New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[Flojomojo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lodmot]

6 minutes ago, JaqenHghar said:

On whether Wyatt was freeloading or not... correct me if I'm wrong but don't contractors get to invoice only after they deliver things (even if they're just progress things) rather than just get paid a regular salary? When I got work done on my house I got invoices with actual expenses, receipts for materials, labor hours, etc. The guy didn't just come by and collect a check every two weeks. Wyatt was quoted as saying he had several unpaid invoices going back six months. Maybe @Curt Vendel could comment on how contractors bill Atari?

 

Plus if his invoices are six months old then they'd have to be for work done even earlier than that, wouldn't they? Who holds on to a contractor that supposedly hasn't been productive in over six months? And how would that change whether they would've paid him for work he had already delivered before that? Are they clairvoyant? Though I wouldn't be surprised if he did start dragging his feet more recently. I know I would if my client wasn't paying me for work already delivered but still expecting me to do more work.

In Rob's defense, I guess it's kinda hard to do much if he's in a hospital bed like this for a period of time:

 

 

Though that was back in November, nearly a year ago. So that was before the 6 months when he claimed Atari stopped paying for his work. I wonder how much this actually had to do with his performance working at Atari.

[PlaysWithWolves]

4 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

It pains me to say it, but "PowerDubs" and "AtariArtist" (ugh) on Reddit are saying some stuff that I agree with.

 

Don't be like me and forget AtariArtist is the "AtariAge Magazine" dude, Montgomery "Monty" Gabrys.  ?  

 

 

Monty might be broken-clock right about Wyatt leaving, but just over a year ago he did a sexy four-page copy-paste about Wyatt and Tin Giant in his very first "'zine" issue.  Literally just a copy-paste of the Medium.com Q&A:

 

 

 

 

You can find the magazines archived over here, but be warned:  Clicking on them might nudge the readership there from double-digits to triple!

[Flojomojo]

Sorry for the rerun, but in case you missed it: this post is closest look you're likely to see into the mind of the former Atari VCS chief engineer, Rob Wyatt. He talks at length about taking risks and walking away from projects. His words, his voice. 

 

 

[JBerel]

10 minutes ago, JaqenHghar said:

On whether Wyatt was freeloading or not... correct me if I'm wrong but don't contractors get to invoice only after they deliver things (even if they're just progress things) rather than just get paid a regular salary? When I got work done on my house I got invoices with actual expenses, receipts for materials, labor hours, etc. The guy didn't just come by and collect a check every two weeks. Wyatt was quoted as saying he had several unpaid invoices going back six months. Maybe @Curt Vendel could comment on how contractors bill Atari?

 

Plus if his invoices are six months old then they'd have to be for work done even earlier than that, wouldn't they? Who holds on to a contractor that supposedly hasn't been productive in over six months? And how would that change whether they would've paid him for work he had already delivered before that? Are they clairvoyant? Though I wouldn't be surprised if he did start dragging his feet more recently. I know I would if my client wasn't paying me for work already delivered but still expecting me to do more work.

Standard contract practice is to bill monthly for services rendered. There are many other methods used as well like 30/30/40 with 30% up front, 30% on a milestone delivery, the remainder upon completion, or simply half up front and half at completion. For ongoing services, the monthly invoice for hours billed is typical. If I were in his position and owed money, I would share that with the media because their failure to pay does negate, at least those areas, of any NDA he had with them.  

 

I find it interesting people are acting the apologist for Atari in their latest colossal cock-up. Why is one of their contractors automatically the bad guy while poor little Atari had to finally cut him loose for poor performance? They brought him on, they trotted him out to the world, they talked him up, and they are notorious for not paying their bills. Nuff said I think. I wish people would quit offering the benefit of the doubt to a mentally challenged 7 headed hydra that's already bitten them five or six times.   

[Tickled_Pink]

21 minutes ago, JBerel said:

Standard contract practice is to bill monthly for services rendered. There are many other methods used as well like 30/30/40 with 30% up front, 30% on a milestone delivery, the remainder upon completion, or simply half up front and half at completion. For ongoing services, the monthly invoice for hours billed is typical. If I were in his position and owed money, I would share that with the media because their failure to pay does negate, at least those areas, of any NDA he had with them.  

 

I find it interesting people are acting the apologist for Atari in their latest colossal cock-up. Why is one of their contractors automatically the bad guy while poor little Atari had to finally cut him loose for poor performance? They brought him on, they trotted him out to the world, they talked him up, and they are notorious for not paying their bills. Nuff said I think. I wish people would quit offering the benefit of the doubt to a mentally challenged 7 headed hydra that's already bitten them five or six times.   

The only question I have is why people and companies that Atari owe money to don't use alternative means of finance to claw just some of their money back. Invoice factoring would be one option where outstanding invoices are sold to a finance company that would typically pay you up to 85% of their value. Even if these invoices were sold on for 50% of their value, it's better than nothing, especially when tens of thousands of dollars are at stake.

