Tavi

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!

I am suspecting it is in part because as soon as they say 'Don't blame us, blame COVID-19!' people will quite rightly and quickly point out they were not even close to being production ready before the outbreak occurred. So it would be a pretty half-assed excuse. But despite how flimsy it is, it is also the best (only?) excuse they have for announcing yet another missed deadline and new delay. Thus I am expecting them to run with it anyways at some point.

I am thinking May is a the absolute soonest anything could be delivered to backers. Just a few weeks ago their update mentioned that they had just produced another handful of Atari Box developer test units. Which I am certainly no expert on console production and design, but to me it sounds like while they are perhaps closer now to 'Production' then 'Prototype', actual mass production seems like it is still a ways off yet. Sea freight time alone from China to the US is 4 to 6 weeks, putting Atari over their 'Weeks not Months' March 31st delivery deadline right there. The only thing I am curious about is why Atari is putting off announcing this latest new delay. Atari certainly knows they have to move their delivery goalpost yet again, and the backers have to know that there is now no possibility of them having product in hand by March 31st. So if everyone involved knows otherwise, I fail to see what purpose is there in still pretending they still might meet their March 31st delivery date?

I am thinking the key missing element is their inability to find and keep someone willing to design for them from the ground up a system that not even Atari themselves seems to know what they want it to be or do. Seeing that no-one at Atari has any practical knowledge or experience in the sort of work required for this project. Oh, and from their prior history with Wyatt and Feargal, it seems this person will be doing all of this work out of the goodness of their heart. As it seems there is no room in the 3 million dollar budget to pay the people actually creating the Atari Box for Atari. ... but once Atari solves that little problem of finding someone willing to do all the work for them in return for absolutely nothing; I am certain the rest of of the project will go quickly and much smoother.

We could use shops like that here in the West! So many electronics get tossed when they can likely be repairable, but no-one works on them anymore.

Ick. I will have to give it a try tomorrow and see if this is correct. I had plugged in Mouse Trap and other then selecting players and difficulty (both at 2, as 1 was non-responsive) I never had tried the side buttons; I just ran the mouse around the maze a while to test that the directional disc was working properly. Ah well, I guess 50$ CAD or so is a bit of a hit (The UK seller has increased his prices to 12 Pounds each membrane; just my luck!) but at least I know they will work being brand new.

Nice! Finding a cheap non-functioning console, yet with the controls remaining in decent shape was I think going to be a bit of a challenge. If my experience with Atari 2600's is anything to go by, the controls tend to take a lot more of a beating then the consoles ever do. This will certainly be the much better way to go at it. Buying brand new controller membranes takes all the luck and guesswork out of shopping around for some used parts. Thanks for the link, I will give him a shout next week and order myself a set.

I pulled both controllers apart today, and I snipped about an inch off the wire of the frayed one and moved the grommet down to the unbroken cable casing. Which seemed to have helped a bit, the controller is now working except the 1, 4, (I am presuming 7) and clear buttons are non-functional. but the disc and other buttons are working, so I will call that a partial win. The other controller is a complete write-off I am thinking though. Upon dissembling it I found considerable wear on the disc controller contacts (worn through entirely at a few points) and it looks like it also has shorted out at some point (possibly from the wear) and some of the electrical traces look scorched on the disc and keypad. Ah well. It was 35$ with 23 games so I can hardly feel ripped off. I enjoyed taking it all apart and working on it, plus the console itself works perfectly so in theory all I should have to do is find a non-functional Intellivision and move the controllers over to have myself a functional Tandyvision.

I did have a better look at it this morning, and it is indeed broken off inside the grommet. Some pulling and wiggling did move the broken piece a tiny bit so I am thinking I will try your suggestion and see if I can remove the broken bit and move the grommet down. It is a long weekend so thankfully I will have a lot of time to fiddle with it.

Well, if I can just move the grommet that certainly would make it a lot easier. I just assumed the cable casing broke just past it (Wouldn't be the first time I saw that on a controller cable) I will have a look at it again tomorrow morning and see; the controller casing is drying out right now so I am in not a huge hurry to re-assemble it. This was going to be my weekend project, but I decided to get a head start on it tonight. I am also a bit surprised to hear there is a connector for the controllers. The biggest complaint I always heard was the controllers were non-removable, so I guess I had it in the back of my mind they were likely soldered right to the console board; I never even thought to look. It is good I have a few options to tackle this with tomorrow. Thanks Mr_Me!

