AtariAge + Atari Q&A

[+scorpio_ny]

Firstly, congratulations @Albert! I know this is an exciting new development that opens new opportunities for you!

 

@TrogdarRobusto welcome! Looking forward to what see what is coming down the road!

 

I do have one question for you which you may not be able to answer: emphasis has always been on the 2600 and arcade ports. Are we going to see any new products come that are based on the Atari 8 bit line?

[mickmuze]

Congratulations Al!!

 

Happy for you and hoping this is a positive change for the community.

 

I’m curious however, do I still own my game that is being sold by AtariAge? If I wanted to sell it somewhere else digitally (itch.io or something, no plans to do that anytime soon or at all really, I would much rather sell it digitally through atariage when that becomes available) Do I have the right to do this? I always kinda assumed I did.

[Dan Iacovelli]

Al, Congrats on this, this will indeed open up space for you do more stuff. I like this also lets you go to to more shows besides PRGE like the old days when you and the other al was doing Atariage. you are always welcome to attend VGS even though it been one day,plus  when I return to MGC it would be great to see you there as well.
Can't wait till see what will happen in future

[Albert]

Just now, mickmuze said:

Congratulations Al!!

 

Happy for you and hoping this is a positive change for the community.

Thank you!

Just now, mickmuze said:

I’m curious however, do I still own my game that is being sold by AtariAge? If I wanted to sell it somewhere else digitally (itch.io or something, no plans to do that anytime soon or at all really, I would much rather sell it digitally through atariage when that becomes available) Do I have the right to do this? I always kinda assumed I did.

Yes, you do still own your game and can sell it independently if you'd like.  Once I get the store on new software, I will be offering digital purchases on AtariAge as well.  The current store has very poor mechanisms to do this, which is why I haven't offered them yet.

 

 ..Al

[AlexF1975]

As yet, we don't have confirmation that the homebrew 2600 & 7800 games you sell will work on the new 2600+; with this announcement, does that increase the likelihood that Atari will make a concerted effort to ensure that they do?

[Albert]

Just now, Dan Iacovelli said:

Al, Congrats on this, this will indeed open up space for you do more stuff. I like this also lets you go to to more shows besides PRGE like the old days when you and the other al was doing Atariage. you are always welcome to attend VGS even though it been one day,plus  when I return to MGC it would be great to see you there as well.

Thank you Dan, much appreciated.  One of the things we've discussed is attending more shows, as that's something I've wanted to do, but PRGE is such an enormous time sink right each year, that it's been difficult to even think about going to other shows.  But this will happen. 

 

 ..Al

[cx2k]

5 minutes ago, scorpio_ny said:

Firstly, congratulations @Albert! I know this is an exciting new development that opens new opportunities for you!

 

@TrogdarRobusto welcome! Looking forward to what see what is coming down the road!

 

I do have one question for you which you may not be able to answer: emphasis has always been on the 2600 and arcade ports. Are we going to see any new products come that are based on the Atari 8 bit line?

This!! ^^^

[TrogdarRobusto]

4 minutes ago, scorpio_ny said:

Firstly, congratulations @Albert! I know this is an exciting new development that opens new opportunities for you!

 

@TrogdarRobusto welcome! Looking forward to what see what is coming down the road!

 

I do have one question for you which you may not be able to answer: emphasis has always been on the 2600 and arcade ports. Are we going to see any new products come that are based on the Atari 8 bit line?

Probs. Not sure if it will be hardware, software or both. So many good 8-bit games. No promises, but the desire is there.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

18 minutes ago, ilmenit said:

It was a great community and a pleasure to be here. I'm not optimistic knowing how corporations work. What often starts as idea for non-direct monetization, sooner or later brings questions about ROI, profitability and how to improve some KPIs like Average Revenue Per Active User. Time to create an alternative non-commercial international community?

My thoughts exactly.

[jum]

While I'm obviously happy for you Albert, I have my concerns about Atari owning the forums:

- The "value" in the forums is community contributed, thus although you provide the platform, the content in a "socialist" way belongs to the people who contributed it. That is (was) the implied understanding. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking this. So not comfortable with any attempts to "own" the content and further, monetise it.

- Still very wary of the "new" Atari.

 

Then I also have the concerns about Atari censoring homebrews, rom hacks, dev documents, and any "property" they feel they own.

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

@TrogdarRobusto: I realise that this question doesn't have a concrete answer, but would like to hear what you have to say regarding it.

 

The reputation that Atari, SA has built up with a large chunk of the community over the past few years can be charitably described as less than stellar.  Does Atari, SA intend to repair that relationship, and, if so, how?

[Mrshoujo]

So how fat was that stack of money they slapped in your face? 😏

(That sounds rather disgruntled but I'm sure I'm not alone in these opinions. And you could've disagreed to let Atari wave that cash stack.)

That explains July.

[8bitrocket]

Congrats, Albert! Atari NEEDS YOU! This is great for both Atari Age and Atari. 

