Did anyone get the Atari VCS?
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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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Personally, i asked for a refund a few days ago. While the atari vcs seems nice if it comes to fruition, i'm only interested in the hardware. For my purpose (a micro machine dedicated to emulation), https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/udoo/udoo-bolt-raising-the-maker-world-to-the-next-leve is actually a better choice (more powerful, can attach a sata disk, should be available sooner, and i can trust this company after kickstarting their last project).
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Still waiting for my Coleco Chamelon...
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@hornsoverithaca Thanks ! You peaked my curiosity and I had to see what it was. SCAM !! lol. I scrolled down that page and saw this vid : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3kmx7/when-the-worlds-most-famous-hacker-hacked-a-mcdonalds-restaurant-drive-in , made me chuckle ! Cheers !
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My parents just found my Atari 2600, along with that I have RetroPie, so I don't need a VCS :)
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@bytethis said in Did anyone get the Atari VCS?:
@hornsoverithaca Thanks ! You peaked my curiosity and I had to see what it was. SCAM !! lol. I scrolled down that page and saw this vid : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3kmx7/when-the-worlds-most-famous-hacker-hacked-a-mcdonalds-restaurant-drive-in , made me chuckle ! Cheers !
Isn't that just ridiculous? Mike Kennedy put a video capture card into a clear plastic Atari Jaguar shell and called it a new console.
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