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Are we finally gonna get the VCS in Europe?


EddieHitler

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Do we have any word if the VCS is eventually going to get a U.K. release?

 

The strange thing is I do actually want one (kinda, sorta).

 

I’m a huge fan of the Recharged series and it would be sort of nice to play them with an Atari Joystick. 
 

Plus I just enjoy novelty items such as this.

 

That said I’m only going to buy if I can get one within the U.K. as import from the U.S. will cost a bomb (plus I wonder if I will have any problems using some or all of the online features).

 

I found one site saying rather vaguely there will be a 2022 release, anyone got any further info? 

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2 hours ago, EddieHitler said:

Do we have any word if the VCS is eventually going to get a U.K. release?

 

The strange thing is I do actually want one (kinda, sorta).

 

I’m a huge fan of the Recharged series and it would be sort of nice to play them with an Atari Joystick. 
 

Plus I just enjoy novelty items such as this.

 

That said I’m only going to buy if I can get one within the U.K. as import from the U.S. will cost a bomb (plus I wonder if I will have any problems using some or all of the online features).

 

I found one site saying rather vaguely there will be a 2022 release, anyone got any further info? 

I wouldn't hold your breath. It's only on limited release, a recent financial report made it clear they needed more capital to ramp up production. Then there is now the chip shortage.  I had a number of emails from last year promising there would be news "soon" or it would be in the next financial quarter but it never happened. 

 

I gave up waiting and took the risk of buying one via eBay.  I would not recommend that, as there is no consumer protection like if it was  bought officially from a UK retailer.

 

But, so far, so good.  I really like my VCS, for me its a long awaited follow-up to my old Atari 8-bit and ST machines. I mainly use mine in Linux running off a M.2 I installed and it runs very well. Got the Recharged games and I think they're great.

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7 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

I wouldn't hold your breath. It's only on limited release, a recent financial report made it clear they needed more capital to ramp up production. Then there is now the chip shortage.  I had a number of emails from last year promising there would be news "soon" or it would be in the next financial quarter but it never happened. 

 

I gave up waiting and took the risk of buying one via eBay.  I would not recommend that, as there is no consumer protection like if it was  bought officially from a UK retailer.

 

But, so far, so good.  I really like my VCS, for me its a long awaited follow-up to my old Atari 8-bit and ST machines. I mainly use mine in Linux running off a M.2 I installed and it runs very well. Got the Recharged games and I think they're great.

Did you have any problems making an account and buying from the store? That was my main concern, thought it may have some kind of region lock where you’d need a US zip code address to use. 
 

Yes I must say I don’t want one so badly as to buy from a US seller, take the import fees and have no seller protection - about 6 months ago there were quite a lot on U.K. eBay (I guess kick starter backers selling it off) but they don’t seem to crop up now, I guess that well has dried. 

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11 minutes ago, EddieHitler said:

Did you have any problems making an account and buying from the store? That was my main concern, thought it may have some kind of region lock where you’d need a US zip code address to use. 
 

Yes I must say I don’t want one so badly as to buy from a US seller, take the import fees and have no seller protection - about 6 months ago there were quite a lot on U.K. eBay (I guess kick starter backers selling it off) but they don’t seem to crop up now, I guess that well has dried. 

I had previously setup a VCS account and at atarivcs.com, I don't recall any problems doing so. I got my VCS 800 about a week before Christmas, there were some known server problems affecting Atari (I think other companies too).  Someone advised me to put my debit card details in at the main site, I did that and logged right in and was able to use the store - no problems.  Others were still apparently having problems, but honestly I've never had any at all.  As for eBay, it's hit and miss, you will pay a pretty penny for it and there are no guarantees it will not pack up next week with no recourse.   But I'm an engineer and worst case scenario, I'd fit something else in the case, the games off the Atari store I've invested in are just Linux games and work fine in or out of Atari OS.

I'd hang on a bit, let them get more titles out and see if they can get it to full global retail.  The time may come when you can just order it off Amazon UK.  I think the machine will thrive a bit more when no longer confined to the US market only, when more users and developers can buy the hardware, especially in Europe/UK.

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15 minutes ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

It really needs to release here in the UK I actually think it would do pretty well and I’d be down for buying another as a spare along with a bunch of controllers and joysticks. 

Yeah, when you think how big Atari computers were here in the UK, Germany and other European countries (which accounted for a large chunk of Atari's profits in later years) - it seems insane that they neglected the potential user and developer base here.  My concern is that Atari are moving way too slowly on this.

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13 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

Yeah, when you think how big Atari computers were here in the UK, Germany and other European countries (which accounted for a large chunk of Atari's profits in later years) - it seems insane that they neglected the potential user and developer base here.  My concern is that Atari are moving way too slowly on this.

Yeah the VCS could have a much bigger presence with a UK and European launch. Hopefully that happens this year. What they really should do is start shipping the VCS with Linux already preinstalled to make it easier for people to use it as a PC right out of the box.

