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The Atari VCS Controversies Thread


Mockduck

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44 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

This is actually a legitimate excuse. Many years ago, I needed to ship something and so I contacted several carriers. They were contracted to reserve capacity for their large, regular customers "just in case", and so they were unable/unwilling to handle my small, one-off job even though they were not busy at the moment. I was surprised to discover how the industry works. 

Yes, that’s fine ... but to claim it’s about Vaccine delivery is a tad fanciful 

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9 hours ago, Mockduck said:

Interestingly, a handful of new games debuted overnight on the VCS Store:

 

Sir Lovelot: 9.99

Boulder Dash Deluxe: 14.99

Thrustlander: 14.99

Frog Hop: 4.99

 

Thanks for posting that information MockDuck!
Although I don't like to be always the person making new threads, I will create a thread for each, when there is more information.
ON THE OTHER HAND - if you or anybody else has information, please go ahead and do this, yourself. ?

Best wishes, and Merry Christmas to you and all. It's a time for good cheer, and good will to all. I hope everybody has a great day. 
Keep safe, Richard / JustClaws.
 

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On 12/24/2020 at 9:04 PM, JeffVav said:

Unclear to me what this will mean practically, but seems relevant to this thread: 

 

http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/12/22/2149114/0/en/Successful-completion-of-Atari-s-private-placement-to-accelerate-development-of-the-Atari-VCS-as-well-as-new-video-game-partnerships.html

 

5.81 million Euros from 3 new investors:

 

 

Yeah this caught me too. I doubt very strongly it will lead to any major traction in terms of development, especially considering that a game like Cyberpunk cost $340M to make (every time I type it, it kind of scares me), but what it could facilitate is a few acquisitions of former properties or perhaps a few exclusive titles for the VCS with indie developers. It's small change in the gaming dev world, but if it shows that Atari SA understands that games are a critical missing element in their long-term strategy and frankly, survivability, I suppose it's a start.

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4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Is there another system (from Atari or not) who gets a new topic for every game available at AtariAge? Just curious. ?

Just wait until the Amico launch in April. There will be 30ish games to post about in its section (assuming it gets it's own section).

 

Are people still having boot problems with the vcs or is that been resolved. Haven't seen as many YT vids as I would expect.

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On 12/25/2020 at 4:22 AM, justclaws said:

Thanks for posting that information MockDuck!
Although I don't like to be always the person making new threads, I will create a thread for each, when there is more information.
ON THE OTHER HAND - if you or anybody else has information, please go ahead and do this, yourself. ?

Best wishes, and Merry Christmas to you and all. It's a time for good cheer, and good will to all. I hope everybody has a great day. 
Keep safe, Richard / JustClaws.
 

I have to admit I am not personally interested in a thread for each game at the moment, although I have no issue at all with it being there. I am more interested in tracking release date and price. No one needs my hot take on the games and I plan to do a more considered mini review of them in the future cuz i want to. 

 

Best game imo outside of vault is Mutazione. 

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On 12/23/2020 at 2:54 PM, Shaggy the Atarian said:

And as we've rehashed a billion times now, nobody outside of niche-of-the-niche gamers are buying this thing because

We've known this from the day it was announced

 

On 12/23/2020 at 2:54 PM, Shaggy the Atarian said:

There are tons of non-Atari branded options for that out there for the same price or better, from better resourced companies. The PC thing just happens to be the only reason so far to justify already thrown money at the VCS. I should be in the market demographic of people that want to get one, but they've done nothing to earn my business, and I don't see them making any moves to do so. Backers also don't seem to be too happy in being psuedo-hired to be the QA team for it.

I think the difference between you and me is you would like to see Atari ride this thing into some kind of comeback.   Me? I doubt they'll pull it off, I don't think they have the resources.   I don't expect the VCS to be a hit,  it might gain them a little more recognition, but they'll continue to make head-scratching deals down the line,  whatever it takes to pay the bills.