I recently bought a Tandyvision off eBay, and I was taking it apart and giving it a good cleaning. Plus, there was a worrying rattle to the case when you shook it, which ended up being a small toy that somehow was stuck inside the main unit ? I had put the console back together and was doing the controllers next when I found a wad of black electrical tape on the cable inside one of the controllers. I removed it and discovered that the protective casing had split just past the grommet exposing the wiring, which the wire looks perfectly fine thankfully. I certainly do not want to leave them exposed, but am not terribly keen on making another wad of tape to patch it either. Unlike other controllers I have worked on, the cable on the Intellivision is fixed into the console so replacing it I assume would be a royal pain. As I am relatively new to actually owning an Intellivision (35 years late to the party, but better then never!) I am wondering if there are any recommendations for a decent, or at least nicer looking fix then a ball of electrical tape? Many thanks!

A year and some ago I bought a lot of Atari 2600 games through eBay from what I imagine was a pawn shop cleaning out some old stock they had tucked away in a box in the back for years. Most of them did not work right out of the box, they were pretty dusty and a lot of oxidation on the contacts. I found that cleaning the cartridge contacts with a q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol, some of them requiring a few q-tips, was all that the majority of them needed to become functional again. That is were I would start at. It is not a very aggressive way of cleaning so I do not believe it should hurt the contacts any; at least I have never had a problem with cleaning them this way so far myself. For a 2600, but the exact same process. In fact, probably easier as there is no dust shield to fight with on the Intellivison cartridges

Sort of? They must have given Walmart and GameStop a definite delivery date as they both have been advertising a shipping date of Tuesday, March 31st to those pre-ordering. That is just a bit over six weeks from now. As they are not even into production, let alone being ready to ship from China to the US, I am thinking as of right now I likely have a higher possibility of winning the lottery while being abducted by aliens then Atari has at meeting that deadline.

Ouch >_< That is a terrible deal. I am thinking they must have been starstruck with the once-prestigious name 'Atari' and failed to do any due diligence into what the company has actually been doing (or failing at, to be more accurate). At this point I am not sure Atari could find a way to turn a profit selling ice cold water in a desert, so WonderOS banking on anything resembling a cut of these non-existent Atari profits is a grim prospect. Either that, and perhaps slightly hilariously, each one signed with the expectation the other will bail them out of their companies problems. That at least has the potential for some serious entertainment!

There is nothing wrong with adding features or updates to add content to a game to extend its life (and sales, of course). Fallout 3 or Borderlands 2 are excellent examples of this. A great and 100% complete core game with several completely optional DLC's to extend playability being released later. What I object to is supposedly 'complete' games like Crusader Kings II being sold, that play more like a demo of a game then an actual game. Which I see they have finally made Free to Play on Steam; but for years it was being previously sold for around 40$ (though a few times a year it was on sale). Still, at the time you spent up to 40$ to buy the game. Then you quickly realized you need the 50$ DLC package just to make it playable. If you want to play something resembling the full game, now you are shelling out around an extra 200-300$. It is an extreme example, but I feel the trend is games are moving slowly towards this model; piling on those profitable micro-transactions and not-very-optional DLC's on top of an already hefty AAA title price.

To completely derail this topic, but I am wondering if this system does have a 'VCS on a chip' if these units could be a suitable replacement for those looking for the holy grail Jr. 2600's with the single chip? From my understanding they are quite rare, and also difficult to discover if a system actually has one or not short of opening the case up.

... this comment by VM pretty much nails this latest Atari 'Good News Everyone!' (It helps if you read that with a Professor Farnsworth voice) announcement right on its head. In reading it it seems Atari is pleased to announce their buying a platform to get their foot in the door with the mobile gaming market. Which Arzt is probably ecstatic about as his driving motivation seems to be getting Atari stock values up just long enough for him to cash out and scamper. Reading a few of the Indiegogo posts it seems at least some of the Atari Box backers are a little less then impressed with Atari looking at expanding into new markets when they have yet to deliver anything to those still waiting on their already much delayed 'un-console'. Perhaps as was suggested, Atari should concentrate on finally producing an Atari Box before worrying about the potential for cross-platform sales. At least that is how you would do it if you were honestly trying to build a system you intended to support. If you are just continuously and desperately chasing a buck then of course you are always looking for the next sale rather then worrying about those who's money you already have pocketed. I certainly would be worried as a backer that Atari is already seemingly back-burnering their own product before it is even finished. It certainly does not look promising for how well or long they intend to support it; provided it does even reach market.