Atari VCS has some game announcements, actually shipping soon

Will you be buying one?

Well... on one hand it's ugly as sin, on the other hand it seems to have damn good specs for the price it commands... if it ships and people are happy with it I may consider it.

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.


Last edited by M@GOid on 11 Dec 2020 at 1:49 pm UTC

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

CPU is a fair improvement (per core) on the ps4(pro)'s, but the integrated gpu is not even close and even then likely to be strangled by memory bandwith and temperature restrictions. A $150 price point would have been reachable for any credible console manufacturer.


Last edited by emphy on 11 Dec 2020 at 11:53 pm UTC

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.

They said it will need an internet connection to activate.

I can think of no good reason why a internet connection should be _required_. It honestly pisses me off how dependent and lazy game developers, console makers and others have used the internet in order to push broken things out.

Also, what if you don't live in a area with a good internet connection? It does happen. Not everyone lives in a mega-city.

Big turn-off.

They said it will need an internet connection to activate.

I can think of no good reason why a internet connection should be _required_. It honestly pisses me off how dependent and lazy game developers, console makers and others have used the internet in order to push broken things out.

Also, what if you don't live in a area with a good internet connection? It does happen. Not everyone lives in a mega-city.

Big turn-off.

With other systems, I 100% agree with you. With the VCS, they basically said from the beginning that it will be all about the streaming service. It isn't like the thing has an optical drive or cartridge port.

Unless they start selling USB sticks with software on it, there is no physical games.

I think this is a shame and a lost opportunity. I mean they could have essentially put a cart port on there and had a cheap USB to edge connector to faje a cart, and sold game carts for the really nostalgic feels.

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.

Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.

Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

Official specs say it's an Embedded R1606G from amd. That's roughly an athlon 3000g with inferior cpu and slightly faster clocked igpu (1200mhz vs 1100Mhz). That igpu is not going to come even close to that of the ps4.

The Lowspecgamer youtube channel has a few videos on the 3000g if you are curious about what sort of performance you can expect. It's quite a nice low budget part with surprising performance for the price, and I'd choose the 3000g's cpu part over the one in the ps4 any day - but graphics performance is definitely not at the ps4's level.

Sources:
https://shop.atarivcs.com/hardware-specs
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/11411
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-athlon-3000g


Last edited by emphy on 12 Dec 2020 at 11:28 am UTC

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.

Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

Official specs say it's an Embedded R1606G from amd. That's roughly an athlon 3000g with inferior cpu and slightly faster clocked igpu (1200mhz vs 1100Mhz). That igpu is not going to come even close to that of the ps4.

The Lowspecgamer youtube channel has a few videos on the 3000g if you are curious about what sort of performance you can expect. It's quite a nice low budget part with surprising performance for the price, and I'd choose the 3000g's cpu part over the one in the ps4 any day - but graphics performance is definitely not at the ps4's level.

Sources:
https://shop.atarivcs.com/hardware-specs
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/11411
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-athlon-3000g

Ha, this reminds me of the conversation I was having with my brother yesterday about the video game generations.
Basically, if you look back through all of the PS versions, you can REALLY see the differsnce in the jump from PS1 era consoles (like the Saturn) and the jump to the PS2 / Dreamcast.
Then it gets fuzzy going from PS2 to PS3 as mostly you have higher resolutions, but more detailed textures, and better frame rate. And going from PS3 to PS4, there really doesn't seem to be that big of a difference at all until you get to the game that have come out in the last couple of years that really start to push the system.
Then nkw with the PS5, what do you get over the ps4? Higher resolution, better framerate and ray tracing... so probably for the next while you'll end up with the equivalent of the HDR ads you see on bluray movies and wonder why if they can show that nicer picture on your non-hdr picture, then why don't they all look that anyhow...
For me, the only cool thing about the PS5 would be load times and the potential with the new controller. Problem Sony and everyone else has always had, in the entire history of video games, is if you have a controller with special features, it will go unused outside of first party titles, or a very few random ones. Like hiw many games for the PS4 use the gyroscope? Or even the touchpad?
Sorry, went on a rant there... but really what it comes down to is specs don't mean a whole lot in the end as long as the games are fun! If the VCS doesn't float ykur boat? Don't buy one. Sony and Microsoft can sell their hardware at a loss, and make up for it easily with software sales / subscription fees. Atari SA cannot, but also tgey are bundling games with it, since when has that happened? It has been years since a console came with any game, without buying special bundles.

Well, looks like this console will be a big failure. In a scenario with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft ruling, We can not expect anything different.

Well, looks like this console will be a big failure. In a scenario with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft ruling, We can not expect anything different.

(Following of course is just all my opinion).
I think the they missed the people this would sell to by making it a digital only console. Problem is that the Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo consoles out there are very much moving quicker toward digital media only. I'm betting for the next PS6, Microsoft Xbox Season Series Something Extra Letter b+q, and whatever crafty thing Nintendo names their next one, they'll just eliminate the option for physical media. Killing off the possibility to resell your games.

I mean take a look at how even the last few generations have been. You very rarely even get a single insert in the physical game. You never get manuals anymore, or maps or anything extra unless you get Collector Editions that are extra money. They still charge the same price for a digital game as they do for physical media these days because it costs hardly anything to print and ship a case with a color case and a disk. Hell most disk games, you install it then the damn system still re-downloads the entire game anyhow, sometimes because things have been patched.

