Day one Atari VCS thoughts

[MegaManFan]

Last week there was a limited time only sale on all (modern) Atari VCS hardware and accessories on the Atari website, so I decided to plunk down the money for just the base unit seeing as how it was $40 off and I could use my own controllers with it -- more on that in a minute. The cost of shipping was surprisingly reasonable given it was being sent by FedEx and got here in just under a week. My order even updated the tracking via the Shop mobile app which was a huge plus.

 

Now here's where I'll give a bit of a spoiler on the video I was filming at the same time. I'm under no illusions this is "Atari" as we know it and fell in love with it (if you're as old as I am anyway). This is not Nolan Bushnell's Atari, nor Ray Kassar's, nor Jack Tramiel's, nor is it based in Sunnyvale or any of the other historic things we know. In a lot of ways this console is a glorified RetroPi or Linux box with an Atari logo slapped on it and some games pre-loaded into it. I accept it is what it is and just wanted a new toy to dink around with.

 

Unfortunately it was not as plug and play as I had expected. I tried pairing various Bluetooth controllers out of the box, and although they'd pair according to the onscreen notifications, nothing acted like the "Atari logo" button the console was expecting from one of their proprietary controllers. I'd push every button on a PS5, PS4, Xbox One controller, et cetera. I tried plugging them in via USB too. Again I'd get a notification but nothing would go past the launch screen. Eventually from Googling and reading threads I saw someone say to plug in a keyboard and hit escape. THAT got me past the opening screen! Nothing else would.

 

Installing the updates takes a shockingly long amount of time -- so long that I got up, walked away, started reading AtariAge to see if I was doing something wrong... and then it finished when I wasn't looking. Well, it finished rebooting anyway. Then it told me I had to update the bios and reboot AGAIN. Now I shouldn't be a nervous nelly about that, but considering I had an Evercade Vs brick when doing the company's own firmware update, seeing a screen that looked like a hard drive defrag nearly gave me a panic attack. I waited until it got to 100% and rebooted again though, and the good news is that this seemed to fix pairing issues as well. I could now use a PS4 controller wirelessly with Bluetooth straight away. Fantastic.

 

Downloading and using the "companion app" on a mobile phone feels like a party trick. "Hey look what I can do remotely!" I mean there might be some use to it if your controller randomly loses sync with the console and you need another way to get back to the main menu and re-pair it, but otherwise I'm not sure it's necessary. The built in pack of Atari 2600 and arcade games is solid. It's nothing you couldn't get on the Atari 50th anniversary collection on modern consoles. In fact it's less. There are no Jaguar or Lynx games here. There are no interviews here or box art scans you can rotate and zoom. It's hard not to compare the two and think that if you already owned a Switch, you could buy it and get more for far less money. If you had to buy a Switch or a PS5 or Xbox first then obviously the VCS would be a better value but with less Atari history. Irony?

 

I'm interested to purchase a few games through their storefront and see what that experience is like. I'm also given to understand you can switch to "PC mode" either with a proprietary dongle sold by Atari or some other clever means. Since there are USB ports I assume you could use an external hard drive with FAT 32 or NFTS formatting (probably not Mac journaled). I don't know the specs on the chip set inside without going to Wikipedia or digging around on AA, but if it's powerful enough to emulate vintage Atari arcade games (they run fine from what I've tried) I imagine it could emulate anything up to say the 32 bit era reasonably well. I don't expect it to do Saturn, Dreamcast, N64 or GameCube flawlessly. I'd be pleasantly surprised if it could.

Edited December 28, 2022 by MegaManFan

[THX-1138]

You do have a point about a few things.

Atari don't sell the VCS in the UK so I had to pick both of mine up from eBay etc.  The first one was the Onyx and didn't come with a controller.  The first thing I did was connect a keyboard/trackpad to it (Logitech K400) and I had bought a wired PowerA XBox controller as it is very similar to the one PowerA made for Atari.  So it took a few moments to figure out how to navigate the AtariOS and games, it certainly wasn't some kind of problem.  The official Atari controllers have a button that doesn't exist on an XBox controller that allows you to exit games - I discovered that when I got another VCS and an official controller to compare it with.

 

Updates can like a pain.  Some time has passed since the production run of the VCS units and the current OS and BIOS versions, so it will need to do some big downloads and updates, it may take more than one update to bring it up to date.  If you ask Atari support, they will give you a file you can write to a USB stick and that will simply do a fresh install with all the latest system software (OS and BIOS) so you can bypass the older updates.

