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I'm now a VCSer...


Sauron

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I actually bought the VCS back in December of last year on a whim thanks to a big sale, yet I've let it sit unopened all this time, kinda afraid to take it out of the box. Well, this evening I finally got the itch and got it setup, and I've got a few unsolicited observations.

 

First, the setup. Powered the unit on, synced the controller, connected to the wireless network, then update. Got to 83% and just froze there. Well, not unexpected, thanks to having seen many similar complaints before. Hit up the Discord channel, was told to flash the unit. "Oh boy, here we go" I thought. Thankfully, though, that process went much smoother than I expected. The downside to it is that I had to do some digging and asking around just to figure that out. Where's your support page, Atari? Oh, I found it, but all it has is manuals, none of which detail the flashing process. In other words, Atari doesn't seem to have any kind of support infrastructure, even just a support wiki that has fixes for common issues. Seems like you guys need me to build you one. Interested? Someone from Atari send me a PM, I've helped build support infrastructures for two different game publishers now. But I digress...

 

Anyway, flashed the system, rebooted...and I'm in! The interface is a little clunky, but that's a small issue, and nothing that can't be smoothed out in time. As it is, it's not difficult to navigate. It's nice having the Atari Vault preinstalled, it lets you get to playing something right away without having to hit up the store. So, let's hit up the store and see what goodies are available. Now this was a pleasant surprise. There's more games than I expected there to be. Nothing quite up to AAA standards, but hey, this is the VCS, that's not what this little system is about! All of the Recharged games are there of course, most of which I already own on the Switch. Ohhh, nice! Some 2600 and 7800 games, and for very reasonable prices too! Atari, you guys just won some major points for having Amoeba Jump on the store. Seriously, that game rocks!

 

Anyway, let's move on. There are some apps here, including ones for AppleTV+, Netflix, YouTube, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video. Just add Crunchyroll and HiDive (yes, I'm an otaku, deal with it) and that will have all of my bases covered. Didn't try any of them out, though, I'll get to that later.

 

Anyways, that's my initial first impression of the VCS. The only gripes I have should be pretty easy fixes. Later I'll start test driving the apps and maybe purchase a game or two from the store.

 

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36 minutes ago, Sauron said:

IAnyway, let's move on. There are some apps here, including ones for AppleTV+, Netflix, YouTube, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video. Just add Crunchyroll and HiDive (yes, I'm an otaku, deal with it) and that will have all of my bases covered. Didn't try any of them out, though, I'll get to that later.

 

Unfortunately they're not really apps, they're just shortcuts that open up those respective websites in a maximized Chrome window. 

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1 minute ago, famicommander said:

Unfortunately they're not really apps, they're just shortcuts that open up those respective websites in a maximized Chrome window. 

Yeah, I figured as much. No biggie, but I guess it remains to be seen how well I'll be able to navigate them just with the controller.

 

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2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Yeah, I figured as much. No biggie, but I guess it remains to be seen how well I'll be able to navigate them just with the controller.

 

The only one I've tried that responds to any controller inputs at all is Pluto. To use the Netflix, Hulu, Max, ESPN, Disney, Paramount, etc I had to plug in a mouse.

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1 minute ago, famicommander said:

The only one I've tried that responds to any controller inputs at all is Pluto. To use the Netflix, Hulu, Max, ESPN, Disney, Paramount, etc I had to plug in a mouse.

Well that's a shame. There's no way to simulate a mouse with the controller?

 

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4 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well that's a shame. There's no way to simulate a mouse with the controller?

 

If there's a way in Atari OS I haven't found it. It's not hard to do in other Linux distributions I've used though. I haven't had my VCS for very long so I haven't popped an SSD into it yet, but I'll do that eventually and load up Linux Mint or something similar.

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Ok, did a little more playing around on the VCS. I ended up purchasing Amoeba Jump just to show some love to the author. It's one of my favorite 2600 homebrews, and I absolutely love it. Since I'm scrapped for cash, I haven't purchased anything else as of yet, although I did download what I guess is a free demo (don't remember the name, but I'm sure any VCS user knows which game I'm talking about). Also, I downloaded the VCS companion app to my iPhone, and tested it out, and it works quite well. Atari definitely deserves kudos for that. Outside of all of that, I haven't really done much else other than explore around the settings and such. 

