Did anyone get the Atari VCS?
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The video forgot to mention the company's crowning achievement so far.
I'll be sure to pick one up when I see it on a Kmart clearance shelf alongside copies of Guitar Hero and whatever shovelware game is there.
This brings up an interesting question. If the VCS were to come out and find itself on quick discount, what is highest anyone would pay for what we currently know of the machine? Personally, as much as I would love seeing that logo shining from my entertainment system, this isn't something I really need regardless of price. However, if it were to be reduced below $100, I would probably pick it up if just to modify it in some way.
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@mediamogul I'd pick it up for $80 at most.
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That'd depend on the specs, something which is an unknown even to Atari SA themselves
But regardless, I'd probably pass anyway. This machine is tainted by the sheer arrogance of the people behind it. So I'd rather pick an old Atari case and put an RPi 4 in. I'm sure it will be out by the time they release (if they ever release, that is :)
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Who said we don't know the specs ? It's a 3.3Ghz small factor computer with a radeon R7, which is enough to know which emulators will run on it.
While the price (200$) seems kinda high, you wouldn't be able to build something this small/powerful for the same price. This is definitely an awesome machine for retrogamers who are interested in running saturn, lr-reicast, lr-dolphin, resource-hungry mame games like killer instinct, ... -
*@barbudreadmon said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
Who said we don't know the specs ? It's a 3.3Ghz small factor computer with a radeon R7, which is enough to know which emulators will run on it.
You have a source for that claim, apart from the Wikipedia page?
If you do, is the source from before or after they fired the main designer and decided to delay the Spring 2018 launch? Does it matter that nobody have seen a working prototype yet, that they have shambolic reputation and that their main man couldn't answer simplest of questions in that interview? Or that their IGG page states that "All product specifications are subject to change. Final specifications may differ."?Question, questions...
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@youxia While they are indeed subject to change (there were talks about using the newer amd rizen cpu), this is what IGG VCS page states at the moment :
Processor Bristol Ridge A10-9630P
CPU Core/Thread 4C4T (Excavator) up to 3.3GHz
GPU 6 CUs (GFX8) up to 800MHz Up to 614 GFLOPS -
I dunno, stranger things have happened. People seem to be churning out good wedges of cash for the recreated spectrum, even though it's essentially 40 year old technology with an HDMI socket.
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@barbudreadmon Fair enough, I do retract my statement about the lack of specs.
I do not retract any other ones though :) I'd also advise not using Simple Present tense to describe it, unless we actually see it in action.
@ballboff If you're talking about ZX Spectrum Next then you probably did not follow it too closely. First of all it's much more than a "40 year old technology with an HDMI socket" and secondly it actually does exist and is quite awesome.
In fact, it should be a golden standard for all these nostalgia driven hardware projects.
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I'm definitely gonna get. Atari 2600 was my first system and I like how they modernized the system!
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@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
I do not retract any other ones though :) I'd also advise not using Simple Present tense to describe it, unless we actually see it in action.
While the fact there was no working prototype is kinda worrying, there is nothing unrealistic in the project (this is existing hardware put on a SoC), so i'm kinda confident it will come to fruition.
Also, i backed a 200$ unit without controller (no need for those, i already have tens of wired/wireless controllers) 3 weeks ago, after they published the specs. It will be an upgrade for my udoo x86 (pentium 2.08Ghz with a turbo mode at 2.56Ghz), which is already able to run some nice games (bomberman saturn, guardian heroes, towerfall ascension 8P, ...).
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@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@barbudreadmon Fair enough, I do retract my statement about the lack of specs.
I do not retract any other ones though :) I'd also advise not using Simple Present tense to describe it, unless we actually see it in action.
@ballboff If you're talking about ZX Spectrum Next then you probably did not follow it too closely. First of all it's much more than a "40 year old technology with an HDMI socket" and secondly it actually does exist and is quite awesome.
In fact, it should be a golden standard for all these nostalgia driven hardware projects.
Which Spectrum?
The Indiegogo one called Vega+?
The one that is vapourware, two years late, and missed plenty of deadlines, that could well have the creditors called in despite all the excuses they put out blaming everyone else?
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@madrikxiv said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
Which Spectrum?
@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?
ZX Spectrum Next
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@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@barbudreadmon Fair enough, I do retract my statement about the lack of specs.
I do not retract any other ones though :) I'd also advise not using Simple Present tense to describe it, unless we actually see it in action.
@ballboff If you're talking about ZX Spectrum Next then you probably did not follow it too closely. First of all it's much more than a "40 year old technology with an HDMI socket" and secondly it actually does exist and is quite awesome.
In fact, it should be a golden standard for all these nostalgia driven hardware projects.
I have been following it and i'm still struggling to come to terms with who it is aimed at and what it's purpose is, personally I think it's 30 years too late, but that's just me.
What I meant was that people are still buying it even though it's not what many would consider to be "next gen", but for the huge price tag it's still selling machines. Much as this one may do. People are rubbishing it before it even gets released.
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@madrikxiv said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@barbudreadmon Fair enough, I do retract my statement about the lack of specs.
I do not retract any other ones though :) I'd also advise not using Simple Present tense to describe it, unless we actually see it in action.
@ballboff If you're talking about ZX Spectrum Next then you probably did not follow it too closely. First of all it's much more than a "40 year old technology with an HDMI socket" and secondly it actually does exist and is quite awesome.
