Sauron

Damn, you caught me! (Pascal is a nice language. Fight me).

"I'm leaving this forum!" = "Pay attention to me!"

Glad we're in agreement.

Here's a better idea: look at the username. If it says "Jag_Mag", then skip the post as it will have nothing worthwhile in it, with the quoted message as a prime example.

Yes, that blog title is hinting at the subject of this post. Care to take a guess? Ok, yes, it was obvious to anyone with half a functioning brain that I'm referring to the Atari VCS, of which I am now a proud and unworthy user. As you can see by my thread in the VCS forum, I purchased this last December when Atari had a big sale going on, but didn't hook it up then because I simply didn't have room to do so. Fast forward about 9 months or so, and the recent news about Atari purchasing this very website has kind of lit a flame under my rear, and one of the consequences of that was me finally getting around to hooking up the box. Well, you can read my impressions of it in that thread if you want to know what I think. It's both a car crash and a miracle rolled up into one piece of technology, and I'm having quite a good time with it so far, despite its obvious flaws. There's tons of unrealized potential in this box, but at the same time just looking at it fills me with excitement....it's really hard to explain. Should I be enjoying it as much as I am? Probably not, and let's face it, there are plenty of good and valid reasons to find it an utter disappointment. The system has plenty of glitches and bugs that drive me to the point of insanity at times, such as my controller not wanting to sync up for a full minute despite the fact that it actually wakes up the unit (explain that to me, someone, PLEASE), the fact that I sometimes have to double-press the A button on the home screen to open a game, the default settings for MAME in 7800 games being far less than ideal....the list of problems goes on and on and on. Yet....I can't stop playing with it, going round after round in Amoeba Jump, doing a few rounds of Caverns of Mars Recharged, or getting my butt kicked in Donut Dodo, I've spent far more time the last 3 days playing on this system than I have spent on my Wii in the last month. It's crazy. Maybe it's that glowing fuji that's putting so much joy into me? Maybe it's the promise of what could come of this iteration of Atari in the future? And actually, that last bit I think hits the nail on the head. I'm feeling inspiration from my all-time favorite brand that puts me back to how I felt as a kid when I first played on the Atari 2600, or when I first opened a present on Christmas to find a 130XE, or when I walked into Babbage's first thing after getting home from boot camp to buy my Atari Jaguar, or even the first day I discovered this website. It's the magic of Atari being rekindled in me for some strange reason, giving a person who feels stuck at the moment in life the swift kick in the ass they need to make something good happen. And I think that's best thing that this little black box that somewhat resembles a Vader 2600 could possibly give to me.

You just beat out my order# of 43027 for Atari VCS Vault 2.

Or, you could contact them with a proposal. Something tells me they would at least listen.

Considering the mess that is the Amiga platform right now, that's probably a door that's better left closed.

Yeah same here. Although I don't know if I really count as a "long-time member"...does more than 20 years on this site count?

Perhaps, but this is not an AtGames product. And on top of that, you're completely avoiding what Albert and I have said to you already. At this point you're arguing just for the sake of arguing, and it's not contributing anything to this thread.

I think there's a big difference between licensed and official products. Atari is releasing the hardware themselves, not licensing their name and IP to be sold by someone else. I think that fact alone should merit some consideration.

I think you're being way too overly critical here. I think most everyone understands the concerns you're expressing, but is it really necessary to nitpick things said in an interview and take them to mean something that hasn't been clearly expressed? You should probably step back, take a deep breath, count to 10, and then post your concerns in a more tactful manner rather than just hammering down on every little detail that you don't like. These are video game products. They're not a matter of life and death.

Thanks, that took care of it, and in addition, it appears that it solved the problem of Food Fight (7800) randomly resetting during play. I was able to get through a full game without it happening. EDIT: Spoke too soon about the Food Fight problem. However, I figured out what was causing it. Apparently during the course of gameplay I've been pressing down on the left analog stick, which is mapped as Select, which in turn causes the game to reset. Ugh. Oh well, guess I wouldn't have that problem using the classic controller.

Just purchased Caverns of Mars Recharged and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. Also downloaded MC:R (2020), it just doesn't play right with a controller. I enjoyed it much more playing it on my phone. I might spring for the updated version.

I'll add some more love here. I played it a while back on ROM through Stella, and enjoyed it then, and then finding it on the VCS store, I purchased it instantly. Amoeba Jump is probably my favorite 2600 homebrew.

