Atari Reveals Upcoming Ataribox Console's Design

[Guest]

That's right. "Atari," "upcoming," and "console" were all used in the same sentence. But don't worry, you haven't accidentally slipped into an alternate timeline or something.

Atari Reveals Upcoming Ataribox Console's Design : Read more

 

[bloodroses]

Interesting. The design actually looks pretty good as it borrows from both the past and present. Let's see if Atari has learned from past mistakes. They could become a contender again if they succeed with a good game lineup and design.

 

[dudmont]

If Atari wants this to succeed, it will have to on it's own merits. It's audience of nostalgics isn't that big anymore, as many gamers are far too young to have been around for pong or pitfall. Even someone of advanced enough age as me, is still too young to really have much remembrance of Ataris from yesteryear.
I wish them well, but I'm a bit skeptical.

 

[bloodroses]

If Atari wants this to succeed, it will have to on it's own merits. It's audience of nostalgics isn't that big anymore, as many gamers are far too young to have been around for pong or pitfall. Even someone of advanced enough age as me, is still too young to really have much remembrance of Ataris from yesteryear.
I wish them well, but I'm a bit skeptical.

A good start by them at least on the retro front will be to actually have the arcade roms of their popular games and not the horrid 2600 ports. But yeah, for them to exceed outside a tiny niche (like the nes classic), they will need to have some strong first party titles.

 

[Dunzaus]

Atari's last console was the Atari Jaguar, from 1993

 

[Giroro]

I'm waiting for the ataribox 360.

 

[dudmont]

If Atari wants this to succeed, it will have to on it's own merits. It's audience of nostalgics isn't that big anymore, as many gamers are far too young to have been around for pong or pitfall. Even someone of advanced enough age as me, is still too young to really have much remembrance of Ataris from yesteryear.
I wish them well, but I'm a bit skeptical.

A good start by them at least on the retro front will be to actually have the arcade roms of their popular games and not the horrid 2600 ports. But yeah, for them to exceed outside a tiny niche (like the nes classic), they will need to have some strong first party titles.

Really good ports wouldn't hurt, but you're right, they'll need a lot more than that. If their smart, they'll include the original game with all their ports.
One issue I was pondering is how open their code and platform will be. A very open architecture will help them from an ease of porting new modern titles standpoint, but limits sales of machines, to a degree. It really comes down to how they're planning on making their money. If it's from sales of machines, then it'll be a more closed architecture, if it's from licensing games to the platform(which is where I'd go myself), then a more open architecture would be the hot ticket.
Like I said earlier, I wish them well, but I think they're climbing a pretty big hill and pushing a pretty big rock.

 

[bloodroses]

Atari's last console was the Atari Jaguar, from 1993

Yeah, that was a disaster. 🙁 The Lynx was actually quite good though, just plagued with issues such as not enough titles and poor battery life. However, that was originally designed by Epyx... lol

Looking at Atari's past consoles:
2600- Great at the time
5200- Disastrous Controls. Nothing really new game wise since they were almost all updated graphic versions of 2600 games
7800- Poor outdated design with horrid audio for the sake of 2600 compatibility. That was due to the crash and not redesigned.
Lynx- Great idea, but flawed as stated above. Not designed by them
Jaguar- Poor hardware design due to bankruptcy during development. Horrid games and support due to damaged image.

 

[bloodroses]

If Atari wants this to succeed, it will have to on it's own merits. It's audience of nostalgics isn't that big anymore, as many gamers are far too young to have been around for pong or pitfall. Even someone of advanced enough age as me, is still too young to really have much remembrance of Ataris from yesteryear.
I wish them well, but I'm a bit skeptical.

A good start by them at least on the retro front will be to actually have the arcade roms of their popular games and not the horrid 2600 ports. But yeah, for them to exceed outside a tiny niche (like the nes classic), they will need to have some strong first party titles.

Really good ports wouldn't hurt, but you're right, they'll need a lot more than that. If their smart, they'll include the original game with all their ports.
One issue I was pondering is how open their code and platform will be. A very open architecture will help them from an ease of porting new modern titles standpoint, but limits sales of machines, to a degree. It really comes down to how they're planning on making their money. If it's from sales of machines, then it'll be a more closed architecture, if it's from licensing games to the platform(which is where I'd go myself), then a more open architecture would be the hot ticket.
Like I said earlier, I wish them well, but I think they're climbing a pretty big hill and pushing a pretty big rock.

That is a really good idea for the open architecture. I know the same thing was tried with the 3DO, but the console cost alone killed that system. Atari can't afford to do that.

You're right, they'll be having to climb a mountain with a huge sweaty sumo wrestler on their back if they want to succeed.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

What I'd like to see are not games that compete with the PS4 and Xbox One but rather are their own thing, like the Nintendo approach. The types of games I visualize are games you don't see much anymore. Remember, sitting on the couch with your friends all playing a game. Games that were not buggy messes. Maybe platformers and fun "arcade-style" games but in a more modern context and setting.

 

[bloodroses]

What I'd like to see are not games that compete with the PS4 and Xbox One but rather are their own thing, like the Nintendo approach. The types of games I visualize are games you don't see much anymore. Remember, sitting on the couch with your friends all playing a game. Games that were not buggy messes. Maybe platformers and fun "arcade-style" games but in a more modern context and setting.

Local multiplayer will be great. That is one thing I loved about the N64 systems onward, native 4 player or more support. They make for great party systems when you have a group of friends over.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

What I'd like to see are not games that compete with the PS4 and Xbox One but rather are their own thing, like the Nintendo approach. The types of games I visualize are games you don't see much anymore. Remember, sitting on the couch with your friends all playing a game. Games that were not buggy messes. Maybe platformers and fun "arcade-style" games but in a more modern context and setting.

