New VCS user

[Bitsized]

Hey y'all.  I'm a new VCS user.  While I wait for the PC USB stick to arrive, what games do you recommend for the store?  I have Dragon's Descent, Atari Mania, and a handful of recharged games.   What do you recommend to customize or upgrade the unit?  So far, I'm digging it and want to dig into it even more.  Thanks for the attention to a NOOOB!

[THX-1138]

I'd recommend the Atari-made games, Atari 50 and all the Recharged games for sure.

If you're going to use it only as a console, then you don't need to upgrade the RAM, you may want to get an external USB SSD drive as the 32GB internal storage will run low after a while.  You'll be able to download games to or transfer them to the external storage.

If you are going to use it fully as a mini PC, more RAM would be good.  16GB should be fine if you use Windows.  You can also install an m.2 SATA drive internally and install Windows or Linux to it.

I would recommend making one change in the BIOS, disabling Core Boost, it will cut the fan noise down to a minimum - it will still work as needed, but generally run quieter.

 

Edited January 11 by THX-1138

[stirrell]

If you have the Classic Controller and like Gravitar, Oids-type games, I would recommend Thrustlander. Love that game. A cheap, fun puzzler is Mad Age and That Guy - if you like Bomberman-like games, give it a look. For arcade goodness - Donut Dodo.

 

Welcome to the VCS!

[Bitsized]

22 hours ago, THX-1138 said:

I'd recommend the Atari-made games, Atari 50 and all the Recharged games for sure.

If you're going to use it only as a console, then you don't need to upgrade the RAM, you may want to get an external USB SSD drive as the 32GB internal storage will run low after a while.  You'll be able to download games to or transfer them to the external storage.

If you are going to use it fully as a mini PC, more RAM would be good.  16GB should be fine if you use Windows.  You can also install an m.2 SATA drive internally and install Windows or Linux to it.

I would recommend making one change in the BIOS, disabling Core Boost, it will cut the fan noise down to a minimum - it will still work as needed, but generally run quieter.

 

I was thinking of upping the RAM, and I have plenty of SSD hanging around.  Thank you for the recommendations - I got Atari 50 for sure and deleted the Vault and Ant subscription service.  Didn't seem worth the space for those.  I'm not sure how to tap into the BIOS settings, but I will do some research and figure that out.  I would like to cut the fan noise a bit.  Thank you again for the recommendations.

Edited January 12 by Bitsized

[scifidude79]

Congrats on the purchase. 😎

 

Yeah, Atari 50 has pretty much made the Vault redundant. They even did an update to Atari 50 a while back where they added some more games to it.

[zzip]

14 hours ago, Bitsized said:

I was thinking of upping the RAM, and I have plenty of SSD hanging around.  Thank you for the recommendations - I got Atari 50 for sure and deleted the Vault and Ant subscription service.  Didn't seem worth the space for those.  I'm not sure how to tap into the BIOS settings, but I will do some research and figure that out.  I would like to cut the fan noise a bit.  Thank you again for the recommendations.

To get to BIOS, You'll need to plug in a keyboard and press the escape key right after powering on the VCS (might need to hit it a few times to be safe).   The the BIOS menu will show up.   Some sections are password protected, but the password is posted in these forums.

[+jeremiahjt]

15 hours ago, Bitsized said:

I was thinking of upping the RAM, and I have plenty of SSD hanging around.  Thank you for the recommendations - I got Atari 50 for sure and deleted the Vault and Ant subscription service.  Didn't seem worth the space for those.  I'm not sure how to tap into the BIOS settings, but I will do some research and figure that out.  I would like to cut the fan noise a bit.  Thank you again for the recommendations.

You deleted Antstream Arcade? That is one of the best things on there. Atari VCS 800 users get a good discount on it. Or at least they did.

[Bitsized]

8 hours ago, zzip said:

To get to BIOS, You'll need to plug in a keyboard and press the escape key right after powering on the VCS (might need to hit it a few times to be safe).   The the BIOS menu will show up.   Some sections are password protected, but the password is posted in these forums.

OK.  This is a great start.  I'll dive into that when I get an external keyboard, thank you.

