Tavi

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 Being years behind in production means the system specifications are now more out of date, not becoming perfected.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.

I was googling Atari today to see if there was any news on the Atari Box, and I came across this recent article (plus a very informative 20 minute video) on the various Atari 2600 computer peripherals. They discussed and showed information on several announced (and eventually cancelled) components to adapt the 2600 into a home computer. The last half of the video is showing one that actually made production, the CompuMate. The video is very nicely done. Showing off the box, the unit, internals, and the 2600 computer in operation. Very high quality video as well. I thought this might be of interest to some, as at least for myself I certainly have little familiarity with the Atari 2600 computer line. https://hackaday.com/2020/02/29/converting-an-atari-2600-into-a-home-computer-did-that-ever-work/

So the short version of this is that Atari is expecting, by the end of March to early April, to have on hand enough parts at their factory to build 500 Atari Boxes. Which is roughly 5% of what they need just to fulfill their Indiegogo commitments. Depending on how long it takes for their factory to assemble 500 working units (such a small production run I expect would be hand assembled), and considering the slow shipping time to the US from China and you are looking at end of May/early June before any of these 500 units would likely be available to ship to backers. Even then, the huge majority (95%) would still have nothing. That is if Atari even does this very small run of Atari Boxes in the first place. It would make more sense (and be more cost effective) for them to just sit on the parts they have and wait for a larger portion of components to arrive before starting manufacturing rather then to knock off and ship multiple smaller batches. It was a joke at the time when I said it half a year ago 'I will be playing on my Amico before Atari Box backers ever get their units' but it is honestly looking more and more like the truth. Atari is still nowhere close to ready to even begin manufacturing units in a quantity to deliver to their Indiegogo backers, and the the Amico should be starting their manufacturing in just a few months time to be ready for its October release. There is a rapidly increasing possibility that I may just be right this time.

Well, I suppose seeing as Atari already has the backers Indiegogo money and it is now 100% completely up to them if and when they deliver; with absolutely no recourse for said Indiegogo backers if Atari fails, bails or in the quite fitting words of Darth Vader 'I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further' then I suppose comforting self delusion is considerably less stressful then facing the reality that Atari has had substantial problems with the Atari Box, is horribly behind schedule and is very soon going to have to post about yet another delay. Or that by their own metrics they are still not any closer to production then they were six months ago (still in prototype stage, with small batch test unit runs only).

It is hard to tell from the photo, and they only posted the one, but I would say it is brown? I would go with the majority opinion here, and say at some point someone made this themselves out of two parts machines. It seems sensible, but it does make me a little curious at to what someone did to a much newer INTV System III to render the console itself inoperative so that they used the controllers from it to repair an older model of console. Ah well, it is a bit of a mystery! I was just curious if INTV was at some time using up any existing old Intellivision stock and making hybrid systems, but it seems it is just someones do-it-yourself repair job. Still looks rather interesting though, if a bit odd.

I was doing some snooping online and found this Intellivision listed for sale somewhat close to my location. What jumped out at me was the number pads are black and the direction discs are silver, rather then both being the usual gold. Doing some additional digging around online, the controllers look like they are very similar (if not identical) to the ones designed for the Intellivsion System III. The console itself is certainly not a System III. Which now has me curious if old existing console stock was being used up with new hardware (in this case controllers) as needed, or if someone just Frankensteined a console together themselves at some point out of the two different systems? I might nab it just as a curiosity, if nothing else. The price is seems very reasonable, and they say it is in working condition. Plus, my cousin could use one to replace his system which quit working about 20 years ago.

Haha, I guess I stand corrected then. Apparently at least some are quite pleased by this news; which I find rather surprising. I would have suspected there would have been at least a few 'So where are our games for the Atari Box?' queries.

A bit of Atari news today. It seems they are releasing a mobile version of Missile Command, being called 'Missile Command: Recharged' and is being released this spring. I am willing to bet the Atari Box supporters are going to be rather irate that Atari seems to have found the staff, time and resources to design new games to chase that big mobile gaming market money; but have absolutely nothing for designing anything 'exclusive' for their Atari Box system. It certainly does not look promising for the longevity of the system when it is not even out of prototype stage yet and it seems Atari is already moving on to developing other projects. It seems for Atari that chasing new revenue is a much higher priority then honouring their existing commitments is. Addendum: There is a short animated GIF in the article that shows the mobile Missile Command app. Not personally appealing but I imagine they will still make a few bucks off it. https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/3/21162288/atari-missile-command-recharged-android-ios

This Atari Box project has been a comedy of errors right from the initial Kickstarter that Atari had to pull the plug on and still continuing right up until now, years later. What I still feel is perhaps one of their biggest ones is the lack of any exclusives. Like you said they are too small to get the attention of the big developers, I suspect Atari would consider themselves fortunate to even be considered for a few quick and easy ports from them. There is just no money in it. Granted Ouya had tried this and failed, but perhaps the Atari name might have helped them there to attract some gullible indie developers. As so many people have pointed out, without any exclusives everything the Atari Box does can be done by other existing equipment, and often for cheaper. Their one 'Hail Mary' shot at getting any market notice would be to find the next 'Undertale' or 'Cuphead' and get it as a system exclusive. So that Atari seems to have no interest in supporting developers is a little surprising. Even more shocking as going by Wyatt's and Fergal's experience with Atari, I suspect Atari would pull a stunt like Blizzard just did with Warcraft Reforged and write up a contract so everything developed belonged to them alone. But as this entire Atari Box project could be written up as a 'How to Fail Spectacularly in Every Possible way' guide; I guess I should not be that shocked?

Wow, the Atari Box is finally showing off its stuff to the public by demoing its ability to run Anstream. ... which is something my six-year-old Galaxy S5 can do with ease. So I am more then a little underwhelmed if this is the best they have to show on the system. Not exactly fulfilling the 'Game, Stream and Connect like never before' promise. It still will be quite interesting to finally hear some first hand, non-vetted reports on the system and how well it actually runs. As for the backers, I sympathize with them a bit over this. .. but at the same time I am getting a lot of entertainment as a spectator for this non-stop trainwreck of a project!