Atari Fans Spent $1000 On 50th XP Collection Only To Find Two Of Its Games Are Broken

[Razzie.P]

20 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I always love buying deluxe hardcover unabridged versions of books to sit on my shelf that have nothing but blank pages in them.

 

Long as their shrink-wrapped so you can keep them sealed and pretend everything's great.

 

 

20 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I've been thinking about Atari all wrong. I think my eyes have been open and my view on Atari has changed. 

 

About time.

[BluesMessiah]

My God people are gullible. I've literally seen unboxing vids with people playing the games that supposedly don't work. But one single moron posts on X that "1 to 2 don't work" and you just automatically believe that there's a big issue? I mean, come on "1 to 2" - this isn't a continuum, it's either 1 or it's 2. How does 1 1/2 games not work? 

[TrogdarRobusto]

Well, the 10 Atari 50th Anniversary Series cartridges were sold via pre-order as individual games over a period of close to a year. And then at the very end of the run we decided to sell 100 sets of 10 from the remaining inventory. So there are more than 100 of each cartridge out there. I'd estimate in the low hundreds.

We have two reported instances of a Haunted House cartridge not working. We cannot confirm why these two carts did not work, it could have been an assembly issue (the XP carts are all hand assembled) or a faulty PCB. Contrary to some speculation, the PCBs were not installed backwards (not really possible on the Limited Edition carts). So this does not seem to be a wide-spread problem. One customer had their cartridge replaced, and we are in contact with the remaining affected customer and will sort this out. That said, it has taken too long for us to resolve that last issue so we deserve some criticism for that.

Edited May 15 by TrogdarRobusto

[TrogdarRobusto]

I do suspect that there might be a larger issue with the Crystal Castles cartridges. The nature of the reports we are getting suggests that a larger number of those carts may indeed have a problem. The code is fine (we double-checked the ROM), but the game is behaving erratically for some users. We haven't been able to isolate the issue to our satisfaction yet, but we have a working theory and we expect a more concrete answer soon. Once we know what we are dealing with we will figure out next steps. 

Edited May 15 by TrogdarRobusto

[TrogdarRobusto]

The article and some of the videos that have been posted on this topic have an expected mix of accurate and inaccurate information. Our customer service team has replaced non-working cartridges (not many frankly). Unfortunately that wasn't a useful solution for some people with wonky Crystal Castles cartridges. When we ran out of stock they offered refunds. But we understand that collectors would prefer to hold onto their special editions, especially when it means keeping a complete set together, so a refund isn't a great resolution. We are continuing to work towards a better solution.

 

Edited May 15 by TrogdarRobusto

[TrogdarRobusto]

Sorry I haven't chimed in on this thread earlier.

 

[MrBeefy]

14 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

Well, the 10 Atari 50th Anniversary Series cartridges were sold via pre-order as individual games over a period of close to a year. And then at the very end of the run we decided to sell 100 sets of 10 from the remaining inventory. So there are more than 100 of each cartridge out there. I'd estimate in the low hundreds.

We have two reported instances of a Haunted House cartridge not working. We cannot confirm why these two carts did not work, it could have been an assembly issue (the XP carts are all hand assembled) or a faulty PCB. Contrary to some speculation, the PCBs were not installed backwards (not really possible on the Limited Edition carts). So this does not seem to be a wide-spread problem. One customer had their cartridge replaced, and we are in contact with the remaining affected customer and will sort this out. That said, it has taken too long for us to resolve that last issue so we deserve some criticism for that.

 

14 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

I do suspect that there might be a larger issue with the Crystal Castles cartridges. The nature of the reports we are getting suggests that a larger number of those carts may indeed have a problem. The code is fine (we double-checked the ROM), but the game is behaving erratically for some users. We haven't been able to isolate the issue to our satisfaction yet, but we have a working theory and we expect a more concrete answer soon. Once we know what we are dealing with we will figure out next steps. 

 

14 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

The article and some of the videos that have been posted on this topic have an expected mix of accurate and inaccurate information. Our customer service team has replaced non-working cartridges (not many frankly). Unfortunately that wasn't a useful solution for some people with wonky Crystal Castles cartridges. When we ran out of stock they offered refunds. But we understand that collectors would prefer to hold onto their special editions, especially when it means keeping a complete set together, so a refund isn't a great resolution. We are continuing to work towards a better solution.

