Is this now the end of the AtGames Atari Flashback Models..?

[Spanner]

I think it is now, because Atari can make money from making Cartridges for the Atari2600+ so there is no point to them really now, well only to make money, like how Sega stopped AtGames making there version of Mega Drive and then made the Sega Mega Drive(Genesis) Mini themselves, the MD Mini is 10X better then the AtGames MD models.

And who in there right mind would put games on a MD that are not real MD games like on there MD models from 2017/2018 and 2019(last model SD card version), they did it to make it look like it has more games, when it didn't, it had about 69 games but only about 20 Sega Mega Drive Games, weird ...lol.

The last one that was made in 2023 Atari Flashback 12 is identical to the Atari 50th Flashback Anniversary Edition so shows they are made to make money, and has anyone wounded why Atari only make copies of the Atari 2600 over and over, they are the only games they have copyright too, Time Warner sold Atari Soft and its games to Warner Brothers in 1985 and then sold the Atari Computer Division only to Jack Tremiel and thats what Infogrames is using now, Jack's Atari, no point remaking the Atari 800 XL machine with out any software, it used Atari Soft Games and software, the tapes that would come with it that have a Atari RED case, they are all made by Atari Soft so like Commodore and the Amiga some of Atari's copyright is still split up from 1985, thats probably why Jack redesigned the 800XL into the 65XE so he could make new software for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Flashback_series
I wound love the ATARI XEGS remade, thats was made by Jack's Atari so Atari have copyright to it, PLAION could make it....  I love mine...  its now time for a change, 20 years of the Atari Flashback is a loooonnng time, I was 32 when the first one came out...
AtGames consoles are imported in the UK by Argos.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Spanner

[Atariboy]

I'm not sure what your post is quite supposed to be about, but I really doubt that Atarisoft IP didn't go with the home console and computer division (along with the copyrights and trademarks to previous arcade games) when it was sold to the Tramiels.

 

The arcade business would've had no use for any of that and I've never seen anyone else claim what you're saying about it.

[Warboss Gegguz]

Given the "Quality" of the AtGames comps, I hope to god they're gone. 

Also, given the apparent production costs, I don't really think making cartridges is a huge revenue stream. Which would explain why they're mainly marketed towards collectors.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Warboss Gegguz

[Mockduck]

I hope so. I appreciate the overall effort done with Flashbacks over the past 20 years in terms of game preservation and emulation, but the actual products have almost never been good enough. They were made to get sent to landfills, and they've succeeded.

[Flojomojo]

I liked the Flashback products for what they were. I would also assume that after 10 years of making them, interest would wane and that anyone who wanted to remember the good old days in this fashion already bought one. I have several, and am not buying any more. 

 

I'm looking forward to more preservation products like Atari 50 and whatever comes out of Microsoft buying Activision. I predict we will see a new Activision Anthology on Game Pass for Xbox before we're all dead. 

[Brad_from_the_80s]

I thought AFB X might have been the last version, and there was some lag before they released AFB 50th.  They've re-released that one now as AFB 12, a trivial refresh probably just to keep product in sales channels.  The latest versions are much improved over older models.  Not perfect, but you can definitely have fun with them.  They are a lower cost and simpler option for some people, they have their uses, so I don't see what the problem is so long as they continue to sell.  If anyone doesn't want one then they don't have to buy one obviously.

[+sramirez2008]

FB2 is the only one I ever purchased. It plays my harmony and that’s enough. 1st one is mine. 2nd one is now a part of my sons collection.

[+LS650]

I have an old FB2 sitting in a box.  It was fine for what it was 15 years ago, but I want to play games other than the Atari releases.

The 2600+ is ideal for my needs.

[Warboss Gegguz]

1 hour ago, ls650 said:

I have an old FB2 sitting in a box.  It was fine for what it was 15 years ago, but I want to play games other than the Atari releases.

The 2600+ is ideal for my needs.

And even if you don't care about playing non-atari games and just want an easy plug & play collection, you should just get Atari Vault/Flashback on PC/Switch or Atari 50.

Because at least Code Mystics and DE have high-end emulation. AtGames is famous for terrible emulation and build quality. That's the whole reason everyone was ecstatic when SEGA announced the Genesis/MD Mini was an in-house project.

And that's ignoring the conduct of the company themselves.

