Atari VCS Being Redesigned - Signs of Trouble?

The Atari VCS is undergoing a physical redesign, which could be trouble.
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[@PatTheNESpunk]

The Atari VCS is being redesigned - do you think this project is in trouble? ✅More info @bit.ly/2KdQLfQ

[@OM19_MO79]

This looks like a job for the SEC. Stop this already!

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

Do I think this project is in trouble? I'll put it to you this way: if an army of zombies from the destroyed planet of Melmac were to invade Earth tomorrow morning and Gordon Shumway (A.K.A: Alf) who has been hiding in Lynn Tanner's basement while getting high on Meth for the last 20 years was our only hope, the Earth would be in LESS trouble than this Atari VCS project.

[@travishoel3755]

It was in trouble from the jump

[@avbsvideo]

Nobody covers unreleased dead before arrival consoles like you guys!

[@jonathont5570]

I have a feeling that your channel sucks recently, just missing the fun...oh well.

[@pizzamon795]

They're making it smaller because pipe dreams dont take up much space.

[@e11aguru]

It keeps changing, like a chameleon.

[@dionr1168]

I've had Coleco Chameleon vibes about this thing since Day One.

[@juicyfruit6311]

Version 1:Zartan Version 2:Zarana Version 3:Zandar

[@Gildog77]

I saw what you did there!

[@splicetape9435]

The 2600 doesn't have controller ports in the front. Maybe they were emulating the inconvenience ?

[@Benjamin0119]

@Comedy Room That's still wasting cord length and makes it more annoying to plug in either way.

[@iami3rian394]

@@Benjamin0119 the system had like 12' cords though, so the controller cord length was irrelevant.

[@FinalBaton]

Ian... and Pat... talking about scammy, no-purpose/no-market crowdfunded "consoles"... is my very favourite topic on the CUPodcast 😁

[@KoopaKid2000]

This is why you NEED a prototype for hardware. This will not release this year. No chance in hell. They're just starting basic shit. Look at how everyone else does it. Nintendo didn't announce the Switch, open pre-orders, and THEN start making it. They made prototypes and tested it. You need to start somewhere. It's even more important to get this right with crowdfunding. They don't have tons of rainy day money. They've got the crowdfunding money. That's it. They've now wasted a good bit of that. That's an issue. A huge one. Also just a heads up it's likely that those old "prototype" videos and pictures were mock ups, PC, and at one point an Xbox One.

[@ericmay2d2]

There was no prototype, they played a demo on screen while holding a controller. This will not happen.

[@hard4games]

I love how passionate you two are with your loathing if this "console". Keep up the great work!

[@TVindustries5000]

ay tonyyyyyyyy

[@poposterous236]

The hell does an Atari need with a Ryzen chip? Are you going to edit videos on that thing?

[@SAM-ru4vx]

play astriods with VR headset?

[@g10118]

While you aren't wrong that mullins would have sufficed , perhaps the strength of the hardware with Vulkan ported titles will give it more of a general purpose usage. Otherwise, they are spending more per SoC on performance that they can't use.

[@joecater4931]

Nah, but the video editing will be in the next update. Will push the release date til 2020

[@sloebone7399]

It takes a lot of power to do whatever it is this thing is supposed to do.

[@sloebone7399]

phillip martin - I’m sure the Ryzen is a very capable processor but I haven’t heard Atari talking about any of that. It seems like they didn’t know what they were doing and still don’t. Several months ago they figured out they needed more memory, now the need a new chip? Meanwhile they’re giving us lengthy updates about the wood and the led lights on the case. It would be nice if they told people what they’re actually trying to do, but I don’t think they even know.

[@henkehaandersson]

the topic of a dead system, that never dies..

[@avbsvideo]

This thing is gonna rock when it comes out in 2038!

[@rbb9753]

Just in time for the Unix date rollover!

[@ardvarkboy]

THERE... ARE.... FOUR.... LED's!!!!

[@TBustah]

Well, at least it doesn’t look like the Evil Council’s pyramid logo from “Kung-Pow!” anymore...

[@SAM-ru4vx]

at this point wouldn't it be easier to just take one of the *AT GAMES* units.....remove the insides and put you're favorite single-board-computer inside? the cost would be what $50?

[@Banryu95]

Is there anywhere that we can find a side by side comparison between the old and new design? I'm ONLY finding one design.

