Tavi

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.

This is why the last few years I outright refuse to buy any new AAA title on release. You pay 40-60$ for what is all to often now a barely playable bare bones base game. Then they immediately start with a stream of exclusives, DLC's, scenario/add-on's, skins and anything else they can think of to hit you in the wallet with. It is a lot more economical to wait until everything is released, and then buy it as one complete package. But unfortunately there seem to be a too many people all too happy to drop 100-150$ into a single title buying it a piece at a time, so studios keep developing games to this formula because it is highly profitable for them.

E.T. might just be now the one satisfied backer of this project? It would be interesting to hear if he had been demanding a refund (in which case, good on you for getting it!) or if they forced one one just to get him out of their hair? I am still waiting for Atari to announce their third delay, which I expect will have a few more howling for their money back. Just 6 days ago their 'big news' was a limited run of pre-production development test units. Though to be completely fair their accompanying video of the Atari Box actually powering on and functional was an unexpected reveal. I would be absolutely astounded and more then a little concerned if their next announcement (supposedly there will be one today?) was for full production. I would question if anyone has even received their dev kit Atari Box in only six days from China; let alone had a chance to thoroughly test it and put it through its paces prior to greenlighting for production.

Looks like your VCS is now functioning perfectly! Missile Command is I think one of the more enjoyable games to play for the system, it works surprisingly well with a joystick. Glad to see you are up and running!

In reading the text from the update, it seems they have a functional design but are limiting the production so far to some 'dev kits'. I presume so the GUI can be built and tested on the actual hardware; and so that any ̶h̶o̶r̶r̶i̶f̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶w̶s̶ undocumented features of the unit itself are hopefully discovered before they go into full production. It does appear while they do have an operational system (which was certainly my big shock of the day), they are still not advanced enough with it to move out of the prototype stage and into production. Atari is quite a bit further ahead with the Atari Box then I thought; but I still cannot see them meeting their latest deadline for manufacturing and delivery.

I have to admit to being a little impressed. I honestly had some serious doubts that they were anywhere close to having a functional Atari Box. They still have absolutely no chance of meeting their March delivery deadline, and my 5 years old laptop can do everything the Atari Box just showed; but it seems Atari does at least have built an operational product. This is the the kind of meat-and-potatoes update they should be producing for their backers rather then 'No news is good news'. There would be a lot less worried and angry people if they did so.

I am always a little disappointed when eating at my local Taco Bell by how the tacos I get actually look. But they are cheap and do taste good, which are the truly important factors I suppose. ... and now I want some Taco Bell!

It seems Atari is finally being forced into producing another status report soon; that should be an interesting read. If I were a Atari Box backer, I would be fairly incensed at the sound of goalposts being dragged by Atari for the third time on a delivery date. "Weeks, not months' and 'March' were repeated promises; now that the deadline is almost here, suddenly the delivery date is 'still this spring'. Conveniently extending their deadline from anywhere between March to May. I had said this a week or two ago half in jest, but I really might be playing on my Amico before Atari finally manages to produce and ship their Atari Box. Months past their original shipping date, and still no real sign they are anywhere near ready for mass production. I am not shocked that even the more die hard supporters are starting to get upset at this point.

I do not know how to link/copy posts from another forum topic, but there was a modified .bin that works perfectly with Harmony (I have played it myself a fair bit with no problems). I will try to copy the link to the file for you at least: https://atariage.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=669907

That is hilarious! It is also a little disturbing a satire magazine article has just asked better questions of Atari then we have had from any other article or interview to date. What did Atari spend the 3M+ indiegogo funding on? Is the Atari Box going to actually make their March deadline? (Spoiler; no, no they are not). Is Atari desperate for cash? Are they going to use that 600K to get the Atari Box into production and over the finish line? Perhaps this Louis Prada should give the next interview with Atari. It would be nice to have someone asking the questions we all want to know rather then lobbing softballs and coming off sounding like an infomercial for the Atari Box.