PC games aren't any better. When I bought Postal III (yeah before everyone knew it was crap) the install asked for both DVDs... and then re-installed the whole thing over Steam anyhow.. took forever to install.

The Atari VCS should have included a cartridge port, to tickle that nostalgia even more, and to allow releases as physical games. Also given it some sort of unique edge. As it is, maybe people can use it to play on Stadia, or the other streaming service that's included with it (Antstream?) My intentions though are basically to install GamerOS on it :)

They cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.

From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.

Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

Official specs say it's an Embedded R1606G from amd. That's roughly an athlon 3000g with inferior cpu and slightly faster clocked igpu (1200mhz vs 1100Mhz). That igpu is not going to come even close to that of the ps4.

The Lowspecgamer youtube channel has a few videos on the 3000g if you are curious about what sort of performance you can expect. It's quite a nice low budget part with surprising performance for the price, and I'd choose the 3000g's cpu part over the one in the ps4 any day - but graphics performance is definitely not at the ps4's level.

Sources:
https://shop.atarivcs.com/hardware-specs
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/11411
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-athlon-3000g

Ha, this reminds me of the conversation I was having with my brother yesterday about the video game generations.
Basically, if you look back through all of the PS versions, you can REALLY see the differsnce in the jump from PS1 era consoles (like the Saturn) and the jump to the PS2 / Dreamcast.
Then it gets fuzzy going from PS2 to PS3 as mostly you have higher resolutions, but more detailed textures, and better frame rate. And going from PS3 to PS4, there really doesn't seem to be that big of a difference at all until you get to the game that have come out in the last couple of years that really start to push the system.
Then nkw with the PS5, what do you get over the ps4? Higher resolution, better framerate and ray tracing... so probably for the next while you'll end up with the equivalent of the HDR ads you see on bluray movies and wonder why if they can show that nicer picture on your non-hdr picture, then why don't they all look that anyhow...
For me, the only cool thing about the PS5 would be load times and the potential with the new controller. Problem Sony and everyone else has always had, in the entire history of video games, is if you have a controller with special features, it will go unused outside of first party titles, or a very few random ones. Like hiw many games for the PS4 use the gyroscope? Or even the touchpad?
Sorry, went on a rant there... but really what it comes down to is specs don't mean a whole lot in the end as long as the games are fun! If the VCS doesn't float ykur boat? Don't buy one. Sony and Microsoft can sell their hardware at a loss, and make up for it easily with software sales / subscription fees. Atari SA cannot, but also tgey are bundling games with it, since when has that happened? It has been years since a console came with any game, without buying special bundles.

It was your exotic claim of PS4 level performance (hence justifying the high price) that pushed the conversation in the direction of the specs in the first place.


Last edited by emphy on 12 Dec 2020 at 11:25 pm UTC

Will you be buying one?

Well... on one hand it's ugly as sin, on the other hand it seems to have damn good specs for the price it commands... if it ships and people are happy with it I may consider it.

Dude, this thing is so very pretty... [Atari Consoles](https://thefnords.org/AtariConsoles.jpg)

Well... on one hand it's ugly as sin, on the other hand it seems to have damn good specs for the price it commands... if it ships and people are happy with it I may consider it.

Dude, this thing is so very pretty... [Atari Consoles](https://thefnords.org/AtariConsoles.jpg)

十人十色 I guess. I don't like the "oddly shaped black box" aesthetic.

Well... on one hand it's ugly as sin, on the other hand it seems to have damn good specs for the price it commands... if it ships and people are happy with it I may consider it.

Dude, this thing is so very pretty... [Atari Consoles](https://thefnords.org/AtariConsoles.jpg)

十人十色 I guess. I don't like the "oddly shaped black box" aesthetic.

Ha, as opposed to some of the other consoles that have come out over the years? I will say that probably my favorite overall anesthetic is the Sega Genesis. It is what a game console should look like. The moment that they all started to require some sort of active cooling, I think companies screwed up. Consoles should be 100% silent. The Atari VCS is close, but does have a fan that randomly likes to turn on. Hopefully fixed in software before a more general release.

I will say that probably my favorite overall anesthetic is the Sega Genesis.

Unless you've trouble sleeping, I'm assuming you meant aesthetic. I thank you for the typo though, needed the chuckle today.

So while I'm at it, because quite frankly it's an awesome typo, I think a few puns are in order:

A console anaesthetic (alt. spelling anesthetic), to dull the pain of playing a terrible game.
A console anaesthetic, for when you just need to space out for a while.
A console anaesthetic, for major surgery required when that drive gets stuck and you need to remove a cd/dvd.

Please add some more.

Ha, writing on my phone, after a lovely night of drinking.

Cheers!

十人十色 I guess. I don't like the "oddly shaped black box" aesthetic.

Ha, as opposed to some of the other consoles that have come out over the years? I will say that probably my favorite overall anesthetic is the Sega Genesis. It is what a game console should look like. The moment that they all started to require some sort of active cooling, I think companies screwed up. Consoles should be 100% silent. The Atari VCS is close, but does have a fan that randomly likes to turn on. Hopefully fixed in software before a more general release.

I prefer the Dreamcast look: big ol' goofy open and power buttons, some gentle curves to increase the toy-like appearance, and of course a Debian logo on top.


Last edited by tmtvl on 27 Dec 2020 at 3:20 pm UTC

Side note. You can copy games from the VCS to a USB drive and run them on Linux.