[@FinalBaton]

The bit at 2:49 that Ian reads is pure EMPTY marketing-speak that means absolutely nothing, Lol, amazing, this is gold

[@TechWithSean]

Ryzen? No one is going to spend that kind of money on an Atari

[@RyanMartinez]

"Art wonk"... I'mmo use that now instead of the much longer "pretentious amateur designer who thinks they're the second coming of Steve Jobs or Jony Ive1". 😁

[@jam237]

They also didn't mention they removed the sd card slot.

[@_ealien3347]

the thing that i don't get about this console is they haven't mentioned software. i haven't heard of a single game designer talk about making a game for this thing

[@GareWorks]

Let's be fair: is ANYONE surprised by this news?

[@Rando1975]

If they are surprised, they are an idiot.

[@cress_albane]

Not surprised but pretty entertained

[@LukeAllen23]

Certainly not as scandalous as the Vega+ (Thanks Slopes Game Room), but it looks like Atari may have finally dug its own grave!

[@FIXTREME]

And no Tramiel, JTStorage, or Infogrames this time

[@ryanm4281]

The structural improvement is having a power button.

[@youreperfectstudio4789]

Well I, for one, am optimistic about the Atari VCS. My Studio is making a game with it in mind (though of course we plan to launch it on other platforms too - we are not crazy enough to rely totally on the Atari VCS)

[@TenchiJeff]

I predict that the VCS will only go out to the backers, and it will be underwhelming.

[@grandadgamer8390]

"selling an idea" how true this is 👍

[@trailersic]

Fools and their money are easily parted. This whole thing had signs of trouble from day 1.

[@Tommylop1982]

I remember arguing people about that point a few years ago.

[@jonnie2bad]

as long as there is still real wood im not worried

[@lady1kaka]

Wait. If I get it right "communication problems" means that red LEDs makes people think there is a problem with the console. Like the red ring of death...

[@Frank_D]

I'm surprised they were concerned about the case because I didn't expect them to even seriously make an effort to actually deliver this thing.

[@NewAgeRed]

Yo, Pat. You and Ian have to review it when it comes out. :D Please.

[@GRAW2ROBZ]

Wasn't there use to be a sd cart slot on the back of it? I don't see one now. So they removed the sd port. But added more USB ports? I guess that works if games be getting larger in file sizes with roms or whatever. But sd card would of been nice for tiny atari 2600 roms. Now we will have a external HDD plugged in or flash drives. Will look clunky now. Heck my XBOX1 looks messy with two external HDD's and a USB controller plugged in.

[@JohnKelly2]

They had to add the riser in order to accommodate the new processor, since the original design didn't have one.

[@AnamanaCh]

Does anyone want Atari games in 2019 is the other question? Is there a market for this?

[@SuperMutant2099]

Wasn't this the system as prototype that you can see game capture device in it?

[@ericmay2d2]

Still dont have a prototype. this is still a scam

[@carbonekiwi1722]

They have a prototype, but it's simply a (big) AMD motherboard. See their 7th update.

[@ericmay2d2]

@@carbonekiwi1722 no photos no prototype no proof, that's why it's on indegogo.

[@carbonekiwi1722]

@@ericmay2d2 their test board is here. cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*_S3WW_e24I244W8_EzxSZg.jpeg I cannot understand what's so difficult to believe, it's just an AMD test board running Linux. I think the software part is by far more problematic. Why do you think it's not possible ? Or maybe you mean a finished prototype, in the small VCS box ?

[@seany84uk]

Im suprised something like this didnt happen sooner. This is another Vega+

[@TheCreepypro]

man what a disaster this turned out to be hopefully they make something they can actually ship that people who already put money down can at least get their moneys worth

[@ryannelson4317]

Wow Pat. I have never seen your hair so short. 😉

[@paulwolfer7869]

I've never owned an Atari, but if there was a system that took the 2600, 5200, 7800 cartridges and output HD, I would have bought that and start collecting cartridges. Another software emulation system I have no interest in.

[@BriansManCave]

Kind of like the Retron77 ... but that only takes 2600, hope they can make one that supports all carts.

[@Clay3613]

​@@BriansManCave Should've built it off the 7800 which takes 2600 carts too.

[@BriansManCave]

@@Clay3613 Exactly! That was what I was hoping they would have done... but they stuck with the 2600 instead for some reason.

[@chrismcdonaldracing]

They found out why as much as i love Linux you dont take a Linux box to market like this. Most of the original software they where using was GPL v3 that means they could use it all they want but any changes to the software must also be GPL v3 meaning opensourced and not proprietary. That makes it really hard to sell the console because after the first week on market people are just going to rip off the OS and games any way. Some of these changes like the LED changes i am going to guess are because of changes in software with different licenses like more BSD software.

