Unofficial VCS Question & Comment Thread

[jbmindtrick]

I received my VCS a few days ago and set everything up and got it going pretty well. With the exception of a few hiccups like my modern controller usb being defective it's been great. While having owned a multitude of game systems this is a little bit of a new animal to me as I haven't owned a PC for over 20 years. Just thought I would ask a couple of questions that having been nagging at me as a noob and maybe have others add any as well. Primarily using this as a gaming machine on my home theater tv.

 

1) PC Mode & Chrome-what do I do with them if I don't plan on using the VCS as a computer? Are there any downloadable gaming apps (Luna, Stadia, GamePass, others) that I should think of using it for? I see a lot of people talking about upgrading, is that required? Is it easy to do as I never had any experience with PC gaming.

2) Best screen setting for the tv. Have an LG CX OLED. Right now it's set in the middle setting. Is the high 4K setting any better or does it make it tougher to run stuff because of the hardware specs?

3) Friends Tags on VCS. Is their value to have a separate topic on posting friend tags for invites. Feeling a little sad there is a big fat 0 in that department. Are their games that matter and use that or is just something that doesn't have a lot of use on this system?

4) Any chance that some of these games get updates. As someone who did not get Missile Command for free I would love VCS specific challenges, leaderboards and other such content to bring this up to par with the other Recharged Games. Even with the other ones, some comments would be great options to consider adding in the future. As a VCS add on, including all versions of the game to the Recharged (2600/5200/Arcade) etc..

5) Similar to 4, would love the ability (even though the old school games did not have it) to have leaderboards for 7800/5200/2600 games. It could be automated or even an app on the VCS where you can post up through your account. Would really like to see how awful I am and give me something to strive for.

6) Anstream. Does anybody get a stutter pause every once in a while playing? Is that my internet, the hardware or app? Confused about the payment. I pay gems once and then get to keep playing that game or do I pay each game, each session? Not a lot of explanation. New to sites like this so would love to get some clarification.

7) In Shop, would like to see a 7800 section added for scrolling. Not a ton of games but it would be nice as they add more. Love the Flashback Fridays, keep them coming. Are we going to get more 5200 and 2600 games coming out in either a Vault or Individually? Games are what's going to bring people in-unique propositions.  

8 I know Atari has their list of IPs on the website, and Wikepedia has developer and publisher listed for all games from the 2600/5200/7800. As a history nerd I would love to see what happened and who owns the rights to those IPs as it would be interesting to communicate and set up some kind of voting thing for Atari on other games we would love for them to consider obtaining or getting rights to. Who owns Defender? Who owns Robotron? Who owns Dig Dug? I know you can play some of these through other means but for others who and how would be helpful. Maybe that's what the MobyGames acquistion was about. I would just love to see a more singular resource for referencing how to play certain games. Kind of like ReelGood for tv and movies.

 

Thanks for any information and insight.

[Flojomojo]

37 minutes ago, jbmindtrick said:

8 I know Atari has their list of IPs on the website, and Wikepedia has developer and publisher listed for all games from the 2600/5200/7800. As a history nerd I would love to see what happened and who owns the rights to those IPs as it would be interesting to communicate and set up some kind of voting thing for Atari on other games we would love for them to consider obtaining or getting rights to. Who owns Defender? Who owns Robotron? Who owns Dig Dug? I know you can play some of these through other means but for others who and how would be helpful. Maybe that's what the MobyGames acquistion was about. I would just love to see a more singular resource for referencing how to play certain games. Kind of like ReelGood for tv and movies.

You might have more luck breaking up your questions, as it's a lot for anyone to process as it is. Also, this is a fan board, nobody here has any secret insight into Atari SA's plans, so you should direct business strategy questions to the company. 

 

I know about the arcade games you mention though. These are all google-able and Wikipedia has an entry for most popular old video games. 

 

Defender is owned by Warner Bros. Williams was acquired by Midway long ago and this game is on "Midway Arcade Treasures" on many platforms. 

Robotoron: same as Defender.

Dig Dug is owned by Bandai Namco. It was never an Atari game, they just licensed it from Namco.

 

MobyGames is a website and online database, and as far as I know, they don't own any game IP. 

[zzip]

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

1) PC Mode & Chrome-what do I do with them if I don't plan on using the VCS as a computer? Are there any downloadable gaming apps (Luna, Stadia, GamePass, others) that I should think of using it for? I see a lot of people talking about upgrading, is that required? Is it easy to do as I never had any experience with PC gaming.

PC Mode will allow it to do anything that it can't do currently in Atari OS mode.   You could use it as a PC, or you could use something like "Batocera" to turn it into a console-style emulation box.   It's completely optional.

 

As for upgrades.   I don't think most users will need to upgrade the RAM.  This console already has as much memory as PS4 does, I don't think anything released in Atari Store would exceed those memory requirements.  

The internal m.2 slot is useful for adding internal storage, but you could also use an external drive.

 

As for difficulty,  installing a m.2 drive is easier than installing RAM as it requires less disassembly

 

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

3) Friends Tags on VCS. Is their value to have a separate topic on posting friend tags for invites. Feeling a little sad there is a big fat 0 in that department. Are their games that matter and use that or is just something that doesn't have a lot of use on this system?

