AirConsole App for VCS Review and Thoughts

[+Mockduck]

For families, groups of gamers of varying interests and skill levels, nights out with friends (drinking/party games), and maybe even just because AirConsole is surprisingly good. Much better than I expected heading into the review, I figured it'd be mobile gaming on the VCS with all the baggage associated with it. Nope! Surprisingly dug it, and have to say this one might be the thing the relatively-not-a-gamer in your house might actually ask to play with you. 

 

Topic for elsewhere, but the whole time I was using this I kept thinking about the upcoming Intellivision Amico, its current positioning, and what its competition might be. Pretty interesting to think about, actually. 

 

I'd think if you have a couple of nights where you could get a group together for Cards Against Humanity style hanging out you'd easily justify the $23.99 year cost, or just drop a five for a month for the weekend. Price of a beer. 

 

 

[Rick Dangerous]

Interesting; i was going to ignore this channel completely because i hate using mobile phones as controllers so why would i want to do it on a console?  But i think after the review and based on what's shown it's at least worth giving the free version a shot for a while. 

[+Mockduck]

2 hours ago, Rick Dangerous said:

Interesting; i was going to ignore this channel completely because i hate using mobile phones as controllers so why would i want to do it on a console?  But i think after the review and based on what's shown it's at least worth giving the free version a shot for a while. 

I have to admit I wasn't sure I was even going to do a video on it when I started because of the same thinking and some pre-conceptions over what it was. Turned out actually spending time with it changed my mind a lot!

[Rick Dangerous]

I played the racing/combat game for a while and the golf game. Pretty fun and make decent use of the phone as a controller. Works really well for golf in particular. 

 

[+joeatari1]

Great job with the review as usual Mockduck.  I was unsure what exactly Airconsole is but your video clarified that.  Sounds pretty fun and I may have to try it.  I also liked how you put yourself in the quiz at the end, great production.

[+Mockduck]

15 hours ago, joeatari1 said:

Great job with the review as usual Mockduck.  I was unsure what exactly Airconsole is but your video clarified that.  Sounds pretty fun and I may have to try it.  I also liked how you put yourself in the quiz at the end, great production.

That is actually one of the party games where you make teams and have to guess your partner's guesses on what they like and such. It is true that Billie Jean is my favorite Michael Jackson song, though. Gotta love that bass line.

[Allpaul]

This looks pretty cool. I can't wait for my VCS to show up! So, the phone just acts as a controller in this set up, or does the phone stream the games to the TV. Sorry, that's the only part I couldn't wrap my head around.

[+Mockduck]

6 hours ago, Allpaul said:

This looks pretty cool. I can't wait for my VCS to show up! So, the phone just acts as a controller in this set up, or does the phone stream the games to the TV. Sorry, that's the only part I couldn't wrap my head around.

it acts as the controller. For some games, big buttons for directional arrows or A, B, C, whatever. Can be more detailed if it needs to be, or show a second screen, or be used as a drawing tablet.

[Rick Dangerous]

Played the Trivia game; 3-4 rounds with my wife last night and we had a blast. 

 

My daughter also likes the golf game quite a bit; and the Mario Party clone which is actually pretty decent (Monster Party?) 

 

This app is definitely worth a look.  Probably not something i'll be paying for (I don't pay for any streaming/subscription/online gaming services at all) but fun to mess with as is. 

[+SabertoothRetro]

My GF and I tried out several of the Airconsole games over the weekend. She liked it so much that she bought the annual subscription. 

[Rick Dangerous]

Yeah it's fun!  I'm really into Burning Rubber 5 Air now. 

 

Yeah so they are like mobile quality games; but big deal, a fun game is a fun game haha.  

[Rick Dangerous]

Air Console is absolutely one of the best things about the VCS.  I spend probably 50% of my time on the VCS playing Air Console now. 

 

If you own a VCS you owe it to yourself to absolutely check it out and some of the games.  Many of them are clone games, but the quality is quite high.

