Tavi

I would love to be added to this list as well, thanks!

I would probably have a bit more confidence in this guarantee, if only Atari had not missed three shipping dates already. Plus if I recall correctly the pre-order people are pretty far down the Atari Box fulfillment list. It would be almost as quick to wait for Walmart or Gamestop to stock them and pick one up from them. It certainly would be a lot cheaper as well as you would not be shelling out the cash upfront and then be waiting on Atari to decide if and when they will deliver. So waiting for physical stock to be available from stores would reduce a lot of the risk involved as well. As a year and a half behind schedule and just 96 units produced, with another 11,000 or so still needed does not instill a lot of confidence. I would be willing to bet big that if Atari does not find an investor using the 96 units they are passing around right now, they will just walk away. I expect they will remind everyone who backed the Indiegogo project that they were 'investing in a vision, not buying a product'. I expect between the additional year and a half of operation costs and Corona driving up component prices; they do not have the money needed to build the backer units. I would say these 'dev kit' units being produced are Atari's Hail Mary play; desperately hoping to find a ̶s̶u̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ investor so blinded by the Atari name they overlook the last few years of ̶f̶l̶a̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶u̶m̶p̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶e̶s̶ setbacks attached to Atari and to the Atari Box project.

I like this little bit : 'It’s an exciting time, as the units from this pallet are now being prepared with games and apps for business-only purposes, including demos for key retail merchants, regional distributors, the Atari PR team/influencers, late-stage dev kits for game testing and other critical purposes.' It seems a lot of these units are being used by Atari to stump up some interest (and I presume more importantly, investment money) in their Atari Box. Which certainly would explain why they need 500 'Dev Kit' units. I am a little impressed as this is one pallet more of Atari Boxes then I had honestly thought would ever reach US shores. I half expected the few prototype and demo units to be the entire production run before they shut it down. Still it is a long, long way from the 11,000 or so additional units they need for their Indiegogo backers. Chesnais and Atari better be a lot better at pitching this Box to investors then they have been in so far in promoting and demoing it.

Granted I am no lawyer, but I am not sure Atari has much of case here. Atari can talk about iconic video game images and how the Atari brand began the billion dollar a year home gaming industry, but the simple fact is they have not actually manufactured any 2600 hardware themselves (including the Atari joystick) for 30-35 years. So I am thinking it would be a challenge to make a case showing how Hyperkin is stealing business from them, or the possibility of product confusion with original 2600 joysticks. Again not an expert, but 'They are making something obviously inspired by something we quit making over three decades ago' is not a strong legal case. I would be surprised if Atari pulls a win out of this one. For a company that now derives most of their income though various lawsuits, they do not seem to be doing well in court recently at all.

I am convinced that Atari had never intended to build the Atari Box. I imagine the plan was this: Run an Indiegogo for the concept of the Atari Box (keep in mind at the time the Indigogo was running Atari had no prototype, and only a handful of actual staff, none of who had any experience with or the skills required to create a new console) and get the Atari brand trending. If the project failed in its funding goal, then they could at least cash out on the increased stock prices. If the Indiegogo succeeded, then plan B was sit back and wait for one of the big players to notice them and buy Atari out for an obscene amount of cash (we can call this the 'Oculus Rift Effect'.), or just wait a bit of time then put out their 'This is a hard letter to write.... you were buying into a vision, not buying a product....' and ride off into the sunset. I really do not think they ever actually planned for having to build the console themselves. When the Atari Box Indiegogo succeeded, and with a surprising three million plus raised, they were now stuck. That is entirely too much money for them to pull an Atari Gameband and disappear with the cash (The US is now pressing class action lawsuits against high dollar fraud campaigns), and none of the big boys were coming to them with a giant novelty cheque for millions to buy them out. So now with no manufacturing capabilities, no engineers, no programmers, absolutely nothing Atari needed to actually build and design a console; Atari had to start right from square one and design then manufacture 11,000 Atari Boxes and do all this for three million dollars. Which brings up to a point I had mentioned a few weeks ago, the five hundred 'Atari Box 'Dev kits'. I would put my money on that Atari is now nearly out of cash; and that five hundred units is all they could afford to manufacture. 260K to Rob Wyatt, 100K or so for Feargal Mac Conuladh; add on three years worth of of salary and expenses (I bet Arzt pays himself handsomely) and top with considerably increased costs of electronic components need for the Atari box and I would think that the initial three million is now pretty much finished. I would bet that the majority of these five hundred units is their 'Hail Mary' throw, and they are desperately shopping them around as demo units while looking for some investor money to pay for the actual production. Of course this is all 100% conjecture on my part and I could be completely wrong about this. But looking at Atari's 'no news is good news' consistent silence on most aspects of the project, the repeated missed deadlines bringing them to now a year and a half past their initial delivery date with still no real idea when production is even beginning, critical staff quitting and then suing them for delinquent payment and I will certainly believe they are experiencing serious problems over believing everything is perfectly fine, but Atari just doesn't feel like keeping their backers updated.