 

.... BUT, I will add that the FB2 wasn't an AtGames system. It was actually a proper clone of the 2600, just with games built in. Not an amazing clone, but not emulation either. That's kind of why it's the only one that's actually sought after.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Warboss Gegguz

[Atariboy]

AtGames switched to Stella with the HD version of the Atari Flashback 9 and has used it ever since. Granted it's an old version of Stella, but it's still excellent emulation.

[scifidude79]

The Atari Flashback 50 isn't bad. It's an improvement over the older version that I had, which was a pre-HD model. The emulation is strong, no weird issues or anything, and the unit itself is a marked improvement in quality over the larger and cheaper feeling older models. Plus, I got the Gold model with more games and paddles, and those paddles work nicely with my 2600+. And, even going back to the older models, I don't think the Flashback consoles were ever as bad as some people think they were. They were never anything more than a cheap way to play some old games for people who either hadn't played them in a long time, or who had never played them at all. I remember some years back when we had them at Walmart, they were only about $40 (if I remember correctly) and came with a decent amount of games. They sold out very quickly because a lot of people weren't looking for the best Atari gaming experience, they were just looking to play some Atari games on the cheap and get a little nostalgia going or introduce the kids to Atari. Cheap gaming stuff typically does sell well, especially the little devices that come with a decent amount of games for low prices.

 

The Sega and AtGames situation was a little different. AtGames was working on the MD/Genesis mini, but they weren't doing it to a standard that Sega wanted them to do it, so Sega took the project to another company. I've never heard of any bad situation like that between Atari and AtGames. In fact, I'm not sure how much Atari is even involved in those, beyond AtGames purchasing a license from them. And, if that's all it is, Atari makes money no matter how those consoles sell. The Gamestation Pro is another example of a company (My Arcade) using an Atari license to make a product. Atari's name is only on these devices because of the license. Once AtGames had their license taken away by Sega, they actually released a version of their Genesis without the branding and cartridge slot and with a different set of licensed games on it. So, that shows you how much of that console was Sega and how much was AtGames.

[scifidude79]

I shall call him Mine Me!

 

I thought it might be fun to do a comparison with the current Flashback and the 2600+ just in case people are shopping for one or the other. The only difference I can see between my Atari Flashback Gold 50th Anniversary Edition and the Atari Flashback 12 Gold is the fact that mine has the Atari 50 branding on it, while the 12 just has Atari and the Fuji logo there, like the 2600/2600+ does.

 

Of course, we know what the 2600+ comes with. 1 controller and a nice 10-in-1 cartridge. And, the potential is limitless with the ability to play most 2600 and 7800 cartridges, with Atari working on getting it to 100% and actively working on smoothing out both emulators. All in all, a nice tidy little package for $130 USD and games run from a few dollars to the sky's the limit on Ebay and other used sellers, depending on market presence, rarity and things like COB, NIB, etc.

 

The Atari Flasback 50/12 Gold comes with 130 games loaded on it, including many of the popular Atari titles and even Activision titles. It has a USB port, so there's probably a way to hack it and add more games, I don't mess with things like that. The games (2600 only, of course) run very well on Stella. It comes with two controllers, labeled P1 and P2, because the P1 controller has extra buttons on it for console functions. It also comes with a pair of decent paddles. All in all, this is also a nice tidy little package. The Flashback 12 Gold is currently $59.99 USD on Amazon.

 

Is there competition between these? Possibly. However, they're intended to appeal to slightly different audiences. The Flashback consoles are intended to appeal to people who don't want to mess with cartridges and just want to play some Atari, while the 2600+ is obviously intended to appeal to the cartridge crowd. Really, the My Arcade Gamestation Pro would be a more direct head-to-head with the Flashback, since they're competing in the same market space. I don't have a Gamestation, and I'm not in a hurry to get one either.

Edited December 13, 2023 by scifidude79

[Flyindrew]

40 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

I shall call him Mine Me!

 

I thought it might be fun to do a comparison with the current Flashback and the 2600+ just in case people are shopping for one or the other. The only difference I can see between my Atari Flashback Gold 50th Anniversary Edition and the Atari Flashback 12 Gold is the fact that mine has the Atari 50 branding on it, while the 12 just has Atari and the Fuji logo there, like the 2600/2600+ does.

