The Atari VCS Controversies Thread

[Agillig]

4 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

VCS supporters should really be enjoying themselves right about now!

 

 

Or maybe not...

Isn't he the one always complaining about "entitled babies" who are tired of waiting?

 

[OverMuch]

5 hours ago, pacman000 said:

When will they be clearanced for $5?

LOL

 

Like this thing's ever going to see retail release.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

3 minutes ago, OverMuch said:

LOL

 

Like this thing's ever going to see retail release.

On that latest video, Atari responded, thanking the guy for his feedback and basically claiming that backers are their QA testers for the retail launch in early 2021.

 

I totally recall being a QA tester as a part of the original VCS pitches, was definitely a PERK

[fultonbot]

21 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

On that latest video, Atari responded, thanking the guy for his feedback and basically claiming that backers are their QA testers for the retail launch in early 2021.

 

I totally recall being a QA tester as a part of the original VCS pitches, was definitely a PERK

...but did he get his $10 back?  Don't tell me they paid him in Atari Token?.  $10 would buy just about the lot of it.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Just now, fultonbot said:

...but did he get his $10 back?  Don't tell me they paid him in Atari Token?.  $10 would buy just about the lot of it.

They are saying that they are looking into it and will correct it in the future, although no word on how many Atari Tokens he's been given in compensation...

[+x=usr(1536)]

A summary of what's known so far.  The title pretty much says it all.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[TACODON]

I think this will hit retail. Big Lots, Dollar Stores, Goodwill...

[+x=usr(1536)]

Just now, TACODON said:

I think this will hit retail. Big Lots, Dollar Stores, Goodwill...

 

I'll be interested once it's being clearanced by the pound.

[Chopsus]

2 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

I'll be interested once it's being clearanced by the pound.

I seriously think FArtari is too cheap to manufacture at levels that would bring economies of scale ... they will continue selling by pre-order only, with limited manufacturing runs, unless a retailer with deep pockets orders stock.  I am not sure the retailers that matter will be doing that given the Dogs Breakfast of release dates and supply Fartari has inflicted on them up to now.

[godslabrat]

9 minutes ago, Chopsus said:

I seriously think FArtari is too cheap to manufacture at levels that would bring economies of scale ... they will continue selling by pre-order only, with limited manufacturing runs, unless a retailer with deep pockets orders stock.  I am not sure the retailers that matter will be doing that given the Dogs Breakfast of release dates and supply Fartari has inflicted on them up to now.

No large retailer is going to look at l'Atari struggling to move a few hundred units and think "We should order half a million of these."

 

 

[TACODON]

I will clarify my thoughts on retail... when they liquidate the stock from unpaid bills at the warehouse then we will see them hit brick and mortar stores. 

[Chopsus]

1 hour ago, godslabrat said:

No large retailer is going to look at l'Atari struggling to move a few hundred units and think "We should order half a million of these."

 

 

Exactly

1 hour ago, TACODON said:

I will clarify my thoughts on retail... when they liquidate the stock from unpaid bills at the warehouse then we will see them hit brick and mortar stores. 

I am pretty sure they have only manufactured enough to cover current demand (Backers and Pre-Orders) if that ... I don't think there will be any stock to liquidate.

[+x=usr(1536)]

The one thing I am wondering about is how long it'll take for a famiclone in an Ataribollocks(tm) case to crop up.  Think of it: all of the moulds, tooling, etc. are just sitting in Shenzen waiting to crank out cases that could be filled with 9999-in-1 NOACs.  Available soon from a flea market, swap meet, or mall kiosk near you!

[Chopsus]

20 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

The one thing I am wondering about is how long it'll take for a famiclone in an Ataribollocks(tm) case to crop up.  Think of it: all of the moulds, tooling, etc. are just sitting in Shenzen waiting to crank out cases that could be filled with 9999-in-1 NOACs.  Available soon from a flea market, swap meet, or mall kiosk near you!

