Tavi

Found this eBay listing this morning: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/odyssey-2-video-game-system-untested-Sold-As-Is/224168938753?hash=item3431828d01:g:SRgAAOSwZzNfbLJ3 25 USD (or best offer) for an untested Odyssey 2. While on eBay I find 'untested' usually means 'tried it, and it did not work' for 25$ it still might be a bargain for someone?

I got a wonderful surprise today! I had won an eBay auction for a sizable collection of Intellivision goodies, around 70 games (some are duplicates of course), two Intellivoices, a handful of adapters for hooking up to TV's, plus a working and very nice looking Intellivision console. Nice as I can keep one Intellivoice, and give the other to my cousin for his Intellivision. Even better is that it is obvious that someone took very good care of this collection. Everything is very clean, and though I have to finish sorting it all (thanks to customs for mixing it all up during inspection) it does seem that most of the manuals are there, plus the controller inserts. It looks like they were all organized together at one time. As it seems it is going to be a sparse holiday season for console gaming, I think this will keep me occupied and happy during the long winter months ahead. There are quite a few games I have never played before in this collection. One interesting thing is the hand labeled Baseball cartridge is surprisingly heavy, doing a bit of looking online I imagine it was one of the early cartridges with RF shielding? It is shocking how much weight difference it makes to have it in there!

Bethesda has produced some amazing games, but they are also usually only playable after the mod community gives them a complete top to bottom going-over to patch all the glitches and bugs they could not be bothered with. I was considerably unimpressed with Bethesda jumping on the microtranaction bandwagon. You would have thought their charging AAA title pricing plus DLC's would be profit enough, especially for titles they depend on the players to finish and polish up for them.

It seems inevitable. According to the latest shipping data I could find for China to US sea freight; it is currently 30-40 days. Like someone earlier had said, to meet their delivery deadline the units would have to be manufactured, loaded and already on their way. https://www.freightos.com/shipping-routes/shipping-from-china-to-the-united-states/ If Atari had actually produced the 11,000 backer units I expect they would have been making a lot of noise about it to appease their backers (They certainly made quite the fuss over producing and shipping their 96 Dev test units to the US). As Atari has retreated back into their usual radio silence instead of announcing anything I think it is safe to say that the Atari Box units are still not yet in production, and that there is no possibility of them meeting their latest promised shipping date. The only question is how long Atari is going to drag out announcing their newest delay and giving another revised shipping date.

I bought one of these from this seller last year, and while the multi-cart casing was machined a little strange (front and back casings have about a eighth-inch misalignment) the multicart itself works great. Certainly for the price I have no objections. It is a great value for the cost of the multi-cart. The DIP switches are a bit unusual; but with the printout handy of the settings it only takes a moment (and a toothpick) to set it for the game you want.

I was actually looking for an Intellivision console or games on my local Kijiji, and for some reason this popped up on the 'You may be interested in...' items window. According to the description it works, and comes with Hyperspace and Scramble for games. The joystick does not center anymore however they do mention. Still, for 225$ CAD (175 USD?) I think it would be a great deal for someone in Canada interested in it (Or someone in the US willing to pay a bit for shipping). Looking on eBay and other sites they do seem to be listed for quite a bit more. Honestly, I am not really familiar with the system, but it seems like something someone on the forum may have interest in, so I thought I would share it. https://www.kijiji.ca/v-old-video-games/saskatoon/vectrex-arcade-system/1520522845

It is certainly not trolling to ask 'Where's the b̶e̶e̶f̶ games?!'. I would say it is a rather important question to be asking of a system that is supposed to be out in retail in around four months time and taking into account all we have seen for gaming on the Atari Box at this point is the Atari Vault, a free Antstream trial and the ability to run some Steam games (This conditionally; provided you also buy a Windows licence and additional storage for the system). Partnering with a streaming service is a nice little extra, but it is not going to be a system seller. My Blu ray player can stream, my TV can stream, my laptop and PC can stream, my cellphone can stream, my streaming box can stream. I imagine that for most people they will be in a similar situation, with no lack of existing hardware and devices to stream media on already owned. All Atari is announcing so far is the aperitifs and appetizers. Games are the meat and potatoes for a console (or un-console), and if I were a backer/potential customer I would find it worrisome there is almost nothing being said about this.

