Quoting: Imnotarobot

Quoting: TobiSGD

Quoting: kuhpunktLike if you try to use SteamOS and it would have to get all the game data through USB, that's not great.

If it is USB 3 that shouldn't be a problem.

Depends on the USB. USB is not really designed to be running OS. It usually works quite bad from my experience.

It's bad if you use USB 2.0 or older. With USB 3.x it's quite decent because the data transfer is bidirectional (unlike in older USB versions) and the speed is much improved. Here's my uptime for my current Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon session:
nicu@mint:~$ uptime 
 08:50:15 up 6 days,  8:25,  1 user,  load average: 2,69, 3,31, 3,52

Obviously, with a USB 3.x socket in the PC we must use USB 3.x storage devices if we want the proper speed.

As for my live session, I threw a lot at it, and the performance is good. I mean I installed multiple software, including QEMU to test the latest SliTaz release in a virtual environment. And then I watched movies, edited images, did some programming, "tortured" the system with a lot of software open and running simultaneously, and my PC is simply a Core i3-6320 (Skylake), but it has 32GB RAM - which is essential for live sessions.

Here's a screenshot with Firefox and multiple Chrome windows open, with a lot of tabs and 2 mixer streams running, plus LibreOffice Writer+Calc, TeamViewer and other stuff going on. Testing the limits is quite fun. :D



On-topic, I have mixed feelings about what Atari does with this project, but I think it's only fair to let them to their thing and come up with opinions later. So far I've been disappointed enough to criticize the stunts they pulled, and their lack of professionalism in various areas, but this is something even projects with large teams can "produce", so I'll just wait and see where this goes.

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Ooh, Surviving Mars would be great! :)

And here's a Linux joke: Microsoft <3 Linux.

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Quoting: elmapuljust wake up!
we are being made of fools, and we cant see it because "it runs linux, of course it will be a sucess"

I think it's safe to assume you missed my previous post. As it stands, their announcement is seriously underwhelming. I might be worth for collectors and people who don't have any consoles or who want a modern mediocre PC, but to everyone else I fail to see what's worth pre-ordering.

I hope this turns out way better than what they announced, and I know it's just wishful thinking but at least it doesn't cost me anything. :P

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Quoting: puckoAtari Vault is $10 on Steam, so that leaves the retro feeling.

Hmm... then Atari has to step up seriously. Even a 10 year old laptop can run the Atari Vault, so I hope their next announcement will bring something consistent to the table. And that can either be the hardware, or - in addition - some very attractive perspectives, whatever those might be. We'll find out on May 30th, but my excitement just flew out the window.

I don't even know why they decided to sell the console without any controller. Every package should have at least one, but apparently the $199 pre-order package will come without any. At least that's what we can understand from their announcement [External Link], unless it's not what they intended to communicate. :huh:

Quoting: stretch611You are making the assumption that is the only titles they will have. I have the Atari Vault (bought on sale for $5(US), and it is about 15-20 old 2600 games and roughly the same number of Arcade games.

The Atari Vault on Steam [External Link] says this:

Relive the Golden Age of Gaming with 100 of the most popular iconic games from the 70’s and 80’s.

So it's been updated, I guess. Check it out, you might now have all 100 games in your collection.

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Quoting: elmapulyou dont get the point, i dont know the number of transitors and i didnt specify if it as 2cm² or 2cm³ either.
the issue is, there is nothing that you can do in an small device that you cant do better on a bigger one, they could make something more powerfull but instead chose to make something compact.

Whatever you meant about the transistors... it seems pointless to me. The size of the device is only relevant to their goal. As long as it serves the purpose, it's good.

Quoting: elmapulthis thing is not what going to give us more triple A games, the multiplatform Triple A that we are missing from the current gen, so what is the point of this thing? an indie box for the price of an ps4? thanks but no, if i want to help linux i will spend those 200 U$D in games instead of this thing that contribute nothing to us.

A new PS4 is more expensive than $200. But the PS4 doesn't come with over 100 games, so buying the Atari VCS is a lot of fun out of the box, compared to the other popular consoles.

Quoting: elmapuldo you really think that atari can compete with sony, ms and nintendo?
with an smaller device launched in the midle of the generation?

Surely it can't compete at their level. But the purpose of business is not strictly competing with the top brands. Profit is also essential in business. So will this console make profit? I think it will, but the size of the profit depends on what Atari manages to pull off with the final product. So as long as there are happy Atari VCS owners and there's profit for the maker... isn't that a good thing? Not everything needs to be huge to be a lot of fun and successful. :)

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Quoting: GuestIt's called "Signal to noise ratio". There was far more hatred than praise, even after we fixed all the problems. Even 3 years on I saw people blasting the port saying how poor it was, even though the problems they were quoting had long been fixed.

We're not living in an ideal world, where everyone gives full feedback and the thumb up/down on a product, for the makers to get the full picture. Not seeing enough praise doesn't mean there's not enough people liking the game.