 

The companion app could be an alternative for some people who may not want to use a keyboard, personally I don't use it as I have keyboards on both my machines. About the Atari Vault, you can't really compare it with the Atari 50 collection to be fair.  There are two Atari Vaults - you get vol.1 with the VCS and vol.2 is an optional extra, but those together form a large collection to own, lots of early arcade games, lots of 2600 including M Network games and 5200 titles, stuff you won't find in the Atari 50 collection.  The Atari 50 thing is much newer and more orientated towards presenting an interactive history of Atari, with certain games presented to play in that context.  The Vaults are older collections, which originally came out in 2016.

 

About 'PC Mode'.  No, you don't need a proprietary dongle or use some clever means.  The VCS is simply a 64-bit AMD PC with a custom motherboard and case.  As it is a standard PC-compatible, if you connect a drive with Windows or Linux on it, you can boot it - just like any other PC.  No special mode or hacks are needed.  Any VCS games you may buy and download are actually just PC Linux games (and will run on another PC Linux distro - a future-proofing you won't get with a proprietary console platform).

 

I use one VCS as my main PC, I retired my Ryzen 3 desktop.  I use Linux only, I've honestly not seen anything running slower than my older PC did.  Yes it can do emulation, I have all my old Atari stuff running. I have MAME running and games from Steam and GOG.  I've run stuff in Retroarch including some N64 and Saturn games.  But I mostly do non-gaming stuff, not just internet and office stuff but also more intensive things like graphics, 3D modelling and rendering, audio and video processing, circuit design and simulation, coding etc etc. - it does everything I've thrown at it.  I'm now looking to fit a 1TB internal M.2 drive and upgrade the RAM to 16 or 32GB.  I've been very pleasantly surprised by what I have been able to get from my VCS, so much so that I've now got two - and I can't buy them at the ridiculously low prices folks get them in the US - but they've been worth every penny to me.

Edited December 28, 2022 by THX-1138
Typos and errors caused by a lack of coffee...

[MegaManFan]

On 12/28/2022 at 7:56 AM, THX-1138 said:

YAbout 'PC Mode'.  No, you don't need a proprietary dongle or use some clever means.  The VCS is simply a 64-bit AMD PC with a custom motherboard and case.  As it is a standard PC-compatible, if you connect a drive with Windows or Linux on it, you can boot it - just like any other PC.  No special mode or hacks are needed.  Any VCS games you may buy and download are actually just PC Linux games (and will run on another PC Linux distro - a future-proofing you won't get with a proprietary console platform).

That's great news. I have a lot of Linux games already thanks to Humble Bundle, and although I've put a lot on my Steam Deck, it wouldn't hurt to run them on Atari VCS with an external drive either. What's the best Linux distribution package to use with VCS in that manner - Ubuntu? Just install it directly to a freshly formatted drive?

[THX-1138]

1 hour ago, MegaManFan said:

That's great news. I have a lot of Linux games already thanks to Humble Bundle, and although I've put a lot on my Steam Deck, it wouldn't hurt to run them on Atari VCS with an external drive either. What's the best Linux distribution package to use with VCS in that manner - Ubuntu? Just install it directly to a freshly formatted drive?

Ubuntu should be fine, I run Linux Mint/XFCE.   I've got lots of Linux games from Humble Bundle too, lots had Steam keys that I redeemed.  They work fine.   Yeah install like any other PC, just watch that you don't install onto the VCS 32GB eMMC!!

[MegaManFan]

20 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

Ubuntu should be fine, I run Linux Mint/XFCE.   I've got lots of Linux games from Humble Bundle too, lots had Steam keys that I redeemed.  They work fine.   Yeah install like any other PC, just watch that you don't install onto the VCS 32GB eMMC!!

Yeah I noticed the onboard storage is pretty small, so I'll definitely install games to an external drive with Ubuntu. Thanks!

[The Helper]

I bet I start one of these threads too!

[+Sauron]

Hey MegaManFan! Haven't seen you 'round these parts much lately, although I'm sure the same can be said for me. I managed to pick up a VCS on that same sale too, but it's still sitting unopened in its box. I simply don't have the room to set it up at the moment, but I couldn't resist it at that price anyway. I might clear up some room and hook it up sometime this weekend if I get the chance.