 

To give my overall impressions so far...the VCS has actually surpassed my expectations, believe it or not. Now, those expectations have been severely tempered by years' worth of groaning about it on these very forums. Obviously, if you're expecting something to compete with the big three console makers, you're going to be severely disappointed. However, Atari has never made any such claims of the VCS. It seems to be a good little system for what it is - a flexible device that pays homage to the past while helping to build a road to the future. And really, that's all I, personally, could really ask for from it.

 

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Well, welcome to the Atari VCS 800 club.  I hope you can also join us on the VCS Discords.  Recently, there has been Ultimate Ski Jumping battles with a lot of the VCS community in the online section of the game.

 

Also, if you do go on the VCS Discord, check out the #-guides channel; there are a few BIOS tips to get more out of your VCS.

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11 minutes ago, davpa said:

Well, welcome to the Atari VCS 800 club.  I hope you can also join us on the VCS Discords.  Recently, there has been Ultimate Ski Jumping battles with a lot of the VCS community in the online section of the game.

 

Also, if you do go on the VCS Discord, check out the #-guides channel; there are a few BIOS tips to get more out of your VCS.

Thanks! I've already been active in the Discord channels, that's how I was able to get my VCS up and running. I think I'll have to check out that Ultimate Ski Jumping to see what it's all about. :cool:

 

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So I've spent some more time playing around on the VCS today, and some of its rough edges are starting to show more. Here's a few examples:

 

- I've experienced numerous freezes and reboots when watching video previews of games through the store, where it'll freeze while watching the video, and after about 30 seconds or so the system will reboot on its own. Not a huge issue, but would be nice to not have to deal with it.

- I've been randomly getting a message at the top of the screen about a firmware upgrade being available for a connected device, but when I check the settings I see nothing to indicate that this is the case. Is there a specific place I should be looking?

- I purchased Food Fight for the 7800, and the game randomly resets while playing, which is extremely annoying. In fact, I haven't been able to go through a full game of it without this happening. Also, the MAME interface appears when trying to get out of the game. This is a minor issue, but still, my experience with this 7800 game so far makes me wary of purchasing any others through the VCS.

- Too many truncated or shortened game titles when browsing them through the store, which kinda gives the whole store experience an amateurish feel. 

 

Most of those aren't big issues, but the one with Food Fight most certainly is. All of these problems do add up, though, and this gives the VCS a bit of a half-baked feel, which is a bit disheartening considering that the system has been in player's hands for close to 3 years now. Couple all of that with the fact that there is no clear support system or something even as basic as a repository for known issues severely degrades the overall experience with the VCS. 

 

I'm not trying to be overly nitpicky about all of this, nor am I a naysayer who just wants to dump on the VCS. In fact, I stand by what I said about the VCS before:

 

On 9/9/2023 at 12:47 PM, Sauron said:

To give my overall impressions so far...the VCS has actually surpassed my expectations, believe it or not. Now, those expectations have been severely tempered by years' worth of groaning about it on these very forums. Obviously, if you're expecting something to compete with the big three console makers, you're going to be severely disappointed. However, Atari has never made any such claims of the VCS. It seems to be a good little system for what it is - a flexible device that pays homage to the past while helping to build a road to the future. And really, that's all I, personally, could really ask for from it.

I like the VCS overall, and I really want Atari to succeed with what they're doing, both with the VCS and with their other endeavors. However, issues like I mentioned above should have been fixed ages ago, and not having done so only works to cheapen the brand. Atari, you can do better

 

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11 hours ago, The Helper said:

The connected device is probably your joystick that needs to be updated.  I remember I had to do that as well.

Thanks, that took care of it, and in addition, it appears that it solved the problem of Food Fight (7800) randomly resetting during play. I was able to get through a full game without it happening.

 

EDIT: Spoke too soon about the Food Fight problem. However, I figured out what was causing it. Apparently during the course of gameplay I've been pressing down on the left analog stick, which is mapped as Select, which in turn causes the game to reset. Ugh. Oh well, guess I wouldn't have that problem using the classic controller.

 

Edited by Sauron
Added additional info.
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