[Bitsized]

8 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

You deleted Antstream Arcade? That is one of the best things on there. Atari VCS 800 users get a good discount on it. Or at least they did.

Oh yeah?  I'll look into it.  When I saw the list of games I wasn't all that impressed.  I'll take a second look though.

[justclaws]

On 1/11/2024 at 1:52 AM, Bitsized said:

Hey y'all.  I'm a new VCS user.  While I wait for the PC USB stick to arrive, what games do you recommend for the store?  I have Dragon's Descent, Atari Mania, and a handful of recharged games.   What do you recommend to customize or upgrade the unit?  So far, I'm digging it and want to dig into it even more.  Thanks for the attention to a NOOOB!

Welcome to the forum, and modern VCS adventures. 🙂

Storage space is not an obstacle to miss out on any included features like the Atari Vault (or Atari Vault2), even owning the Atari 50.
Most VCS games are small, and so the 32GB goes a long way anyway, but adding a 128GB USB drive will store most of the library...

For extra storage, it's as easy as plugging in a decent USB stick to front or back (more convenient) USB stick (aka thumbdrive etc.) 
I'd recommend a USB3 stick, for decent speed, or an external USB3 SSD. You can migrate games to the extra storage via the GUI.

Extra RAM will not really benefit the VCS at all, with games in AtariOS, but 16GB will be nice if you're going to use Windows too,
although of course there are still laptops being sold with Windows 10 and 4GB RAM, so for many people 8GB is already healthy...

For those of us outside the USA, the VCS proposition is ironically a lot better value and more appealing than in the USA where
the cost of computer hardware is a fraction of what it is for most people. See the "PC mode" sub-forum for upgrades discussion.

[Bitsized]

@justclawsThank you for all this great information.  It's beneficial.  I bought a keyboard this weekend - I also purchased the VCS PC USB stick when I bought the VCS, but it hasn't come in yet.  I also intend to put windows on this machine.  I own a Mac, but not a PC Windows machine, and with the new 2600+ updates being for Windows only, I will need to use the VCS to download and update the firmware on the 2600+.  Is it possible to have both Windows and the information on the VCS PC USB stick on the VCS?  Any guidance there would be helpful.

[zzip]

2 hours ago, Bitsized said:

@justclawsThank you for all this great information.  It's beneficial.  I bought a keyboard this weekend - I also purchased the VCS PC USB stick when I bought the VCS, but it hasn't come in yet.  I also intend to put windows on this machine.  I own a Mac, but not a PC Windows machine, and with the new 2600+ updates being for Windows only, I will need to use the VCS to download and update the firmware on the 2600+.  Is it possible to have both Windows and the information on the VCS PC USB stick on the VCS?  Any guidance there would be helpful.

You have a few options:

You could install Windows to an external SSD drive, and when you plug the drive in it boots to windows, and when not plugged in it boots to Atari OS.   I think there are instructions in this forum on how to set this up,  this is probably also the most straightforward

You could also install an internal m.2 SSD and install an OS there, and select which OS to boot into when you turn it on.

 

It also is possible to have multiple OSes, and partition an internal drive so that part of it is used for expanded Atari OS storage, part of it for other OSes..   There's a lot of flexibility

[Bitsized]

On 1/14/2024 at 11:36 AM, justclaws said:

Welcome to the forum, and modern VCS adventures. 🙂

I was just looking at this file from the atari website that begins the steps of putting windows on the VCS.  Do I need a machine already operating windows to put windows on the SSD?  Can I perform this operation within the PC mode of the VCS?

 

 

 

[zzip]

38 minutes ago, Bitsized said:

I was just looking at this file from the atari website that begins the steps of putting windows on the VCS.  Do I need a machine already operating windows to put windows on the SSD?  Can I perform this operation within the PC mode of the VCS?