[@StojanOdVeles]

THEY ARE BUYING TIME - THAT'S ALL !!! ...until they runaway with your(backer's) money...

[@NoelComiX]

You guys are at your best when you talk about this and the coleco chameleon.

[@BenLJackson]

I'm not going to say that the newer CPU can't simply be slapped in the current design but differences to the CPU, as in RAM selection and FSB will matter. Ryzen's performance depends on both. No good can come from the loss of money in hardware development combined with software revamps based on a performance change.

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Who ever would have thought that that design they were originally using would ever work? Why would you even design it that way? It would lock the thing together so you couldn't open it without pulling off all of the rings to access the internals.

[@Ben-do1bf]

I think infogrames is getting to be more and more a better candidate for most incompetent publisher in the video game industry every day. At least Konami can release a product on time. And Bomberman R wasn't that bad. Roller Coaster Tycoon needs 3 different developers to actually come out, and even then it really shouldn't have.

[@8ByteBrian]

I don't understand...just buy an Atari Flashback Gold 9 like I did, or just flash some ROMS on a retropie...or get a Retron 77! The VCS just doesn't make sense at a PS4/XBOX One/Switch price range. I mean only if Atari came out the gates with a TON of NEW games & third party support then MAYBE. For what you get now this system should be $99-$129 max. It just doesn't make sense.

[@BriansManCave]

Interesting.. but will this ever surface? That is the question ;-)

[@pizzamon795]

@Lassi Kinnunen Fifty sixty? Is that a Rickyism?

[@Cowinspace]

Why didn't they just move to a Jaguar shell?

[@ColecoJoe]

They don't own it

[@yakovhadash]

Pat with a new haircut = most people after six months with no haircut

[@fenixlolnope361]

From a technical standpoint, there isn't much difference between a Ryzen based platform and Excavator based chipsets. This took like an hour to redesign.

[@moveit987]

The development reminds me of the past Atari Falcon 030 development. So many promises and so little kept. Was a total disappointment back that time too

[@TrollbotTB]

Does it still have real wood?

[@Kamakazi_-tp2lb]

I think the new Coleco will be my purchase as it will play 2600 games and play it's own games plus it exists thats always a plus., not to mention I already own a damn computer :(, money well wasted I feel bad for the backers.

[@creekandseminole]

All the comments on the Indiegogo page seem positive. Are they deleting negative comments?

[@ColecoJoe]

Yes

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Wait. Pat, did you just say them talking about the thermal management makes you hot?

[@g10118]

Here's the thing from the hardware/silicon side: Ryzen (in all forms) is going to represent significantly more performance at a given power draw than Mullins was capable of, often by 50%+ or more. It is a better choice in all regards. In many CPU-constrained rendering situations (single thread in particular), this machine will be more powerful and faster than the upgraded ps4s and xbox ones. However, Pat and Ian are both making some very good points and sort of deferring judgement on the actual silicon. That's absolutely the right way to look at this project. The Atari VCS needs to to be designed and built around the concept of general purpose usage. All their marketing should reflect this as well. Just say that you are building a small x86 PC with linux, a funny little atari case and some roms pre-installed. Talk about using Vulkan to render triple A titles on linux, talk about the how the hardware will be useful to end-users. Basically an atari-branded 'steambox'. As it was, mullins was already more than powerful enough for most indy linux titles and whatever crazy shitbag of roms you wanted to throw at it. Now they are going to be spending more per system on a potentially huge upgrade, yet they can't even explain how that will benefit the end-user. Because Atari roms? What the fuck? The other problem: the Ryzen SoC should have been discussed pretty much from the word go. Everyone who was paying attention to x86 silicon at the time knew damned well that mullins was going to be superseded sooner rather than later and that it would likely be considerably faster/more efficient hardware. I honestly don't even know if AMD is still even having Mullins silicon fabbed at this point. I know it wasn't ported past 28nm, as ryzen was roadmapped to replace (which it has). As far as devs kits.. It certainly looks suspicious, but I think underclocked off the shelf desktop parts for either mullins or ryzen would be perfectly acceptable in this case. Effectively identical aside from cooling and IO, that's not uncommon at all for dev boards. Dev tools are also really easy for them, all they have to do is point people toward AMD and vulkan dev resources. The system itself (if developed properly) could be an okay pre-built HTPC (linx (vulkan) doom on little ryzen APUs runs like a dream, 1080p 60 fps max settings)... I have pretty much zero confidence in this project however. They are stuck on this stupid retro bullshit when that really needs to be the sidenote. You don't even need to make a UI skin for linux, just put a fucking launcher on there and focus on making a decent HTCP that uses this fucking 'floating' for the reason it should have been in the design from day 1: VENTS. Anyways, you guys did a really good job covering the topic. Like one of you said, at this point it's hard to say that the hardware actually matters. Why does this exist? If it's not going to be a pre-setup but also very general-purpose x86 PC, then it has absolutely nothing. The idea of running Atari roms is so trivial that it makes me angry.