[fultonbot]

Wonderful news! 
You deserve this more than anyone.

[Kenjunior]

@TrogdarRobusto @Albert I see homebrew games for the 2600+ mentioned.... [I have seen the official working list originally published] but do all the homebrews run on the 2600+? Are there any plans for a 2600+ w/ actual hardware [not emulation]

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, jum said:

While I'm obviously happy for you Albert, I have my concerns about Atari owning the forums:

- The "value" in the forums is community contributed, thus although you provide the platform, the content in a "socialist" way belongs to the people who contributed it. That is (was) the implied understanding. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking this.

This was my understanding too. Until today. 

2 minutes ago, jum said:

So not comfortable with any attempts to "own" the content and further, monetise it.

Same #1

2 minutes ago, jum said:

- Still very wary of the "new" Atari.

Same #2

2 minutes ago, jum said:

Then I also have the concerns about Atari censoring homebrews, rom hacks, dev documents, and any "property" they feel they own.

Same #3

[+Charlie Cat]

50 minutes ago, Albert said:

 

Well done Albert. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication you provide for the community. 

 

 

 

[zzip]

1 hour ago, Flyindrew said:

 

My question-Will Atari be working toward securing prior software that was available on the AtariAge store for physical and or digital release. To be direct and to the point, Id love to purchase 7800 Popeye either in physical or digital form one day and just using that as an example.

Hopefully this can happen, but Popeye isn't likely as they'd need to get rights from Nintendo and whoever owns the Popeye IP (Universal?)   

[MrBeefy]

Instead of a Flashback device/collection, can we finally get a Flash Forward collection with some of the homebrew greatest hits on like Evercade and other platforms? 

 

I'd love to see Toyshop Trouble and Stella's stocking on Switch and such.

 

[+littaum]

Congratulations on the sale to Atari!  This all has been a tremendous amount of work for you (honestly I don't know how you did it) and hopefully Atari can both learn some things from you and help you keep things running.

 

Will AtariAge have any new 2600+ systems playing games in the AA booth at PRGE 2023?

[r_chase]

Just now, zzip said:

Hopefully this can happen, but Popeye isn't likely as they'd need to get rights from Nintendo and whoever owns the Popeye IP (Universal?)   

iirc...I think Popeye is owned by...uh...Sony? I remember that there was a trailer for a cancelled movie by Sony.

[davpa]

33 minutes ago, Crazy Climber said:

@TrogdarRobusto

Nice to meet you.. I was curious...Will you continue to be an active member of the forums and make a genuine attempt to be part of our community? 

If you ever need questions answered, I'm here too. I can do my best to be a resource.  I focus a lot more on the Atari VCS 800 (the modern system), but I'm a long-time Atari fan with many consoles.

[Albert]

4 minutes ago, Kenjunior said:

@TrogdarRobusto @Albert I see homebrew games for the 2600+ mentioned.... [I have seen the official working list originally published] but do all the homebrews run on the 2600+? Are there any plans for a 2600+ w/ actual hardware [not emulation]

I already have a 2600+ and will be testing many of the games that are currently listed as "Untested", and of course I will test as many homebrew games as I can over time to build up a compabitily list for homebrew titles.  I haven't had time to dive into that just yet, but I do know that Melody-based games will not run.

 

I love the new joysticks and paddles, both of which I've tried on original hardware.  Having brand new, jitter-free paddles is amazing!

 

 ..Al

[TrogdarRobusto]

7 minutes ago, jum said:

While I'm obviously happy for you Albert, I have my concerns about Atari owning the forums:

- The "value" in the forums is community contributed, thus although you provide the platform, the content in a "socialist" way belongs to the people who contributed it. That is (was) the implied understanding. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking this. So not comfortable with any attempts to "own" the content and further, monetise it.

- Still very wary of the "new" Atari.

 

Then I also have the concerns about Atari censoring homebrews, rom hacks, dev documents, and any "property" they feel they own.

 

Our goal is to support the site and the community. There is no hidden agenda ... but I can say that all day long, only time will prove it to be true. I can say that we have two very active Discord communities and our members are not shy about telling us how they feel, especially when they thing that we have done something wrong. We can take criticism, we just ask that it not get personal. Al can better speak to the 'ownership' issue you have raised, and I think he has addressed it in this thread once or twice.

[Albert]

1 minute ago, MrBeefy said:

Instead of a Flashback device/collection, can we finally get a Flash Forward collection with some of the homebrew greatest hits on like Evercade and other platforms? 

 

I'd love to see Toyshop Trouble and Stella's stocking on Switch and such.

Yes, an Evercade cartridge featuring homebrew games is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but lack of bandwidth has kept me from doing that (along with many other cool things).  As I make this transition and am able to reduce the amount of time I presently spend on building and shipping games, there are a lot of cool projects like this I will be able to focus on. 

 

 ..Al