I was incredibly c̶h̶e̶a̶p̶ budget conscious, and just wanted the digital version. So no early access for me! It has been a long wait, but I am glad it is finally in Beta. I hope they find all the major issues and get the game rolled out without too much more delay.

He might have aimed a little bit too high there. Pitfall is incredibly popular (I know I still love playing it), and according to Wikipedia there were 4 million cartridges sold. Certainly not too shabby for the 80's. But 'Space Venture' barely broke 500K in fundraising, and this is for the guys behind the insanely popular 'Space Quest' series; a decade spanning gaming franchise. From what I recall of the original campaign (2013? Have I really been waiting that long now?) it was pretty heavy on the concept art and 'We're putting the band back together!' excitement, but they really did not have much in finished content to show off either at the time. Still; despite many delays it is finally in the home stretch and does look pretty good!

They certainly seem to have a very optimistic outlook on Atari and the Atari Box. In my personal opinion, Atari made a new division just for the Atari Box so if (when?) things went pear shaped like the Atari Gameband did Atari Corp's money and assets are sheltered from people angrily demanding refunds. Keep in mind both these projects were masterminded by Feargal Mac Conuladh. As to the parent company being in a good financial situation, that depends on how you look at it. It certainly is just a shell of its former self. There is basically no staff, and they build and produce nothing. All income is derived from licensing and lawsuits. It is hard to lose money from that, but equally obvious there is no potential for huge profits either. This is the main reason it is, and will likely remain, a penny stock company. As for crowdfunding showing demand; after a guy on kickstarter had almost 7K backers and raised 55K to help him 'make some potato salad'; I think they only thing we can take away form backers counts and contributions is there are some mighty odd people out there with apparently entirely too much money. I certainly would not gauge product demand from either.

wow.. This one almost flew under my radar, which it would certainly have been a shame to miss out on playing this! The game looks amazing, and you have an excellent review of it.

The Telegames one is a great find! I am certainly no expert, but do believe the Telegames console is a Sears heavy sixer? Which certainly increases its desirability. Even if it is not, they do just look nice :D

This is an absolutely amazing hack! I love my 2600, but have to admit the original Venture was pretty unimpressive. No music, I swear the sound effects were lifted straight from Bezerk, and most annoyingly for some reason the rooms do not fill in once they are completed. The original 2600 version was still fun, but also seriously lacking in several areas. This hack recreates the game as faithfully to the arcade version as possible; doing even more then I would have imagined was possible for the 2600. It is certainly a hack people are going to want to play! It is like a whole new game.

Quite honestly, this probably would be me. If I ever bought an Atari Box; it would likely be to replace my Atari Flashback and just used to play classic Atari games on. Like so many others have said, it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Everything it offers, chances are you already own something that not already does the exact same thing; but likely also better. An online Atari Flashback has some appeal, but not even close to the point where I would consider dropping 400$ for it.

I like the Tempest one! Though they are all very nicely designed.

You did not miss much. But then when you are basically interviewing yourself you tend not to ask (or answer) the hard questions. I found two things of interest out of the entire thing. One; Arzt made mention of the pricing for Atari Box titles: ranging from 3$ to 25$. The second is at the end Arzt said ' Our long-term vision is to make a full assortment of affordably-priced classic emulators and game ROMs accessible from the Atari VCS store.' and made mention they are working with unspecified partners on this. Which to me sounds like they are looking at emulation and ROM packs for other classic gaming systems, provided this is not just another wishful thinking pipe dream (Atari and Arzt are pretty vague on details concerning what games will be available for the system).

I do see this was re-listed as just a regular auction now. I presume some collector will still pay well for it, but it will go for nowhere near the original asking price.

It might be worth a try to buy one of the 'RCA to HDMI converter' mini boxes off eBay. I bought a few of them, which I used to hook a Blu ray player to an older TV for family members; and they did work surprisingly well. Even the one that was running though two different adapters (RCA to HDMI; and also Coax to RCA) for around 12$ it might be something to try?

Ms. Pac-Man is by far the much better game then Pac-Man. Like you said they certainly decided to take their time and do a proper job of it the second go around. For working with the the 2600's limitations, they made I think quite an accurate arcade port this time.