[@Fizggig]

Hell yeah the exclusive captain marvel NIN shirt. I was tempted to buy that. Awesome!

[@ashdragon1]

So the people that purchased the Wood grain more expensive model are not going to get what they paid for and have no idea what the new model will look like....

[@sloebone7399]

This is funny. Here’s Rob Wyatt, the guy they hired to build this thing, telling us why they decided against the Ryzen chip last year. Yet now they delayed the whole project to use it? This just doesn’t add up. From the official Atari VCS blog on Medium... July 2018 “2) Can you give more details or updates on the Atari VCS hardware specs? Any possibility you and the team might be considering and/or able to share news of any upgrades from the currently published hardware? The VCS hardware will be powered by an AMD Bristol Ridge family APU with Radeon R7 graphics and is now going to get 8 gigabytes of unified memory. This is a huge upgrade from what was originally specified and unlike other consoles it’s all available, we won’t reserve 25% of hardware resources for system use. We looked at the whole series of AMD APUs and when you factor in cost and thermals in addition to performance the Bristol Ridge family came out on top. Thermals are a much bigger deal in a consumer product than in a typical PC. Yes, on paper the Ryzen family is technically better but without increasing the cost and having a higher thermal capacity, a Ryzen APU would never run at full performance. When the Ryzen is operating in a thermally limited environment its performance is only marginally better than Bristol Ridge. We figured any additional cost would be better spent on more memory in an optimal bank layout to maximize bandwidth as this benefits everybody all the time. A thermally-limited but higher performance APU adds some performance here and there but it’s not a universal gain. We will continue to maximize the thermals to allow the Bristol Ridge APU to run at maximum speed.”

[@davidsmith6997]

But will it have a slot for holding my rolling rock beer...?

[@fenixlolnope361]

Those people who are saying that about the chipset are DEAD WRONG. There's not much of a difference between the chipsets, they're both based on socket AM4 processors effectively.

[@ArtDocHound]

Very Crappy System

[@AQArchMageA4S]

The ribbed sandwich design is gone. Ribbed for no one's pleasure here.

[@tbirum]

These "Indegogo" and Kickstarter groups never seem to understand how much research and development costs companies like Sega and Atari and Nintendo, everyone of those companies spent millions on design (and still a lot of the systems that came out with finished products had some really bad design flaws)I just love the Hubris of these people who think they can just create a graphic design in windows paint and think that the design will not only hold all of the internal components but also be able to run cool, and be able to be fabricated at minimal costs. LOL They have 40+ years of gaming consoles to look at and borrow from but they still can't figure it out before showing their designs to the public. At a certain point their needs to be some kind of regulation of this kind of shit, because basically people are just tricking other people into financing their lives for the next 3-4 years.Hey guys give me and my 4 friends 4 million dollars so that we can build you an Atari emulation box.Meanwhile they put 2 million into the project and the other 2 million ended up funding their life styles during those 4 years the project was going on. 2 million divided by 5 equals 400k each spent over 4 years means they are probably spending 100k each per year just partying. And when they put out a POS, everyone will be upset, but then that group will be like, Well this was a great learning experience for this group, BUT next time we will be able to avoid our past mistakes and we have learned how to streamline our operation so our Next project will be even BETTER!!

[@hannibalsolo4409]

I love Pat doing Atari ASMR

[@Waccoon]

Lovingly CGI rendered in real wood.

[@TheMunky25]

Let me guess money raised through Indie Go Go?

[@PutYourQuarterUpGaming]

Ya know, you say you’re spot for Royale news and opinion but I’ve yet to hear you guys bring up Apex OR BF V; starting to think this is all just a bit.

[@jayden6538]

I have lost all hope of this thing coming out. I used to think "There could still be a chance of it coming out", but now... Nope.

[@VinchenzoC]

LED lights are complicated?

