The Atari VCS Pops Up At GDC 2018

[Guest]

Atari's new retro-styled VCS made an appearance at GDC 2018.

The Atari VCS Pops Up At GDC 2018 : Read more

 

[mortemas]

That's a joystick. The Atari paddle had a knob on it. Just google "atari paddle"

 

[araczynski]

So rather than focus and be good at/for something, it'll just be an overpriced jack of all trades that won't deliver at anything in particular.

 

[King_V]

That's a joystick. The Atari paddle had a knob on it. Just google "atari paddle"

I was about to say the same. Though, maybe I'm assuming too much, but perhaps they allow the stick to be rotated and thus allow that controller to do double duty as a joystick and a paddle? Not sure how well that would work from a comfort point of view, though, if that's what they did with it.

 

[captaincharisma]

That's a joystick. The Atari paddle had a knob on it. Just google "atari paddle"

the Atari 2600 came with 2 "joysticks" and 2 paddle controllers. i'm sure you found that in your google search too

 

[Sam Hain]

Will it come with "ET II"? LOL.

 

[Lodmot]

Duuuuuuuuude, totally getting this thing! XD

 

[mortemas]

RE: Captaincharisma

Wait, what? Said nothing of quantities. My google instructions were for the benefit of the author. My information pertains merely to what it's being called. My source is personal experience, as I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid

King_V has a good point, though. Maybe the new joystick does double-duty as a paddle as well. If not, that's a good idea! Although, the Atari paddles had a wide knob, so the feel of it would be different if the joystick above has a rotatable stick.

 

[termathor]

Wasn't hot for it, but now I'm interested ...

If specs are more or less on par for Borderlands 1, then the coverage of retro games will be very large, through existing emulators (MAME, etc ...)

 

[xrahatax]

Why would anyone buy this pile of crap overpriced mediocre PC when the switch is literally the same price has the same power portable has way better games and way more people . If Atari wants anyone to actually buy this they need to make it more affordable and get exclusives for it not just a crap PC

 

[tedantaya]

I'll wait until it comes down to $5.00 clearance price. It sure is pretty on the outside but ugly on the inside.

 

[Lodmot]

Why would anyone buy this pile of crap overpriced mediocre PC when the switch is literally the same price has the same power portable has way better games and way more people . If Atari wants anyone to actually buy this they need to make it more affordable and get exclusives for it not just a crap PC

Well if you're somebody who likes to game on PC, but doesn't have the knowledge/patience to build a rig, or the money to buy one for upwards $1000, the Atari VCS is actually a VERY good price. In the whole package, you're getting two kinds of controllers, a full Linux mid-range gaming computer with AMD Radeon graphics, and a classic Atari game system. The other thing also is that it's apparently an open system, so if you really wanted to you might even be able to install Windows on it and have access to the full Steam catalog.

Typically for $250-$300 you would only be able to get a VERY cheaply-built laptop with like a 500 GB hard drive and a crappy integrated graphics chip that does no gaming at all. So now suddenly, the VCS doesn't look too shabby of a deal.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Not bad!

 

[gemtsu_7111]

I love the case design, gamepad, and joystick. Is very modernized. Its missing the paddle. Software-wise.. their niche is simple fun games at $1-$8. As such, a console would have to be priced as cheap. Their console would at best msrp $199.99 with BF sale of $149.99. That will give them a chance. But software lineup is critical. They need a few new titles to create the momentum. Hangar is such a game that would need only one button. If they can pump out worthy games that utilize one button.. i see 3-8 year olds being target audience. Or adults who just want to enjoy a simple game without having to learn to play. That is the target audience. Casual gamers who can just enjoy simple games. Coop. Family oriented. A few hours recreational time. Thats the money! Esp when ppl need to save money atari could do it. At $300 the problem is that people already have so much install base of other platforms. They entered too late. Best wishes to them. I would buy it if it were a little more powerful than alienware alpha and i can install windows 10. Otherwise i would have to clench my teeth and pass.. as much as i want it. I have backlogs of PS4, Xbox One S, Wii U, Wii, 3DS, PC gaming rig... yea im spoiled silly.

 

[stinkybird]

Just another pre-built linux gaming box. I can get a $5 dollar pc from a thrift shop and play play the entire VCS catalog.

 

[lordsnake]

It might make for a cheap and fun games machine.
There are literally tens of thousands of great older games out there that will run on older hardware and will keep you entertained for the rest of your life.

I recently bit the bullet and sold my Ps2 setup, and I still had a good couple of dozen games I had never completed or played much at all due to lack of time.

 

[pensive69]

'...Atari didn’t design the VCS primarily to be a brute-force gaming machine...'

did Atari mention if the system has the ability to run any common Linux OS on the side? that would bump up my interest in it.

 

[nullbobaggins]

I think it is four usb ports. Probably using that first one to power the lights. The internals are probably fake too, judging by the placement of the ports. So don't expect that to really reveal anything special anyways.

 

[bit_user]

Something people might not know is that Valve maintains a Steam client for Linux, and provides several thousand titles. A surprisingly large number are licensed ports of popular PC games.

http://store.steampowered.com/linux

Now, I'm guessing Atari's long-term goal is to be their own content distributor. However, assuming they didn't somehow try to prevent Steam from working, it will provide a huge library of launch titles, for the platform.

And, for the adventurous, there's always Wine (a Windows emulator). I know a lot of games will run pretty well, under it.

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

Because the entire point of this is to capitalize on retro video games, include an easy way to install hyperspin or like interface with a bunch of licensed games to start and I'd possibly buy it.

 

[bit_user]

Because the entire point of this is to capitalize on retro video games

It's clearly more than that, or they could've made the hardware much cheaper. Like, Raspberry Pi cheap. It certainly wouldn't need to be any more expensive than the $80 SNES Classic.

They're just using the retro games & retro look as a selling point, to help them gain a foothold in the market. It would be interesting to know what their long term plans really are.

At its current price point, it's already well above the "whimsical gaming" price point enjoyed by the SNES Classic. If this was just a similar one-off attempt to cash in on nostalgia, they probably could have made a lot more profit by making them much cheaper and selling lots more of them. The main reason to make it this expensive would be to give the platform some legs.

 

[cletus_slackjawd]

Just don't understand their market strategy. I've got a Wii Xbox one s PlayStation 3 gaming laptop and two high end gaming desktops. I go to gaming retro expos. Have original gaming art on my walls and grew up on the Atari vcs. The only thing that would interest me in this is to focus entirely on retro. The interface could be like retro arcade neon and include arcade games from back library and a way to add emulation easily. They could make money on the hardware and an online nostalgia component dedicated to retro fans.