jaybird3rd Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 (edited) This is EXCITING news! Thanks for the info, Curt, and definitely keep us posted! When you say that the new cartridge port will be electrically compatible with one from a classic platform, I can't help but think that an Atari 8-Bit clone would be the most logical choice for the FB3. First of all, Atari Corp. already developed cartridge-based versions of many of the best games for the 8-Bits with the release of the XEGS. Repackaging those cartridge binaries into a new form factor and updating the copyright info would be an easy way of putting together a large library of high-quality launch titles. Secondly, the success of the C64 clone has already proven that computer games from that era are still capable of selling. And finally, since the 8-Bits used the same controllers as the 2600, it wouldn't be necessary to design a completely new set of controllers (as would be the case if, say, the Atari 5200 was the platform of choice); you could make more of the FB2's CX-40 sticks and bundle those with the FB3. Thanks again for the sneak peek and for ALL you've done in making these products a reality! Edited August 18, 2005 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Different paltform... ...methinks 8bit/5200... flash carts maybe...usb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Different platform...913751[/snapback] It's a pity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Different platform? He sounds like he's throwing together a 8 bit system.The 2600, 5200, and 7800 were ALL 8-bit systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 (edited) The 2600, 5200, and 7800 were ALL 8-bit systems.913793[/snapback] You don't say so! Edited August 18, 2005 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Different platform? He sounds like he's throwing together a 8 bit system.The 2600, 5200, and 7800 were ALL 8-bit systems. 913793[/snapback] Um, when anyone says 8 bit system, they mean the Atari 400/800 and Atari 5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Then your experience differs from mine. If you're posting on csa8 then you can get away with that, but at a gaming-heavy site like this "8-bit system" is uselessly vague. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pipercub Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I would love to see the FB3 with cart port in a full sized 2600 case, but I would settle for any other classic Atari housing as well. If it came out in an Atari 8 bit computer housing, I would strip it for the PCB and make a portable to retrofit it to some other housing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I hope it's a baby jaguar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcat Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Hi! I love baby Jaguars. Although I highly doubt it will ever happen. Recreating the Jaguar would cost a fortune and I don't think the flashback versions sell well enough for that. Afterall there is more than 20 years of technology between a Jag and VCS. And Flashback2 was just recently released... I guess we'll have to wait a long time for a Baby Jag. They again, we might also have to wait forever, because the Jag never had the popularity of the VCS. I mean almost every real gamer had a VCS at some point or at least knew somebody who had one. With the Jag it was different. It wasn't as common. Although a Jaguar remake would rock. Regards, Lars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 EXTREMELY doubtful. The FB consoles bank on instant recognition-- the Jaguar was never very popular. Maybe the 5200? But 5200 games relied on that awful controller. Hmmm... a Jaguar-style pad combined with an analog thumbstick would work. The 7800? Like the Jag, never popular enough to seep into the collective consciousness. Maybe the Lynx? It's got a good-sized library, some REALLY good arcade ports, and it would be a great novelty to finally play Lynx games on a TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdie3 Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Maybe it will be like an "Atari Arcade Classics" but with all of the 800 and 5200 conversions of some of their more popular games. Or maybe it's a newly revamped 7800 console. A system with a cartridge port that is compatible with old games would be cool too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillenterprises Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Maybe it will be like an "Atari Arcade Classics" but with all of the 800 and 5200 conversions of some of their more popular games. Or maybe it's a newly revamped 7800 console. A system with a cartridge port that is compatible with old games would be cool too. 913953[/snapback] Maybe it will be based on the actual Atari arcade games, not the 2600, 5200, or 7800 ports, but the actual arcade roms. I was wondering about this, since Jakks did all the Namco arcade games, and there was that arcade Space Invaders collection, nobody ever made a plug and play system for the Atari arcade coin-ops (with the exception of Warlords and Pong on the paddle plug and play). Plug and Play arcade Centipede, Millipede, Crystal Castles, Missile Command, X's & O's football, and Marble Madness would be awesome on a trackball version. Warlords, Breakout, Super Breakout, Tempest, and Pong in a paddle version, and Battlezone, Red Baron, Black Widow, and all the other games with a joystick version... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 EXTREMELY doubtful. The FB consoles bank on instant recognition-- the Jaguar was never very popular. Maybe the 5200? But 5200 games relied on that awful controller. Hmmm... a Jaguar-style pad combined with an analog thumbstick would work. Or perhaps an A8/5200 unit in a XEGS-style case? Again, though, the "recognition factor" would be a problem for that. Maybe the Lynx? It's got a good-sized library, some REALLY good arcade ports, and it would be a great novelty to finally play Lynx games on a TV. 913950[/snapback] I'd like it even better if Atari released a new Lynx-type handheld unit with 20 or so Lynx classics built into it. The Lynx had some stellar ports of many great arcade games, but relatively few truly great games unique to the system (except for the original Epyx titles). I think, for the most part, that the original arcade titles would translate better for TV playing than the lower-res Lynx versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Then your experience differs from mine. If you're posting on csa8 then you can get away with that, but at a gaming-heavy site like this "8-bit system" is uselessly vague. 