[@Clay3613]

Complete morons, bootleggers in China throw LED's into everything!

[@spacetrance52]

Whats up Pat & Ian? Love the podcasts as well as your NES punk character. Just got internet again, I'll Like & Comment as often as I can :)

[@TheMunky25]

Short spikey haired pat is a good look for pat, the big curly fro pat, not so much......I only say that cause being a curly haired man ( back when I had hair) the short spikey look is a better look for guys like us

[@levinotjeans]

Never contract anything through Maestro. They just delay delay and delay, take your money, and never ship a product.

[@michaelanderson9792]

I bet a low level worker in the building said would it be cheaper to and it went to the top and A ah ha moment happened

[@FelipeBudinich]

Why not just sell the original shell design, it was pretty. (Without any hardware inside)

[@Boogie_the_cat]

I'm going to hella buy that zero gravity VCS. It will be the centerpiece of my living room and I will get to experience love for the first time. And score. I'll totally get to score with chick(s)

[@savagesquirrel9610]

now I want a Mcrib sandwich.

[@charlesmtaylor31]

This sounded like a mess from the get-go. You're better served buying an old 2600 or 7800 either online or from your local retro game shop.

[@sloebone7399]

My new theory is that they’re stalling until somebody actually designs a game for it.

[@RockyBergen]

It's a college-level design exercise at best.

[@herbiehusker1889]

This will probably never see the light of day

[@grandadgamer8390]

A car crash, but we all saw it jump the red light ☺

[@Milkiy-Hazard]

adding a disc / cart drive for physical media would raise interest by 999% Collectors would buy and invest on it regardless of how shit this product is!

[@Wii505]

The Atari VCS is Vaperware and some people are buying into it!

[@wertsmith69]

At this stage, "Atari" should buy back the tooling moulds to the Jaguar, use those to make a Steam Box and rename it as the Chameleon... oh wait

[@poleythepolarbear9706]

Was anyone seriously surprised by this?

[@jhamptonjr]

The freaking wood grain front makes it look like a 70s cassette deck. 🤮

[@snowblind792]

Until its released I have a hard time believing any Atari VCS news is anything other than a sign of trouble.

[@hjalmarjohnson5846]

Can't wait to play Public G's Battleground on my Atari VCS! They should have saved the money using someone else's existing molds... Like an Atari Jaguar, mayhaps?

[@ColecoJoe]

Looks like it's not coming out: atariage.com/forums/topic/266480-new-atari-console-that-ataribox/page-672#entry4252265

[@rodolfohernandez4009]

Atarrrri vs tos the fruit tuna salad out. And make a 1bit console with only two shades of color and only two botons controller. Something simple and creative that has never bin done before. Lead the world of gaming

[@F1JV]

NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE RIBS...DUDES. We CARE about a NEW Atari video game console with RETRO games built in and POWERFUL enough for new/interesting games...for me MOSTLY arcade type games that I DON’T have to spend weeks/months finishing...just FUN gameplay for high scores or against opponents. This new set up LOOKS GREAT/NOSTALGIC and is so SIMILAR to the original look...STOP worrying about a system that you don’t want anyway.

[@Clay3613]

No longer "Ribbed" for Ian's pleasure.

[@timg2727]

I could listen to these guys talk about scam/vaporware consoles all day.

[@shana_dmr]

At this point I'm really amazed with how much energy they put into this scam. It would be much easier to just go to random Chinese manufacturer saying "I need an ARM board with such and such specs with box that looks like this picture covered in woodgrain motive, here's the image of an SD card with Ubuntu with few emulators and ROMs installed that I want in this device" and go to a second vendor to get readily-available Atari 2600 USB controllers. They could have a product shipped in a month or two ;)

[@chillvillman]

What's a atari?

[@wolf11]

here's the thing about this I talk to someone that does 3D modeling and he said that he could actually build this thing with no electronics whatsoever just build the entire box the way it was supposed to look for less than fifty bucks okay no electronics I mean he would add a lighter to whatever to make it look like it lights up but to be honest he could build this whole thing for less than $50 so yeah they're full of shit this can be built they just don't know what they're doing because they stole the money.

[@Maverick649]

Ouya all over again🤦🏻‍♂️

[@gmcnewlook]

At least that actually got made......;)

[@The_Real_DCT]

No it's the Retro VGS/Coleco Chameleon all over again because at least the Ouya was made and released.

[@ace942]

Until you can go buy it at a store, I am not going to spend a single dollar on it.