AtariAge + Atari Q&A

[NaOH]

Can Atari give an official position on whether it condones the creation of homebrew roms and (non-infringing) romhack patches?

[Raiu]

2 hours ago, omf said:

have you tried archive.org ?

I mean, not speaking for CapitanClassic here... but it's mainly there's still tons of other places to get those ROMs, but it was nice being able to grab them individually (most collections are a .zip file of every ROM ever found) without having to go to some sketchy warez site.

(Do the kids still say "warez"?)

[+5-11under]

3 minutes ago, NaOH said:

Can Atari give an official position on whether it condones the creation of homebrew roms and (non-infringing) romhack patches?

They don't need to. There's nothing inherently illegal about homebrew ROMs, and if patches are non-infringing, then they don't infringe on anyone or any company.

[+SmittyB]

1 minute ago, Raiu said:

Do the kids still say "warez"?

The rad ones do.

[+x=usr(1536)]

12 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Besides obtaining old IP, perhaps someone at Atari can work as a guiding counselor, a coach, a mentor in what it takes for new indie games to become valuable assets to the community and the company. I understand there is lots of smaller indie games on other platforms and this is what Atari wants the VCS to have as well.

One thing that I would add to this: if Atari, SA intends to have physical releases for legacy hardware, the same should apply.  Targetting nostalgia is all well and good, but how many ways to play Centipede do we really need?  New software is what keeps these systems alive.

[waynel]

So, who is Atari now?  Who runs the day-to-day stuff?  How many people?  

 

I checked Wikipedia, and it says Atari is a company run out of Paris that seems to mostly buy other video game companies.

 

Is Atari run out of France, or is it U.S.-based?  If it's French, does this means more PAL ports, or is that unrealistic because the 2600+ is HDMI?

[TrogdarRobusto]

3 minutes ago, waynel said:

So, who is Atari now?  Who runs the day-to-day stuff?  How many people?  

 

I checked Wikipedia, and it says Atari is a company run out of Paris that seems to mostly buy other video game companies.

 

Is Atari run out of France, or is it U.S.-based?  If it's French, does this means more PAL ports, or is that unrealistic because the 2600+ is HDMI?

Atari has an office in Paris and an Office in New York, but most of our team is based in the US and remote.  The CEO is Wade Rosen. I encourage you to read some of his interviews from the last year, they will give you a sense of who he is and what is important to him.

I can also say that Nolan Bushnell is an advisor to Atari and we speak with him regularly. We feel a spiritual bridge between what he founded and what we are doing our best to revitalize. 



 

[TrogdarRobusto]

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

One thing that I would add to this: if Atari, SA intends to have physical releases for legacy hardware, the same should apply.  Targetting nostalgia is all well and good, but how many ways to play Centipede do we really need?  New software is what keeps these systems alive.

We have released a ton of new games over the last two years. About half of them have been from the Recharged series, which modernize classic games without changing the core gameplay. The other ten or so are completely new games, some based on old IP and some new IP. We are making games ... new software. We have also announced a bunch of games that are releasing between now and March. Check them out ... https://atari.com/collections/games

[TrogdarRobusto]

1 hour ago, ApolloBoy said:

I'd also love to see some rereleases of rare carts if possible.

Part of the XP program's mission is to release carts for prototypes and rare games. Granted, we also release some more common favorites but expect a mix.

[tzok]

59 minutes ago, mytek said:

But I can be bought just like anyone else, so if the new Atari would reinstate manufacture of the Pokey chip that was earlier suggested, and sell it for $10 or less you've got yourself a follower  

I'm more afraid they will reclaim their copyright to whatever is possible, and what for the last 30 years was considered abandoned = free. They figured out, that they could make money on old stuff, by doing nothing more than PR. This Atari is not Atari from '80, and should not have any claims to classic ROMs. After 25+ years off the market, they should be irreversibly "copylefted", so no one would ever try to claim any financial rights. I don't like it at all. Of course congratulations on a good deal. If you wouldn't agree they'd probably force this site down forcefully. So I see this as "sometimes the only option to survive is to join our enemy". Atari platform was actually the last abandoned (=free) platform, without any company claiming rights to the vast share of the released software. Cloanto practically killed the Amiga retro community, or maybe rather took it hostage.

[TrogdarRobusto]

57 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

But I got a VCS on sale at Micro Center in 2021, was very impressed by it, and thought, well, maybe they’re not all bad.

