Lunar Lander Beyond (by Atari) - (in VCS Store)

[zzip]

On 1/19/2024 at 12:26 PM, PowerDubs said:

Huh?  You most definitely can play Atari 50 on the Atari VCS.  In fact- it's probably one of the most popular releases on the unit.

Yes, but it was a problematic title.   It was delayed for one thing, and then lots of people had trouble downloading it.    As Davpa said, AtariOS was designed more for smaller indie titles and larger games are tough because of the eMMC storage restrictions.

 

But you can always run Steam in PC mode and not be burdened by the 32Gb eMMC issue.

[MrBeefy]

21 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

Are we supposed to be impressed that you stopped using USB devices 15 years ago? Because it sounds like you are bragging about it. It is a very weird thing to brag about, but to each their own.

Are you one of the I stick a USB in my VCS braggarts? 🤣 

 

Just pointing out how stupid the comment was about "how great the VCS is," because you can't shove you USB stick into other electronics.

 

To be honest for a second, I really don't see as many people use USBs anymore. Most the people who I knew that used them have converted over to using Google drive.

 

Maybe Atari can distribute games on Atari cart like USB sticks that will unpack it for you since that seems to be an issue for this thing?

3 hours ago, zzip said:

Yes, but it was a problematic title.   It was delayed for one thing, and then lots of people had trouble downloading it.    As Davpa said, AtariOS was designed more for smaller indie titles and larger games are tough because of the eMMC storage restrictions.

 

But you can always run Steam in PC mode and not be burdened by the 32Gb eMMC issue.

Really? They had issues with Atari 50? That's just sad. How cumbersome is the whole process to even use it as a steam machine? I considered picking one up at $99, but was worried it wouldn't be worth the hassle. If it struggled with something like Atari 50, I might have made a good choice. 

 

Does it at least let mom's easily watch Netflix?

[zzip]

16 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Really? They had issues with Atari 50? That's just sad. How cumbersome is the whole process to even use it as a steam machine? I considered picking one up at $99, but was worried it wouldn't be worth the hassle. If it struggled with something like Atari 50, I might have made a good choice.

One of the issues was server side and it couldn't handle the load of everyone wanting to download a large game at the same time,  they fixed that within a few days.   The other issue is if you have a stock VCS with only 32Gb eMMC and download an 8Gb game, you better make sure there is enough space to decompress or it will fail..  every console has this issue.   If you added storage to  VCS and keep enough of the main 32Gb free, then you won't have issues.    But many people haven't added storage.

 

Steam?  Once you have Windows or Linux running, installing Steam is as simple as any other piece of hardware.   It should even be able to run SteamOS.

 

16 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

To be honest for a second, I really don't see as many people use USBs anymore. Most the people who I knew that used them have converted over to using Google drive.

I switched to Google drive around 2005 but switched to local NAS after realizing Big Data really shouldn't be trusted with your personal data

[MrBeefy]

5 minutes ago, zzip said:

One of the issues was server side and it couldn't handle the load of everyone wanting to download a large game at the same time,  they fixed that within a few days.   The other issue is if you have a stock VCS with only 32Gb eMMC and download an 8Gb game, you better make sure there is enough space to decompress or it will fail..  every console has this issue.   If you added storage to  VCS and keep enough of the main 32Gb free, then you won't have issues.    But many people haven't added storage.

 

Steam?  Once you have Windows or Linux running, installing Steam is as simple as any other piece of hardware.   It should even be able to run SteamOS.

 

I switched to Google drive around 2005 but switched to local NAS after realizing Big Data really shouldn't be trusted with your personal data

I was thinking how much of a pain was it to get Windows on the device. The rest of that unpacking stuff sounds just dumb. It sounds as though it wasn't designed to be a serious console at all.

 

I guess they were calling it the Unconsole there for a bit. 🙄

[zzip]

14 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I was thinking how much of a pain was it to get Windows on the device. The rest of that unpacking stuff sounds just dumb. It sounds as though it wasn't designed to be a serious console at all.

 

Every console does the same thing, files are downloaded in a compressed package and need space for unpacking.    I've seen many users of PS4/PS5 complain about "How come I can't install this 120GB AAA game when I have 200Gb free?"   Because you need space to unpack things.   But when a console ships with 512Gb or more storage, it will take longer to run into the issue.

