+TwentySixHundred Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I'm just going to wait until an big time you tuber buys it then have a look if it's worth the coin... Would be nice to see them pull-it-off but if they fail, it's no big loss. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toiletunes Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Simple as that! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schizophretard Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I think everyone just needs to be more positive, open-minded, and shill out. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 It's hard to do that when you see the things going on in the background. Looks pretty evident that the Atari suits have been dicking around with the dreamcade replay group who were first to develop essentially the same product which has been scheduled for release this year, and multiple working prototypes have been reviewed by actual people. Based on the timing, it seems clear atari started down the road of making their own box after they started negotiating with dreamcade on their worn out back catalog licenses. That delayed dreamcade's kickstarter as atari tried to shut them down when they figured they could do dreamcade's project themselves. Dreamcade responded by buying many licensed copies to ataris well worn and put away wet back catalog which they will distribute on their box. Since that time, atari appears to have done everything they can to shut down dreamcade's project. They are refusing to allow straight up purchase of more licenses to the old games, as was sold on a $5-10 cd for years, or they're actively blocking them from buying more as you and I could. They also appear to be taking legal action over the box dreamcade was using based on the vertical lines and wood sticker. Atari has no trademark right to that, but it's going to make them change the box and further delay things while atari can try to bring their box to indiegogo. The gist of everything above is definitely true, but I could have a few details wrong because I'm making some pretty obvious conclusions based on the info I have. In any case, I'm of the mind that Atari can go pound sand. Not only are they trying to fish hook the retro community with their BS marketing and FMtwo amateurs, they're actively obstructing a legitimate product that has, so far, done everything above board and made an honest effort to bring what will almost certainly be a better product to market before atari could get their collective s$&t together. I've seen this behavior before, and I'm not about to reward the Atari scammers for it. I'm not even inclined to keep a "let's see what happens" attitude anymore. As far as I'm concerned, they can go to hell. They will get no benefit of the doubt from me any longer. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 What if Atari buys themselves into the Dreamcade project? That's what happened with TxK and Tempest 4000, after all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 They would have been smart to do so. I'm sure dreamcade went to them to license their games among others. Their logo was also a consideration I'm sure as well, but atari saw it as a reason to say, "why do we need them? We can to this with Fraggle Mac." In doing so, they prevented a more successful project in favor of another like the game band. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) It's hard to do that when you see the things going on in the background. Looks pretty evident that the Atari suits have been dicking around with the dreamcade replay group who were first to develop essentially the same product which has been scheduled for release this year, and multiple working prototypes have been reviewed by actual people. Based on the timing, it seems clear atari started down the road of making their own box after they started negotiating with dreamcade on their worn out back catalog licenses. That delayed dreamcade's kickstarter as atari tried to shut them down when they figured they could do dreamcade's project themselves. Dreamcade responded by buying many licensed copies to ataris well worn and put away wet back catalog which they will distribute on their box. Since that time, atari appears to have done everything they can to shut down dreamcade's project. They are refusing to allow straight up purchase of more licenses to the old games, as was sold on a $5-10 cd for years, or they're actively blocking them from buying more as you and I could. They also appear to be taking legal action over the box dreamcade was using based on the vertical lines and wood sticker. Atari has no trademark right to that, but it's going to make them change the box and further delay things while atari can try to bring their box to indiegogo. The gist of everything above is definitely true, but I could have a few details wrong because I'm making some pretty obvious conclusions based on the info I have. In any case, I'm of the mind that Atari can go pound sand. Not only are they trying to fish hook the retro community with their BS marketing and FMtwo amateurs, they're actively obstructing a legitimate product that has, so far, done everything above board and made an honest effort to bring what will almost certainly be a better product to market before atari could get their collective s$&t together. I've seen this behavior before, and I'm not about to reward the Atari scammers for it. I'm not even inclined to keep a "let's see what happens" attitude anymore. As far as I'm concerned, they can go to hell. They will get no benefit of the doubt from me any longer. Quoted for truth, and emphasis in the quote above is mine. I don't want to take either my response to JBerel's statement or request to The Historian below out of any of the context that JBerel provided, but I do feel at this point that "Atari can go pound sand" is fairly reflective of my own feelings on the Ataribox topic. Note that JBerel's comments are in addition to ones I've already made regarding Atari's approach to launching this device, and does not negate anything I may have said previously in that regard. The Historian: I forget the exact title you have in the employment capacity that led you here, but I seem to recall that it was something along the lines of 'Community Liaison' for the company behind the Ataribox. Given that your employer appears to be engaging in activity at this point that's pretty much guaranteed to burn any remaining shred of goodwill (or credibility) with this community, could you let us know if this means that your employer has decided that we're not the community they want the support of for their upcoming product(s)? Knowing this in advance would save us a great deal of time and effort in how we decide to direct both our statements of dissatisfaction as well as our purchasing resources. Thank you. Edited October 28, 2017 by x=usr(1536) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Based on the latest update from Dream Arcades for their upcoming plug and play console that they Kickstarted, they were counting on Atari Vault for their plug and play console. It looks like Atari pulled out from them using it so they can include it in the Ataribox. The update: 18 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Mega