zzip

I've been expecting this.. But the real question is, will it have a synthwave soundtrack? (ducks)

If it is wifi related, there was an issue where some Linux kernels keep trying to put the WIFI adapter into sleep mode and that affects performance. The solution was to edit this file: /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf and change this line: wifi.powersave = 3 to wifi.powersave = 2 Not sure if that requires a reboot

Yeah, JRPGs too. They were inspired by our RPGs, but took them to another level

right now, Atari only has to play test stuff in the store on VCS hardware. If they opened it up to more hardware, it will be a lot more QA work to test various configurations. It might not seem like a big deal, but I do my coding on a PC with an nVidia card. When I copy my code over to VCS, I'll often have unexpected visual glitches that I never encountered on my PC that I have to track down and fix, apparently AMD and nVidia do some things a little differently and you need to make sure your code works on both. Now if a VCS game is already on Steam, it might not be an issue, but some developers are porting mobile games and others are writing code specifically for VCS and that might cause problems.

Yeah I noticed that in clips of Japanese TV shows, where there would be a costumed characted just standing there, in a way that seems out of place by our standards. As you mentioned, costumed character mascots aren't unusual in US culture, but Japan takes it up a notch or three.

You could find the sheet music to just about anything at music stores, All those AMS + MIDI files came from somewhere But use anything from the 20th century then you risked having a sticky rights issue on your hands. Some games had to alter their music due to this. Frogger was affected. The Pengo arcade game had the 1969 instrumental "Popcorn" as its theme, and had to issue a new version.

That's because these days game development teams usually include somebody to compose new music for the game.

I don't know why this game always gets compared to Dark Souls, just because it's light saber based? I didn't find it very Souls like, nor a particularly great Star Wars game.. Though I agree visually it looks great!

No idea what will come of that. In terms of popularity, producing 2600/7800 cart reader makes the most sense, but does it make sense in light of the 2600+ The most interesting might be a Jaguar module or a 5200 module with durable controllers, but doubt if there's enough of a market to justify either

If they announced one, it would be the usual drama: "No not like that!" "It shouldn't be emulation based!" "FPGA is too expensive!" "The form factor is all wrong!" "Why isn't it using an OLED screen?" "Why is it using an OLED screen when the original didn't have one?" "Why does it have a permanent battery, and I can't change it like the original?"

Classical music was very common in 80s games. Because it was reproduced in chiptune format, we 80s kids didn't realize we were getting cultured I suspect classical music was used for two reasons: 1) those games were often designed by one or two people, and the average programmer is not a music composer. 2) A lot of classical music is now public domain so no royalty issues.

Software- that ship has sailed. They had a chance in the mid-80s but botched it time and again. While Nintendo and Sega were building game franchises that kept their fans coming back to every new console, Atari failed to develop any such franchises. Their biggest is probably Roller Coaster Tycoon, but that came through later acquisitions and doesn't have the pull it once did. So right now, Atari doesn't have a software franchise that they could sell a million consoles off of. It isn't easy to develop one, franchise games can cost tens of millions or even over a hundred million to develop. That's larger than current Atari's market cap. Maybe they could get lucky and discover the next Minecraft, an inexpensive game to develop that becomes a major sensation. But the odds are against that. I don't know what new hardware they could possibly develop that wouldn't be seen as a gimmick and couldn't be duplicated by Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, and new hardware is useless without the software to support it. Right now, Atari is making a lot of moves with acquisitions and products that are raising their profile. If they continue this path and it is successful, in five years they may be a bigger company than they are now, but they still won't be anywhere near Nintendo.

Yeah Youtube videos are always compressed so you don't get the full detail. Even though I have a PS5 now, PS4 visuals still hold up well

In today's world, there is virtually nothing that cannot be done on a PC Emulation in PC Mode, the Atari shop only carries retro titles Atari can legally sell. The market for such a thing is much smaller than you think and not getting any bigger as time goes on. If it was there, the marketing people would sniff it out and build a product for it. By the same logic, what can a 2600+ do that a $30 Raspberry Pi can't? All this jumping through hoops to try to ensure that the many cart bank-switching schemes are compatible, and the heartbreak that certain carts schemes may never work, including Pitfall II-- none of that is an issue with a pure emulation scheme. But people will pay 4x as much for a 2600+ because it is a more nostalgic and has the Atari name attached So same reason why Atari fans would buy an Atari VCS over some generic mini-PC, nostalgic design, nostalgic controllers and Atari branded. The proprietary hardware era is over and has been over for a long time. Virtually anything built today is going to be built around ARM or X86-based CPUs, AMD or nVidia graphics, standard sound. There are decades of engineering behind these designs that an upstart simply cannot compete with. Even the big boy consoles from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are using this hardware instead of rolling their own. There is no hardware Atari can conceivably come up with that can do things that nVidia/AMD/ARM/x86 cannot. It would also be much harder to attract developers to a proprietary platform since the development tools would be lacking. Even back in the day Atari struggled to get developers to support their custom hardware designs, it would be much harder now with a smaller userbase. As of right now, every few days there is a new game release in the VCS store because the effort and cost to port things is fairly low. I can guarantee that would not be the case if the VCS was based off proprietary hardware.