 

 

14 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

Sorry I haven't chimed in on this thread earlier.

 

What part(s) of the article are inaccurate?

[+jeremiahjt]

1 hour ago, MrBeefy said:

What part(s) of the article are inaccurate?

Well the article states some of the cartridges had their PCBs inserted backwards, and he said that is impossible with Limited Edition cartridges. So there is at least one from the article.

[MrBeefy]

11 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

Well the article states some of the cartridges had their PCBs inserted backwards, and he said that is impossible with Limited Edition cartridges. So there is at least one from the article.

Wasn't that referencing their XP cartridge run? Which indeed had some installed backwards. I believe I remember members talking about having to crack them open and reverse them.

 

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/09/ataris-xp-nightmare-continues-as-it-ships-broken-cartridges-to-customers

 

*Edit

Went back and read and it did imply these had some. Which while that ONE part was inaccurate, it doesn't negate a continued quality control issue with them making carts. Instead of excuses their response should be we are going to fix it and do better in the future.

Edited May 17 by MrBeefy

[Gabe]

On 5/15/2024 at 5:18 PM, BluesMessiah said:

My God people are gullible. I've literally seen unboxing vids with people playing the games that supposedly don't work. But one single moron posts on X that "1 to 2 don't work" and you just automatically believe that there's a big issue? I mean, come on "1 to 2" - this isn't a continuum, it's either 1 or it's 2. How does 1 1/2 games not work? 

I'll apologize on their behalf. I'm sure they didn't realize that using "1 to 2" instead of "1 or 2", or even more properly, "one or two", might be very upsetting to some people, being that it could be misinterpreted as 1 1/2, which would make no sense, of course. I've no doubt that what they meant to say was "For those who purchased this collection, one of the games may not work properly, while for others, it may be two." 

 

Again, on that person's behalf, I'm very, very sorry. It wouldn't surprise me if they're feeling very badly right now for making that egregious mistake. 

[CapitanClassic]

When ONE part of a story is impossible, why not top it off with breakfast at Millyways.

 

[Mockduck]

Aw heck, if you are particularly bored, here's an unlisted but fine to access video I made showing the replacement Crystal Castles cart issue, it is the one that best shows the "can't complete levels frequently" bug: 

This is a recent Unlisted 2600+ test I did showing the various versions of Crystal Castles in the 2600+, Original vintage working fine, replacement Crystal Castles 50th XP, vintage, originally shipped Crystal Castles 50th XP, vintage: 

This is a video I uploaded a while back showing my initial run-in when opening and recording video with Crystal Castles:

 

[Video]

Well that kind of stinks. I thought about getting the Atari 50th but admittedly, it would have been a shelf piece had I bought it as they were all moderately common games I wouldn't have bothered opening as I already own copies of them.

 

Atari probably expected them to be display pieces too, but that's not an excuse not to fix it if one does open it and find defects.

[famicommander]

Modern Atari isn't for playing Atari games, it's for buying things to put on a shelf to convince other people you play Atari games.

[+jeremiahjt]

28 minutes ago, famicommander said:

Modern Atari isn't for playing Atari games, it's for buying things to put on a shelf to convince other people you play Atari games.

So all the people that bought Atari 50 bought it to put on a shelf, not to play it? That is an... interesting opinion. Considering I play Atari 50, my VCS 800, and the new games they publish, I must be the sole minority doing this. At least according to your well-reasoned opinion.

[+bent_pin]

37 minutes ago, famicommander said:

Modern Atari isn't for playing Atari games, it's for buying things to put on a shelf to convince other people you play Atari games.

I play at least 15 minutes most every day. When it rains and I can put off some farm chores, I might get to play for 2-3 hours. When I'm teaching, I often get to play parts of games that my students have written. I didn't have a grand to spare or I'd have bought the 50th set too.

 

The high score clubs are full of people who also play regularly.

[MrBeefy]

On 5/16/2024 at 10:03 PM, Mockduck said:

Aw heck, if you are particularly bored, here's an unlisted but fine to access video I made showing the replacement Crystal Castles cart issue, it is the one that best shows the "can't complete levels frequently" bug: 

 

It was there correctly. Then shortly after jumped.