 

But the VCS has a few things that are appealing to people like me.   1)  One is the brand and the styling.  The average itx PC build doesn't have this.   There's something appealing about having an Atari console play all your retro-games.  (And I don't play the    It could play almost every game from every Atari system save for a few Jaguar games that don't yet work under emulation.

2) the fact that it uses AMD Integrated technology means it will be supported by mainstream OSs for a long time to come, even if Atari abandons the thing.   If it was built on custom tech, I wouldn't touch it.

3) There's a good chance it becomes a collectors item because of the name and limited supply.  The average ITX PC build won't.

 

As for being QA..  If I buy one, I'd likely just use it exclusively in sandbox mode,  load up my own version of Linux, customize it how I like and be done, and never worry about bugs in the Atari mode.

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38 minutes ago, zzip said:

We've known this from the day it was announced

 

I think the difference between you and me is you would like to see Atari ride this thing into some kind of comeback.   Me? I doubt they'll pull it off, I don't think they have the resources.   I don't expect the VCS to be a hit,  it might gain them a little more recognition, but they'll continue to make head-scratching deals down the line,  whatever it takes to pay the bills.

This is the key point. The "no one but niche gamers would buy it" thing always makes me laugh. They launched the thing on IndieGoGo with a $100k goal. Mass production was never in mind. For me, the intent was always to get a little cash on a console concept they could market to hard core Atari fanatics and developers, have them beta test and mod it, then do a gradually bigger launch once it was more refined and had a bigger games library. 

 

IMO their shoddy execution only somewhat dogged that early ambition; the response to the crowdfunding call did too. Atari SA absolutely got out in front of their skis a little bit, but I don't blame them. Demand was there and they sought to feed it. They were not equipped for this level of production, and it has completely showed.

 

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, their next best move is to take the feedback in the discord and from backers seriously, invest in game development and system upgrades, and as time allows, modestly market the thing. Maybe in 5-7 years, if they can really hone their niche with games and reacquire some key IPs, they can aim for VCS 2.0. It's not impossible. All told however, I do not expect it to be a linear path.

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I tried plugging in the Classic Controller to my PC today. So far, no luck getting it to be recognized by either Steam or InputMapper. However, it did show up as "Classic Controller" in the Windows Device list, and running Mame I was able to shoot but not steer. So, could be I am just not doing something right. I don't use a controller much on PC and if I do I just plug in a Dualshock. 

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7 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

I tried plugging in the Classic Controller to my PC today. So far, no luck getting it to be recognized by either Steam or InputMapper. However, it did show up as "Classic Controller" in the Windows Device list, and running Mame I was able to shoot but not steer. So, could be I am just not doing something right. I don't use a controller much on PC and if I do I just plug in a Dualshock. 

Pretty sad considering I can just plug my PS4 controller in and it immediately works.  But hey, it's only 2020 and I imagine getting something as hard as a USB controller recognized on a Windows OS is a very tough thing to do!

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10 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Pretty sad considering I can just plug my PS4 controller in and it immediately works.  But hey, it's only 2020 and I imagine getting something as hard as a USB controller recognized on a Windows OS is a very tough thing to do!

As someone who has been using Dualshocks on PC for years, it is pretty recently that it began to just work. For about a decade prior we've been using things like InputMapper to make it emulate a Microsoft controller. :)It seems to be recognized by Windows, just not Steam. 

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13 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Is there another system (from Atari or not) who gets a new topic for every game available at AtariAge? Just curious. ?

At the rate it's likely to be getting games, let alone exclusive ones, I'd think that we can let this slide.

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12 hours ago, Atarick said:

Yeah this caught me too. I doubt very strongly it will lead to any major traction in terms of development, especially considering that a game like Cyberpunk cost $340M to make (every time I type it, it kind of scares me), but what it could facilitate is a few acquisitions of former properties or perhaps a few exclusive titles for the VCS with indie developers. It's small change in the gaming dev world, but if it shows that Atari SA understands that games are a critical missing element in their long-term strategy and frankly, survivability, I suppose it's a start.