These companies also have the financial means to bully and threaten Atari into paying up. They are the types of companies who, if Atari try to screw them over, they could seek a court order to wind up the company and recover the debt through the sale of assets ... or at least that's what they'd do in the UK. I'm not sure how things work in the US because of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

[DurradonXylles]

24 minutes ago, JBerel said:

Standard contract practice is to bill monthly for services rendered. There are many other methods used as well like 30/30/40 with 30% up front, 30% on a milestone delivery, the remainder upon completion, or simply half up front and half at completion. For ongoing services, the monthly invoice for hours billed is typical. If I were in his position and owed money, I would share that with the media because their failure to pay does negate, at least those areas, of any NDA he had with them.  

 

I find it interesting people are acting the apologist for Atari in their latest colossal cock-up. Why is one of their contractors automatically the bad guy while poor little Atari had to finally cut him loose for poor performance? They brought him on, they trotted him out to the world, they talked him up, and they are notorious for not paying their bills. Nuff said I think. I wish people would quit offering the benefit of the doubt to a mentally challenged 7 headed hydra that's already bitten them five or six times.   

It's a name and a face for the Tacobox faithful to blame when reality starts finally coming through to them.

 

"Oh, the VCS isn't coming out in December, and they pushed back the date again?! It's that no-good Wyatt who set them back! It can't be because Atari SA doesn't have any clue what they are doing, nor do they have the funds to properly develop a console!"

 

As I said before, I don't think Wyatt is completely clean in this situation. With that said, considering how many other contractors and former partners of Atari have been coming out and telling their stories, such as @Curt Vendel a few pages back with the Guitar Hero controllers, I think it's safe to say that Atari owes Wyatt money for his services.

 

5 minutes ago, Tickled_Pink said:

The only question I have is why people and companies that Atari owe money to don't use alternative means of finance to claw just some of their money back. Invoice factoring would be one option where outstanding invoices are sold to a finance company that would typically pay you up to 85% of their value. Even if these invoices were sold on for 50% of their value, it's better than nothing, especially when tens of thousands of dollars are at stake.

These companies also have the financial means to bully and threaten Atari into paying up. They are the types of companies who, if Atari try to screw them over, they could seek a court order to wind up the company and recover the debt through the sale of assets ... or at least that's what they'd do in the UK. I'm not sure how things work in the US because of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

Wish I knew. Knowing how scummy and untruthful Atari and their CEO has been, they might be making empty promises and weasely excuses hoping their contractors don't have the business card of a good lawyer handy.

[Lodmot]

Fred Chesnais is probably like, "Eh... invoices, bankruptcy, NDA's and contracts-- what's the difference?"

[Tickled_Pink]

I've just realised what brought on Atari's statement. I hadn't read it properly. My previous comments on the matter were educated guesses but the answer's in the first line:

 

"Atari will continue to communicate accordingly ..." - We were going to tell you about our designer leaving, honest.

"... as the stages of the industrial process continue to be completed." - But we're still going to lie to you by suggesting we have someone else already in place.

"The realization of the plans, and their operational budget and financing plan remain inherently uncertain," - We raised $3million, which was far more than we said we needed, but we never actually costed the design. If we had then the budget and financing plan would not have been inherently uncertain. There is nothing inherently uncertain in thoroughly thought out plans, only in vague plans. If we had done our costings properly, and had an actual design in mind, then we would have allowed for a certain increase in design budget, which is something most projects describe as being inherently certain. Projects often have cost overruns. However, you, our shareholders, are too dumb to realise this and therefore we think you'll agree that no matter how good our project planning was, we'd always hit issues with budget and financing because everything was inherently uncertain, as they should be.

"and the non-realization of these assumptions may impact their value." We're not winning any prizes for plain English. So, don't enter us into the US Plain Speaking Championships. You'll be wasting your time.

But what we mean is, WE DONE GOOFED!

[The Historian]

2 hours ago, Inky said:

I grew up in Joliet, and remember going to Service Merchandise for some games

I was a Manager in the Electronics section of Service Merchandise  in '96. They were one of the first companies to jump on the "Sell a product, sell a warranty" bandwagon. Hated working there. Store Manager and Asst. Mgr were both fired for theft.

 

Sorry to be off taco... uh... topic. 

[Flojomojo]

Pat and Ian on Atari VCS, about halfway thru the show, queued up here

 

https://castro.fm/episode/STyoYr#49:09

[+Nathan Strum]

6 hours ago, JBerel said:

Clearly Rob's cheese done slid off his cracker a long time ago

This is my new favorite phrase.  

 

Speaking of cheese, I broke my cheese grater making tacos the other night. Fortunately, I was nearly done grating so I was still able to have tacos. But now I've had to order a new cheese grater. I'm hoping this one will be able to stand up better to the grating that's awaiting.

[JBerel]

Ewww...it has Surface Glide™ nice.

 

BTW, the traditional use of the phrase is...."Dat boy's cheese dun slid off his cracker."

Similar to, "Dat boy's a runnin' fool." 

[+D Train]

1 hour ago, Nathan Strum said:

Speaking of cheese, I broke my cheese grater making tacos the other night. Fortunately, I was nearly done grating so I was still able to have tacos. But now I've had to order a new cheese grater. I'm hoping this one will be able to stand up better to the grating that's awaiting.