As the title states, I came across a new listing on eBay this morning for an Intellivision II being sold with computer keyboard and adapter. The listing also includes a spare controller, a few games, and two rather nifty looking joystick adapters. It does not appear to have the original boxes, but all parts do look in excellent condition. According to the listing all parts have been tested and are working. Might be a good deal for someone looking? https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Mattel-Intellivision-2-Console-Keyboard-Computer-Adapter-Games-TESTED/274391741116?hash=item3fe305b2bc:g:y6oAAOSwyB9e3pzH ... as I forgot to mention it somehow, the opening bid is 80 USD.

I do recall seeing 'Afterlife with Archie' and the 'Archie meets The Punisher' crossover, so they do a lot of crossovers! I completely missed seeing this crossover though, looks like quite the interesting idea.

*EDIT* .... and I just realized this was part of the last update; so nothing new here at all.

... well, to myself it means Atari has for a third time recycled the same bit of news concerning the 500 units as fulfilling their 'monthly' (which seems to take an average of 5 weeks now) Indiegogo backer update. Seeing they estimate completion in Mid-June, I do wonder if they are going to go for broke on four; and the end of June update will be some variation of 'We shipped the 500 units'. That it will have taken them three months to assemble 500 units (barring any new and additional delays) is not very encouraging. Granted this is an initial run but still at slightly under 5% completion per 3 months, it would take them a bit over five years to produce the units needed to fulfill their Indiegogo backer obligations. Let's hope they can streamline that timetable a bit. It is nice to see them demoing something other then Antsteam and Atari Vault; it does give hope that there may indeed actually be some development taking place for the Atari box. The addition of a disclaimer "Please also note that everything shown here is for demonstration purposes only and nothing appearing in these videos should be taken as official announcements or promises of any specific content in the Atari VCS store." is a little less encouraging. Seeing that all titles being shown demoed are available on Steam (except Warzone), I am highly suspecting they are playing them in sandbox mode and conveniently neglected to mention this fact. That said, it is impressive to see that they got COD: Warzone to run on the Atari Box. It is a modified unit of course, but still it actually runs it. Which is more then I expected of it. Their 'Escape from New York: Atari Box Edition' part of the dev blog was an entertaining read. I still liked the original better though I think.

I have to admit the level of self-delusion coming from the Indiegogo lately is impressive. Sorry but system components are not like wine, and do not actually get better with age. Being years behind in production means the system specifications are now more out of date, not becoming perfected. In other totally-not-in-the-least-bit-surprising news; Atari has once again missed fulfilling their Indiegogo campaign requirement of providing updates on a project at least once a month by five and an half days now. Making this the third time in a row they have missed meeting this deadline. ... but then missed deadlines does seem to be the Atari Box main claim to fame so far! There does seem to be a lot of hope in the Indiegogo comment section about Atari making a big update on the two year anniversary of the project. Personally, I am thinking if Atari marks the occasion at all it is going to be with some kind of retrospective on the project, throwing in some vague 'We hope that..' non-information on where the project is at now and passing it all off as their (already late) required monthly update. I guess we will see what happens on the 30th?