The problem I think is whatever you want of the Atari Box, you can find something already offering it; and usually better and/or cheaper. You want a retro emulator? Pi can do it all and for a lot cheaper then 400$. You want a Steam box? You can build one for a lot cheaper then the Atari Box (remember a SDD drive and Win 10 licence is extra on top of the units price); and you can likely then also upgrade components to it to extend the systems life. With the Atari Box, other then adding memory nothing is upgradable. A problem when as others have said the Ryzen CPU is already becoming outdated and the unit is not even in production yet. Games are not exclusive. You can play everything demoed so far on the Atari Box on another existing system. So again, why drop 400$ on a new system to replicate the ability of an existing system(s) you most likely already own? At least with the Amico, they know what customers they are going for and carving out a market niche for themselves. Atari seems to be trying to do a little bit of everything, and the problem is it is now doing nothing well enough to justify buying the Atari Box. In my opinion the iconic name brand is pretty much the only thing carrying Atari Box sales, and that won't last long once reviews start coming in I expect.

Honestly, if it were not for it being a subscription service (God I loathe being forced into buying access to a game on a reoccurring monthly basis) a lot of the games they demoed look like things I would enjoy playing. I do sometimes enjoy massive world games like Zelda, Fallout and Skyrim; but sometimes you just want to pop in a game and be playing seconds later. This is exactly why my 2600 is hooked to my TV and still sees a lot of use. The Atari Box also still needs its 'Halo', 'Sonic' or 'Mario' system exclusive game if it is going to be a retail success. This latest announcement is more in my line of gaming interest; but certainly not to the point where I would be considering dropping 400$ on a console for it. Especially when it is locked behind 4.99 a month paywall and once again is something that can be accessed on pretty much any device with internet capabilities.

This was back in 2009, but I am reminded of when Turbine took Atari to court for 30 million in damages. With a rather impressive list of grievances, underhanded dealings and outright contract breaches against Atari. It is sad to see what was once an iconic monolith of gaming reduced to nothing more then a name being passed around between various conmen and scam artists; each one wringing just a little bit more out of the brand, not caring in the least how badly it damages the name 'Atari' in the process. Forty years ago, Atari = Gaming in most peoples minds. Now you mention Atari and the first thing that pops to mind is lawsuits, scams and broken promises. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. https://www.engadget.com/2009-08-26-breaking-turbine-sues-atari-over-dungeons-and-dragons-online.html

It is funny, but when I got this game as a kid I played the hell out of it for quite a while, and loved it. But then I had also never been in an arcade at that time. It was not until some time later after I had seen and played Pac-man on a friends Intellivision and played it in an arcade that I realized how truly awful the 2600 version actually was. It is a shame that Atari seemed to have phoned it in on several of the big arcade hits of the time. I would say expecting the name recognition to carry them in sales, rather then doing their very best at creating a fun and faithful conversion (or at least as faithful as you can get with the 2600's hardware). I still fire it up and play it on occasion, but there are certainly better versions available. Even Ms Pac-man for the 2600 was a huge step up in game quality over Pac-man.

I am suspecting there are a few factors here. One would be that Tin Giant feels it has a strong case and expects to win, so then why settle? Which leads right into the second point. Looking at past Atari lawsuits they seem to offer considerably less then what is owed by them and expect that this offer will be taken rather then dragging things out though court. If Tin Giant expects to win, I doubt they would settle for a partial payment on what is owned. Might as well go for the full amount, plus Atari paying the court costs. I think Atari has pulled this scam once too often, and this time Wyatt is not playing along with them.

Er, even from a purely technical standpoint both the Amico and Atari Box have shown to have at the very least working prototypes. So I am not sure where you are coming up with that the Amico is just now looking for someone to build the system? Both have also made mention of manufacturing delays, due to Covid throwing supply chains and Chinese manufacturing for a loop. Something that is hitting all the console manufacturers, not just these two. But the Amico is the one saying there is 'a possibility of delay' and still hoping to meet their 10/10/2020 release date. Unless Atari has access to a time machine, I just do not think they are going to make their December 2019 release date. Or the March 2020 release date. That is two missed releases well before the Covid problems. With their recent 'Good news Everyone!' announcement that after three months they finally managed to produce 96 units, with another 11,000 to go I expect their latest December 2020 release date is eventually not going to look terribly promising either. While neither system might not offer what you are looking for in a gaming console, they are still both very different from each other in pretty much every conceivable metric.