 

Of course, we know what the 2600+ comes with. 1 controller and a nice 10-in-1 cartridge. And, the potential is limitless with the ability to play most 2600 and 7800 cartridges, with Atari working on getting it to 100% and actively working on smoothing out both emulators. All in all, a nice tidy little package for $130 USD and games run from a few dollars to the sky's the limit on Ebay and other used sellers, depending on market presence, rarity and things like COB, NIB, etc.

 

The Atari Flasback 50/12 Gold comes with 130 games loaded on it, including many of the popular Atari titles and even Activision titles. It has a USB port, so there's probably a way to hack it and add more games, I don't mess with things like that. The games (2600 only, of course) run very well on Stella. It comes with two controllers, labeled P1 and P2, because the P1 controller has extra buttons on it for console functions. It also comes with a pair of decent paddles. All in all, this is also a nice tidy little package. The Flashback 12 Gold is currently $59.99 USD on Amazon.

 

Is there competition between these? Possibly. However, they're intended to appeal to slightly different audiences. The Flashback consoles are intended to appeal to people who don't want to mess with cartridges and just want to play some Atari, while the 2600+ is obviously intended to appeal to the cartridge crowd. Really, the My Arcade Gamestation Pro would be a more direct head-to-head with the Flashback, since they're competing in the same market space. I don't have a Gamestation, and I'm not in a hurry to get one either.

And there is also the Atari VCS to consider if you prefer to stream 2600,5200 and 7800 games. 

[scifidude79]

1 hour ago, Flyindrew said:

And there is also the Atari VCS to consider if you prefer to stream 2600,5200 and 7800 games. 

Yes, the VCS is a great system. That and my 2600+ are both hooked up to my main TV. And, with the VCS and Atari Vault and Atari 50, there are a lot of great retro games you can play, plus others in the store.

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, Flyindrew said:

And there is also the Atari VCS to consider if you prefer to stream 2600,5200 and 7800 games. 

You can also run it in PC mode and add the Stella, Altirra and A7800 emulators yourself. The emulators coupled with an adapter allow you to play the games as they were meant to be played. 

[BeamRider]

I have two of the newer Flashbacks (the 9 Gold and the 50th) and enjoy them for what they are, but I think the Flashback plug-and-plays are now a bit redundant given the release of the Gamestation Pro, which supports more game types right out of the box. I was surprised when they released the Flashback 12 this fall, but it seems as long as it sells they'll keep making it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Edited December 13, 2023 by BeamRider
info added

[scifidude79]

4 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

You can also run it in PC mode and add the Stella, Altirra and A7800 emulators yourself. The emulators coupled with an adapter allow you to play the games as they were meant to be played. 

I've ran a full Batocera install off of a USB stick on my VCS before. It's got some nice hardware in it to even run some of the more demanding retro games.

[Spanner]

Quote

Time Warner sold Atari Soft and its games to Warner Brothers in 1985

Please ignore what said here, I read it wrong because I saw Atari Games that was kept by Warner communications, because they has a 20% stake in Tremiel Technologies that became Atari Corp, so AtariSoft was just not used no more after 1985 so after Atari was sold to Jack Tremiel, so got confused.
A lot of the games that the 2600 are missing are made by Namco cause Warner sold the Arcade part of Atari to Namco in the end, so like Pole Position, Pacman, Miss Pacman, most of the best games were made by Namco and Atari was working with Namco at the time so why there games were ported to the 2600, I always thought Pole Position was a Atari game but its not, the UK/US version of the game had Atari copyright in the game so you would think it was but the Japanese version has Namco on it, you can play it in MAME, the Arcade game was imported by Atari into the UK/US.
One of the games Atari made I liked was Hard Drivin`, its still a good game now...  first game I saw that used Polygon Graphics, it was one of the first arcade cabinet upright that I modelled in 3D Arcade, it was Race Drivn' the arcade cabinet I modelled, it has Hard Drivin`in it too, well it was along time ago, I made the model of the cabinet when I modelled the arcade: Luna City Arcade, you might of heard of the arcade before, it was a well known home arcade that you could visit on Game Days, it was in the US, I modelled it because I liked the look of it, it closed down in the end and got demolished..  , I had to use photos of the arcade to create it, I asked Peter the guy who made the arcade to take photos for me of the walls and that, the colour of the walls in the arcade where taken from the MB game SIMON(Red, Green, Blue, Yellow), I never visited it, I live in the UK so it was imposable, but it felt like I did after I completed the arcade in 3D Arcade.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Spanner

[scifidude79]

To be fair, with the company being in shambles and the mass layoffs after the crash, it can be hard sometimes to keep straight exactly what happened. I thought for the longest time that Pole Position was a first party Atari series too, since Pole Position II came with our 7800. In fact, I may have only realized recently that it's a Namco title. But then, Pac-Man (which I've known for ages was Namco) came with our 5200. I guess I'm just used to other consoles where, when you still got games with them, they were first party titles. Though, that's not always true today with the console bundles. Sometimes they're first party games, sometimes they're third party.

