The Atari VCS Controversies Thread

[Chopsus]

8 hours ago, TACODON said:

I'm sure any delay now will be either blamed on a certain public health crisis or to optimize the VCS again.

 

I'm more towards them deciding to "upgrade" the VCS. Now that Microsoft and Sony have revealed what they got going on. This Bomb-diggity Unconsole door stop needs to beat out the Hyper Scan!

I’m actually expecting them to declare “flood”: We have experienced a preponderance of water that has frustrated and delayed transport of cornsoles! There’s all this water between the factory and our shipping facility in the U.S..

 

yes, I typed cornsoles by accident, then decided it was fitting as after consoleting George Forman, the VCS shell now opens so you can add your own corn slurry to make Taco Shells

[OCAT]

? Corn is good, especially with some ?

Perhaps Atari can make a game about that... Cornhole. Should not be too hard to code, do they have a version fo the Atari 26hunderd?
 



Yup, looks like the kinda exclusive game i would spend $400 to play


Edited September 27, 2020 by OCAT

[MrBeefy]

19 hours ago, TACODON said:

Does a doorstop really need a chip though? Asking for my friends on the IGG comment section. 

Chips go with tacos not doorstops silly.

 

3 hours ago, OCAT said:

? 
Perhaps Atari can make a game about that... Cornhole. 

With the recent quarantine it became one of the fastest growing games. Because of this you got to see a lot more of Cornhole on TV. I watched about 10 minutes of the Johnsonville Championship yesterday before I got bored. Now that other sports are televised I have less interest in watching. Definitely more fun to throw bags in my own yard than watch others on TV.

 

Before that I think Pickleball was the fastest growing. They can make a game for that too. Then maybe Washers and Hillbilly Golf will be the next big things?

 

As much as they need games, I think it would be in Atari's interest to just get their hardware out at this point. 

[Chopsus]

But what if you lose your doorstop? Surely RFID would come in handy?

 

... or would you just buy another, cheaper, doorstop from the bargain bin at GameStop?

[jamm]

Don't worry - this doorstop will address any current and future problems through the power of BLOCKCHAIN!  It's the magic technology that does it all!

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

3 hours ago, Chopsus said:

But what if you lose your doorstop? Surely RFID would come in handy?

 

... or would you just buy another, cheaper, doorstop from the bargain bin at GameStop?

 

Alibaba.  Buy low in bulk, sell high as individual doorstops.  Retire to a tropical island somewhere and live a life of blissful mai-tai consumption.

[+GoldLeader]

16 hours ago, OCAT said:

? Corn is good, especially with some ?

Perhaps Atari can make a game about that... Cornhole. Should not be too hard to code, do they have a version fo the Atari 26hunderd?
 



Yup, looks like the kinda exclusive game i would spend $400 to play

No,  Because that game looks fun!  I don't think that's what they're going for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not a Cornhole,  it's the Uncornhole!

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by GoldLeader
Edited to achieve just the right blend of dumbassery and tomfoolery.

[+x=usr(1536)]

[TACODON]

https://medium.com/@atarivcs/atari-vcs-backer-units-are-on-the-way-fe87b5cede93

[+Stephen]

Well I'll be damned!

[MrBeefy]

About time.

 

So what will it take about a month to get the units and individually ship them to backers? 

[Mockduck]

All right, so looks like there is something to talk about! Atari has made its announcement that "backer units are on the way", so let's dig into it a bit:

 

Click here for the official announcement. Short version: Atari has shown photos of assembly line manufacturing of the Collector's Edition, along with completed pallets of boxes ready to ship from China to the United States for distribution by Atari. 

 

Not too surprisingly, the "on its way" wording is a bit squishy. Assuming the shot of the pallets is from China, that means it hadn't actually shipped to Atari to distribute to backers when it was taken "earlier this month". I think most folks would say a product is "on its way" to them when there is a final shipment from the company to the end user. If I order a phone, the "on its way" is when it is being shipped to me, not on its way from the manufacturing plant to the company selling the product, but whatever. Atari used the words "earlier this month" to describe the screenshot, which if I were a cynical former journalist I might take to mean "we could have taken the shot yesterday". BUT, let's assume the shipment is currently on its way to Atari (or most likely a third-party shipping solution contracted by Atari) and has been for a while now. Fastest turnaround I'd be willing to bet on would be late October for receipt of the first consoles to backers. I'm still sticking with my "by Thanksgiving" to get it. 

