo batch is in the warehouse, and once the joysticks arrive the fulfillment team will begin the sorting and packing process to prepare for shipping." 

 

True also that they are either in the process or or just now locked down their Backerkit shipping details. I mean, they had to do it some time soon, but it hints that they might be getting ready to ship next week or something. We'll see!

 

Atari also announced that the Atari Vault shipping with the VCS will have a Volume 2 as well that will be a $5 DLC add-on. Looks like it includes more of the games that showed up in the Flashback Classics volumes 2 and 3, including the 5200 games from vol 3:

 

The Atari VCS Vault will be available as a free download for all Atari VCS owners and features 100 of the most popular Atari hits from the classic arcade and the original Atari 2600 system, including Adventure, Asteroids, Centipede, Pong, and Warlords. The Atari VCS Vault Vol. 2, which will be offered as a $4.99 download, focuses on 50 additional games, including some of the most beloved Atari 5200 titles and other creative interpretations like Yars' Return, Atari Basketball, Millipede, and Star Raiders.  

 

Press release on Vol 2: https://mailchi.mp/uberstrategist/press-release-atari-unveils-atari-vcs-vault-of-100-games-optimized-for-the-new-wireless-classic-joystick

[Paul Slocum]

The great hall shortage of 2020!

 

Quote

Ultimately, and after many extra weeks of testing different combinations, the team identified and selected an optimal setup using a “Hall” sensor. Hall sensors are well-known in the world of high-fidelity audio product manufacturers for their extreme sensitivity. Most often used in volume controls and mixer controls, Hall sensors are always in high demand, and this year’s pandemic-related shortages made them particularly difficult to secure.

 

[MCHufnagel]

1 hour ago, Mockduck said:

Yeah, new medium post about the controller, but nothing I read seems worth passing along except for:

The majority of the products comprising the initial Atari VCS Indiegogo batch is in the warehouse, and once the joysticks arrive the fulfillment team will begin the sorting and packing process to prepare for shipping." 

 

True also that they are either in the process or or just now locked down their Backerkit shipping details. I mean, they had to do it some time soon, but it hints that they might be getting ready to ship next week or something. We'll see!

 

Atari also announced that the Atari Vault shipping with the VCS will have a Volume 2 as well that will be a $5 DLC add-on. Looks like it includes more of the games that showed up in the Flashback Classics volumes 2 and 3, including the 5200 games from vol 3:

 

The Atari VCS Vault will be available as a free download for all Atari VCS owners and features 100 of the most popular Atari hits from the classic arcade and the original Atari 2600 system, including Adventure, Asteroids, Centipede, Pong, and Warlords. The Atari VCS Vault Vol. 2, which will be offered as a $4.99 download, focuses on 50 additional games, including some of the most beloved Atari 5200 titles and other creative interpretations like Yars' Return, Atari Basketball, Millipede, and Star Raiders.  

 

Press release on Vol 2: https://mailchi.mp/uberstrategist/press-release-atari-unveils-atari-vcs-vault-of-100-games-optimized-for-the-new-wireless-classic-joystick

For the amount of money Atari is charging for this device, all three volumes should be free. Fanatical always has these for sale in dirt cheap bundles. 

[OCAT]

WHAT!! DLC?
They should throw on alll Atari classic games that ever existed, that is like what 1MB combined?

I am glad this train wreck is pickup some steam... Now that the new non-intel passive cooled Macs are out, i want to see this thing get lambasted. This is a direct comparisson. Both products are flashy & overpriced ?

Edited November 12, 2020 by OCAT

[Matt_B]

The Vault DLC was added to Steam a year ago.

 

You get the 5200 version of Star Raiders on it so it's worth five bucks, even if the rest is mostly filler.

[OCAT]

Serious question here, since it is DLC, does that mean you will neet an internet connection to play these classica games? I thought the entire point of the Atari Vault that was pre-installed was that you could start up the system and play?
seems kinda odd that I need an internet connectin just to play a game that a compiled size of it is smaller than a freakin server handshake.

Edited November 12, 2020 by OCAT

[orange808]

3 hours ago, OCAT said:

I am glad this train wreck is pickup some steam... Now that the new non-intel passive cooled Macs are out, i want to see this thing get lambasted. This is a direct comparison. Both products are flashy & overpriced 

Apple has me intrigued with their new AR experiments. 

 

They have a AR kit out and the highest performing ARM chips in existence.  Earlier this year, an investor crammed $9 million into Polyarc for AR.  If we put the trolling (and naive "neogaf" level thinking) aside, nobody puts $9 million into a software house unless the project is well defined--and that means there is a consumer AR platform coming down the pipeline.

 

I think Apple bringing an AR device to market.  Yes, Polyarc could be develping for iOS, but that's a big budget for a cell phone title.