Local multiplayer will be great. That is one thing I loved about the N64 systems onward, native 4 player or more support. They make for great party systems when you have a group of friends over.

I don't have the patience or time much anymore to get super competitive in all these games like people do today. I play Call of Duty occasionally and Assassin's Creed, but today's games are so demanding I feel like. What I need are some games that I can sit down with for 1 hour and come out of that thinking, "Wow, that was a blast!" Instead, with most games today it feels more like a drug. "Crap, I leveled up 5 levels but I still have to level up 10 more".

Basically, games that are less stressful and more fun. Which is, again, why I like Nintendo as is.

 

[cryoburner]

But can it run Pac-Man?

I suspect that this is going to be an "Android TV" type of device, only focused on games, perhaps with its own app store, much like Ouya. Unlike Ouya though, Atari has a lot more brand recognition, so it seems like they could have a better chance of success. Most people won't have any idea what an "Ouya" is in a store, but many will recognize "Atari" as being a gaming device.

I actually wouldn't doubt if this came about as a response to the NES Classic. They probably looked at the demand for Nintendo's device last fall, and thought "Hey, we could do that!". And since they didn't have a proper console of their own, they made it something they could launch an ecosystem from, rather than just a device that can play a limited collection of classic games.

 

[bloodroses]

What I'd like to see are not games that compete with the PS4 and Xbox One but rather are their own thing, like the Nintendo approach. The types of games I visualize are games you don't see much anymore. Remember, sitting on the couch with your friends all playing a game. Games that were not buggy messes. Maybe platformers and fun "arcade-style" games but in a more modern context and setting.

Local multiplayer will be great. That is one thing I loved about the N64 systems onward, native 4 player or more support. They make for great party systems when you have a group of friends over.

I don't have the patience or time much anymore to get super competitive in all these games like people do today. I play Call of Duty occasionally and Assassin's Creed, but today's games are so demanding I feel like. What I need are some games that I can sit down with for 1 hour and come out of that thinking, "Wow, that was a blast!" Instead, with most games today it feels more like a drug. "Crap, I leveled up 5 levels but I still have to level up 10 more".

Basically, games that are less stressful and more fun. Which is, again, why I like Nintendo as is.

I've grown to the same point as well. Pretty much the only PC game I play anymore is Heroes of the Storm (non competitively and unranked) and the rest has been emulators on my Raspberry Pi or games on the Wii (only Nintendo system I still have). I grew up when arcades were still in every mall and really enjoyed/miss the times of quick social fun. Video games are meant to be played for fun, not seriousness imo. To each their own though.

 

[dudmont]

What I'd like to see are not games that compete with the PS4 and Xbox One but rather are their own thing, like the Nintendo approach. The types of games I visualize are games you don't see much anymore. Remember, sitting on the couch with your friends all playing a game. Games that were not buggy messes. Maybe platformers and fun "arcade-style" games but in a more modern context and setting.

Local multiplayer will be great. That is one thing I loved about the N64 systems onward, native 4 player or more support. They make for great party systems when you have a group of friends over.

I can't tell you how much time I wasted/enjoyed playing Goldeneye with my dormmates......😀

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

I'm sorry, but it says something very bad about humanity that devices like this exist.

 

[bloodroses]

I'm sorry, but it says something very bad about humanity that devices like this exist.

How so?

 

[Giroro]

There's a good chance this is based on Tegra so... Switch Ports?

 

[Jagwired]

If they can build this with a Tegra X2, it'd be a compelling system. It'd be more powerful than the Switch and close to the original Xbox One. It'd be expensive, though, at least $299.

If it uses a Tegra X1 (like the Switch), they'd have to price it at $199 to interest me. It'd be identical to a Switch, but with less games and no portability.

If it's some other chipset and performs worse than the Switch, it better be less than $199. I suspect the Xbox One S will drop to $199 in November.

 

[artk2219]

If they can build this with a Tegra X2, it'd be a compelling system. It'd be more powerful than the Switch and close to the original Xbox One. It'd be expensive, though, at least $299.

If it uses a Tegra X1 (like the Switch), they'd have to price it at $199 to interest me. It'd be identical to a Switch, but with less games and no portability.

If it's some other chipset and performs worse than the Switch, it better be less than $199. I suspect the Xbox One S will drop to $199 in November.

Honestly I'd prefer it to be based on a custom form of Raven Ridge, but i have no clue how much that would cost in bulk. But it really doesn't matter, give me a decent price, with some fun games, and a decent ecosystem and I'm down.

 

[Luis XFX]

Just based on its looks, it seems to be something like an NVidia Shield TV type of console. I would agree with what was said above, probably a Tegra chip, my guess is an android type of environment.

 

[bloodroses]

I know everyone bashed on the Ouya and many critical mistakes that was made by the company, but in concept it wasn't bad. It was less than $100 and potentially made a great compliment to the major consoles out at the time. This is one route I can see Atari going and possibly succeed if pulled off right.

Otherwise, they'll have to go super powerful and risk taking a loss on each console sold to compete with Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo is/has learning/learned that the hard way and are looking for a different route as well.

 

[Oz_1__1965]

This better not just be games from the 2600 ... it better include the atari 600 and 800 computer ...

 

[Fatal Potatoe]

If Atari succeeds (and I hope it will) we will have a chance at picking between 3 consoles and not just Microsoft and Sony. Hopefully, if Atari developers release online games, then we might even have the first non-paid online service for a console (Besides Nintendo)

 

[nostalgion]

i feel like this console could turn out to be a big competitor, but it cant compete on just the classics, it needs new games with new gameplay. if they can pull that off, it will succeed. because if we know anything, its that atari consoles focused more on gameplay than graphics. (except for e.t)