Oh, really? I am surprised. I would have thought this was someone selling off their collection; you would think it would be quite difficult to find that much vintage electronics to be able to make repeated listing for it. Must be well connected then! But reading though his feedback, you seem to be correct as there is a lot of similar types of sales in his history. Ah well, still fun to look at his latest batch then!

As the title says, I found a new listing that looks like someone is selling off their complete vintage electronics collection. Mostly handhelds, tabletops and consoles, with a few game cartridge lots thrown in. There is Atari, an Odyssey 1, a Tandyvision and an Intellivision, plus a few interesting things like an Atari keyboard controller with Basic Programming and a Yars' Revenge patch. A gorgeous collection, everything looks boxed, complete and mint. I expect most will go for far out of my price range, but it is still fun to look! https://www.ebay.ca/sch/speedyshipper/m.html?item=114235123661&hash=item1a98f1a7cd%3Ag%3A2J4AAOSwLllek76t&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562 ADDENDUM: It looks legitimate as well. They have a 18,758 feedback rating, and a top rated seller.

I wonder if this is going to be used by Atari as one fulfilling one of of their Indiegogo 'Backer Updates' that they put out every 5 weeks or so. Seriously stretching their obligation to Indiegogo backers: "Indiegogo expects campaign owners to post updates on their Indiegogo campaign at least once a month, both while your campaign is live and after it ends until all perks are completely fulfilled." The did manage to milk announcing having the parts to build 500 units (and that no backer was getting one of them) into covering two updates; 'Good news! We have parts to make 500 Units!' and then 'Good news! We have now decided to assemble the parts to make 500 units!'. Oh, and 'Good news! Indiegogo backers will not get any of the 500! Which brings me to an interesting aside, if I can wander into Amico territory for a bit. Tommy has stated in a recent OEB Pete interview (May 18th, 2nd video at 19:25) that there are going to be around 100 test units manufactured; including their Dev Kit units. This makes me very curious as to why Atari wants 500 test units; or around 5% of what they need to produce to fulfill their Indiegogo commitments. Granted I have never manufactured a console before (But then neither has Arzt), but reserving 5% of your production run for testing and development purposes seems highly excessive. Two scenarios come to mind to explain this. A) Atari is pulling off a massive coup, and is planning on coming out swinging with building five times the consoles and developing five times games of the Amico, or B) Atari is once again being highly misleading about what they are really up to. I know which choice I would put my money on.

I certainly agree something does not add up. You would think for the number of dev kits they are building and sending out, that there would also be something out there about who is working on it and what they are making. It is not like it needs to be a secret after all. Pure speculation and personal opinion on my part here (so don't sue me Arzt), but seeing that Atari is already almost a year and a half behind schedule on their Atari Box and Corona is now making the needed parts more expensive; I am wondering if at this point Atari simply does not have the money needed to produce the Indiegogo backer units. So with that in mind it is possible that the silence around the 500 'dev kits' is because they are going out to potential investors in an attempt to raise needed funds, and not to actual software developers for the console. It would explain why they need so many units, and yet refuse to say anything about who or what they are being used for. You would think Atari would be promoting the hell out of any actual development taking place; seeing that Antstream seems to be the only one so far. Contrary to the opinion of Atari, no news is not good news. No news makes it look like you have nothing to offer; and/or something to hide, either of which is not exactly a big selling feature.

The cartridges all look to be in pretty decent shape surprisingly, but those Coleco controllers are in terrifying condition though. One looks like it has considerable mold and water damage, the other may as well (I see the disc sticker is gone, and white residue on it). Thankfully, they are removable and replaceable if the console itself is salvageable.

