VCS Store Problems (Discussion/Tips)

[Gunstar]

I've had the VCS for several weeks, I've already purchased half a dozen games from the Atari (VCS) Store with no issue and even saved my card information. Well, last night I went to the Atari Store to purchase another game, I not only had to re-enter all my card info and zip code, but I received a transaction failure due to it not accepting my zip code! It kept displaying [N/A, zip code requires 5 digits and optional 4 digit extension]. I made several attempts on two different games and tried using 2 different credit (debit-the first used and saved before) cards which have plenty of money in their accounts. I tried restarting the console, and again on an attempt this morning. I even verified my zip code with my address on a bill, though I know it by heart and even tried adding the 4 digit extension on said bill with no difference.

 

Has anyone else had this issue of late or at all?

Edited February 27 by justclaws
adjusted title to merge related topics

[killersquirel]

I had this error for almost three weeks in July.  They fixed the problem, but then I saw the issue yesterday when I tried to buy Dynablaster.  I am hoping they fix it quickly.

[THX-1138]

1 hour ago, Gunstar said:

I've had the VCS for several weeks, I've already purchased half a dozen games from the Atari (VCS) Store with no issue and even saved my card information. Well, last night I went to the Atari Store to purchase another game, I not only had to re-enter all my card info and zip code, but I received a transaction failure due to it not accepting my zip code! It kept displaying [N/A, zip code requires 5 digits and optional 4 digit extension]. I made several attempts on two different games and tried using 2 different credit (debit-the first used and saved before) cards which have plenty of money in their accounts. I tried restarting the console, and again on an attempt this morning. I even verified my zip code with my address on a bill, though I know it by heart and even tried adding the 4 digit extension on said bill with no difference.

 

Has anyone else had this issue of late or at all?

It has been an intermittent problem for -some-.

If you go onto the VCS Discord and ping Ashlee at Atari Support, she will help you.

[Gunstar]

Thanks guys! I'm happy just to know it isn't an issue on my end causing it. I can wait a bit more for the game, I'll check on the store until it works. I just went online to the AtariVCS.com and purchased the $30 PC Linux boot flash in the meantime with the money I'd set aside this week for a couple games. I'll make my own Windows boot flash, but this will be my first use of Linux since '96-97, and that was on old 80's PC's with only command line operation I used at work and have never installed Linux myself or used any graphical desktops with it. So I figured the $30 price was right to save me time and headaches putting it together myself.

[+jeremiahjt]

I had to reenter all my card information when I bought Mr. Run and Jump a few days ago, but the purchase went through fine.

[davpa]

Zip Code Error - Workaround to purchase: When asked to enter your zip code first enter two (2) spaces and then your five (5) digit zip code. This should allow you to make your purchase as you normally would. Please let us know if you have any issues or if this does not work for you!

Edited November 1, 2023 by justclaws
merged threads, adjusted title

[+Sauron]

Strangely enough, I went to try this fix but then found that my VCS was storing my payment info again, so I didn't need to. Did you guys make any changes on your end that would've affected this?

 

 

[davpa]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

Strangely enough, I went to try this fix but then found that my VCS was storing my payment info again, so I didn't need to. Did you guys make any changes on your end that would've affected this?

 

 

No, this quirk was discovered by a VCS Discord member, retroman21. He said he was inspired by something he used to do in C64, but that is probably a BS story, as he is always trolling us about the greatness of C64.

 

Obviously, this is not a full fix, but if it works in the meantime then that is great.  This error has always been in code changes on the side of our eStore partners, not the VCS.  It has been a frustrating situation to get them to fix the errors that are affecting the VCS, which we will continue to press for.  Again, at least for now, we have a hack for people to use if this error affects them.

[+Sauron]

23 minutes ago, davpa said:

No, this quirk was discovered by a VCS Discord member, retroman21. He said he was inspired by something he used to do in C64, but that is probably a BS story, as he is always trolling us about the greatness of C64.

 

Obviously, this is not a full fix, but if it works in the meantime then that is great.  This error has always been in code changes on the side of our eStore partners, not the VCS.  It has been a frustrating situation to get them to fix the errors that are affecting the VCS, which we will continue to press for.  Again, at least for now, we have a hack for people to use if this error affects them.

Yes, I saw him mention it in the Discord channel and when I went to try the workaround myself, I saw that my VCS was again storing my previously entered payment info, which it wasn't doing while the problem was happening for me. Either I'm just lucky and my system somehow encountered a glitch that resolved itself, or your eStore partner might actually be paying attention and did something on their end to fix it. Either way, I'm quite happy that I can start spending money that I don't have again. 

 

 

[davpa]

20 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Yes, I saw him mention it in the Discord channel and when I went to try the workaround myself, I saw that my VCS was again storing my previously entered payment info, which it wasn't doing while the problem was happening for me. Either I'm just lucky and my system somehow encountered a glitch that resolved itself, or your eStore partner might actually be paying attention and did something on their end to fix it. Either way, I'm quite happy that I can start spending money that I don't have again. 

 

 

Actually, we are getting reports of people who were being affected by the ZIP code issue and now entering their information normally (no double space trick) and it working.  So it looks like maybe our eCommerce partner actually fixed things.  This "hack" might just be a coincidence.  Still trying to get info, but given that this is a Sunday, nobody is responding.

[killersquirel]

The bug is back and this trick doesn't fix it.

[justclaws]

On 10/14/2023 at 5:12 PM, killersquirel said:

The bug is back and this trick doesn't fix it.

Apparently it's cured again, but Atari really needs to discuss this urgently with the payment provider to avoid any repetition.

I bought 3 games today, and I had no problem, but my payment details were already authorised on the VCS for quite a while.