Proves there’s a sucker born every minute ... and some of them have very deep pockets LOL

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15 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Is there another system (from Atari or not) who gets a new topic for every game available at AtariAge? Just curious. ?

Out of curiosity how many of these games are exclusives? (Or at least temporary exclusives? Even Sony lifts the exclusivity on indie games that they support, after a window expires.)

 

Do they have a webpage that enumerates all the games, or is their catalogue only visible in the OS dash itself? Seems like it'd be more useful to have a central list. 

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52 minutes ago, JeffVav said:

Out of curiosity how many of these games are exclusives? (Or at least temporary exclusives? Even Sony lifts the exclusivity on indie games that they support, after a window expires.)

 

Do they have a webpage that enumerates all the games, or is their catalogue only visible in the OS dash itself? Seems like it'd be more useful to have a central list. 

Sir Lovelot and Thrustlander are timed exclusives coming to Steam next year.
 

I'd expect that's the way it'll go for the most part. Nobody's going to get rich out of selling games just for the VCS, but there's the potential to build up a bit of name recognition on a less crowded platform and carry that over to somewhere where the sales have the potential to be a bit better so long as you're not getting lost in the static.

 

Anyone who already has gained a decent amount of exposure probably isn't going to bother though.

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6 hours ago, zzip said:

We've known this from the day it was announced

 

I think the difference between you and me is you would like to see Atari ride this thing into some kind of comeback.   Me? I doubt they'll pull it off, I don't think they have the resources.   I don't expect the VCS to be a hit,  it might gain them a little more recognition, but they'll continue to make head-scratching deals down the line,  whatever it takes to pay the bills.

 

But the VCS has a few things that are appealing to people like me.   1)  One is the brand and the styling.  The average itx PC build doesn't have this.   There's something appealing about having an Atari console play all your retro-games.  (And I don't play the    It could play almost every game from every Atari system save for a few Jaguar games that don't yet work under emulation.

2) the fact that it uses AMD Integrated technology means it will be supported by mainstream OSs for a long time to come, even if Atari abandons the thing.   If it was built on custom tech, I wouldn't touch it.

3) There's a good chance it becomes a collectors item because of the name and limited supply.  The average ITX PC build won't.

 

As for being QA..  If I buy one, I'd likely just use it exclusively in sandbox mode,  load up my own version of Linux, customize it how I like and be done, and never worry about bugs in the Atari mode.

Lol, what? We're just talking past each other at this point, you aren't reading any of what I've been writing if you think that I think Atari will ride this thing into a comeback (or you think I'm someone else...or you're just trolling). 

 

1) A few hundred people really care about brand/nostalgia/member-berries, maybe less. They'd buy a potato if Fred stamped an Atari logo on it. 

2) And yet you need something custom about it to become a special collectible for #3 there. Without that, no one outside of a tiny niche cares.

3) See #1 & 2. People that already own one will think it's collectible because they already over-value the Atari brand name and think that everyone else feels the same. The Atari Speakerhat will be more "collectible" than the VCS will be. 

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The whole talk about the "brand" is fairly depressing. What brand? We all know what "Atari" is these days, and it's not only an unpleasant association, but also an empty husk - a stamp on some documents given in exchange for a financial gratification, completely without substance or continuity. Real Atari has been dead for decades and it's quite sad that this kind of  zombie "branding" can be used to flog all kinds of stuff.

 

The collecting angle also stinks. Sure, people will buy it just for that reason and most likely sell with a little bit of profit years later, but, again, it just seems so...desperate. Manufactured pre-collecting of phantom brands, like something out of Dick's novel.

 

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1 hour ago, pacman000 said:

Collectors’ll buy weird stuff, like a Casio PV-1000. The new VCS doesn’t need the Atari brand to be worth something to them.
 

The brand does help the system garner some attention, & the brand helps the VCS seem more like a legit game system than a weird PC. 

The point is that people who already value the VCS as a collectible have already bought it. So far Atari adding a bunch of indie games available for other platforms isn't going to improve that collectability. Now if they were curating a bunch of exclusives that you couldn't get anywhere else, then it'd be different. Otherwise we're just rehashing the "How much is the Fuji logo worth to you?" argument again.