I have tried a few different joysticks on my Atari 2600 and I have to say the one I keep going back to is a Quickshot II. It is comfortable to use, has both a top thumb and trigger fire button, and has mechanical contacts so it is quite solidly constructed. I also find it to be a very responsive joystick. A quick look on eBay shows them at around 25$ plus shipping. However, if you are looking for something a bit more like the original Atari joystick, I have a pair of Gemstik controllers and I find they are quite decent to use. As a bonus they are quite common and relatively cheap. Another quick search on eBay I see them anywhere from 10-25$ plus shipping, and quite a few listings I see are part of a joystick lot; meaning you would get a few other joysticks to try out as well. Of course, ask ten people what is the best joystick and you will likely get ten different answers!

Atari it seems is a very slow learner. They already got their hand slapped on Reddit for doing this exact same thing; muting and deleting anyone who dared to speak of the Atari Box with anything less then fanatical praise, leading to the rather hilarious situation where Atari was stripped of mod status in their own Reddit for abusing it. It would be nice if Indiegogo rapped Atari's knuckles as well, but I really cannot see Atari caring much. They already have the backers money, so anything Indiegogo does at this point is likely going to be met with little more then a shrug by Atari. Update #28 is pretty underwhelming. Five weeks since update #27, and the update is essentially Atari announcing they are finally getting around to assembling the parts they have been sitting on for the last month and some. Oh, and a reminder that no backers are getting a unit from this batch. "These important Atari VCS Onyx systems are mainly earmarked for additional content developers, merchant and distributor samples and other critical business uses such as standard reliability testing, in advance of the full 10,000 unit run" One year, four months behind schedule and still no word from Atari when backer units will be produced and shipped. I am not surprised a few of the Atari Box backers are getting a little irate.

Just installed a set of controller membranes in my Tandyvision today. They work perfectly, I have absolutely no complaints!

Just a bit of an update. I bought two sets of controller mylars from SellMyRetro, and they arrived Wed. I installed them today and it seems that was at least one of the problems with the Tandyvision. Both controllers work perfectly now! Now I am going to settle in and play me the hell out of some Cloudy Mountain and Lock and Chase :D Thanks to everyone for all the help, I am up and running 100%.

It seems to be a reoccurring pattern at Atari, refusing to pay their bills and/or re-writing signed contracts to their advantage, forcing it to go to court and then settling out for less then what was actually owed. I can see why Atari does it, why pay everything you owe someone when you can force them to settle for considerably less rather then the hassle of fighting it out in court forever, but you would think soon they are going to burn enough bridges that they will get to a point where no-one will be willing to sign a deal with them. If you know they will quite happily knife you in the back first chance they get if they think it will save them a buck, that reputation would make it challenging to find people willing to work for you I would think.

For some reason your video shows up as an audio-only clip on my computer? But I would suggest that trying a better video cable is an excellent place to start for interference problems. From personal experience I found a lot of my RCA cable problems came from less-then-great quality cables. You might try just moving the cables around a bit as well, as the current routing might have it too close to something it is picking up some signal noise from? I find that can help as well.

The only thing I find interesting out of this whole demo is ...

I would say for serious competitive head to head action, Joust, Wizard of Wor, hockey or Warlords. For light competition gameplay I would say try Fishing Derby. For cooperative, Mario Bros (you can't bump-grief each other like in the arcade version). This would be my short list anyways!

Wow... sporting a pair like that, I am shocked Arzt can even walk. Atari is now months (not weeks) behind on fulfilling their Indiegogo commitment with absolutely no idea if/when they will be able to start production, and they decide to announce a new wait list where people can sign up to be third in line to receive a unit after the 10K+ backer units and existing pre-orders are manufactured and delivered. You would think they would be a lot more concerned with how they are going to fulfill their existing and very overdue obligations rather then trying to eke out a few more sales for a product that they already cannot deliver.

That is actually quite cool! I would want them just for the cover art, but I imagine they command a pretty hefty price with collectors.