 

[Mockduck]

4 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

It was there correctly. Then shortly after jumped.

 

Yeah, it either manifests that way or starts the level with crystals outside of the playable space, it's weird. It's why I have been wondering about the ROM itself, although I am not knowledgeable enough about how it all works to know if an electrical or board issue could cause something like this. 

[MrBeefy]

4 hours ago, Mockduck said:

Yeah, it either manifests that way or starts the level with crystals outside of the playable space, it's weird. It's why I have been wondering about the ROM itself, although I am not knowledgeable enough about how it all works to know if an electrical or board issue could cause something like this. 

I'm not up on how CC plays. Can the bad guys eat those? I had a hard time seeing where it disappeared from in the first level, but the right side seemed to have fewer and there was a baddie over there when it disappeared.

 

I wonder if someone could try and refresh it for you with a ROM they are confident with?

Edited May 18 by MrBeefy

[Video]

Don't get me wrong, plenty of people PLAY Atari games, make no mistake about that. I'm just saying, had I bought Atari 50, my copy would likely be a shelf sitter, as I already own the games from way back. Yes getting a shiny new copy of a game rules, but unless its something I didn't already own (dark chambers for instance) there's little reason to buy a game I already have, outside to say I have it, or as a display piece.

[Maztr_0n]

On 5/13/2024 at 12:33 PM, Razzie.P said:

Ugh... yeah, based on your title I figured you were overreacting bc crap sometimes gets broken during shipment.  But after reading the article and what MockDuck mentioned about Crystal Castles, this is pretty crappy.  Pretty boxes with non working carts puts this set on the same level as Amico's "virtually empty box" shenanigan, but with a huge price difference.  

 

 

NGL, this sucks 100% but at least atari gave us a console and like a few pretty looking working games, instead of lying to investors and never releasing a console while calling everyone on the internet a "gaming racist".

but yeah this was NOT a good thing that atari did, i hope by now they've done something about it or are thinking about it...

[Gabe]

On 5/17/2024 at 7:07 PM, famicommander said:

Modern Atari isn't for playing Atari games, it's for buying things to put on a shelf to convince other people you play Atari games.

I play VCS/2600 games quite often, mostly with my 2600+ and Flashback 12. At least a couple of times a week. 

[Mockduck]

On 5/18/2024 at 6:30 PM, MrBeefy said:

I'm not up on how CC plays. Can the bad guys eat those? I had a hard time seeing where it disappeared from in the first level, but the right side seemed to have fewer and there was a baddie over there when it disappeared.

 

I wonder if someone could try and refresh it for you with a ROM they are confident with?

No, both enemies and the players have a playable map space, and these crystals appear outside of the playable space, meaning you get all of the crystals you can access and the level does not progress, since you still have to get a crystal that you can't reach. I have several original 80's carts of Castles as well that play fine in all of the systems shown above, including the 2600+.

[MrBeefy]

5 hours ago, Mockduck said:

No, both enemies and the players have a playable map space, and these crystals appear outside of the playable space, meaning you get all of the crystals you can access and the level does not progress, since you still have to get a crystal that you can't reach. I have several original 80's carts of Castles as well that play fine in all of the systems shown above, including the 2600+.

The reason I asked if an enemy could gather them is if you (or an enemy) ran over the space where the chad should be, would it remove it from the board?

 

In one instance it appeared you somehow got an outside of the board chad.

[TrogdarRobusto]

On 5/18/2024 at 7:29 PM, Video said:

Don't get me wrong, plenty of people PLAY Atari games, make no mistake about that. I'm just saying, had I bought Atari 50, my copy would likely be a shelf sitter, as I already own the games from way back. Yes getting a shiny new copy of a game rules, but unless its something I didn't already own (dark chambers for instance) there's little reason to buy a game I already have, outside to say I have it, or as a display piece.

Atari 50 has a ton of video and archival content. It isn't just a bucket of games ... and it has games from platforms that are much less common (it isn't just 2600 and 7800 games). Plus and a handful of new games created by Digital Eclipse. There is a lot of content and context there, which is why it got such amazing reviews. Not for everyone, sure, but I wouldn't want people to think it is just a folder of old games, it is way more than that.