In fact, it should be a golden standard for all these nostalgia driven hardware projects.
Which Spectrum?
The Indiegogo one called Vega+?
The one that is vapourware, two years late, and missed plenty of deadlines, that could well have the creditors called in despite all the excuses they put out blaming everyone else?
I was referring to the spectrum next. I also know about the vega+
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@ballboff said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
I have been following it and i'm still struggling to come to terms with who it is aimed at and what it's purpose is, personally I think it's 30 years too late, but that's just me.
What I meant was that people are still buying it even though it's not what many would consider to be "next gen", but for the huge price tag it's still selling machines. Much as this one may do. People are rubbishing it before it even gets released.
Huh? The Next is a FPGA machine aimed at hardcore ZX Spectrum fans, it was never pretending to be "next gen". It's not only a faithful recreation of the original, but also sports a host of new features - it's faster, has new graphic modes, VGA port etc. You can even use an RPi as an accelerator board. I can't imagine a better follow up to the iconic machine that was the original. Then you have the slew of other FPGA projects such as Super NT and more upcoming ones. And "30 years too late"...dunno, you're on RetroPie forums. We're all a bit "late" here :)
The question "who it is aimed at and what it's purpose is" fits the new VCS perfectly though, since it tries to be everything: play retro games, modern games, be a Linux box, Netflix box, stream box, hell, they even squeezed a Smart Home integration there. Kinda what my laptop does already, but let's not dwell on this.
The reason people are skeptical about this thing is because of the numerous red flags attached, contained both in the history of Atari SA and the history (so far) of this project. Never even mind the history of other similar crowdfunded tech marvels, from Ouya to Chameleon..
But what really gets me is why people are willing to pay money for it now knowing that it is at least still one year away? |I mean, okay, perhaps all the skeptics are wrong and come May 2019 they will actually release a working Atari VCS with the specs described. If you still feel then that this is good value for money, by all means - buy one. But...if I needed a mini gaming box now, I'd just build it, perhaps it'd cost a 50-100 bucks more, but it'd be at least as good if not better, expandable/future proof and most importantly a real thing now - not a pie in the sky.
Is this really about that little logo? I could understand it at least if there were some people connected to it from the past - as was the case (sadly) with Vega - but there ain't. It's just a bunch of hucksters who bought the rights some time ago and turned the brand into a farce (tacos, casino apps and Rollercoaster Tycoon )
Anyway, it's your moolah, folks, so I won't carry on with the naysaying. Let's revisit this thread in a year or so and see how it all turned out.
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@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
But...if I needed a mini gaming box now, I'd just build it, perhaps it'd cost a 50-100 bucks more, but it'd be at least as good if not better, expandable/future proof and most importantly a real thing now - not a pie in the sky.
I'm only interested in the size factor and price/performance ratio. I have some doubts you can build something similar, at the very best i think you would build something 50% pricier 3-4 times the size. I don't care about the logo, i don't even care about the original OS with the atari cloud/shop/games (if it doesn't fit my needs, i'll probably remove the ubuntu to use something different)
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@youxia said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@ballboff said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
I have been following it and i'm still struggling to come to terms with who it is aimed at and what it's purpose is, personally I think it's 30 years too late, but that's just me.
What I meant was that people are still buying it even though it's not what many would consider to be "next gen", but for the huge price tag it's still selling machines. Much as this one may do. People are rubbishing it before it even gets released.
Huh? The Next is a FPGA machine aimed at hardcore ZX Spectrum fans, it was never pretending to be "next gen". It's not only a faithful recreation of the original, but also sports a host of new features - it's faster, has new graphic modes, VGA port etc. You can even use an RPi as an accelerator board. I can't imagine a better follow up to the iconic machine that was the original. Then you have the slew of other FPGA projects such as Super NT and more upcoming ones. And "30 years too late"...dunno, you're on RetroPie forums. We're all a bit "late" here :)
The question "who it is aimed at and what it's purpose is" fits the new VCS perfectly though, since it tries to be everything: play retro games, modern games, be a Linux box, Netflix box, stream box, hell, they even squeezed a Smart Home integration there. Kinda what my laptop does already, but let's not dwell on this.
The reason people are skeptical about this thing is because of the numerous red flags attached, contained both in the history of Atari SA and the history (so far) of this project. Never even mind the history of other similar crowdfunded tech marvels, from Ouya to Chameleon..
But what really gets me is why people are willing to pay money for it now knowing that it is at least still one year away? |I mean, okay, perhaps all the skeptics are wrong and come May 2019 they will actually release a working Atari VCS with the specs described. If you still feel then that this is good value for money, by all means - buy one. But...if I needed a mini gaming box now, I'd just build it, perhaps it'd cost a 50-100 bucks more, but it'd be at least as good if not better, expandable/future proof and most importantly a real thing now - not a pie in the sky.
Is this really about that little logo? I could understand it at least if there were some people connected to it from the past - as was the case (sadly) with Vega - but there ain't. It's just a bunch of hucksters who bought the rights some time ago and turned the brand into a farce (tacos, casino apps and Rollercoaster Tycoon )
Anyway, it's your moolah, folks, so I won't carry on with the naysaying. Let's revisit this thread in a year or so and see how it all turned out.
You've got a very good point there. I've probably spent about 2-300 on each arcade build I've done. I've done 3 now. The pi brought the cost down a bit, and made it easier to configure. I guess when you see the full amount in front of you it sounds like a lot.
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One guy called them out
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