New Atari VCS 800 at Microcenter for $250

[leech]

On 11/24/2021 at 5:54 PM, eightbit said:

Well, I jumped on the bandwagon and picked up the last unit available at my local Microcenter here in NJ. Yesterday they had 10...today 1 left. I guess people know a good deal when they see it!

 

My initial impressions are mixed. I really do love the nice packaging and the look and quality feel of the console and controllers. There are even Atari logos molded into the USB charging cables! Its the little things like that (that they did not have to do) that impress me. 

 

It initially had an update and right after a BIOS update. And, after that, updates to both controllers. So, expect to be updating for 15-20 minutes before you can actually do anything.

 

When it was all up and running I tried the VCS Vault games. They look great and play great of course. Nice presentation.

 

Then I figured I would try the store and buy something. So, I picked up Desert Falcon....my old time favorite 7800 game. Launched it and it ran like garbage. Choppy and stuttering. Then it occurred to me that perhaps it was not optimized for 4K. I had set that resolution earlier. Changed it back to 1080p and it ran perfectly. 

 

The store looks nice but it is sparse. There's not a whole lot going on here but for what it is it looks like some neat titles on here that I would want to play.

 

 

So, is it worth it? For $399 hell no. There is no way I would drop four bills on this. And if I did I would probably not be very happy with myself. But at $250 it is worth it in my opinion. Some things really need fixing (like most apps not tied to controllers...you need a mouse and keyboard to use youtube for example) and the 4K thing with the game I downloaded. I am not sure if other games are affected in that way but to be safe I will probably leave this at 1080p.

 

The system has a lot of potential and even if it does not "take off" I can still see use in it as it is a capable $250 PC with upgrade paths (ram, m.2 slot)

 

Overall, not a bad purchase at all. I was even able to get my name (eightbit) when signing up which was great and select a nice Atari ST avatar  

Not to bag on you, but considering my video card that cost (at MSRP) the price of two VCS bundles at full price still struggles at 4k.  Granted, not emulating a 7800 game... That's kind of weird.  I should try that through Mame and see how well it runs  

 

I enjoy my little VCS here and there though.  Just wish there could be some licensing for Activision and Epyx games or something.  Hopefully they keep this steady stream of new games coming in!  Might be time to try the classic stick with Stella on Linux again while I'm thinking about it.  Hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it!  I figured why not and upgraded mine with a 1tb m.2 and 32gb of RAM.

[eightbit]

27 minutes ago, leech said:

Not to bag on you, but considering my video card that cost (at MSRP) the price of two VCS bundles at full price still struggles at 4k.

 

Well, that is true. But your video card is just a video card. You need a whole lot of other stuff (the rest of the computer) to use it

 

And, your video card will certainly not retain its value after a few gens pass. I remember when the GTX 480 was $499 just ten years ago. Now you can get one for under $50 shipped. The VCS on the other hand I think will hold its value due to the collectability/nostalgia nature of the thing.

 

But, aside all of that, I don't care about anything else other than games coming. As long as they keep a good flow of titles coming out (and maintaining good price points for them) I will be happy. Over the weekend I purchased a bunch of titles on the store and I think I paid $30 or so. Not bad on my wallet.

[leech]

1 hour ago, eightbit said:

 

Well, that is true. But your video card is just a video card. You need a whole lot of other stuff (the rest of the computer) to use it

 

And, your video card will certainly not retain its value after a few gens pass. I remember when the GTX 480 was $499 just ten years ago. Now you can get one for under $50 shipped. The VCS on the other hand I think will hold its value due to the collectability/nostalgia nature of the thing.

 

But, aside all of that, I don't care about anything else other than games coming. As long as they keep a good flow of titles coming out (and maintaining good price points for them) I will be happy. Over the weekend I purchased a bunch of titles on the store and I think I paid $30 or so. Not bad on my wallet.

Ha ha, A 10 year old card not holding it's value... you're lucky when a 10 year old computer component is even still supported with drivers (though the 480 is still supported in the legacy drivers). 

 

But yeah that was kind of my point, even at 399 with the controllers and everything that comes with the VCS, it's still pretty worth it.  If you can get it for 250, that's fantastic.  Chip shortage being what it is, everything is way over priced.  I've had my RTX 3080 for about a year now, and I think the price has likely gone up at this point.

[eightbit]

4 minutes ago, leech said:

Ha ha, A 10 year old card not holding it's value... you're lucky when a 10 year old computer component is even still supported with drivers (though the 480 is still supported in the legacy drivers). 

 

But yeah that was kind of my point, even at 399 with the controllers and everything that comes with the VCS, it's still pretty worth it.  If you can get it for 250, that's fantastic.  Chip shortage being what it is, everything is way over priced.  I've had my RTX 3080 for about a year now, and I think the price has likely gone up at this point.

 

Yeah, the chip shortages are certainly keeping values of things at bay and in some cases (like in the case of the RTX 30xx series) increasing in value for now because of it. That won't last forever of course, but first time I can ever remember in history these products going UP in value instead of down!

 

I was actually surprised the VCS was released so widely (Best Buy, Gamestop, Microcenter) specifically due to those chip shortages. Amazing that they were able to pull off the launch right in the middle of the mess that is the world right now. Kudos to Atari for making it happen at all.

 

[3DFXgamer]

I think I missed my chance. I tried to reserve one, but it showed up in my cart as full price.

[john_q_atari]

9 hours ago, 3DFXgamer said:

I think I missed my chance. I tried to reserve one, but it showed up in my cart as full price.

Call me cynical but I checked Saturday night and 1 showed available so I reserved it. Sunday got an email saying it was unavailable and then i rechecked and the website showed 0. This morning after reading your post about it being back up to 399 I checked the website again, and now it again shows 1 available but at full price. Ohwell. I have too much gaming hardware already.

Edited November 29, 2021 by john_q_atari
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[Razzie.P]

Not quite as nice as $250, but the bundle is now showing on Gamestop at $279.99, which might me of interest to those of us who missed out and/or have no Microcenter nearby.

[+eebuckeye]

Thank you very much for the post.. I'm sure prices will continue to go down at some point but this is a good deal now!

[leech]

9 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Not quite as nice as $250, but the bundle is now showing on Gamestop at $279.99, which might me of interest to those of us who missed out and/or have no Microcenter nearby.

Nice, I shouldn't buy a second one...

[Keatah]

I'm already decked out with enough mini PC's at the moment. Perhaps next round a vcs may just somehow sneak in there. Anywhere between $250 - $300 is an alright price.