 

On 12/25/2020 at 2:22 AM, justclaws said:

Although I don't like to be always the person making new threads, I will create a thread for each, when there is more information.
ON THE OTHER HAND - if you or anybody else has information, please go ahead and do this, yourself. ?
 

 IMHO, it'd be more useful to VCS owners have a single thread dedicated to indie games Atari has released through their store, then make individual threads for any exclusives that might come to the platform (someday, maybe). 

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8 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

The point is that people who already value the VCS as a collectible have already bought it. So far Atari adding a bunch of indie games available for other platforms isn't going to improve that collectability. Now if they were curating a bunch of exclusives that you couldn't get anywhere else, then it'd be different. Otherwise we're just rehashing the "How much is the Fuji logo worth to you?" argument again.

I was thinking of the “I must have every system” type people, or the “this represents a weird moment in history” people, or the “that’s old & cool looking” people.

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2 minutes ago, pacman000 said:

I was thinking of the “I must have every system” type people, or the “this represents a weird moment in history” people, or the “that’s old & cool looking” people.

Fair enough...I kind of imagine that a lot of those made up the 11k backers though (I know a few YouTubers that cover other things were definitely in category #2 there)?

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36 minutes ago, youxia said:

The whole talk about the "brand" is fairly depressing. What brand? We all know what "Atari" is these days, and it's not only an unpleasant association, but also an empty husk - a stamp on some documents given in exchange for a financial gratification, completely without substance or continuity. Real Atari has been dead for decades and it's quite sad that this kind of  zombie "branding" can be used to flog all kinds of stuff.

 

The collecting angle also stinks. Sure, people will buy it just for that reason and most likely sell with a little bit of profit years later, but, again, it just seems so...desperate. Manufactured pre-collecting of phantom brands, like something out of Dick's novel.

 

The only question I have back to this argument is what would the current Atari skeptics desire out of any future venture named "Atari". Bushnell and Warner aren't coming back into the fray. The brand, absent a major capital injection, likely doesn't have the resources to acquire edgy developers or exclusive titles. So what's left? What would a fan choose for any future "Atari Corp"? Leave it for dead forever? A small company that licenses old IPs and every blue moon releases a revival game that updates an old title or property? And if the latter, how is that different than what Atari SA was doing prior to the VCS or their other crowdsourcing debacles? 

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1 hour ago, Atarick said:

The only question I have back to this argument is what would the current Atari skeptics desire out of any future venture named "Atari". Bushnell and Warner aren't coming back into the fray. The brand, absent a major capital injection, likely doesn't have the resources to acquire edgy developers or exclusive titles. So what's left? What would a fan choose for any future "Atari Corp"? Leave it for dead forever? A small company that licenses old IPs and every blue moon releases a revival game that updates an old title or property? And if the latter, how is that different than what Atari SA was doing prior to the VCS or their other crowdsourcing debacles? 

 

My answer:  The company would have to be sold to someone with a passion for the brand.  The current owners have way too much badwill saved up to EVER earn my trust or faith again (EVER).  How about the fact that almost everyone on this board has had a better idea than the VCS?

 

As an example,  THIS VERY WEBSITE is more ATARI than Atari SA will ever be.   So there's an example.  If Al from AtariAge, or (almost) any one of the people posting here bought the company,  Maybe then it could be revived.

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1 hour ago, Atarick said:

Leave it for dead forever?

Yes, since you've asked.

 

If it can't be a legitimate company with it's own in-house design and development, what's the point? Just to say the name exists? What's the joy in watching profiteers like Chesnais try to squeeze blood out a long dead turnip?

 

My life is full of enjoyable things and moments that are long gone. I enjoy them for what they were, and have no compulsion to try to ghoulishly hang on to their remnants. I was a big Atari fan because they were a unique company at one time...but I'm not so obsessed that I need a zombie brand on life support.

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