 

Couple of minor new things from the photos and post, including the look of the holographic numbered sticker and a shot I hadn't seen before showing placement of the front USB hubs:

 

 

 

 

The photos above are also probably the best shot so far of what the final unit looks like without a layer of photoshop marketing image manipulation. 

 

Quick collector talk: Who knows what will be considered collectible in the future, probably not the VCS, but just in case you care...the Collector's Edition will likely be the most common version of the console unless the VCS succeeds in the wider market, so despite it having the fancy stuff with the Collector's Edition, the ugly yellow-and-black Walmart version or Black Onyx 400 will likely be the actual unit with the fewest numbers in the wild. 

 

I myself am very much looking forward to getting my VCS, tough if you don't like it. Funny enough, my plans for it have remained largely unchanged since 2018 in that I will most likely use it as a fun and stylish portable carrier for things like Fantasy Grounds, xSplit, Twitch, showing some games in specialized settings to look at qualitatively by me and other peeps for whatever it is we are working on, and a few other things. I'll see what it takes to get the games I work for on it if possible in an unofficial way. Sure I will play Atari games on it. I'll check out Antstream and kick them a few months sub, the rest of the subs don't interest me much. I will also likely take advantage of the free Plex media hub, as that will be quite useful for me. 

 

 

[tep392]

What is the story on the controllers?  I don't see any in the photo's.  Boxed seperately?

[Mockduck]

13 minutes ago, tep392 said:

What is the story on the controllers?  I don't see any in the photo's.  Boxed seperately?

Editing the post as I quickly found some info after making my original reply:

 

Looks like Wireless Classic Joysticks are not yet through manufacturing. The email sent to backers with a link to the Medium post actually has something not in the medium post now that I look at it:

 

With the official arrival of fall, we are excited to report that much of the Indiegogo production run is already well on its way, crossing the ocean and headed to Atari’s fulfillment warehouse in California.  As long-promised, Indiegogo backers will be the world’s first customers to receive their Atari VCS systems and accessories!

It was an incredibly busy summer at the Atari VCS and PowerA factories as the various teams worked hard to deliver the units. Mass production is almost complete, only the Wireless Classic Joysticks remain to complete.

 

So looks like the production of both Atari's and PowerA's hardware is being done in the same general area, and will be shipped to the fulfillment warehouse in California to be bundled together and shipped. Makes sense that the joysticks will be sold and presented separately, given the universally-compatible nature of them. You are correct, though, that to this point we have not seen a photo of a single joystick through production and on its way to the warehouse. 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Mockduck

[MrBeefy]

Controllers aren't done. They are missing parts due to shortages to finish them. All in bundles are suppose to have the unconsole, modern controller, and classic controller shipped in one box.

 

So if you got an all in bundle you still are going to have to wait even more it looks like. Not sure if they will start sending the consoles to those who just ordered that. 

 

Still think it's a good time to celebrate the console part and uncork some champagne bottles.

[Agillig]

There definitely does seem to be a controller shortage going on,  and has been for a couple of months at least.   None of the stores in my area had Xbox One or PS4 controllers in stock.

 

Ironically, I ended up getting a Power A controller.   And...I have to say I like it.  No complainants whatsoever. 

[Shaggy the Atarian]

So am I crazy or does this mean that they only had 6,000 people actually order a console, while the other 5,000 pre-orders must have been just for the CX-40 joystick?

 

If so, then this is already a bigger DOA product than I thought. 6000 console sales on launch day is literally nothing in this industry. 

 

As for the specs talk a couple of pages ago - the problem zzip is that Atari keeps doing the little trick of throwing "4k game streaming" in there to imply that it's a really powerful device. With the sandbox mode, you'll get people frying their little VCS's as they attempt to run CoD at 4k and get 2fps for a few moments before that magical puff of smoke. For anything other than 2D indie games, you'll have to run games at low settings in most cases, while the cool kids will have a new Xbox, PlayStation or use their current PC that has no such problems 

 

Kids are not on the prowl for a new Minecraft or Fortnite gaming box. My kids can play MC on the Switch, but they play it on PC unless they have friends over or don't have a choice for some reason.  

