Atari VCS (was: Atari Box)

[Kong Wen]

I thought for sure we had a thread on this already. If one of the mods finds it, feel free to combine.

Anyway, recent reports on the Atari box suggest it'll basically be a PC-on-TV box that does the usual stuff like streaming, music, browser, etc. It'll use a Linux base OS. It has real wood on the case. It's going to cost $250-$300 (US) and there'll be special editions available via their Indiegogo campaign.

[The Shoemaker]

I guess we'll see what PC on tv entails, I thought I remember them saying it's going to be a modern console?

[Kong Wen]

Atari box has been delayed again, but we do have more concrete information about it now:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/18/amd ... vcs-delay/

It's a shame it comes with what looks like a recoloured Xbox controller. I thought I read that it was going to come with a stick & paddle too.

[Kong Wen]

It's a shame it comes with what looks like a recoloured Xbox controller. I thought I read that it was going to come with a stick & paddle too.

Speak of the devil: here's more information about the controller and the promised stick/paddle combo:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/22/ata ... ontroller/

[Kong Wen]

Pre-order info and prices are now available.

Ordering one of these without any actual details about what it does or what games it plays is kind of a dicey proposition, of course.

[VictorViper]

Not gonna preorder this sucker for any reason or incentive but that stick/paddle is a very, very appealing piece of kit.

[Kong Wen]

Not gonna preorder this sucker for any reason or incentive but that stick/paddle is a very, very appealing piece of kit.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if demand is high enough to make pre-ordering for any reason enticing, especially since people don't know what this thing even does yet. I agree about the stick/paddle. I want to see if they're developing new/modern games for it. Ports from existing services? Like, what is going on here?

[VictorViper]

"Like, what is going on here?" Is an excellent slogan for Atari in general.

[Kong Wen]

This may not be the full story of what is going on here, but it certainly seems to be a big part of what is going on here.

Atari have announced a subscription/streaming partnership with Antstream, an on-demand service backed by Tencent. The promise is lots of games from lots of retro platforms, optimized for the VCS, with full controller and joystick support.

Here's a list of games currently on offer via Antstream. Apparently it'll have every Atari game, as well as plenty of Spectrum, Amiga, etc. games. They claim it has some licensed N64, NES, Master System, and Mega Drive/Genesis games as well, but I was skeptical and couldn't find any Nintendo-system games in their list.

[Claytone]

This isn't particularly good.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/10/209 ... g-campaign