Update Posted by Dream Arcades Inc. (Creator) Starting today, we'll be sending out registration info for our community site, Replay Central. We're sending the e-mails in groups, so don't worry if you don't get your registration code until next week. Also, most of the features are not setup yet (like private groups), and we'll be looking for your feedback on what you'd like to see. As many of you will recall, our Kickstarter Campaign was delayed several days when the company we’d been working with for many months on game licensing unexpectedly pulled out. They are releasing a product similar to ours, and we have been unable to secure a licensing deal despite our absolute willingness to be flexible in working with them. We will still include 100 licensed games with the Replay, and are working with several other companies to license retro titles. The bigger problem is with the injection molds. We had shared our design with them, but since we couldn’t work out an agreement, our lawyers have advised us to change the design. Molds and tooling are a major process and take time, so this means we won’t be able to meet our original goal of shipping by the end of the year. However, Matthew (our lead engineer) and myself have visas in hand and are heading to China November 4th, to help expedite this process and also finalize the hardware. The good news is we’ve decided to use a newer Apollo Lake CPU, specifically the N3350. We’ve tested this CPU, and on most emulators it’s 10-30% faster than the older Atom CPUs that we had originally planned on using (z8500/8550). Not only is the Apollo Lake CPU faster, but it is able to handle more types of 4k Video, and has a newer Graphics Chipset. Our new expected shipping date is right around Chinese New Year (February 16th). Because the Chinese New Year holiday lasts 2-3 weeks, we’re setting March 31st as our drop-dead date for shipping Replays out to backers. We’ll do our best to have them out before February 16th, but we want to make sure we give ourselves a little wiggle room, so we won’t have to delay the Replay again. In the coming weeks we’ll be posting pictures of our trip, as well as some of the final specs. Since the software is coming along well, we plan on shipping some review units right around the end of the year, and also start taking pre-orders at that time as well. I want to apologize for the delay. We exchanged dozens of e-mails and had meetings with high level officers of the company we were working with, even going so far as notifying them a few days before our Kickstarter/Funderdome appearance, and so did not expect to have any trouble finalizing the agreement with them. We’ve set our new shipment date to make sure we have a little extra time built-in to avoid any further delays, and we thank all our backers ahead of time for their understanding & support. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Cheers to Dreamcade for their transparency and honestly. Their project sounds like an interesting work-study program to me; I suspect they're learning a lot from this process. I wasn't a backer but I'd kinda-sorta be on board with helping someone learning the ropes in this fashion. Note their relatively small number of backers 1,642 backers pledged $228,854 to help bring this project to life. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBerel Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 There are several good points about the Atari shenanigans on their controlled catalog. Their stuff doesn't include most of the better stuff available for the 2600, their stuff can be had for $5 if you want it legit, and this move will just encourage many in the community to roll their own to easily get everything Atari controls for free, including any of the 8bit stuff. (With no mixed feelings any longer) Used to be many wanted to genuinely support Atari with the old games even if they bought them before. At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase 2600 titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. I hope the guys at Dream Arcades can get a number of the better third party 2600 titles licensed for their box. That would be more than Atari can offer on their hipster-bait vaporware. This actually raises the profile of the Replay box in my mind, and makes me want to support them. They are clearly making a more honest effort with their product and seem positioned to give gamers a lot more than the Atari dolts can. I'd like to see a sleek black box that's function over form like Roku or Apple TV. It would be a nice change from the style over substance approach with nothing to show for it. I'll go with the one that doesn't constantly dry hump Terraria and Minecraft and has something to show. Did I mention Atari can pound sand. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase Nintendo titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase SquareEnix titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. I'm afraid it's a model that continues to work... And Dream Arcades is pulling that same thread Edited October 28, 2017 by The Historian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) I'm afraid it's a model that continues to work... And Dream Arcades is pulling that same thread The Historian: apologies for using the reply function to grab your eyeballs, but I would appreciate it if you could let me know if the question regarding community perception I asked of you in this post has been directed to the appropriate person(s). It is the weekend so it is understood that replies may take some time, but the question was posed in all seriousness. If the response at this time is, "yep, working on it," that's fine - just wanted to make sure that it hadn't been missed. Edited October 28, 2017 by x=usr(1536) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaysWithWolves Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) ... nvm Edited October 28, 2017 by PlaysWithWolves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Didn't Dreamcade run into problems because their office was like right next door to the new "atari" office? Or in the same town? Or am I confusing that with something else entirely..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Present-day atari should concentrate on actually making something instead of farting around trying to mess with other and perhaps better products. If atari did that, then the console would sell itself and they might actually get more sales as opposed to what they might get by suppressing the competition. I also sense a change in the that atari isn't as interested as much in the genuine fanbase here as they once were. Yet it is we who have purchasing power. I could easily get 50 or 100 atariboxes for our bi-annual tech bash celebration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SignGuy81 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Quote At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase Nintendo titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. Quote At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase SquareEnix titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. I'm afraid it's a model that continues to work... And Dream Arcades is pulling that same thread I wouldn't call Nintendo or SquareEnix