I think I would prefer one of those to the VCS

[CPUWIZ]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

The one thing I am wondering about is how long it'll take for a famiclone in an Ataribollocks(tm) case to crop up.  Think of it: all of the moulds, tooling, etc. are just sitting in Shenzen waiting to crank out cases that could be filled with 9999-in-1 NOACs.  Available soon from a flea market, swap meet, or mall kiosk near you!

 

I want an original case, because Atari.  Anyone want to sell me theirs?

[+frankodragon]

Can't forget about that familiar cheap, smelly plastic used for a lot of famiclones and Dollar Tree toys.  I wouldn't be surprised if they'll put in a AtariVCS board into a Switch clone mold.  Maybe they'll call it the "Smitari." 

[Mockduck]

I've always found the "is it worth it?" argument to be among the more useless Internet manbaby debates. I mean, the answer is probably always no when it comes to entertainment consumer electronics, but why does that matter. Clearly it doesn't. Value is too subjective to be quantified like that. Is Atari selling it for some level above their cost? Yup. What does that mean? Nothing. Is $300 worth it for the Atari VCS compared to the $50 for one of those lame Flashback things? Whatever. People spend too much for things that aren't technically worth it all the time. Have I already received $300 worth of entertainment from the VCS? Yeah, basically, cuz of how angry it makes the eChildren. 

 

But sure: Should you buy a VCS? Nope. Should you buy a PS5? Nope. Should you buy a new PC? Nope. Buy what you want, for the reasons you want it. 

[Shawn]

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

The one thing I am wondering about is how long it'll take for a famiclone in an Ataribollocks(tm) case to crop up.  Think of it: all of the moulds, tooling, etc. are just sitting in Shenzen waiting to crank out cases that could be filled with 9999-in-1 NOACs.  Available soon from a flea market, swap meet, or mall kiosk near you!

 

I would buy a famiclone inside one of these in a second. If you do see anything like this come about please let me know (seriously). A little birdie told me Atari never got a patent on the console housing design so it's not protected and ripe for cloning without consequence. Not that such a thing ever stopped China before.

[racerx]

1 hour ago, Mockduck said:

But sure: Should you buy a VCS? Nope. Should you buy a PS5? Nope. Should you buy a new PC? Nope. Buy what you want, for the reasons you want it. 

I keep waiting for a rational VCS fan to come forth, and am continually disappointed. Hope springs eternal, I suppose...

 

Yes, obviously people should buy what they want. That's been more or less how capitalism has worked since its inception. I'm sure some people thought the Edsel was the greatest car ever, and good for them if they picked one up.

 

For those of us with our screws properly torqued though, we've been talking about marketplace relevance since the very beginning of this adventure. Is there a meaningful audience for it? Does is appeal to anyone but the most hardcore label devotees? Does your average 18-year-old gamer even know it exists, let alone desire one? You know, actual scepticism of and debate about the success of the product. Along the way, we ended up having a lot of fun thanks to Atari's incompetence and some of the more unhinged supporters.

 

But instead of anyone positing anything resembling a convincing case for success, we got a handful of zealots crying about haters, and trolls, and eChildren, they'll buy it because they want it, and desperately shilling stock.

 

I called it a couple of years ago, but when this thing inevitably shits the bed, the zealots will blame the haters and trolls for its failure instead of its utter, abject, and total failure to carve out an actual market.

Edited December 16, 2020 by racerx

[jamm]

Credit where credit is due: They're actually getting this thing out to people a couple of weeks earlier than I expected.  The software is obviously not done (as expected), but at least it's not vaporware.  Also, whoever they hired to come up with graphics for the UI did a pretty nice job.  I hope they got paid decently.

 

At the end of the day, it's a cute, low-spec PC with a custom launcher to boot into, so I don't foresee anything interesting to talk about.  No interesting custom hardware features (unless you count the lights on the classic controller), and no exclusive software. 