There is a topic here where people posted their username

 

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

4) Any chance that some of these games get updates. As someone who did not get Missile Command for free I would love VCS specific challenges, leaderboards and other such content to bring this up to par with the other Recharged Games. Even with the other ones, some comments would be great options to consider adding in the future. As a VCS add on, including all versions of the game to the Recharged (2600/5200/Arcade) etc..

5) Similar to 4, would love the ability (even though the old school games did not have it) to have leaderboards for 7800/5200/2600 games. It could be automated or even an app on the VCS where you can post up through your account. Would really like to see how awful I am and give me something to strive for.

Some games do get updates, and apparently leaderboards is a planned feature,  I don't know how extensive it will be.

 

 

[Mockduck]

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

I received my VCS a few days ago and set everything up and got it going pretty well. With the exception of a few hiccups like my modern controller usb being defective it's been great. While having owned a multitude of game systems this is a little bit of a new animal to me as I haven't owned a PC for over 20 years. Just thought I would ask a couple of questions that having been nagging at me as a noob and maybe have others add any as well. Primarily using this as a gaming machine on my home theater tv.

 

1) PC Mode & Chrome-what do I do with them if I don't plan on using the VCS as a computer? Are there any downloadable gaming apps (Luna, Stadia, GamePass, others) that I should think of using it for? I see a lot of people talking about upgrading, is that required? Is it easy to do as I never had any experience with PC gaming.

Probably not much unless you are interested in running an alternate operating system on an external SSD re: PC Mode. It has a lot of value for people who want to set up as a PC rig, whether it be to run emulators or as a "regular" computer. Chrome is still useful as a web browser to stream video, check out the web, and run cloud stuff including gaming.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

2) Best screen setting for the tv. Have an LG CX OLED. Right now it's set in the middle setting. Is the high 4K setting any better or does it make it tougher to run stuff because of the hardware specs?

My experience has been that switching to 4k introduces a lot of slowness to the operating system and generally not-great performance. I would recommend sticking to 2k (1920x1080) unless you have a different experience.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

3) Friends Tags on VCS. Is their value to have a separate topic on posting friend tags for invites. Feeling a little sad there is a big fat 0 in that department. Are their games that matter and use that or is just something that doesn't have a lot of use on this system?

So far the Friends tab is just being introduced and has little actual functionality. It seems likely that the Friends tab will be integrated into the VCS' online gaming functionality, which also has yet to be released. 

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

4) Any chance that some of these games get updates. As someone who did not get Missile Command for free I would love VCS specific challenges, leaderboards and other such content to bring this up to par with the other Recharged Games. Even with the other ones, some comments would be great options to consider adding in the future. As a VCS add on, including all versions of the game to the Recharged (2600/5200/Arcade) etc..

Games get updates occasionally. I never actually heard that they started charging for Missile Command! Wonder when that happened. Some games do have VCS-specific features, even if it is support for the Classic Controller only.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

5) Similar to 4, would love the ability (even though the old school games did not have it) to have leaderboards for 7800/5200/2600 games. It could be automated or even an app on the VCS where you can post up through your account. Would really like to see how awful I am and give me something to strive for.

Leaderboards are supposed to be coming to the VCS, although a release date and specifics have not been given. Playing 7800etc games on Antstream is nice because of Antstream's global leaderboard.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

6) Anstream. Does anybody get a stutter pause every once in a while playing? Is that my internet, the hardware or app? Confused about the payment. I pay gems once and then get to keep playing that game or do I pay each game, each session? Not a lot of explanation. New to sites like this so would love to get some clarification.

This will happen if your connection isn't solid, or if Antstream is having an issue. I get it every once in a while but not very much, and overall it is negligible to me. Sorry I can't comment on payment as I was able to get a year of Antstream for free as most early VCS owners were able to.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

7) In Shop, would like to see a 7800 section added for scrolling. Not a ton of games but it would be nice as they add more. Love the Flashback Fridays, keep them coming. Are we going to get more 5200 and 2600 games coming out in either a Vault or Individually? Games are what's going to bring people in-unique propositions.  

This seems likely to happen sometime in the future. Unclear about more 5200/2600 games; we'll have to wait and see.

2 hours ago, jbmindtrick said:

8 I know Atari has their list of IPs on the website, and Wikepedia has developer and publisher listed for all games from the 2600/5200/7800. As a history nerd I would love to see what happened and who owns the rights to those IPs as it would be interesting to communicate and set up some kind of voting thing for Atari on other games we would love for them to consider obtaining or getting rights to. Who owns Defender? Who owns Robotron? Who owns Dig Dug? I know you can play some of these through other means but for others who and how would be helpful. Maybe that's what the MobyGames acquistion was about. I would just love to see a more singular resource for referencing how to play certain games. Kind of like ReelGood for tv and movies.

 

Thanks for any information and insight.

Getting a master list of who owns what would be the work of a bunch of people that would have huge benefit throughout the industry. It would also be a nightmare to put together, as who owns what had gotten very unclear in many cases. As above stated Defender/Robotron are WB Games, along with most of the old Midway and Williams catalog. MobyGames I think have done a few indie releases or at least been associated with them, but in general it is "just" a database. It is useful info for Atari, though, and a community that has benefit to have in your portfolio. Dig Dug is Namco Bandai.