[killersquirel]

On 10/16/2023 at 12:11 PM, justclaws said:

Apparently it's cured again, but Atari really needs to discuss this urgently with the payment provider to avoid any repetition.

I bought 3 games today, and I had no problem, but my payment details were already authorised on the VCS for quite a while.

The zip code bug is still present.  I just tried again to purchase Haunted House and it failed yet again.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

I worry about the zip code problem. I've never had the issue myself and currently have multiple cards saved on my Atari VCS to pay for the games and have had since January 2021. I wonder if saving your card details to the Atari VCS is the key in preventing the issue in the first place?. I'm guessing this issue though is not an easy fix or else it would have been dealt with day one when it first started doing the rounds and that would have been the end of it. I honestly hope it gets resolved so and we can see those software sales climb again, its really unfair for the customer to not be able to purchase and especially the developer to release a game and have it sit there hardly selling.

[scifidude79]

I joined this forum specifically because of this problem. It's not fixed and it probably never was. I had my payment info saved since I got my console last year and there was no problem. I could make purchases just fine. However, I bought a house last month, and I moved into it. Ironically, my zip code was all that changed in my payment information. When it came out, I tried buying the new version of Haunted House. I deleted my old payment info and entered my card with my new zip code, only to encounter this error. It's been 8 days, I've tried almost every day, including today. I've tried two spaces before the zip code, one space before the zip code, I even tried with the 4-digit extension and adding spaces in front of that. Nothing works. A number of new games have come out in the past 8 days and I can't buy any of them because of this. Atari needs to fix this, or people who need to enter new payment info in their consoles can't buy games from the store. I don't care if it's caused by the partner company that handles credit card transactions, Atari needs to find a solution, even if it means switching partner companies.

[Atari_JaguarVCS]

I think a simple solution to fix this would be to add and option to pay for your games via PayPal, i don't know how difficult that would be to integrate into the store though. If i was having the zip code issue id use the down time to play through some of my games i previously purchased, use PC mode and dig into my Steam collection as this problem with the zip code will get fixed eventually. I believe the problem was fixed before, people on Discord where able to buy games again. I really hope it gets resolved for you. If only Atari where a bigger company with more staff etc it probably would have been fixed by now, its easy to forget that at times.

[scifidude79]

The thing is, I want to support the VCS. I've been playing Atari for over 40 years and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. But, it's hard to support the console when I literally can't buy games on it. I realize they're a small company, but as you say, adding PayPal to the store would fix this right up. I also don't know how easy that would be to integrate. I do know there are multiple companies out there for handling credit card transactions. If I were at Atari, I'd issue them an ultimatum: fix this or we're switching companies.

 

As for PC mode on the VCS, I don't do it. No offense to that great device, but I have much better options for playing PC games. I love the VCS for the games that come out on it. I find myself playing more indie games with it than I did before, and I love that. Indie game companies are also small companies and having them not being able to sell games may hurt them, and it could hurt our chances of getting more games on the VCS.

[Mockduck]

The issue isn't that it happens but that it remains unresolved for weeks, sadly. A bunch of us are in this situation where we can't make any purchases, it's a real bummer. 

[+Sauron]

The problem has cropped back up for me as well. 

 

[thecaptain72]

It just sucks. As a new VCS owner I was able to buy a few games. Now I can't buy squat!

[killersquirel]

20 hours ago, thecaptain72 said:

It just sucks. As a new VCS owner I was able to buy a few games. Now I can't buy squat!

This has happened to me three or four times since the end of June.  I stopped having my CC number stored as my nephew (who is 8 years old) has a VCS with my account on it.  Although I bought pretty much most of the games with the exception of original 7800 and Dosbox games.  There are a couple of other VCS games I haven't bought yet and of course the new games that I can't buy at this time, so I probably will try to save my CC info in the system to see if I can avoid this nonsense again.  I wanted to do that this last time, but I bought a couple of games with a visa gift card and that erased my CC info.  This will get fixed, probably in a week or two and I recommend saving your CC info for future purchases.  That might solve the issue?

[+Sauron]

1 hour ago, killersquirel said:

This has happened to me three or four times since the end of June.  I stopped having my CC number stored as my nephew (who is 8 years old) has a VCS with my account on it.  Although I bought pretty much most of the games with the exception of original 7800 and Dosbox games.  There are a couple of other VCS games I haven't bought yet and of course the new games that I can't buy at this time, so I probably will try to save my CC info in the system to see if I can avoid this nonsense again.  I wanted to do that this last time, but I bought a couple of games with a visa gift card and that erased my CC info.  This will get fixed, probably in a week or two and I recommend saving your CC info for future purchases.  That might solve the issue?

I've kept my CC info saved on the VCS all this time and that hasn't had any effect on the issue. In fact, I know when the issue has cropped back up just by my CC info coming up as not saved when I try to make a purchase.

 

[killersquirel]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

I've kept my CC info saved on the VCS all this time and that hasn't had any effect on the issue. In fact, I know when the issue has cropped back up just by my CC info coming up as not saved when I try to make a purchase.

 

That's good to know.  I probably had my CC saved and then it kicked it out when the bug came back.

[jongolo]

I’ve tried for several days now but have been unable to purchase any games. It won’t accept my 5-digit zip code. The work around of entering two spaces before my zip isn’t working either. Is anyone having luck making purchases in the last few days?

[snarkyjay]

This "workaround" isn't working. I'm kinda bummed I have to go to steam to buy this game. I really wanted to play it on the VCS. Maybe just get it fixed? It's been a whole damn month for a bug preventing people from BUYING GAMES on your store. Seems pretty high priority.