[OCAT]

^ They cut prices by $100, that means that they probably are giving back investors a lot per unit sold,(unless this price drop is to hide low sales)
But now they dont have to worry about future INTEL mess ups and DELAYS after DELAY after DELAY (Atari you listening?)...
Apple products are generally on the "Surface" hehehe impressive, the way they are going it wont be long before the iPad turns into the iPADD, get it? Apple space station campus.. star trek... ??? ugh open mic night. they only come for the ?and? why do i waste my A material

Edited November 12, 2020 by OCAT

[orange808]

It will interesting to see what happens.  Apple has the resources, tech, and they are showing interest in the concept of AR.  I can't see any software house pitching a $9 million project based on HoloLens that runs on a purely theoretical vaporware consumer product.  There has to be a target platform.  With Microsoft still saying a consumer device is five years away, Apple is the most likely candidate.  

[Mockduck]

22 hours ago, Matt_B said:

The Vault DLC was added to Steam a year ago.

 

You get the 5200 version of Star Raiders on it so it's worth five bucks, even if the rest is mostly filler.

I didn't know this, thanks. I am not surprised that they want to do a quick upsell to onboard everyone's account information and credit card/payment information, but I too am a bit surprised this isn't just free. I'd figured they were going to do some kind of easy 99-cent no-brainer to onboard payment processing, but I guess they picked $5 instead. Is it worth it? Maybe....for me, I am dumb about loving Avalanche, but it certainly won't get you a lot of the most popular stuff.

[Shawn]

6 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

I didn't know this, thanks. I am not surprised that they want to do a quick upsell to onboard everyone's account information and credit card/payment information, but I too am a bit surprised this isn't just free. I'd figured they were going to do some kind of easy 99-cent no-brainer to onboard payment processing, but I guess they picked $5 instead. Is it worth it? Maybe....for me, I am dumb about loving Avalanche, but it certainly won't get you a lot of the most popular stuff.

 

They probably think that if someone was dumb enough to buy this POS in the first place they are well dumb enough to give them another 5 bucks for something that could and should have been free.

[fultonbot]

1 hour ago, Mockduck said:

I didn't know this, thanks. I am not surprised that they want to do a quick upsell to onboard everyone's account information and credit card/payment information, but I too am a bit surprised this isn't just free. I'd figured they were going to do some kind of easy 99-cent no-brainer to onboard payment processing, but I guess they picked $5 instead. Is it worth it? Maybe....for me, I am dumb about loving Avalanche, but it certainly won't get you a lot of the most popular stuff.

Super Bug and Fire Truck are pretty good too.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

1 hour ago, fultonbot said:

Super Bug and Fire Truck are pretty good too.

They are, and are significant for being the first 8-way scrolling games.

As for Avalanche, it's too bad that no one thinks about it since Kaboom! stole all of it's thunder. Also a great game...I'd love to add one to my arcade collection one day, but they are hard to find. Probably easier to code up a clone and throw it in an arcade cab. 

 

On 11/11/2020 at 2:28 PM, Paul Slocum said:

Apparently the VCS will not support internal M.2 SATA drives for Windows, you have to use external USB.

 

 

 

I'm glad it seems like they listened to some criticism in the taco threads about testing devices on this, although from the sounds of it, it's not going to be fun for people who want to use the most vaunted feature on this console. Not going to be cheap either, not that such a thing stops Atari.

 

Here come the Fuji-logo branded SSDs and thumbsticks, packed with Atari digital exclusives!

[+Stephen]

2 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Here come the Fuji-logo branded SSDs and thumbsticks, packed with Atari digital exclusives!

Digital collectibles even!

[Zor]

Im surprised nobody asked whether the M2 slot is nvme or not. M2 alone is just a space saver.
Also surprised that nobody seems to react to the compulsory USB drive for other OS booting. Kinda defeat the small and sleek pc concept if you need to have a drive hanging from the back. 

[+Stephen]

2 minutes ago, Zor said:

Im surprised nobody asked whether the M2 slot is nvme or not. M2 alone is just a space saver.
Also surprised that nobody seems to react to the compulsory USB drive for other OS booting. Kinda defeat the small and sleek pc concept if you need to have a drive hanging from the back. 

You expect anything about this turd to not suck?

[Bill Loguidice]

30 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

They are, and are significant for being the first 8-way scrolling games.

As for Avalanche, it's too bad that no one thinks about it since Kaboom! stole all of it's thunder. Also a great game...I'd love to add one to my arcade collection one day, but they are hard to find. Probably easier to code up a clone and throw it in an arcade cab. 

 

Avalanche is one of the built-in, licensed games on the Legends Ultimate home arcade machine. Works great with the spinners.

[+x=usr(1536)]

17 minutes ago, Stephen said:

You expect anything about this turd to not suck?

The punchbowl that it's floating in.  Maybe.