 

So the only fun now will be in wagering how much of the system gets finished/fixed before they totally abandon it.  Or maybe how long it'll be before they stop responding to support requests.  Anyone want to make some guesses? 

 

(Counter to the nice graphics choices they made in the UI, the red, white and blue "Atari VCS" branding - particularly on the packaging - strikes me as really cheap in a K-Mart "blue light special" kind of way.)

Edited December 16, 2020 by jamm

[+x=usr(1536)]

34 minutes ago, Shawn said:

 

I would buy a famiclone inside one of these in a second. If you do see anything like this come about please let me know (seriously). A little birdie told me Atari never got a patent on the console housing design so it's not protected and ripe for cloning without consequence. Not that such a thing ever stopped China before.

 

Assuming that what you heard is correct, that opens up the ability for pretty much anyone to re-jig the moulds to accomodate the mounting points for a user-supplied RasPi, then knock them out at $39.99 all day long.  You'd basically have what Fauxtari should've done in the first place, only 3 years later and with far less half-assery and incompetence.

Edited December 16, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[toiletunes]

...but can it hold a dental camera?

[godslabrat]

3 hours ago, Mockduck said:

I've always found the "is it worth it?" argument to be among the more useless Internet manbaby debates. I mean, the answer is probably always no when it comes to entertainment consumer electronics, but why does that matter. Clearly it doesn't. Value is too subjective to be quantified like that. Is Atari selling it for some level above their cost? Yup. What does that mean? Nothing. Is $300 worth it for the Atari VCS compared to the $50 for one of those lame Flashback things? Whatever. People spend too much for things that aren't technically worth it all the time. Have I already received $300 worth of entertainment from the VCS? Yeah, basically, cuz of how angry it makes the eChildren. 

 

But sure: Should you buy a VCS? Nope. Should you buy a PS5? Nope. Should you buy a new PC? Nope. Buy what you want, for the reasons you want it. 

There is literally no part of this I can agree with.  When comparing two products, especially two technical products, it's very easy to make comparisons.  You're literally asking, over and over, if the product CAN do a task, and HOW EASILY it can do a task.  You compare the two products based on the answers to those two questions, asked over and over, on various tasks.

 

The Atari VCS can't do much.  What it can do, it can't do particularly well.  You can compare it to devices that cost the same, or even cost less, and it continues to not compare well.

 

I don't particularly care why a certain individual wants to buy it.  That's not on me.  But if they're suggesting I should buy it, or anyone else should buy it, then yes, "Is it worth it?" becomes the central question.

[MrSeven]

2 hours ago, racerx said:

I keep waiting for a rational VCS fan to come forth, and am continually disappointed. Hope springs eternal, I suppose...

Not sure if that can happen for you because:

 

2 hours ago, racerx said:

For those of us with our screws properly torqued though,

You have labeled any VCS fan as having screws loose.

 

[MrBeefy]

2 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

There is literally no part of this I can agree with.  When comparing two products, especially two technical products, it's very easy to make comparisons.  You're literally asking, over and over, if the product CAN do a task, and HOW EASILY it can do a task.  You compare the two products based on the answers to those two questions, asked over and over, on various tasks.

 

The Atari VCS can't do much.  What it can do, it can't do particularly well.  You can compare it to devices that cost the same, or even cost less, and it continues to not compare well.

 

I don't particularly care why a certain individual wants to buy it.  That's not on me.  But if they're suggesting I should buy it, or anyone else should buy it, then yes, "Is it worth it?" becomes the central question.

I don't think that some get this. Why should I buy a VCS over a cheaper form factor PC/laptop that is cheaper and more powerful? If the answer is Atari, logo, nice case, that is not a compelling arguement.

 

I have no problem with some French company owning the title Atari. I do think it has been pretty sad how they've handled things. This isn't the great comeback story that some would like you to think it was.