[scifidude79]

On 1/20/2024 at 8:31 AM, MrBeefy said:

Personally I stopped using USBs in the late 2000s due to Dropbox as a way to make your files portable and USBs unnecessary. I have had way more microSD cards, but things such has phones, tablets, e-readers, cameras, handheld gaming devices, and Raspberry Pis use them. The only reason I even have a USB I'm using is for an AtGames legends device.

So, you never have your internet just go out randomly? Because, if it does, then DB won't be available but a good 'ol USB would. I'm not knocking your method, to each their own, I'm just saying that there is one flaw to keeping everything on remote servers versus a local backup.

 

Though, on the flip side, I can't find a USB drive that has a LOT of files on it and it's annoying me. Were those files on DB, I could have already accessed them without tearing a room in my house apart to find a tiny USB drive, which is what I'm going to wind up having to do.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

3 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I was thinking how much of a pain was it to get Windows on the device

Its actually very easy to install Windows or Linux on the Atari VCS 800, what part are your struggling with or what part did you struggle with exactly? Wait, do you even have a VCS? Seems you just like to hang around the forum hating on every aspect of the system and dropping little school kid digs at it and its users every now and again 🙂. Oh and hating on the mighty USB drive, they'll come a day when you might need a USB drive and when that day comes feel free to let us know...

[+Zeptari]

I was hoping for something like this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/366910/The_Long_Journey_Home/ 

Watch the short Tutorials #2 and #3 to get an idea what i'd like to see in Lunar Lander Beyond. It's about 10GB and will 

fit on USB or SD card.  I figured for 99cents on sale I'll give it a try. 

[E. King]

Atari has yet to fully commit to bringing Lunar Lander Beyond to their own platform the Atari VCS.

 

It all boils down to Atari not currently having enough loyalty to their own platform to commit to bring this Atari game to their own Atari VCS platform.

 

It may not be a cost effective venture since the dollars don't make sense obviously Atari does not expect enough return from the time and cost involved in porting to the VCS.

 

If Atari had full brand loyalty to their own platform then a VCS port would have been mandated in the original contract with the Lunar Lander developers.

 

Maybe Atari will wake up and increase their loyalty levels to their own platform and their most die hard customers who bought into and supported the VCS platform for years which is what fueld Atari to make a comeback.

 

Atari owes everything to the VCS customers since they were responsible for bringing Atari back from the dead.

 

If only Atari had more loyalty to their own platform and their biggest supporters no matter how niche the VCS customer base is they deserve better.

[scifidude79]

I actually have to agree. Atari seemingly not supporting their own platform is really freaking bizarre. It's also a slap in the face to those of us who have been supporting them by purchasing the VCS and continuing to play it and buy games for it. EVERY Atari game should come out on the VCS. I don't care what size the game is. Let us decide for ourselves if we can make room for it or expand our storage to fit it. At least give us the freaking option. Heck, you could even include a warning about the file size on the VCS sale page. Though, to be fair, by today's standards, it's still not that large of a game. The VCS has plenty of internal memory to handle downloading and unpacking the files, even without a memory upgrade.

[Flojomojo]

12 hours ago, E. King said:

Atari has yet to fully commit to bringing Lunar Lander Beyond to their own platform the Atari VCS.

 

It all boils down to Atari not currently having enough loyalty to their own platform to commit to bring this Atari game to their own Atari VCS platform.

 

It may not be a cost effective venture since the dollars don't make sense obviously Atari does not expect enough return from the time and cost involved in porting to the VCS.

 

If Atari had full brand loyalty to their own platform then a VCS port would have been mandated in the original contract with the Lunar Lander developers.

 

Maybe Atari will wake up and increase their loyalty levels to their own platform and their most die hard customers who bought into and supported the VCS platform for years which is what fueld Atari to make a comeback.

 

Atari owes everything to the VCS customers since they were responsible for bringing Atari back from the dead.

 

If only Atari had more loyalty to their own platform and their biggest supporters no matter how niche the VCS customer base is they deserve better.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but “loyalty” to a brand isn’t really a thing in business. There’s money, which is needed to drive business decisions like bringing software to a niche piece of hardware. If there isn’t enough of it, that’s just how it goes. “Loyalty” is an emotion, and there simply aren’t enough paying customers feeling it to make Lunar Lander Begind happen on Atari VCS. 

 

When I was 12 years old, I wrote a letter to Parker Brothers asking me to put their Star Wars game on the Magnavox Odyssey 2. They kindly wrote back and said there simply weren’t enough customers on that platform for them to do it. Nobody said anything about “loyalty” and I appreciated their honesty and the little life lesson. 
 