Edited September 28, 2020 by Shaggy the Atarian

[Bill Loguidice]

4 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

 Kids are not on the prowl for a new Minecraft or Fortnite gaming box. My kids can play MC on the Switch, but they play it on PC unless they have friends over or don't have a choice for some reason.  

Minecraft works on pretty much anything, so I wouldn't think that would be a concern. Fortnite works on lots of devices, including the Switch, but requires more horsepower than the VCS offers to run the PC version competitively. It's in no way optimized for low end hardware like that on the PC side. I suspect that would be the case for a lot of the popular competitive games.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

1 minute ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Minecraft works on pretty much anything, so I wouldn't think that would be a concern. Fortnite works on lots of devices, including the Switch, but requires more horsepower than the VCS offers to run the PC version competitively. It's in no way optimized for low end hardware like that on the PC side. I suspect that would be the case for a lot of the popular competitive games.

Yeah, that's what I mean. No kid out there, unless their parent is one of the already a part of the pre-order crowd, are going to ask for a VCS for Christmas, birthday, just because, etc. Now I wonder if this will even manage to crack 10k total sales. 

 

Game & Stream To Your Doorstop Like Never Before!

[Mockduck]

6 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Minecraft works on pretty much anything, so I wouldn't think that would be a concern. Fortnite works on lots of devices, including the Switch, but requires more horsepower than the VCS offers to run the PC version competitively. It's in no way optimized for low end hardware like that on the PC side. I suspect that would be the case for a lot of the popular competitive games.

I tend to agree with you on many things, but I disagree that the VCS will not be able to run Fortnite. I guess we'll see, but with the newer chip in it that should run Fortnite just fine on good to better settings. I'd expect it to be able to output Fortnite in 1920x1080 at 60 frames per second, and if I had more experience with 4k I'd probably expect it to run with that output but at a much lower frame rate (an issue even many modern PCs deal with unless you have a $600+ video card). 

[Bill Loguidice]

4 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

I tend to agree with you on many things, but I disagree that the VCS will not be able to run Fortnite. I guess we'll see, but with the newer chip in it that should run Fortnite just fine on good to better settings. I'd expect it to be able to output Fortnite in 1920x1080 at 60 frames per second, and if I had more experience with 4k I'd probably expect it to run with that output but at a much lower frame rate (an issue even many modern PCs deal with unless you have a $600+ video card). 

I'd be shocked if it ran a locked 60fps at even 720p with anything other than mostly unusable low graphic fidelity settings, but I guess we'll see once it's out in the wild.

[OCAT]

I thought they would just drop ship these things from the factory like they do from DealExtreme or AliAbabwa or Apple... xD

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

So am I crazy or does this mean that they only had 6,000 people actually order a console, while the other 5,000 pre-orders must have been just for the CX-40 joystick?

I'm not sure but since the press release mentions "Collector's Edition", isn't it possible other backers ordered a different model?

[ColecoKing]

What is VCS power compared to the average smartphone of Iphone XS or Samsung Note 9 type?

Should tell us what kind of games it can run.

[Matt_B]

2 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

I'd be shocked if it ran a locked 60fps at even 720p with anything other than mostly unusable low graphic fidelity settings, but I guess we'll see once it's out in the wild.

30-50fps at 720p on the lowest setting seems to be the general consensus of what the Vega 3 is good for with Fortnite:

 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/PCGame/FPS-Estimates-Fortnite/3954/511366.0.0.0.0

 

A small number of people managed to get it up to 60, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was with the aid of a combination of overclocks, faster RAM, running at 540p, config hacks or just leaving the camera pointing skyward. 4K is going to be in single figures at any settings.

 

Those numbers are mostly based on the Athlon 200GE and the Ryzen 3 2200U rather than the 1606G but it's the same GPU and dual core CPUs of similar clocks, so I doubt there will be much difference.