Jeez, Nathan, I was sure that you were going to get one of these instead.

 

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, carlsson said:

40, 50, what is the difference?

The side of the Ewok line.

Edited October 9, 2019 by roots.genoa

[Tickled_Pink]

Hmmm ... nobody's posted any updates from VCS Facebook pages. Things gone quiet over there?

[jhd]

3 hours ago, JBerel said:

 If I were in his position and owed money, I would share that with the media because their failure to pay does negate, at least those areas, of any NDA he had with them.  

 

Yep. Even lawyer-client privilege can be waived (to an extent) where doing so is necessary to collect payment.

 

Were he to bring a lawsuit, the details of what he did will become public record. Without knowing how much he is owed (or what resources he has access to), I cannot speculate on the chances of this actually happening. 

[+frankodragon]

I had to put that whole No Warranty clause on the Star Wars Intro Creator:  https://starwarsintrocreator.kassellabs.io/#!/BLqmVL9TohFYNYPvf5Rx

[vcoleiro1]

In regards to developing a pcb which uses an AMD embedded chip.
I can't say too much about it, but let's just say everyone that has tried to do it , has ended up pulling their hair out.

According to one CEO I spoke to , who is developing an AMD Embedded product.   AMD provide almost zero support for their embedded chips.  And also basically zero reference designs.  And their driver support for it is poor to boot
And there are issues that everyone who has developed using embedded, have run into.

In fact, in regards to the well respected company I'm talking about (but cannot name), they have worked on it for a solid year now, and there pcb still has issues.

Expect dual channel issues and other memory  issues.   Power management may also be an issue. But they are lucky it's not battery powered.


The story is the same with everyone that has touched it.


So don't expect them to debug that pcb in a hurry
 

[PlaysWithWolves]

On 9/30/2019 at 9:13 AM, Tidus79001 said:

Here is a look at the actual system board for all the trolls in this thread who keep complaining that no hardware exists.  Personally I am excited about this new console and looking forward to receiving mine.

 

https://medium.com/@atarivcs/here-come-the-games-7f50f5a17b85

 

 

 

 

 

How's that December shipment to backers looking?

[+Nathan Strum]

6 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

What a crazy concept that was. What do you think about how they handled the walk-back?

 

 

Clearly, Atari missed a golden opportunity...

Quote

March 29, 2019 - Reuters

 

Atari has filed a federal lawsuit against McDonald's, arguing that the fast-food empire's seasonal favorite the "McRib" made unauthorized use of Atari's intellectual property, "Ribbed Sandwich Construction".

 

"McDonald's clearly took our idea, replaced the plastic with a meat-like product, simplified the name, and claims to have invented it in 1981," reads the complaint filed by Atari to the Northern California district court.

 

"The infringing conduct in this case is so plain and blatant that McDonald's cannot claim to be an 'innocent' infringer. McDonald's knew exactly what it was doing."

 

According to Reuters, Atari believes McDonald's sought to capitalize on the nostalgic charm invoked by the still non-existent AtariVCS game console, somehow.

 

In addition to punitive damages, Atari is seeking damages in the amount of three times McDonald's profits from the McRib sandwich dating back to 1981, although Atari still denies that the McRib actually pre-dates the creation of their own intellectual property. But they still want the money.

 

McDonald's, meanwhile, says it has no idea Atari actually still existed, simply stating that "we are aware of the lawsuit, I guess, but these idiots are no more Atari than we are Taco Bell."

 

 

[+Nathan Strum]

9 hours ago, JBerel said:

Ya gotta be about 50 to have actually had a real VCS when they were new and for sale in the store. You also had to deal with the smell of them nasty newfangled "Radar Range" cooking demonstrations with the eggs and chocolate cakes being cooked in the thing.

Ah... memories. I'd go into Sears and play the games there. They had a great display set up. But it wasn't the Radar Ranges - they had a candy counter (with fresh popcorn) that bombarded your senses whenever you walked in the store. I don't know if I ever walked out of there without buying popcorn.

8 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

8-tracks, man, 8-tracks.  And vacuum tube testers.  Put the two on the same retail floor and it's a formula for disaster.  I don't want to talk about it anymore.

I remember going down to the store with my dad to test out the tubes for our TV. Seems to me we made that trip more than a few times until we got a new TV sometime in the early 70's. Color, too!

[Flojomojo]

@Nathan Strum
Maybe ATARI VCS manufacturing would go faster if they switched to horse lips and ass meat. 
 

The McRib is a "sometimes" product solely based on the availability of cheap pork, if I recall. 

[ColecoJoe]

3 hours ago, Tickled_Pink said:

Hmmm ... nobody's posted any updates from VCS Facebook pages. Things gone quiet over there?

It's been a little quiet ...

 

[+TwentySixHundred]

Even John Hancock is a fan of tacos Seriously though, when someone as humble and forgiving as John has lost all hope, you know it's a trainwreck. This bloke will collect almost anything good or bad.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by TwentySixHundred