Every game platform that has ever existed has run out of steam and official support. Lunar Lander Beyond isn’t coming to the Atari Jaguar either. 

[MrBeefy]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:51 AM, scifidude79 said:

So, you never have your internet just go out randomly? Because, if it does, then DB won't be available but a good 'ol USB would. I'm not knocking your method, to each their own, I'm just saying that there is one flaw to keeping everything on remote servers versus a local backup.

 

Though, on the flip side, I can't find a USB drive that has a LOT of files on it and it's annoying me. Were those files on DB, I could have already accessed them without tearing a room in my house apart to find a tiny USB drive, which is what I'm going to wind up having to do.

If the internet goes out a portable storage solution won't do me any good. But when the internet does go down I'm usually the only person who can get stuff done or help others get stuff done because I'm a resourceful idiot. At that point I work off my phone as a hot spot and broadcast it to the PC or my tablet and continue to work.

 

If a file is important enough it will be stored on the PCs I work from and not in the cloud since I will be accessing it. As a last resort I could also use my phone as a portable storage device. I can have dropbox/drive/etc on my phone as well.

On 1/23/2024 at 5:15 PM, Zeptari said:

I was hoping for something like this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/366910/The_Long_Journey_Home/ 

Watch the short Tutorials #2 and #3 to get an idea what i'd like to see in Lunar Lander Beyond. It's about 10GB and will 

fit on USB or SD card.  I figured for 99cents on sale I'll give it a try. 

I was hoping for something less flash looking for LLB. This looks interested especially at $0.99. 

 

13 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but “loyalty” to a brand isn’t really a thing in business. There’s money, which is needed to drive business decisions like bringing software to a niche piece of hardware. If there isn’t enough of it, that’s just how it goes. “Loyalty” is an emotion, and there simply aren’t enough paying customers feeling it to make Lunar Lander Begind happen on Atari VCS. 

 

When I was 12 years old, I wrote a letter to Parker Brothers asking me to put their Star Wars game on the Magnavox Odyssey 2. They kindly wrote back and said there simply weren’t enough customers on that platform for them to do it. Nobody said anything about “loyalty” and I appreciated their honesty and the little life lesson. 
 

Every game platform that has ever existed has run out of steam and official support. Lunar Lander Beyond isn’t coming to the Atari Jaguar either. 

People need to get past buying something strictly based on a symbol. The VCS has not resurrected Atari, nor has it lofted them to new heights. The reason is it was an overpriced underpowered PC to begin with. The only people super excited were those who loved buying the symbol, repeatedly, no matter if the product was good or not.

 

I find people complaining about them supporting it quite funny. I'm not sure what they expected, and Atari probably shouldn't have released it period. All that time an money could have gone to making more games and developing something that a wider audience would want.

 

Buying every game "just because" is a sure way to continue to get lackluster stuff. All that does is show them you will buy anything they put out. Even if it is literal crap, or broken because it can't be installed, or whatever.

 

Blind support is never good when it comes to just giving your money to a company. Not buying something doesn't also mean you aren't a fan or want them to fail. 🙄

[+sramirez2008]

22 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Buying every game "just because" is a sure way to continue to get lackluster stuff. All that does is show them you will buy anything they put out. Even if it is literal crap, or broken because it can't be installed, or whatever.

 

Blind support is never good when it comes to just giving your money to a company. Not buying something doesn't also mean you aren't a fan or want them to fail. 🙄

This should go on a shingle and hung up in most “game rooms”.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

34 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Buying every game "just because" is a sure way to continue to get lackluster stuff. All that does is show them you will buy anything they put out. Even if it is literal crap, or broken because it can't be installed, or whatever.