How many people bought the game and how many people complained unjustly? That's the only ratio worth looking for. Anything else makes no sense being bothered about.

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Quoting: GustyGhost

Quoting: liamdaweOn the subject of Vulkan adoption, it is interesting to note that the current Vulkan Developer Day in Montréal is actually being hosted by Ubisoft. Doesn't mean we will see their games on Linux (not what I'm getting at), but it does hopefully mean more of the bigger companies like them are looking more into it - therefore helping a possible future port from the likes of Feral and others.

Who knows? Maybe they will even walk away with a newly discovered passion for software freedom.

And if that happens... who knows? Maybe Uplay will come for GNU/Linux as well. :P They have a lot of old games they could make available with DOSBox, so Uplay could become a lot of fun if they want to - even with GNU/Linux.

P.S. I forgot to say thanks, Feral! :D You are awesome!

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Quoting: elmapulthe console is small.
there is no space for heat dissipation, and eve if it have enough space, it dont have space for many transitors.
if you can fit 1000 transitors i 1cm, you can fit 2000 in 2cm.

small device=weak, this thing will flop, everything is saying that its a scam

I didn't see "just kidding" anywhere in your post. Maybe you forgot to add it. :P

The ASUS Tinker Board (just an example) is a single board computer that can do 4K @ 30fps and the board's footprint is as big as a credit card. This is 2018. It was 1974 [External Link] when we could fit 2000 transistors per square cm. In a computer the size of the Atari VCS we can certainly fit enough technology to do significantly better than the Tinker Board.

Anyway, we can't expect to play Crysis in 4K @ 60fps on this console, even if Crytek comes up with a GNU/Linux build. So playing old games at high resolution and frame-rate is easily achievable with AMD graphics in a box that size. What we don't know is what else can be played with the thing they're building. They say "a full range of popular modern titles" and that's laughable considering they didn't even mention one, but expect people to pre-order.

They clearly haven't settled on the final version of the hardware for this console.

Retro-inspired, but not a “retro-box,” the Atari VCS will be a fully customizable entertainment experience. This means access to a vast array of games, media and streaming content options. As an homage to the past, Atari VCS covers the classics with the included Atari Vault of more than 100 classic games, including all-time arcade and home entertainment favorites like Asteroids®, Centipede®, Breakout®, Missile Command®, Gravitar® and Yars’ Revenge®; a growing list of games, especially a full range of popular modern titles, will be announced at later dates.

[...]

Atari appreciates the community’s intense curiosity about VCS games and content, hardware specifications, production timelines and other key information, and is confident that it is putting the right pieces in place for a successful product and launch.

It's not a scam, but it would dumb to pre-order something as vague as what they announced. I appreciate what they trying to do, I can hardly wait for it to be properly introduced, but their communication strategy is terrible. Getting people excited, failing them with a campaign, leaving them in the dark for a long time, then coming up with marketing talk and a "next spring" announcement is definitely bad.

From what we know so far, the only selling point and true value is "the included Atari Vault" and the retro feeling of the console. Everything else can be done with another console or a PC. So I wonder if there's anything else worth having that can't be achieved with other platforms. Because it's a tough competition out there, with interesting consoles and gaming devices that are a lot of fun.

What would set them apart from the crowd would be a partnership with GOG. As long as the Atari VCS comes with a GNU/Linux distro on an x86 CPU, adding DRM-free in the equation would make them a lot more interesting. It would be great if the Atari Vault would become available on GOG (DRM-free). At the same time, they could build a partnership to develop GOG Galaxy for Linux, or even an official GOG Downloader for Linux. It's one full year, so if they come up with that kind of partnership then people would be much easier convinced to pre-order, knowing that their investment goes into the development of something cool on multiple fronts, even outside the Atari VCS project.

Let's say the people who pre-order get access to alpha/beta builds of the VCS and GOG software developed in the process, for testing and feedback purposes. And if the pre-order people add a few more bucks/euros, they will get some goodies when the Atari VCS gets launched. GOG can easily work out some deals (even non-Atari) to cover the goodies on their part, and Atari could offer special discounts for Atari games on GOG. Win-win-win!

Share your thoughts about what could possibly motivate you to pre-order.

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Meh. Either they come up with decent hardware and software info, or crawl back where they came from and don't bother coming back. After the first launch hiccup, total lack of decent communication, information and demos, I couldn't care less about a pre-order with the release planned elusively one year from now.

Ha! "spring next year"?! Terrible. Too bad.

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[users-only]

Spoiler, click me

I don't know... after all that fun they cum up with the Bitcher 4 instead. :D
I really hope I didn't make a mess with this pun, but it was right there for the taking. Anyway: spoiler + logged in only.

[/users-only]

Who knows what might motivate them, but having both 1+3 on GNU/Linux would be great. :woot:

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