The VCS does everything you mention here, it can play virtually any Atari game released for any Atari system including Jaguar now thanks to BigPemu, it can run Android, Windows, Linux, Steam People say the VCS is somehow overpriced at $299 bundle (which includes two $60 controllers!) But yet a $900-$1000 system would be acceptable????

They sure grow up fast these days! Four years ago I was 25 and today I'm still 25!

The cars in Activision's Grand Prix were quite impressive at the time: Tunnel Runner- was impressive as a first person game, especially at the faster levels The title screens of Swordquest Earthworld with the shining sword and E.T. I had never seen that level of detail on the 2600 before

Or it's paid promotion for the 2600+?

Probably seeing Space Invaders running on 2600 at JC Penney I saw a few arcade games before that, including possibly Canyon Bomber, but I don't recall Atari's name or Logo (I was young then)

You can easily run the VCS games under Linux, but be aware that some of the VCS games don't have a clean exit function so you'd have to kill the process. Not sure if Steamlink provides an easy way to do this.

Mine hasn't really had many issues other than: - Fan gets loud over time, periodically opening it up cleaning out the dust helps - Original Dual Shock 4 rubber wears off on thumbsticks, this can be mitigated with cheap thumbstick protectors or using a newer Dual Shock that doesn't have this issue. - (minor annoyance) the "power" and "eject disc" buttons aren't physical buttons but hot spots on the front of the console that are easy to accidentally trigger by the slightest touch. The later revision of the PS4 changed these to physical buttons Some users complained about discs ejecting at "random". seems it's more of a problem for units that sit horizontally. Mine has always sat vertically and I never had this issue. The OG PS4 also has and optical audio port to plug into an external audio system. This is good for reducing audio lag in rhythm games. The Slim removed this port.

There are no loose 5200 games in the Atari VCS store, other than what's included in Atari Vault 1 + 2 and Atari 50. I agree the 5200 emulator situation isn't what it should be Have you tried Atari++? It's based on Atari800 but I've had better luck getting controllers working in Atari++

Can Steamlink be used in PC Mode? I've never used it, but can it be exteded to non-Steam games?

You can buy all sorts of arcade controllers these days with arcade style joysticks and buttons, but trackballs and spinners seem to be a rarity. I wonder if these modern arcade releases are even programmed to work with a trackball? Or would they be limited to using a track ball in joystick emulations mode, like the old Atari home trackballs had. It's not the same because then the speed you move the trackball doesn't have an effect. They have started to do this. They put the unreleased Akka Arrh arcade game on Atari 50, and released a modern stand-alone version by Jeff Minter. I guess the question is if you want to modernize old games, is it better to stay true to the original mechanics or stay true to the theme? Look at what Nintendo has done with Mario. If all they did was remake Donkey Kong every few years with slightly update graphics, Mario would barely be a thing, instead he shows up in various games. Haunted House is a fairly simple game that is limited by the 2600's capabilities. If Atari wanted to turn it into a horror franchise, should all the games stay true to the original 2600 mechanics/graphics, or should they update the complexity/graphics and sense of creepiness as the hardware capabilities expand? I'd say the latter. But problem is Atari never evolved the game through new installments back then, so when they release a modern version, it's inevitably going to feel quite disconnected from the original, unlike Mario which always contains lots of familiar elements while pushing into new territory. I guess it's telling that the Colecovision Dracula never released! But an isometric view like that might be a good way to evolve a 5200 or 7800 version of Haunted House 2. You could check the furniture for the missing parts, instead of just having it appear in the middle of a non-descript room Yeah it does feel more Scooby Doo than the original 2600 haunted house. On the other hand, It goes back to what I said at the top of my post. I don't think a simple "collect three object pieces and escape" is enough variety for a modern remake. That was imposed by the limits of the 2600 and rom sizes of the day. But at the same time 40 years have passed without incremental improvements of the game, so any modern remake is going to feel disconnected from the original.

I can't find the post now, but I asked either Ben or Trogdar whether roms could be sideloaded via USB (to play games the cart dumper can't handle, for instance). The response was as far as they knew USB was only for power and firmware updates.