Atari PAC-MAN Fan Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 I love my Atari flashback portable, but if they want more of money, they should make a Colecovision flashback portable and an Intellivision Flashback Portable. But, for know, we can only dream. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 I love my Atari flashback portable, but if they want more of money, they should make a Colecovision flashback portable and an Intellivision Flashback Portable. But, for know, we can only dream. Those are impractical as inexpensive handhelds. You'd need to do something like Flojomojo indicated, which, as we know, was not cheap to do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 I love my Atari flashback portable, but if they want more of money, they should make a Colecovision flashback portable and an Intellivision Flashback Portable. But, for know, we can only dream. Nintendo DS has an official Intellevision collection, and if you can run homebrew, FluBBa's S8DS emulator can run Colecovision pretty well (also runs Sega SG-1000, Master System, and Game Gear). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari PAC-MAN Fan Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Did you make that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Oh heavens no. It's a Benjamin Heckendorn thing. There are decent Colecovision/MSX emulators for Android that run okay. Most CV games don't need the keypads for game action, just starting stuff, so they can be remapped to action buttons or finagled with virtual buttons. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 This does not have to be the case. Inclusion in an official product like a Flashback would arguably give the developer a free pass. However, some homebrew devs have chosen not to work with AtGames - even with non-infringing, original creations - because they're afraid of being "noticed" for their other, infringing creations. Frankly, I consider that a bit of a simplistic viewpoint, because at least of the companies I've had limited dealings with through my AtGames and other relationships, most are either well aware of what's going on or have people who are well aware of what's going and choose to do nothing about it (and in some cases, love it). Of course, if homebrew stuff that infringed wasn't kept low key like it is (selling a few hundred copies at best), I'm sure more would suddenly start to care. It's one thing doing what is essentially fan service and it's another starting to profit in a big way from someone else's property.I think a lot of homebrews games really do pay a nice homage to the IP they are based on. Only Nintendo seems to be attacking homebrew efforts (R.I.P. Princess Rescue) while ignoring the guys making illegal bootlegs and repros in their garages (at least until AliExpress completely undercut the garage repro business by selling bargain basement fakes), kind of like the counterproductive way Disney has sued tattoo artists and day care centers that comission murals of their characters, literally pissing all over their own fanbase. Seems Nintendo at least has given up trying to shut down "adult" fanart (they filed hundreds of takedown notices on places like deviantart circa 2005 or so) but still actively shut down any fanmade game related projects that fall through the woodwork. Like whenever we hear of Mario or Zelda games getting ported to unity or unreal engine, and the project is shut down no later than three days after it's announced to the world. Sometimes I wonder why these dev teams even waste their time trying to port Mario 64 or OOT to modern PC hardware. It's not like Nintendo of Japan is going to somehow offer you a job because you knocked off their IP. They don't work that way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 Who is the target market for AtGames Flashback consoles? Anyone with fifty bucks? Or is there more to it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 Who is the target market for AtGames Flashback consoles? Anyone with fifty bucks? Or is there more to it? Primarily the average (read: not necessarily a gamer, although steps have been taken to address that market too) consumer who recognizes games or properties and wants to relive nostalgic experiences for themselves or loved ones. Certainly price point plays a role as well, as it trends towards impulse buys. They really are considered 'toys" rather than something to compete with mainstream consoles or handhelds. So yeah, that's why featuring key game properties is so important, as is trying to replicate original controls when possible, and also of course why price point has classically been so important and the challenges that come as a result of that. Of course, as stated multiple times, some of those ideas/assumptions are going to be challenged this year thanks to the NES Mini helping to open up more market opportunities with retailers, particularly when it comes to charging more money (to naturally go along with a much desired bump in specs/features). As such, it will be interesting to see if more of the core gaming market might become interested/supportive than was previously possible for products like this not named NES Mini. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downland1983 Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 Anecdote: when I brought home a 7800 in ~1989, one of my roommates in my group house was impressed that I had found a "5200." Another was critical of Pitfall as being the same little task, over and over again. A third offered to lend me his seldom-played ColecoVision. I would only assume the old systems were completely forgotten to all but the most faithful Atarians by now. I'm probably among their number and even I don't really care. My younger brother and I got a 7800 for Christmas in 1988. I remember being somewhat disappointed playing it and Pole Position II after having seen and played games like the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros on other people's NES'. We were ecstatic to get an NES for Christmas the following year. Poor timing. We probably would have appreciated it more in 1984 when it was originally supposed to launch. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 My younger brother and I got a 7800 for Christmas in 1988. I remember being somewhat disappointed playing it and Pole Position II after having seen and played games like the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros on other people's NES'. We were ecstatic to get an NES for Christmas the following year. Poor timing. We probably would have appreciated it more in 1984 when it was originally supposed to launch. This may or may not be loosely related, but I find as more time separates some of the older videogames and computer games with the here and now, more games get added to the "no longer interested" or "no longer playable because I'm spoiled by modern amenities" pile. Of course, there are still tons of classic games just as playable (and enjoyable) today as they were back in the day, but I think it's harder to tolerate some of the more borderline or quirky titles than it would have, say, even 10 years ago. And certainly some classics inevitably get added to that pile. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Well one way this could beat a Nes mini is actually appear on shelves 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 This may or may not be loosely related, but I find as more time separates some of the older videogames and computer games with the here and now, more games get added to the "no longer interested" or "no longer playable because I'm spoiled by modern amenities" pile. Of course, there are still tons of classic games just as playable (and enjoyable) today as they were back in the day, but I think it's harder to tolerate some of the more borderline or quirky titles than it would have, say, even 10 years ago. And certainly some classics inevitably get added to that pile. Games were simpler then. I remember firing up Bomberman R and the storyline and cutscenes were so banal I just wanted the characters to stfu so I could get into the game. The actual gameplat isn't bad, but I still was longing for a more top-down angle. Somehow the new flare doesn't do justice to the classic 16-bit ports. I did test out online mode early friday morning (March 3rd at launch) by playing one round and quickly whupped their butt 0-3, but two my opponents losses were self destructs. Seems my classic training paid off though, there were aspects of the game mechanics (such as throwing bombs over walls) that I didn't understand. Still much better than that 3D wtf-is-this N64 port I just dloaded the other day on Wii-U VC. And I just D/L'd the Japanese Tetris+Puyo demo by setting up a bogus account and changed console regions so I could log into the eShop. And Puyo Puyo swapping between Tetris seemed so ADD to me it's unreal (I have severe adult ADHD btw). Once again, like Bomberman everything that made the originals great has been exaggerated. I still love it though, will definitely pick up the US version. I only hope they don't try to "westernize" the characters too much. Splatoon has shown that a very Japan stylized IP can be very well received. I may pick up Splat later this year since I totally skipped the Wii-U version. Moving forward, there's a big divide between the NES / 16-bit era and precrash (I'm lumping 7800 as pre-crash since it was slated for release in 1984 with mostly arcade ports). I know that's a misnomer since Famicom technically came out in 1983. Most of the best 7800 games were arcade ports and many of the others were generic filler even if they had impressive graphics. Atari was very much stuck in the past trying to deliver arcade like experiences to the home as NES were pushing great new games with bright colors and popping visuals. So it's understandable that there is a disconnect that remains to this day in the public's eye when it comes to Atari vs Nintendo / Sega, precrash vs NES and 16-bits. It's a tough sell to casual consumers, and only the cheapness really sells units. They won't sell more units while improving quality if it means cost increase, though if they can somehow improve emulation quality, both the cheap sku and the premium sku would benefit, assuming they run on similar technology. But if the premium model is just HDMI + $20 retail, without fixing the crapulation, then what's the point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 From my horizon, while it seems the NES Mini was nearly equally priced all over the world (as long as you could buy it at all), the few AtGames products I've seen resellers offering over here are priced 2-3 times what they're selling for in the US. I suppose that is due to retailer networks vs direct import, but internationally market shares will depend a lot on what units can be sold for, in particular after the talk about premium units which I fear would nearly be in the price range of a Xbox One or PlayStation 4 over here. No matter how much you love the Atari 2600, Sega Genesis or even Mattel Intellivision, it still is a direct to TV game which should not cost almost as much as a current gen play-anything console. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 From my horizon, while it seems the NES Mini was nearly equally priced all over the world (as long as you could buy it at all), the few AtGames products I've seen resellers offering over here are priced 2-3 times what they're selling for in the US. I suppose that is due to retailer networks vs direct import, but internationally market shares will depend a lot on what units can be sold for, in particular after the talk about premium units which I fear would nearly be in the price range of a Xbox One or PlayStation 4 over here. No matter how much you love the Atari 2600, Sega Genesis or even Mattel Intellivision, it still is a direct to TV game which should not cost almost as much as a current gen play-anything console. Does Atgames even distribute in PAL territories? All their hardware is NTSC I believe which is a problem, even if 90% of consumer sets made after the 90s (tube or not) can handle 60Hz refresh and NTSC encoding. So only resellers and importers would be dealing these units in PAL land I think. An official distributer would get product there cheaply, possibly $60 USD (or equivalent in Pounds / Euros) after import duty, compared to $40 stateside. A 50% markup for imports is understandable, 200-300%, not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 (edited) Does Atgames even distribute in PAL territories? All their hardware is NTSC I believe which is a problem, even if 90% of consumer sets made after the 90s (tube or not) can handle 60Hz refresh and NTSC encoding. So only resellers and importers would be dealing these units in PAL land I think. An official distributer would get product there cheaply, possibly $60 USD (or equivalent in Pounds / Euros) after import duty, compared to $40 stateside. A 50% markup for imports is understandable, 200-300%, not so much. http://www.funstockretro.co.uk/ is one official distributor. These are re-branded as necessary for the PAL market, although I'm not sure if the video signal is changed. I seem to recall it wasn't, but don't quote me on that. The power adapter is, though. Edited March 24, 2017 by BillLoguidice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted March 24, 2017 Author Share Posted March 24, 2017 ^^ that's where I