913921[/snapback] All right, let me clarify here ... when I said "8-Bits," I was referring to the Atari 400/800 computers. In my opinion it would be a mistake to choose the 5200; the 5200 game library is only a small subset of the much larger 400/800 library, and some of the best 5200 games have already been ported over to the 400/800 (thanks to Glenn the 5200 Man). If you're going to repackage the SALLY/POKEY/ANTIC/GTIA/etc hardware in a new design, why cripple its potential by limiting it to 5200 games? The Jaguar would likely be too expensive to reproduce, and as ZylonBane points out, was never popular enough to be recognizable. Curt specifically said that the FB3 would have a cartridge port that is "electrically compatible" with the port of an existing system, so I think we can rule out arcade hardware (since they never had cartridge ports to begin with). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookem Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 In my opinion it would be a mistake to choose the 5200; the 5200 game library is only a small subset of the much larger 400/800 library, and some of the best 5200 games have already been ported over to the 400/800 (thanks to Glenn the 5200 Man). If you're going to repackage the SALLY/POKEY/ANTIC/GTIA/etc hardware in a new design, why cripple its potential by limiting it to 5200 games? The Jaguar would likely be too expensive to reproduce, and as ZylonBane points out, was never popular enough to be recognizable. Curt specifically said that the FB3 would have a cartridge port that is "electrically compatible" with the port of an existing system, so I think we can rule out arcade hardware (since they never had cartridge ports to begin with). 914014[/snapback] The "electrically compatible" part, but with different form factor, sort of suggests the 5200. The cartridges could be made with a compatible connector, but without the wide cart case. The hardware might be made to also run 400/800 titles, maybe which will be released as multi-carts for this system (or some of the built-in games). And it could have a "keyboard" mode, like the C64 DTV... I'd prefer it to look like a mini-5200 (mini-sexy), but I think a little A800 looking console might be more instantly recognizable, and the standard joystick ports would make sense in that setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 The advantage of an 8-bit product would be they could re-use the FB2 joysticks and hold costs down. They could also use a standard keyboard and make the user buy that separately (same way as the C64 in a stick). Of course, they could just make a 5200 with a built-in masterplay circuit. Or a hybrid product that functions in both modes since they're so similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey911 Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I think many of you are forgetting that these types of games are sold in the toy section, and are cheaply priced.. USB ports and flash cards would be too expensive... Atari already did the 7800 with Flashback 1.0 and the 2600 with Flashback 2.0, so the obvious path would be Atari 5200 with proprietary multi carts, however the cart slot could be modified to accept original 5200 carts.. Seems to me that would be the most sensible idea.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I wonder if Curt is subscribed to this thread god knows his email box must be huge, I wish I could see the look on his face when he sees all of these.... editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." editor@atariage.com Topic Reply. "FB3..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I'm just glad to hear there will be a FB3! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Maybe the Lynx? It's got a good-sized library, some REALLY good arcade ports, and it would be a great novelty to finally play Lynx games on a TV.913950[/snapback] Problem: most of the REALLY good arcade ports were licensed from Atari Games, a.k.a. Midway. Much of the best stuff on Lynx is on Midway Arcade Treasures. I know I'll buy whatever FB3 turns out to be. I had some measure of fun with FB1, after all. Whatever happens, it can't be worse than that. Sorry ... Curt, whatever you do, don't forget the pent-up demand for membrane keyboards and BASIC programmability. We've been crying out for that functionality for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillenterprises Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I still don't think it will be based on the 5200. Most of the 5200 game library consists of licensed arcade ports, many from other manufacturers, and I can't see the new Atari paying to relicense the 5200 version of Pac-Man. It's the same reason, we'll never see a Colecovision plug and play or even a Colecovision collection for PS2 or XBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I still don't think it will be based on the 5200. Most of the 5200 game library consists of licensed arcade ports, many from other manufacturers, and I can't see the new Atari paying to relicense the 5200 version of Pac-Man. It's the same reason, we'll never see a Colecovision plug and play or even a Colecovision collection for PS2 or XBox. 914105[/snapback] I'm not sure that they would need to pay for license fees a second time if they redistribute original 5200 software within a unit that is entirely compatible with original 5200 hardware. I'd love to see those original license agreements, as I'm sure they're silent with respect to reissues. And, besides, I'd love to see Super Pac-Man on a TV games unit. Question: did Atari pay Activision further licensing fees to include its games on FB2? The licensing fee issue may be one reason why Atari moved away from the "NES-on-a-chip" technology of FB1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy the Atarian Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 (edited) I could go for a Lynx or 8-bits(400/800 for ZylonBane so to avoid confusion) FB. I can hardly wait to hear more about the project Edited August 19, 2005 by Shaggy the Atarian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pipercub Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I don't have any clue how patent law works, but you would think that it would be in both partys interests to have a pay percentage of sales arrangement. That way you could package all the games you want and not have ridiculous flat rates but 5% or 10% here. It seems to me everyone would make out better. I wonder what the problem is with just makeing the slot electrically and mechanically compatable with the 2600 and making the new carts in the same housing. Is the fear that people will buy the carts and not the console? I would buy both. I didn't buy the FB1 and FB2 for the games, I bought them for the console and I would buy the FB3 for the same reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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