 

I'm a sucker for Mario Kart clones, have been playing a bunch of Garfield Kart on Steam actually (on my VCS) and now there is Go Kart Go Air! on the free games roster (which they change up apparently, which is nice, so you can explore other titles.)   It's simple but quite fun.  

[justclaws]

There was a post today from the AirConsole CEO talking celebration. 10M players...
This kind of statistic certainly puts into context how accessible casual gaming is now!

Their investment in new games for AirConsole certainly makes it nice to have on VCS.

[+SabertoothRetro]

Has anyone tried AirConsole lately? Most of the games are receiving a "WebGL" browser error. Several of these are titles we've played before. I'm curious if anyone else is getting the same? 

[stirrell]

On 9/13/2021 at 1:49 AM, SabertoothRetro said:

Has anyone tried AirConsole lately? Most of the games are receiving a "WebGL" browser error. Several of these are titles we've played before. I'm curious if anyone else is getting the same? 

I just tried AirConsole for the first time this week and was getting the same WebGL error. I wasn't able to load any games though I only tried a few.

[justclaws]

No, no problems with what I've used.

On the VCS, AirConsole has it's own display app to install; it's not a browser app there.

I also just tried it on a PC with Windows 10, with Opera, and Chrome web-browsers, and no problems.
It works as before.

Maybe you can give a specific example of where you get the error? Maybe I can reproduce it then.

[stirrell]

I am using the AirConsole app on the VCS. I open up, enter the code on my phone, and then try to launch a game (in this case, Mega Monster Party) and get the error on the game's loading screen.

 

Out of curiosity, I tried running it directly from Chrome on the VCS and was able to launch a game but Mega Monster Party gives a message that it is supported on the PC and does not give the option to open it.

Edited September 17 by stirrell

[Rick Dangerous]

Well that's not good.....it's literally one of the best things about the VCS.  Hopefully they get it fixed soon. 

[justclaws]

Well, I have just played Mega Monster Party with the app on my VCS.
Before that, I played the racing game Burnout 5, and also worked fine.

Perhaps there was a temporary glitch, at the server end, or it's regional,
but here in The Netherlands, the game works from my VCS, no problem.
I hope it does for you now, too!
 

If it still doesn't work, I'd contact AirConsole support, not Atari for this,
as it is an issue you found in the browser, also. AirConsole seem helpful.
(They did have an update for the VCS app a few weeks ago as I recall.)

[stirrell]

I opened a ticket with their support and will report back when I hear from them.

[+Mockduck]

Just checked myself and also got WebGL errors on the three free games I tried. The error message at one point changed to say that the browser needed to support WebGL, which leads me to think this is an issue with Chrome perhaps as much as it is AirConsole. One message within the AirConsole app suggested I use Firefox.

[+Mockduck]

ALSO: I tried enabling WebGL in Chrome, which can be done through the browser's advanced settings, but it did not resolve the issue. I did notice that WebGL was Disabled by default in Chrome, but enabling it did not remove the error messaging in AirConsole.

[+joeatari1]

2 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

ALSO: I tried enabling WebGL in Chrome, which can be done through the browser's advanced settings, but it did not resolve the issue. I did notice that WebGL was Disabled by default in Chrome, but enabling it did not remove the error messaging in AirConsole.

Did you do a full reboot or just enable?

[+Mockduck]

I tried both; first I rebooted Chrome to make sure WebGL was still enabled, tried AirConsole, same issue. Rebooted VCS, tried again, same issue. I also tried booting up a different game in between sessions just to see if there was something with it being actively loaded, but no dice. 

[justclaws]

Since a few weeks, I have two VCS consoles, and my test was done on the VCS at my home.
However, yesterday evening, I tried Air Console on the other VCS, and on that I got the error.
That's crazy, as both systems are up-to-date, and were using the same account and games.

I am sure that originally AirConsole was a binary, but I see now that it's a web-link on machine 2.
I hope to check the other machine this afternoon, or this evening, and see if a) it still works, and
b) if the app is different, or c) that the app worked yesterday, and without update, fails today. 😕

Yesterday, it was running fine on the other VCS. So puzzling.