Hey. We will take "not all bad" as a starting point and work up from there!

[TrogdarRobusto]

2 hours ago, BILLYonaire said:

Will the Atari 2600+ be available at the AtariAge store? I don't reside in the US, so I can't place an order at their site.

The Atari 2600+ is available for preorder already in many countries. Here is a list. For the latest look here https://atari.com/products/atari-2600-plus under international Availability.
 

Australia - EB Games

Austria - Games Only

Benelux - Bol

Canada - Amazon

France - Amazon

Germany - Amazon

Italy - Amazon

New Zealand - EB Games

Poland - RTV Euro AGD

Slovenia - Igabiba

Spain - GAME

Switzerland - CeDe

United Kingdom - Amazon

United States - Amazon

[waynel]

3 hours ago, MegaManFan said:

Just dropped a video about this linked to the site and announcement.

 

 

FYI, for a thumbnail picture you accidentally chose to use an image of yourself having a stroke.  Might want to change that to something more sensible.  Hope you're doing better.

[tzok]

12 minutes ago, waynel said:

So, who is Atari now?

I checked Wikipedia, and it says Atari is a company run out of Paris that seems to mostly buy other video game companies.

The ones who claim to be Atari were formerly known as Infogrames... and I don't know how and why they claim the right to all the Atari heritage.

[vdub_bobby]

All very interesting.  Figured "last chance" removals were due to copyright and/or developers who couldn't be reached any longer.  I guess I'm glad Squish 'Em wasn't .... squashed. 

[TrogdarRobusto]

2 hours ago, retroillucid said:

I was wondering..., will it affect the ColecoVision/ADAM section?
Do they plan to remove non-atari related stuff here?


 

No chance. that content is super valuable to the community. And remember, Atari owns a ton of games that were released on various systems from the console, handheld and PC eras. 

[moycon]

I know recently there was a big last chance sale in the Atari Age store. I'm guessing that had something to do with this merger. Now that Atari "owns" Atari Age, are they planning on some big revamp in the AA Store? Is that what drove all of this? It would be cool if Atari had plans to utilize the guys who have been homebrewing Atari game for the past 20 years and release official new Atari 2600 software. Some of those old "What Might Have Been" mockups I would do of Atari arcade games never ported to the 2600 could probably be made now, and sequels...ohhh yes awesome Atari sequels.

[carlsson]

Maybe you can bring back Atarisoft from where it was left 40 years ago, making official ports of Atari games for non-Atari systems, at least those with some commercial viability.

[Mikebloke]

I haven't been around so this is new news to me. I do have a few questions for @Albert and or @TrogdarRobusto

 

1) what happens to past and any future rom releases of homebrews here on the forum, does Atari have a policy on who owns such content? Can it be made official and public that any binary / other files that we have uploaded / may upload in the future will be still our property and not owned in anyway by Atari? This isn't just about atari systems, but all of them. 

 

2) while there is no plans to remove non atari related material, this forum is a treasure trove of hundreds of threads about the history of systems both post and pre 2600. Some of the only information of systems development is found on this forum from researchers, some of them are sadly no longer with us and the only thing we have is their posts here preserving their precious research. Is there any plans to officially archive some or all of the forum so that this information is preserved just in case? I don't know if any other users are concerned but I'm worried that some of the only stuff on some systems is here and here only. 

 

I think I had a third but I've forgotten. 

Albert, congratulations and I respect your decision to be taken in house. I think this is further vindication that there is a place for retro gaming as a modern market and no doubt there will be some doors opening for further technical amazing homebrew experiences  (or do they count as official now?!). 

 

I have had my doubts and I was one of those people who mocked the VCS release along with the other mad ideas like hotels. I'm still pretty critical of those things. But even I would say I'm relatively supportive of recent measures such as the 2600+. For what it's worth I still want to say "good luck" to atari. 

 

However the feel of the site will change with time, it's natural. I imagine many of us will migrate and slowly fade away. It's nothing personal, but it will feel different. 

 

Again, good luck to all partners involved. 

 

[TrogdarRobusto]

Just now, tzok said:

The ones who claim to be Atari were formerly known as Infogrames... and I don't know how and why they claim the right to all the Atari heritage.

No one from the infogrames era is involved in the company. I personally don't understand the mentality that the only valid Atari is the original Atari. But if it means anything, Nolan is an advisor to the company, we talk to him all the time. I personally speak with him a few times a year. He is a super interesting guy. We do see a spiritual connection between the original and what we are trying to accomplish. And we are Atari ... plain and simple.