The Atari VCS 800 is a stepping stone for indie game developers to get there games out to an audience where said games might go unnoticed on a larger platform due to the amount of indie games that can get released on the other platforms on a daily basis. If it wasn't for the Atari VCS 800 i would have missed a lot of hidden gems that i have then later went on to purchase on other platforms, i probably would have scrolled past these games on lets say something like the Nintendo Switch or Playstation Store etc. The thing about the Atari VCS 800 is the games have to meet a fairly high standard in the first place to even be considered a place on the Atari store but again you don't even own an Atari VCS 800 so your running your mouth again on your sad one man mission to continue to bash and hate on a system you don't own and its users. Why are you even posting here anyway? Aren't you all high and mighty and above us Atari VCS owners? I don't know, your seriously needing to accept the Atari VCS 800 is still here and its got a small fan base who enjoy and support it and that it has some seriously great games on it now. Your literally hating on the indie game devs like Tony Barnes and others who have released games on the system and all those talented homebrew devs who are releasing amazing 2600 and 7800 games digitally on the system. We don't have lots of lackluster games most of these games are above average. Its quite evident all your here for is to try and stir crap up on your school dinner break 🤣 there's a thread in the VCS forum, “someone to yell at“ or something its called why don't you go and yell and scream in there about how much you hate the Atari VCS 800 and how its making you so angry till your hearts content? That's what its for.. 

Edited January 26 by Atari_JaguarVCS

[zzip]

Atari has supported the VCS quite well with games,  virtually everything they've released in the past few years came to the VCS as well.   They even gave VCS 'early access' exclusivity on a couple of titles.

 

So if there's an Atari game not coming to the VCS, there is probably a good reason for it.   People say it performs poorly even on high end PCs, and it's a large download for a system with 32Gb on board that not customer has expanded.   Atari is in a lose-lose with this game for VCS,  they'll be criticized if they don't release it on VCS and be criticized if they do (from people who paid for it and expected it to work better)

[RollOut]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

Atari has supported the VCS quite well with games,  virtually everything they've released in the past few years came to the VCS as well.   They even gave VCS 'early access' exclusivity on a couple of titles.

I definitely agree. In my opinion, there have been a handful of genuine complaints that people can hang on the VCS. The zip code issue took way to long to fix, and needing to flash the console out of the box was not a great first impression (both of these issues seem to be things of the past now). That said, I don't think game support is a remotely fair criticism. Atari has supported the console with the majority of their releases since it came out, and the release of 3rd part/ indie/ homebrew releases has honestly exceeded my best expectations (1 or 2 new titles have been dropping per week for about a year now). I currently have a decent backlog of titles that I'm very interested in playing, but haven't had the chance because I am already playing too many other VCS titles. If LLB never comes out on the VCS, I will be mildly disappointed (still looks like a pretty cool title to me), but I won't be complaining about Atari "not supporting the VCS enough". That's just flatly not true.

[+sramirez2008]

I’m a happy VCS800 owner but happen to agree that you don’t need to buy every game in order to support the console. I’ve purchased several Recharged games, indie games and most recently, games from some of our very own AA homebrew developers. What I really like is the ability to run it in PC mode. I’ve added Stella, Altirra and the A7800 emulators to mine. The emulators coupled with an adapter allow you to play the games as they were meant to be played.

 

Game on everyone!

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

1 hour ago, sramirez2008 said:

I’m a happy VCS800 owner but happen to agree that you don’t need to buy every game in order to support the console. I’ve purchased several Recharged games, indie games and most recently, games from some of our very own AA homebrew developers. What I really like is the ability to run it in PC mode. I’ve added Stella, Altirra and the A7800 emulators to mine. The emulators coupled with an adapter allow you to play the games as they were meant to be played.

 

Game on everyone!

I really love that trackball! We didn't get that one here in the UK unfortunately. I think ill need to import one for the collection 🙂

[+Zeptari]

12 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Lunar Lander Beyond isn’t coming to the Atari Jaguar either. 

@CyranoJ You're up! 

 

[+CyranoJ]

26 minutes ago, Zeptari said:

@CyranoJ You're up! 

 

 

But why go backwards?

 

I've been waiting for months for @davpa to get back to me about Jaguar support.  So long in fact, that I packed the VCS back up and put it on the shelf of shame.

[+Zeptari]

13 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

This should go on a shingle and hung up in most “game rooms”.

[+Sauron]

1 hour ago, CyranoJ said:

 

But why go backwards?

 

I've been waiting for months for @davpa to get back to me about Jaguar support.  So long in fact, that I packed the VCS back up and put it on the shelf of shame.

Can't blame you. The most potential that the VCS has is as a modern showcase for Atari homebrew devs of the classic systems. It's great that they've got some 2600 and 7800 homebrews in the VCS store, but why we haven't seen more (and why we haven't seen any other systems yet) is beyond me. If they're going to drag their feet on it, then they're squandering their biggest opportunity to get the VCS into more people's homes.

