CNN Business Article

[tradyblix]

3 hours ago, Tavi said:

Exactly this.

Which is why Atari has been doing nothing but emulation (sometimes of questionable quality) for nearly 20 years now.

People keep throwing money at them each time they release another Flashback, so they just keep doing the same thing over and over.

It's a pessimists way of looking at it. There a ton of people that enjoy these consoles. They're inexpensive - especially in a world where restaurant food delivered to your door costs 30-40 dollars. Once. 

 

There's people out there that apparently 130 bucks is the world to them. Another factor might be that the 6502 chip hasn't been made in years, emulation is probably the only way forward. Don't expect that to make any headway with the glass half empty crowd tho. 

[Atariboy]

Going down the hardware route would mean a Flashback 2 style 2600-on-a-chip that replicates the 2600's hardware on a single integrated circuit, not original and out of production chips.

 

But that opens up another whole new slate of issues since you now have to convert that analog video signal to a HD resolution that's outputted via HDMI while minimizing input lag, maximizing picture quality, and worst of all dealing with the many oddball resolutions, refresh rates, and such that didn't bother SD CRT's. 

[tradyblix]

14 minutes ago, Atariboy said:

Going down the hardware route would mean a Flashback 2 style 2600-on-a-chip that replicates the 2600's hardware on a single integrated circuit, not original and out of production chips.

 

But that opens up another whole new slate of issues since you now have to convert that analog video signal to a HD resolution that's outputted via HDMI while minimizing input lag, maximizing picture quality, and worst of all dealing with the many oddball resolutions, refresh rates, and such that didn't bother SD CRT's. 

Fair enough. I'm sure that would give people enough reason to find holes to nitpick and complain about that, too, tho. 

 

Also, developing an FPGA type solution to do this - probably the juice ain't worth the squeeze. You'd at least have to have 7800 compatibility as well, increasing the cost. At that point you might as well add 5200 support in, in order to increase potential sales as well. 

 

Doesn't make sense for the average buyer of a 2600+ console, where they have 30 games they want to play on carts and all 30 work. (my experience this week, YMMV).

 

And most of the homebrews just... aren't that good. Even if you CAN get your hands on them, they're scarce too, and may are out of print. (there's a few that are that I would like, but ... I can count em on one hand, Asteroids Deluxe being the main one, Pac-Man collection the other, and potentially Rikki and Vicki)

 

Maybe someday someone will do it tho. If AI doesn't kill us off first.

Edited November 25, 2023 by tradyblix

[Sean_1970]

Geez there’s some stuff going on in this thread. The Evercade Atari arcade cart is pretty pants, but I blame the decision to put a bunch of early games on there that used to have analogue controls with zero tuning and on a console with digital joypads. Calling Asteroids with a backdrop “Asteroids Deluxe” is pretty embarrassing as well. I have the Flashback handheld (the one with an SD card slot) and I found it to be pretty good. As for Blaze handhelds the Taito arcade pocket is pretty nice, but I think I need reading glasses finally 😂

 

I have to seriously object to dismissing the 2600+ as “trash” though - it’s got some issues that can (and apparently will be) fixed in firmware, but the quality of the materials is quite good; I’m especially impressed with the new controllers. And it’s being dismissed over 7800 cart support? Seriously? The two 7800 games  have work great, but I can’t believe anyone would buy one of these to play 7800 games primarily and even if half the 7800 games didn’t work, it doesn’t make this machine “trash.” I mean if there was zero thought on the part of Atari, why waste time/effort on a new device to play old carts? Just keep making baseball caps and t-shirts!

 

I can see raising individual issues in threads to get help resolving them, but blanket negative posting seem like a colossal waste of time and energy. Better to just play some Atari, eh? 😊

Edited November 25, 2023 by Sean_1970

[Sean_1970]

On 10/1/2023 at 8:15 PM, GraffitiTavern said:

Not often you see Atari getting a CNN write-up, not a ton new info from here but they did ask Rosen hypothetically about some kind of retro handheld.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/30/tech/atari-2600-plus-wade-rosen-nintendo-playstation/index.html

 

(personally I think something a la Evercade would be better for a retro handheld but an interesting thought)

Nice article. I’m definitely impressed with the new direction. The company may not be the old Atari, but there’s definitely love and respect for legacy happening. I’m hoping we’ll see more new 2600 titles: enhanced stuff, rare/homebrew games reissued as cart releases, etc. In the meantime tracking down old games I remember enjoying is proving to be lots of fun 😁