would look ... they advertise heavily in the UK Retro Gamer magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Yeah. Perhaps I exaggerated a little with the 3X but the few resellers I've seen over here, whether they are official or just happened to import a small batch to resell, end up with prices in a different category than what I believe the Flashback units normally are supposed to sell for. There are other D2TV or handheld devices off China that are significantly cheaper though, which in a comparison would need the Flashbacks to clearly be better and more powerful devices - which they surely are, just that a buyer that isn't updated on what they're buying might not realize it, a problem that would not arise at a slightly lower price point. There is little or nothing to do about it though, just my observations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 http://www.funstockretro.co.uk/ is one official distributor. These are re-branded as necessary for the PAL market, although I'm not sure if the video signal is changed. I seem to recall it wasn't, but don't quote me on that. The power adapter is, though. http://www.funstockretro.co.uk/atari-flashback-7-plug-and-play-retro-games-console £60 for one unit, with £5.99 shipping to the rest of Europe isn't bad, certainly a far cry from the "2-3x price hike" certain resellers are charging. It still ain't $50 USD, but far better than $150 or whatever the eBay resellers charge. Factor in the high price of shipping large parcels outside the US, you couldn't ask for better rates and convenience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 http://www.funstockretro.co.uk/atari-flashback-7-plug-and-play-retro-games-console £60 for one unit, with £5.99 shipping to the rest of Europe isn't bad, certainly a far cry from the "2-3x price hike" certain resellers are charging. It still ain't $50 USD, but far better than $150 or whatever the eBay resellers charge. Factor in the high price of shipping large parcels outside the US, you couldn't ask for better rates and convenience. It isn't now with a GBP->USD at 1.25, but when it was >1.6 it pushed it (it's a 20% difference just in conversion) (if you prefer GBP->EUR at 1.15 instead of ~ 1.4) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+S.D.W. Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 (edited) Thinking about the new platforms... the Sega Master System, Arcade, and TG16 seem the most likely to me. Looking forward to an announcement. I do wish they would have improved the Colecovision's crappy controller though, I loved the system but hated the stubby joystick. Same goes for the Intellivision, great system but hated that damn control disc. Edited March 29, 2017 by 917k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 TG16 has previously been ruled out, but with sudden changes as the rumoured Intellivision Flashback 2 who knows which other surprises might show up? Arcade is a generic system as almost each game used its own cocktail of chips. I know there were a few more standardized arcade platforms so if AtGames has implemented one of those, games for that one might be possible to license. Anyway, I could buy the Atari Flashback 7 at the price range of 699 SEK (mail order, special price) to 799 SEK (recommended retail price) which equals $79 to $89. I understand Walmart sells it at $42.99 and Amazon.com at $47.99, which means over here it costs more than 80% more than you can pick it up for. Indeed 25% of that price is VAT so if it is discounted the difference is "only" 47% but as a private person you can't escape VAT anyway. On the other hand it seems I was a bit off with the NES Mini too. Its MSRP was $59.99, and the recommended price over here seems to have been 790 SEK ~= $89 so indeed 48% higher price, or 15% after discounting for the VAT. That kind of markup to compensate for shipping etc I can live with. For comparison, an Xbox One S 500 GB + FIFA17 bundle starts at 2000 SEK ~= $220 (including VAT), compared to Walmart similar bundles starting at $240, so in that case the two are perfectly equally priced. I understand that Walmart might not be the cheapest retailer when it comes to video games, but also not the most expensive one. Now modern consoles like what Microsoft, Sony and I suppose also Nintendo are selling have different pricing structures so not directly comparable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Thinking about the new platforms... the Sega Master System, Arcade, and TG16 seem the most likely to me. I believe SMS was already ruled out. It wouldn't be a new platform, either, there have been a few PNPs and portables.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Thinking about the new platforms... the Sega Master System, Arcade, and TG16 seem the most likely to me. Looking forward to an announcement. I do wish they would have improved the Colecovision's crappy controller though, I loved the system but hated the stubby joystick. Same goes for the Intellivision, great system but hated that damn control disc. This year there won't be new platforms on the console or portable sides, and we're still working out the next entries in the Flashback Classics series (I'm hoping at least one of those gets released later this year). There might be one or two unusual new products for smartphones, but nothing that I think would necessarily appeal to very many people here, and again, nothing on the "traditional" console or portable sides outside of the possibility of sequels to previous products like the Intellivision Flashback. Right now, what's a lock are two Atari consoles, two Sega consoles, and one Atari and Sega portable. Anything else is still up in the air. Per your comment, if a ColecoVision 2 were to go through for some particular reason, I'd push very hard to make two changes to the controller. The first being extending the controller nub shaft for greater comfort and accuracy, and the second to make the overlay slot backwards compatible (making the pin-outs backwards compatible, like on the Intellivision side, should be a given as well). Just like the Intellivision Flashback 2, though, considering where we are in the year, it's unlikely if such a thing were to go ahead that there'd be time to make many, if any changes, other than to the game line-up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Right now, what's a lock are two Atari consoles, two Sega consoles, and one Atari and Sega portable. Anything else is still up in the air. What do you mean by two Atari consoles? I only thought there would be an Atari HD Flashback console. Not counting the portable, what's the other one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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