patent trolls seeing how they actually produce something. So you trying to be cute with someone else's post didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) The Historian: I forget the exact title you have in the employment capacity that led you here, but I seem to recall that it was something along the lines of 'Community Liaison' for the company behind the Ataribox. Given that your employer appears to be engaging in activity at this point that's pretty much guaranteed to burn any remaining shred of goodwill (or credibility) with this community, could you let us know if this means that your employer has decided that we're not the community they want the support of for their upcoming product(s)? Knowing this in advance would save us a great deal of time and effort in how we decide to direct both our statements of dissatisfaction as well as our purchasing resources. Thank you.Sorry I missed this. Just to be clear I'm not in any way employed by AtariBox. I've just volunteered to help where I can. I'm a Community Manager by trade, having worked with Acclaim Games and BioWare. I don't currently work in the gaming industry and haven't for some years but it is where I learned to manage communities. I should not be considered an official voice in any way and I have no insight into the market(s) that they are specifically targeting. I'd imagine that trying to please as many types of people as possible would allow for greater success of any product. I do communicate the thoughts and concerns of this and other communities to my contact within AtariBox and I feel like they are genuinely listening to the input. As for Atari... From what I can tell, it looks like the various Atari projects are distinct entities. AtariBox has nothing to do with the AtariLife Speaker Hat, both of which have nothing to do with the recent mobile game. This is my perception as someone outside looking in. I know some have made up your minds already. Some will support it and some are just itching to see this go up in flames. Its safe to say people know which side I'm on. I know this isn't going to change the world the way the 2600 did. But I'm hopeful, none the less. Edited October 28, 2017 by The Historian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 As for Atari... From what I can tell, it looks like the various Atari projects are distinct entities. AtariBox has nothing to do with the AtariLife Speaker Hat, both of which have nothing to do with the recent mobile game. This is my perception as someone outside looking in. How confusing.. because.. the 10-yr old in me sees "atari", therefore it must be "atari". Or is it a convenient way of separating products that aren't cutting the mustard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I wouldn't call Nintendo or SquareEnix patent trolls seeing how they actually produce something. So you trying to be cute with someone else's post didn't work. I'm sorry you got stuck on "patent troll". My point was that continually rereleasing old titles on the latest gaming platform, time and time again, to grab a buck is a very common industry practice. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 New hardware eventually becomes ratbaggy. Old and crusty gamers eventually die off. Nothing lasts forever. So new games and hardware have to be made. And why not recycle the old games while you're at it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Historian Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 How confusing.. because.. the 10-yr old in me sees "atari", therefore it must be "atari". Or is it a convenient way of separating products that aren't cutting the mustard? I'd imagine that "Atari" is the common connector, but I guess it is King of like Microsoft. The Office team doesn't have any impact on what the Xbox team is doing, and they both don't really have anything to do with the Surface hardware. Distinct parts of the same org. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 The original Atari produced games. And that is what we all think. Games. And only games. Atari means games. Atari also means old. Microsoft automatically means a lot of things. The name is generic enough to cover many products. And even their hardware like XBox is viewed as a player for games. We don't think of XBox so much a console as we do an ecosystem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman000 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 The original Atari produced games. And that is what we all think. Games. And only games. Atari means games. That was the problem they had when marketing their computers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman000 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 There are several good points about the Atari shenanigans on their controlled catalog. Their stuff doesn't include most of the better stuff available for the 2600, their stuff can be had for $5 if you want it legit, and this move will just encourage many in the community to roll their own to easily get everything Atari controls for free, including any of the 8bit stuff. (With no mixed feelings any longer) Used to be many wanted to genuinely support Atari with the old games even if they bought them before. At this point ya gotta ask how many times are you supposed to repurchase 2600 titles you've purchased several times before from these kind of sleazy patent trolls. You don't have to re-purchase them if you still have them. If you want them in a modern format, then why not re-purchase them? It's like complaining about a Blu-Ray re-release of a film. If you no longer find VHS an attractive format why shouldn't you pay for the new, upgraded version? Couldn't you download a ripped copy of a movie as easily as a game? I hope the guys at Dream Arcades can get a number of the better third party 2600 titles licensed for their box. That would be more than Atari can offer on their hipster-bait vaporware. This actually raises the profile of the Replay box in my mind, and makes me want to support them. They are clearly making a more honest effort with their product and seem positioned to give gamers a lot more than the Atari dolts can. I'd like to see a sleek black box that's function over form like Roku or Apple TV. It would be a nice change from the style over substance approach with nothing to show for it. I'll go with the one that doesn't constantly dry hump Terraria and Minecraft and has something to show. Did I mention Atari can pound sand. Not better, but other. I'd like to see Activision, Imagic, and other, more obscure companies get their games re-released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcoleiro1 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 (edited) My feeling about all these Atari products, is that a lot are started by outside interests who approach Atari for a license to use the Atari name or IP. Atari just being the ones who doll out the license for their fee. I don't even think Ataribox is different there. I imagine Feargal Mac had this idea and approached Atari for a license. ie my impression is that Atari are mostly just IP managers. Just my speculation Edited October 28, 2017 by vcoleiro1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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