Atari VCS | Formerly Ataribox | Plays games!

If they sell 10k of these I'll be mightily surprised.
Seriously, who's going to order a machine we know sod all about and at a most likely premium price.

I wanted this to be good as I used to love Atari but the company has been bought and sold so many times now the name is almost meaningless.
It's about as meaningful now as if a company tried to bring back Bullfrog games, sure it had amazing past games but the staff from those days are unlikely to be in the new company and they most likely won't have access to the classic IP so who the hell cares.

As much as I don't want to say this I can't see this as being anything other than a huge disappointment for anyone brave enough to buy this.

The company has partnered with AMD who provides the Atari VCS custom processor with Radeon Graphics Technology. The Atari VCS platform will offer support for 4K resolution, HDR and 60FPS content, onboard and expandable storage options, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, as well as USB 3.0 support. A complete list of Atari VCS product specs will be posted with the pre-sale.

Although the machine remains a bit of a mystery, some of these tidbits are intriguing; 4K resolution and HDR sounds pretty neat.

There's doubt that this device is anything more than a niche device but I'm still keen to see more of it. Even so, at the back of my mind is a thought that this launch seems very Ouya.

jawafour wrote:

The company has partnered with AMD who provides the Atari VCS custom processor with Radeon Graphics Technology. The Atari VCS platform will offer support for 4K resolution, HDR and 60FPS content, onboard and expandable storage options, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, as well as USB 3.0 support. A complete list of Atari VCS product specs will be posted with the pre-sale.

Although the machine remains a bit of a mystery, some of these tidbits are intriguing; 4K resolution and HDR sounds pretty neat.

There's doubt that this device is anything more than a niche device but I'm still keen to see more of it. Even so, at the back of my mind is a thought that this launch seems very Ouya.

But they probably mean capable of outputting 4k rather than the system can run games at 4k. HDR sound doesn't sound too impressive either IMO.

Can't wait to play E.T. in 4K HDR

I look forward to the DigitalFoundry analysis and comparison.

Lagamorph wrote:http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/04/30/1490222/0/en/Atari-Announces-Atari-VCS-Pre-Sale-Begins-May-30th-on-Indiegogo-With-Exclusive-Wood-Front-Collector-s-Edition-Onyx-Model-and-Accessories.html

Pre-orders available from 30th May, still no clear detail on what it actually is or what it actually does.

Won't ship until 2019, great timing with everyone saving their pennies for the potential PS5 and Xbox Two the following year

Also, this is coming to Switch anyway...

Does this mean they'll put out the full specs sheet before May 30th? If I got one I'd want the wood paneled version so it being a limited edition version means I'll probably never buy it. That said I might pick one up for a tenner when they fail.

lex-man wrote:Does this mean they'll put out the full specs sheet before May 30th? ...

Pre-orders can be made from 30 May and the specifications will be ready to view on that day.

jawafour wrote:

lex-man wrote:Does this mean they'll put out the full specs sheet before May 30th? ...

Pre-orders can be made from 30 May and the specifications will be ready to view on that day.

It'll be interesting to see the actual specs.

lex-man wrote:It'll be interesting to see the actual specs.

I'm a little out the loop on tech specs nowdays, but I'd anticipate some kinda "mobile"-type of performance - perhaps similar to Switch.

I'm also wondering if Llamasoft's Tempest 4000 will be a launch title. Llamsoft have completed the coding of the PS4 and XBO versions - it was even very briefly released in the US PS Store before being pulled by Atari for reasons unknown! - and I wonder if they've also coded a version for the new VCS. This is pure speculation, though, and it would seem odd to launch the game on other formats first.

I do worry that, regardless of the tech capabilties of the console, they won't have enough high-quality new titles to encoourage people to take a look.

jawafour wrote:

lex-man wrote:It'll be interesting to see the actual specs.

I'm a little out the loop on tech specs nowdays, but I'd anticipate some kinda "mobile"-type of performance - perhaps similar to Switch.

I'm also wondering if Llamasoft's Tempest 4000 will be a launch title. Llamsoft have completed the coding of the PS4 and XBO versions - it was even very briefly released in the US PS Store before being pulled by Atari for reasons unknown! - and I wonder if they've also coded a version for the new VCS. This is pure speculation, though, and it would seem odd to launch the game on other formats first.

I do worry that, regardless of the tech capabilties of the console, they won't have enough high-quality new titles to encoourage people to take a look.

Anything under a PS4 slim performance would be pretty bad IMO. You can already get a slim for less than $199.

lex-man wrote:Anything under a PS4 slim performance would be pretty bad IMO. You can already get a slim for less than $199.

I will be astonished if the VCS performance matches that of the PS4. Sure, the VCS is a similar price to the VCS, but Atari are in a completely different "resources" league to Sony. This system isn't for folk looking for a power-house console; it's for the kinda person that likes trying something different. Perhaps even in the same way that people choose the Switch as a partner system for their existing PS4, Xbox or PC; although I'm not suggesting that the VCS games will be anything like as attractive to a wider audience as the Switch .

jawafour wrote:

lex-man wrote:Anything under a PS4 slim performance would be pretty bad IMO. You can already get a slim for less than $199.

I will be astonished if the VCS performance matches that of the PS4. Sure, the VCS is a similar price to the VCS, but Atari are in a completely different "resources" league to Sony. This system isn't for folk looking for a power-house console; it's for the kinda person that likes trying something different. Perhaps even in the same way that people choose the Switch as a partner system for their existing PS4, Xbox or PC; although I'm not suggesting that the VCS games will be anything like as attractive to a wider audience as the Switch .

The problem is that the Switch is portable and has a host of exclusive games made by Nintendo who are regarded as the makers of some very fine games. Atari doesn't really have any of those things.

PS4 performance shouldn't be all that hard to achieve with PC standard parts these days should it?
Do laptops manage it now?

Why would anyone buy one of these?!

Peter Crisp wrote:PS4 performance shouldn't be all that hard to achieve with PC standard parts these days should it?
Do laptops manage it now?

Yup a laptop 1060 would beat an OG ps4.

EDIT: infact the mobile 1050 can do 1,911 GFLOPS the original PS4 has 1843.2

So the low end Nvida cards can beat the PS4.

The Switch only does around 512 though.

lex-man wrote:Yup a laptop 1060 would beat an OG ps4...

I'm out the loop on PC prices. Can a laptop PC with a 1060 graphics card be bought for 200 dollars?

jawafour wrote:

lex-man wrote:Yup a laptop 1060 would beat an OG ps4...

I'm out the loop on PC prices. Can a laptop PC with a 1060 graphics card be bought for 200 dollars?

A desktop one would be 200 quid you could get a 1050 which would be 120ish.

lex-man wrote:A desktop one would be 200 quid you could get a 1050 which would be 120ish.

I wonder if a graphics card at around £120 is a feasible component for a $200 console? I'm not saying that it wouldn't be but it doesn't seem to leave much left for the rest of the unit.

Ad7 wrote:Why would anyone buy one of these?!

Some people pay £5 for a bowl of cereal, there's bound to be someone daft enough to buy one of these.

jawafour wrote:

lex-man wrote:A desktop one would be 200 quid you could get a 1050 which would be 120ish.

I wonder if a graphics card at around £120 is a feasible component for a $200 console? I'm not saying that it wouldn't be but it doesn't seem to leave much left for the rest of the unit.

It should be, you've got to remember it'll cost Atari a lot less because they are much higher up the food chain. I would imagine that it'll cost them less than £30 to include one.