 

 

 

The instructions instruct you to how to put the Windows installer on a bootable USB drive.   It might be possible to do this from other OSes too if you have one running in PC mode,  or obtain a Windows installation flashdrive from someone with Windows

[scifidude79]

I've created Windows installation media in Linux before. Here are the instructions I used:

 

https://itsfoss.com/bootable-windows-usb-linux/

[Bitsized]

@justclaws @zzip

 

Thank you for all your help.  I was able to create the boot on a USB stick on my mac; the VCS recognizes the install. However, I cannot seem to load it to my other USB stick that is installed.  This is the screen I am stuck on.  I don't see any recognition of the USB 128GB stick on there. Perhaps because it is not formatted to NFTS?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Edited January 21 by Bitsized

[zzip]

23 hours ago, Bitsized said:

@justclaws @zzip

 

Thank you for all your help.  I was able to create the boot on a USB stick on my mac; the VCS recognizes the install. However, I cannot seem to load it to my other USB stick that is installed.  This is the screen I am stuck on.  I don't see any recognition of the USB 128GB stick on there. Perhaps because it is not formatted to NFTS?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm not sure if Windows treats a USB stick differently than a USB SSD?   The installer might not list flash drives as destinations, but maybe someone who knows Windows better than me can confirm.

[Rockymin]

On 1/21/2024 at 12:47 PM, Bitsized said:

@justclaws @zzip

 

Thank you for all your help.  I was able to create the boot on a USB stick on my mac; the VCS recognizes the install. However, I cannot seem to load it to my other USB stick that is installed.  This is the screen I am stuck on.  I don't see any recognition of the USB 128GB stick on there. Perhaps because it is not formatted to NFTS?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Windows setup will show usually show unformatted drives/partitions.  And then will format them if you select it as the destination for installing Windows.  Are you sure the USB drive is good?  Do you have another Windows machine you can put it into and then see if it recognizes the drive?  Or if you can see it in Disk Manager in Windows?

[Bitsized]

4 minutes ago, Rockymin said:

 

Windows setup will show usually show unformatted drives/partitions.  And then will format them if you select it as the destination for installing Windows.  Are you sure the USB drive is good?  Do you have another Windows machine you can put it into and then see if it recognizes the drive?  Or if you can see it in Disk Manager in Windows?

I'm a mac owner, the mac recognized it and was able to format it etc.  It's a USB stick, brand new.  I will try to plug in a USB brick drive to see what happens there - I've been trying to hunt down a windows owner to help format the stick to NFTS to see if that does anything.

[Rockymin]

1 minute ago, Bitsized said:

I'm a mac owner, the mac recognized it and was able to format it etc.  It's a USB stick, brand new.  I will try to plug in a USB brick drive to see what happens there - I've been trying to hunt down a windows owner to help format the stick to NFTS to see if that does anything.

 

I use a Macbook at work.  Is the drive formatted for the Mac maybe?  If it is, try putting it in your Mac and formatting it as ExFAT in Disk Utility.  It can format it as FAT as well, but I don't think that will format the whole drive as one partition.

[Bitsized]

7 minutes ago, Rockymin said:

try putting it in your Mac and formatting it as ExFAT in Disk Utility.  It can format it as FAT as well, but I don't think that will format the whole drive as one partition.

I will try that next.  I just plugged in a USB brick, and it did recog
nize it, gave this message which contradicts information I have seen on this forum.

 

 

 

[Rockymin]

6 minutes ago, Bitsized said:

I will try that next.  I just plugged in a USB brick, and it did recog
nize it, gave this message which contradicts information I have seen on this forum.

 

 

 

 

I can't say I've ever installed Windows to a USB drive.  I've only made bootable USBs for Windows setup.  I think it can be done though through a utility or something.  You might try googling install windows to USB drive or something like that.  I'm going to do the mSATA internal drive route with mine when it comes.

[Bitsized]

I may go that route as well if this doesn't work out.  Thanks for your insights.

[Rockymin]

No problem. ☺️

[bikeguychicago]

If you're dabbling with Linux or plan to use any of the apps, you will need a keyboard and mouse. A lot of videos I've seen have recommended the Logitech K400 keyboard for use with the VCS, as it has a built-in trackpad. I personally chose the Microsoft All-In-One Wireless Media Keyboard as I like the layout better than the K400. The trackpad on it is very responsive but the keyboard is just okay, not exceptional.