[THX-1138]

1 hour ago, MegaManFan said:

Yeah I noticed the onboard storage is pretty small, so I'll definitely install games to an external drive with Ubuntu. Thanks!

Pay attention to where you install the UEFI boot loader.  The Mint and Ubuntu installer is the same, there is the option in the disk options as to where to put it.  If you are installing to an external USB drive, you may want it put it on there rather than the internal 32GB eMMC.

Heads up, when installed, edit:
/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

So it reads:
[connection]
wifi.powersave = 2

Otherwise the wifi card will keep going into powersave and losing connection.

I'd also get yourself the USB recovery file for the VCS, just incase of any accidents.

Edited December 30, 2022 by THX-1138

[MegaManFan]

9 hours ago, Sauron said:

Hey MegaManFan! Haven't seen you 'round these parts much lately, although I'm sure the same can be said for me. I managed to pick up a VCS on that same sale too, but it's still sitting unopened in its box. I simply don't have the room to set it up at the moment, but I couldn't resist it at that price anyway. I might clear up some room and hook it up sometime this weekend if I get the chance.

Good to see you too Sauron! I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts once you've set it up as well. I had to juggle a few consoles to have enough room for it, but I've got it sitting next to my Atari Jaguar now... and that just feels right.

[oky2000]

On 12/29/2022 at 9:16 PM, THX-1138 said:

Ubuntu should be fine, I run Linux Mint/XFCE.   I've got lots of Linux games from Humble Bundle too, lots had Steam keys that I redeemed.  They work fine.   Yeah install like any other PC, just watch that you don't install onto the VCS 32GB eMMC!!

I run a 2020 version of Mint, because of a driver issue, on my Dad's Core 2 Duo laptop with just 2gb RAM so I am sure a 64bit AMD will be fine. 

[zzip]

On 12/28/2022 at 12:37 AM, MegaManFan said:

Unfortunately it was not as plug and play as I had expected. I tried pairing various Bluetooth controllers out of the box, and although they'd pair according to the onscreen notifications, nothing acted like the "Atari logo" button the console was expecting from one of their proprietary controllers. I'd push every button on a PS5, PS4, Xbox One controller, et cetera. I tried plugging them in via USB too. Again I'd get a notification but nothing would go past the launch screen. Eventually from Googling and reading threads I saw someone say to plug in a keyboard and hit escape. THAT got me past the opening screen! Nothing else would.

Yeah, had this problem of "no atari button" with default firmware.   However it seemed to go away after the updates.   Do you still experience it?

 

On 12/28/2022 at 8:56 AM, THX-1138 said:

About 'PC Mode'.  No, you don't need a proprietary dongle or use some clever means.  The VCS is simply a 64-bit AMD PC with a custom motherboard and case.  As it is a standard PC-compatible, if you connect a drive with Windows or Linux on it, you can boot it - just like any other PC.  No special mode or hacks are needed.

Well out of the box, you do have to deal with Secure Boot.   It will only accept Secure Boot compliant OSes unless you disable that option in the BIOS (and your bios accepts the password)

 

On 12/29/2022 at 2:56 PM, MegaManFan said:

That's great news. I have a lot of Linux games already thanks to Humble Bundle, and although I've put a lot on my Steam Deck, it wouldn't hurt to run them on Atari VCS with an external drive either. What's the best Linux distribution package to use with VCS in that manner - Ubuntu? Just install it directly to a freshly formatted drive?

Whatever distribution your comfortable with really.   Ubuntu is a safe choice,  there are some distributions more focused on gaming.   I've read you can even install the latest SteamOS on the VCS.  

 

Personally I use Ubuntu and I have a joystick controlled game launcher that starts by default.

 

 

[THX-1138]

4 hours ago, zzip said:

Well out of the box, you do have to deal with Secure Boot.   It will only accept Secure Boot compliant OSes unless you disable that option in the BIOS (and your bios accepts the password)

Same as any other PC I've had in recent years.

[MegaManFan]

So how do I get to the BIOS settings then? That's obviously the next step.

[zzip]

15 minutes ago, MegaManFan said:

So how do I get to the BIOS settings then? That's obviously the next step.

Hit escape right after power on.    You will need the password:  Atar!C3l3br8te$50Ye4r$

 

If the password doesn't work (and I didn't mistype it)  you may need to go through the reflash process (or did you do that already?)