[Warboss Gegguz]

On 12/13/2023 at 7:53 AM, Atariboy said:

AtGames switched to Stella with the HD version of the Atari Flashback 9 and has used it ever since. Granted it's an old version of Stella, but it's still excellent emulation.

My understanding of their emulation quality is more of a general overview.

Part of it is also that I just don't like the company themselves. Maybe that's the Namco and Sega fan in me though.

[Daedalus304]

On 12/13/2023 at 7:02 AM, Flojomojo said:

I liked the Flashback products for what they were. I would also assume that after 10 years of making them, interest would wane and that anyone who wanted to remember the good old days in this fashion already bought one. I have several, and am not buying any more. 

 

I'm looking forward to more preservation products like Atari 50 and whatever comes out of Microsoft buying Activision. I predict we will see a new Activision Anthology on Game Pass for Xbox before we're all dead. 

I really hope to see some activision stuff get rereleased physically for the 2600+, Microsoft are really good when it comes to preservation 

[Flojomojo]

8 hours ago, Daedalus304 said:

I really hope to see some activision stuff get rereleased physically for the 2600+, Microsoft are really good when it comes to preservation 

Have the originals become hard to find? 

[tradyblix]

On 12/13/2023 at 8:44 AM, scifidude79 said:

I shall call him Mine Me!

 

I thought it might be fun to do a comparison with the current Flashback and the 2600+ just in case people are shopping for one or the other. The only difference I can see between my Atari Flashback Gold 50th Anniversary Edition and the Atari Flashback 12 Gold is the fact that mine has the Atari 50 branding on it, while the 12 just has Atari and the Fuji logo there, like the 2600/2600+ does.

 

Of course, we know what the 2600+ comes with. 1 controller and a nice 10-in-1 cartridge. And, the potential is limitless with the ability to play most 2600 and 7800 cartridges, with Atari working on getting it to 100% and actively working on smoothing out both emulators. All in all, a nice tidy little package for $130 USD and games run from a few dollars to the sky's the limit on Ebay and other used sellers, depending on market presence, rarity and things like COB, NIB, etc.

 

The Atari Flasback 50/12 Gold comes with 130 games loaded on it, including many of the popular Atari titles and even Activision titles. It has a USB port, so there's probably a way to hack it and add more games, I don't mess with things like that. The games (2600 only, of course) run very well on Stella. It comes with two controllers, labeled P1 and P2, because the P1 controller has extra buttons on it for console functions. It also comes with a pair of decent paddles. All in all, this is also a nice tidy little package. The Flashback 12 Gold is currently $59.99 USD on Amazon.

 

Is there competition between these? Possibly. However, they're intended to appeal to slightly different audiences. The Flashback consoles are intended to appeal to people who don't want to mess with cartridges and just want to play some Atari, while the 2600+ is obviously intended to appeal to the cartridge crowd. Really, the My Arcade Gamestation Pro would be a more direct head-to-head with the Flashback, since they're competing in the same market space. I don't have a Gamestation, and I'm not in a hurry to get one either.

Ah that thing is kinda cute lol 

[Bakasama]

6 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Have the originals become hard to find? 

It more like collectors want newer Activision carts that don’t have what’s known as actiplague labels. That happens because glue in labels dries up and causes said labels to come loose or become discolored.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Bakasama

[Video]

Probably. Faced with yet another pnp system or a cart using 2600+, which would you want? I know which one I want, and have been after since the flashback 2, which I do have.

 

Idk though, flashback is good for what it is, but there's limited appeal yo buying the essentially same console over and over, especially for a pnp. Maybe if they did like genesis, have a pnp system with built in games,AND a cart port I might have a different view.

 

I do agree Activision could do some carts, I'm sure like atari they have unreleased prototypes, and a multicart or three would be awesome, sadly I don't think Activision is even using their Atari ips anymore. Maybe Atari could buy them from Activision, since Activision seems uninterested in recent years.