 

[+CyranoJ]

3 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Can't blame you. The most potential that the VCS has is as a modern showcase for Atari homebrew devs of the classic systems. It's great that they've got some 2600 and 7800 homebrews in the VCS store, but why we haven't seen more (and why we haven't seen any other systems yet) is beyond me. If they're going to drag their feet on it, then they're squandering their biggest opportunity to get the VCS into more people's homes.

 

It also doesn't have enough buttons on the controller, lol.

[MrBeefy]

18 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

The Atari VCS 800 is a stepping stone for indie game developers to get there games out to an audience where said games might go unnoticed on a larger platform due to the amount of indie games that can get released on the other platforms on a daily basis. If it wasn't for the Atari VCS 800 i would have missed a lot of hidden gems that i have then later went on to purchase on other platforms, i probably would have scrolled past these games on lets say something like the Nintendo Switch or Playstation Store etc. The thing about the Atari VCS 800 is the games have to meet a fairly high standard in the first place to even be considered a place on the Atari store but again you don't even own an Atari VCS 800 so your running your mouth again on your sad one man mission to continue to bash and hate on a system you don't own and its users. Why are you even posting here anyway? Aren't you all high and mighty and above us Atari VCS owners? I don't know, your seriously needing to accept the Atari VCS 800 is still here and its got a small fan base who enjoy and support it and that it has some seriously great games on it now. Your literally hating on the indie game devs like Tony Barnes and others who have released games on the system and all those talented homebrew devs who are releasing amazing 2600 and 7800 games digitally on the system. We don't have lots of lackluster games most of these games are above average. Its quite evident all your here for is to try and stir crap up on your school dinner break 🤣 there's a thread in the VCS forum, “someone to yell at“ or something its called why don't you go and yell and scream in there about how much you hate the Atari VCS 800 and how its making you so angry till your hearts content? That's what its for.. 

There's a few things to unpack here. If you missed hidden gems and only found them because of VCS, how many more are you missing because you seem to struggle with searching? It also ignores the fact that many more non-VCS owners seem to find gems with no issue.

 

Homebrews, yay! But VCS is by far not the only way to release such things.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/893690/Rikki__Vikki/

Not to mention them being on the VCS is only exposing their homebrew to a huge chunk of people that would already know about it and support it other ways. A homebrew on the AA store and a homebrew on the VCS is going to have a high percentage of overlap for people who know of and want to buy.

 

I think it would be best for you to define above average. I see games like this and think your definition of above average is skewed, and I just can't take you seriously. 

 

Also, I'm here because I thought it has been established that Atari games are only worth buying if on the VCS. So I need to make sure it is on the VCS. If on the VCS, I then know I can buy it on other platforms. I don't base my decisions on if it's an actual good game or not.

12 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

I’m a happy VCS800 owner but happen to agree that you don’t need to buy every game in order to support the console. I’ve purchased several Recharged games, indie games and most recently, games from some of our very own AA homebrew developers. What I really like is the ability to run it in PC mode. I’ve added Stella, Altirra and the A7800 emulators to mine. The emulators coupled with an adapter allow you to play the games as they were meant to be played.

 

Game on everyone!

This talk of homebrews just reminds me I need to tear into my AA package and play some good PacManPlus goodness. Hopefully tomorrow Junior will be less interested in Switch and more interested in bleeps and bloops.

5 hours ago, Zeptari said:

Lmao stealing.

5 hours ago, Sauron said:

Can't blame you. The most potential that the VCS has is as a modern showcase for Atari homebrew devs of the classic systems. It's great that they've got some 2600 and 7800 homebrews in the VCS store, but why we haven't seen more (and why we haven't seen any other systems yet) is beyond me. If they're going to drag their feet on it, then they're squandering their biggest opportunity to get the VCS into more people's homes.

It's a modern showcase yes, but at a high cost that the general non-niche market isn't going to want to buy into.

 

I do like that the current leadership at Atari is focusing more on games than Taco Fred was. They would have been better off taking the time and money used on the VCS and put it towards building their catalog back up or publishing more games.

 

They don't need their own expensive and niche hardware to do those things. The homebrew games can just as easily be put on on Evercade, PC, Switch, Xbox, PS.

[+sramirez2008]

12 hours ago, Atari_JaguarVCS said:

I really love that trackball! We didn't get that one here in the UK unfortunately. I think ill need to import one for the collection 🙂

The 5200 trak-ball is great! I really like the CX-80 too. They are built well and look good alongside a 7800 console.