So I've spent some more time playing around on the VCS today, and some of its rough edges are starting to show more. Here's a few examples: - I've experienced numerous freezes and reboots when watching video previews of games through the store, where it'll freeze while watching the video, and after about 30 seconds or so the system will reboot on its own. Not a huge issue, but would be nice to not have to deal with it. - I've been randomly getting a message at the top of the screen about a firmware upgrade being available for a connected device, but when I check the settings I see nothing to indicate that this is the case. Is there a specific place I should be looking? - I purchased Food Fight for the 7800, and the game randomly resets while playing, which is extremely annoying. In fact, I haven't been able to go through a full game of it without this happening. Also, the MAME interface appears when trying to get out of the game. This is a minor issue, but still, my experience with this 7800 game so far makes me wary of purchasing any others through the VCS. - Too many truncated or shortened game titles when browsing them through the store, which kinda gives the whole store experience an amateurish feel. Most of those aren't big issues, but the one with Food Fight most certainly is. All of these problems do add up, though, and this gives the VCS a bit of a half-baked feel, which is a bit disheartening considering that the system has been in player's hands for close to 3 years now. Couple all of that with the fact that there is no clear support system or something even as basic as a repository for known issues severely degrades the overall experience with the VCS. I'm not trying to be overly nitpicky about all of this, nor am I a naysayer who just wants to dump on the VCS. In fact, I stand by what I said about the VCS before: I like the VCS overall, and I really want Atari to succeed with what they're doing, both with the VCS and with their other endeavors. However, issues like I mentioned above should have been fixed ages ago, and not having done so only works to cheapen the brand. Atari, you can do better.

I'm in Southern Arizona. I bought my Onyx VCS 800 back during the sale last December, but just hooked it up and started playing around with it 2 days ago.

Thanks! I've already been active in the Discord channels, that's how I was able to get my VCS up and running. I think I'll have to check out that Ultimate Ski Jumping to see what it's all about.

Ok, did a little more playing around on the VCS. I ended up purchasing Amoeba Jump just to show some love to the author. It's one of my favorite 2600 homebrews, and I absolutely love it. Since I'm scrapped for cash, I haven't purchased anything else as of yet, although I did download what I guess is a free demo (don't remember the name, but I'm sure any VCS user knows which game I'm talking about). Also, I downloaded the VCS companion app to my iPhone, and tested it out, and it works quite well. Atari definitely deserves kudos for that. Outside of all of that, I haven't really done much else other than explore around the settings and such. To give my overall impressions so far...the VCS has actually surpassed my expectations, believe it or not. Now, those expectations have been severely tempered by years' worth of groaning about it on these very forums. Obviously, if you're expecting something to compete with the big three console makers, you're going to be severely disappointed. However, Atari has never made any such claims of the VCS. It seems to be a good little system for what it is - a flexible device that pays homage to the past while helping to build a road to the future. And really, that's all I, personally, could really ask for from it.

Ahh, yes, I noticed that, thanks for reminding me. That I'll definitely have to check out.

Well that's a shame. There's no way to simulate a mouse with the controller?

Yeah, I figured as much. No biggie, but I guess it remains to be seen how well I'll be able to navigate them just with the controller.

I actually bought the VCS back in December of last year on a whim thanks to a big sale, yet I've let it sit unopened all this time, kinda afraid to take it out of the box. Well, this evening I finally got the itch and got it setup, and I've got a few unsolicited observations. First, the setup. Powered the unit on, synced the controller, connected to the wireless network, then update. Got to 83% and just froze there. Well, not unexpected, thanks to having seen many similar complaints before. Hit up the Discord channel, was told to flash the unit. "Oh boy, here we go" I thought. Thankfully, though, that process went much smoother than I expected. The downside to it is that I had to do some digging and asking around just to figure that out. Where's your support page, Atari? Oh, I found it, but all it has is manuals, none of which detail the flashing process. In other words, Atari doesn't seem to have any kind of support infrastructure, even just a support wiki that has fixes for common issues. Seems like you guys need me to build you one. Interested? Someone from Atari send me a PM, I've helped build support infrastructures for two different game publishers now. But I digress... Anyway, flashed the system, rebooted...and I'm in! The interface is a little clunky, but that's a small issue, and nothing that can't be smoothed out in time. As it is, it's not difficult to navigate. It's nice having the Atari Vault preinstalled, it lets you get to playing something right away without having to hit up the store. So, let's hit up the store and see what goodies are available. Now this was a pleasant surprise. There's more games than I expected there to be. Nothing quite up to AAA standards, but hey, this is the VCS, that's not what this little system is about! All of the Recharged games are there of course, most of which I already own on the Switch. Ohhh, nice! Some 2600 and 7800 games, and for very reasonable prices too! Atari, you guys just won some major points for having Amoeba Jump on the store. Seriously, that game rocks! Anyway, let's move on. There are some apps here, including ones for AppleTV+, Netflix, YouTube, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video. Just add Crunchyroll and HiDive (yes, I'm an otaku, deal with it) and that will have all of my bases covered. Didn't try any of them out, though, I'll get to that later. Anyways, that's my initial first impression of the VCS. The only gripes I have should be pretty easy fixes. Later I'll start test driving the apps and maybe purchase a game or two from the store.

Atari-branded keyboard and mice would be awesome.