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2 hours ago, Djmicklovin said:

Yeah the VCS could have a much bigger presence with a UK and European launch. Hopefully that happens this year. What they really should do is start shipping the VCS with Linux already preinstalled to make it easier for people to use it as a PC right out of the box.

I think there would be a number of issues with including a Linux pre-installed.   I recall Atari saying they were looking at ready-to-use USB thumb drives with Linux etc.

 

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On 2/16/2022 at 3:22 PM, THX-1138 said:

I wouldn't hold your breath. It's only on limited release, a recent financial report made it clear they needed more capital to ramp up production. Then there is now the chip shortage.  I had a number of emails from last year promising there would be news "soon" or it would be in the next financial quarter but it never happened. 

Looks like they’re still working on it. They’re still answering fans.

D6E3E0F3-3192-4EB9-873B-982B657373B8.jpeg

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2 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Amazon now as I’m looking to buy another one ASAP along with extra spare controllers etc and refuse to pay the crazy prices on Ebay so it would be awesome to get it from Amazon. 

Same here, I want a second VCS for the lounge at least.

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  • 3 months later...

Nothing as of yet about the system launching over here unfortunately. The best thing to do would be keeping an eye on eBay for one at the moment whilst we see if Atari ever brings the system over here, which I’m starting to doubt at this point. I managed to get a second VCS for my collection, a fully boxed Onyx bundle new and unused with x2 modern controllers and x2 classics for just under £300 thanks to a decent seller on eBay who didn’t want the usual £450-500 for one so it’s possible to find one at a decent price without importing. If Atari do launch the VCS over here if be down for buying a 3rd system for sure. 

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I will be the first to admit that I have no business sense, but not selling in Europe is baffling to me. The company is headquartered in Europe, and it seems like some of the stronger support for their products has historically come from that side of the pond. I'm sure there's a reason, but I just can't figure it out.

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20 hours ago, RollOut said:

I will be the first to admit that I have no business sense, but not selling in Europe is baffling to me. The company is headquartered in Europe, and it seems like some of the stronger support for their products has historically come from that side of the pond. I'm sure there's a reason, but I just can't figure it out.

I've always believed the VCS would have done better in Europe than the US.

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2 minutes ago, MrMaddog said:

If it was renamed the ST... :)

LOL.  Maybe, but I don't think Sixteen/Thirty-two (ST) is really a selling point these days and Thirty-two/Sixty-four (TS) doesn't have the same ring.  Maybe Video Computer System 800 was the most apt name.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Looks like you can’t even order it now to the UK from the US. My friend tried to order one this morning due to the crazy prices its been selling for recently here in the UK on eBay, it was working out less to just buy it direct from Atari and pay the import fees in the end but on the checkout there’s no longer an option to purchase if your from the UK. I guess this is going to push the prices of this console up even higher on eBay. 

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On 8/27/2022 at 8:46 AM, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

Looks like you can’t even order it now to the UK from the US. My friend tried to order one this morning due to the crazy prices its been selling for recently here in the UK on eBay, it was working out less to just buy it direct from Atari and pay the import fees in the end but on the checkout there’s no longer an option to purchase if your from the UK. I guess this is going to push the prices of this console up even higher on eBay. 

Atari have never allowed you to buy it from them and import it.  Otherwise I'd have done that myself.  There is an option to buy it from a third party seller on the US Amazon, but with all the charges on top, you're looking at spending a small fortune, like probably over £400-500 on a £250 machine.  I hoped since Atari redesigned the site etc, that they'd finally got their crap together with this stuff but alas no - even their FAQs on the new site states they only sell in the US.  They are getting rarer on eBay UK unless you include foreign sellers, which is way more risky than taking a punt on a UK VCS up for sale.

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They used to ship to the UK direct from there website up until a few month ago?. I was able to go on to the website and put a VCS bundle in the basket and it even calculated the import fee’s for me and allowed me to select UK from the drop down menu in shipping at the checkout, unless it’s an error on there end which i’ll never know now as I got lucky on eBay and was able to purchase a second VCS for myself here in the UK for cheap. My friends imported one from Australia via eBay and I believe the total was over £550 which is insane

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1 hour ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

They used to ship to the UK direct from there website up until a few month ago?. I was able to go on to the website and put a VCS bundle in the basket and it even calculated the import fee’s for me and allowed me to select UK from the drop down menu in shipping at the checkout, unless it’s an error on there end which i’ll never know now as I got lucky on eBay and was able to purchase a second VCS for myself here in the UK for cheap. My friends imported one from Australia via eBay and I believe the total was over £550 which is insane

Really?  Because I tried every week for months on end, I could put an order in the basket and there was a notice popup about import fees etc but when you tried to actually do the order it was only for US addresses.   If I'd seen any option to get one imported direct from Atari, I'd have bought at least two.   In the end, after months of stock replies from Atari about overcoming difficult logistical problems (a load of shite), I gave up and bought one off eBay for a half-decent price from a UK seller.    I don't think I'd bother trying to import from Australia anyway, but there are really few options left to us in the UK.

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