[BILLYonaire]

6 minutes ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

The Atari 2600+ is available for preorder already in many countries. Here is a list. For the latest look here https://atari.com/products/atari-2600-plus under international Availability.
 

Australia - EB Games

Austria - Games Only

Benelux - Bol

Canada - Amazon

France - Amazon

Germany - Amazon

Italy - Amazon

New Zealand - EB Games

Poland - RTV Euro AGD

Slovenia - Igabiba

Spain - GAME

Switzerland - CeDe

United Kingdom - Amazon

United States - Amazon

It appears they added more countries since I replied to Tickled_Pink but unfortunately, still none for my country and payment method. Hopefully, it will become available at AtariAge or StoneAgeGamer.

[TrogdarRobusto]

1 minute ago, Mikebloke said:

I haven't been around so this is new news to me. I do have a few questions for @Albert and or @TrogdarRobusto

 

1) what happens to past and any future rom releases of homebrews here on the forum, does Atari have a policy on who owns such content? Can it be made official and public that any binary / other files that we have uploaded / may upload in the future will be still our property and not owned in anyway by Atari? This isn't just about atari systems, but all of them. 

 

2) while there is no plans to remove non atari related material, this forum is a treasure trove of hundreds of threads about the history of systems both post and pre 2600. Some of the only information of systems development is found on this forum from researchers, some of them are sadly no longer with us and the only thing we have is their posts here preserving their precious research. Is there any plans to officially archive some or all of the forum so that this information is preserved just in case? I don't know if any other users are concerned but I'm worried that some of the only stuff on some systems is here and here only. 

 

I think I had a third but I've forgotten. 

Albert, congratulations and I respect your decision to be taken in house. I think this is further vindication that there is a place for retro gaming as a modern market and no doubt there will be some doors opening for further technical amazing homebrew experiences  (or do they count as official now?!). 

 

I have had my doubts and I was one of those people who mocked the VCS release along with the other mad ideas like hotels. I'm still pretty critical of those things. But even I would say I'm relatively supportive of recent measures such as the 2600+. For what it's worth I still want to say "good luck" to atari. 

 

However the feel of the site will change with time, it's natural. I imagine many of us will migrate and slowly fade away. It's nothing personal, but it will feel different. 

 

Again, good luck to all partners involved. 

 

I think Albert has answered these questions already, and better than I could. But here goes:

 

1) You own today what you owned yesterday. There is no change to how AtariAge/Atari views homebrew content. We anticipated this question, and we aren't quite sure how else to answer it. If you made the game, it is yours until you decide otherwise.

2) all the information and forum activity for non-Atari hardware are extremely valuable to the community, the industry and to Atari. We own the rights to tons of games published on non-Atari hardware after all.

3) I hope you stick around and help sustain and grow the AtariAge community, and tells us what you think about what Atari is and can be in the future. 

[TrogdarRobusto]

1 minute ago, BILLYonaire said:

It appears they added more countries since I replied to Tickled_Pink but unfortunately, still none for my country and payment method. Hopefully, it will become available at AtariAge or StoneAgeGamer.

What country? I can find out if distribution is planned for that market ... at least near term.

[TrogdarRobusto]

6 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Maybe you can bring back Atarisoft from where it was left 40 years ago, making official ports of Atari games for non-Atari systems, at least those with some commercial viability.

 

Almost all the new games and collections we make come out on all the modern consoles and PC ... the idea of porting old Atari games to other legacy hardware systems is an interesting one. Not sure how viable that is commercially, but maybe?

[TrogdarRobusto]

2 hours ago, Tickled_Pink said:

The Atari site does list worldwide retailers. I don't know where you live but Amazon are the official retailer in the UK. I was surprised at the price. Not been a big fan of retro consoles as they've either been expensive or haven't done anything I can't do on my softmodded PSP. But at under £100, it's probably cheaper than getting a HDMI upscaler that can take an RF input. So, it's definitely tempting.

We really tried to keep the price reasonable while keeping the build quality high.  We didn't see the point of bringing out a $600 2600. That just becomes a vanity project. The are hundreds of 2600 and 7800 games out there ... at $129.99 the Atari 2600+ makes those games accessible to a much broader population, folks who jsut want to turn on the power, plug in an HDMI cable and play.