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Atari VCS: "I feel rather fine..." BONK.

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    #31
    Originally posted by Cassius_Smoke View Post
    I believe this comes up for preorder on the 30th May. Anyone going to take the plunge?
    Considering it'll ship in 2019, more than a preorder this feels more like a sort-of-kickstarter to begin production and test the waters with an initial production run that could not even happen if preorders aren't enough.

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      #32
      Originally posted by replicashooter View Post
      Everything about it looks nasty but the modern retro joystick really has a nice, if useless, vibe.

      No word of what’s under the hood yet bar potential vapour and dreams?
      It's an low TDP AMD Radeon APU - it's going to be an old Kaveri chipset at best as AMD offload them on the cheap with DDR3 1600 RAM, I seriously doubt it's going to Bristol Ridge on an AM4 socket with DDR4, not at £149 (memory and CPU alone would bust through a £100, even with 4GB). I wouldn't even be surprised if it ended up being a dirt cheap dual core A4-6300 APU. I suppose it's possible that by 2019 RAM prices may have plummeted after the pending legal action, but honestly I wouldn't touch this.
      Last edited by MartyG; 30-05-2018, 18:50.

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        #33
        Originally posted by replicashooter View Post
        Wow. What may I ask fascinates you about such rudimentary graphics and matching gameplay? The 2600 titles were barely passable in the era they occurred in so I'm genuinely wondering the allure now. To me the quality of the gaming experience has increased exponentially throughout the generations and the leaps have been so immense that even two steps back feels like going from the jetsons to the flintstones. And that's not just in terms of visuals but sheer fun and gameplay too.
        I play 2600 games emulated on my original Xbox. There aren't many, but there are a few genuinely good games which still hold up today. As in I can play them for 30 minutes and still have fun, as I would any other simple arcade game, like R-Type or whatever.

        Someone mentioned River Raid. The gameplay in this is tightly refined, as good as any number of vertical shmups. Some games like Indiana Jones are also fascinating from a technical point of view (it requires 2 controllers used in tandem).

        The problem with the 2600 is, and I assume this is what puts you off, is if you deep dive in and play random stuff from a full ROM list, it's going to suck and be awful, and you're going to assume everything is garbage.

        Ignore all arcade conversions. All of them are trash. Most Activision titles are still good. Both Pitfall games, especially the sequel. Barn Storm is a laugh. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is funny in terms of historical context (a very early "video nasty"). Cosmic Ark makes great use of the limited tech. Also there's a renamed Last Starfighter adaptation which was fairly complex (I forget what they renamed it).

        If you like arcade blasts and simple shmups, there are several 2600 games which offer that same kind of kinetic fun for short bursts.

        Adventure is also still a great prototype Zelda.

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          #34
          Space invaders
          Pacman
          Defender
          Donkey Kong

          All very playable still!

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            #35
            Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
            Ignore all arcade conversions. All of them are trash. Most Activision titles are still good. Both Pitfall games, especially the sequel. Barn Storm is a laugh. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is funny in terms of historical context (a very early "video nasty"). Cosmic Ark makes great use of the limited tech. Also there's a renamed Last Starfighter adaptation which was fairly complex (I forget what they renamed it).
            I'll disagree about the arcade conversions... on a purely gameplay basis, Space Invaders, Berzerk, and Phoenix are still fun titles for starters. But yeah, most Activision titles still hold up.

            The Last Starfighter rename you are thinking of is Solaris - I actually have a Last Starfighter proto in my possession, so it's pretty obvious what it became heh: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/tlsf/tlsf.htm
            Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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              #36
              Originally posted by Brad View Post
              Donkey Kong

              playable still!
              On the Atariva 2600 / VCS? My god, it is awful! Two stages, sloppy controls, bleurgh!

              Well, whatever. I think we at least all agree, there are games which are still playable and enjoyable today - even though we might disagree on certain specific titles.

              Originally posted by Mayhem View Post
              The Last Starfighter rename you are thinking of is Solaris - I actually have a Last Starfighter proto in my possession, so it's pretty obvious what it became heh: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/tlsf/tlsf.htm
              That's the one. It's great. Lots of surprising depth for a 2600 title.

              Also, while we're discussing 2600 titles, Ed Fries port of Halo is actually damn fantastic. Amazing what a good programmer can do on the system!

              Random video, NSFW (swearing):
              Last edited by Sketcz; 02-06-2018, 18:59.

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                #37
                Nostalgia is powerful! Good job we're all contributing opinions. One of the first games I played on 2600.

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                  #38
                  Space Shuttle on the VCS is one of the greatest simulation games ever written. Excellent stuff.

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                    #39


                    According to this the pre-orders are doing well.
                    Even for $199 it's a big gamble.

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                      #40
                      Just, no.

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                        #41
                        I am really surprised it did as well as it did.....still strikes me as very shifty though, fact they went to Indigogo first had me worried as they are not as strict as kickstarter especially when it comes to prototypes

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                          #42
                          To my knowledge they still haven't shown a working prototype, only plastic shells for the console and "modern" pad, that's why they're on Indigogo. The actual product is sheduled to ship in 2019, the money they're getting is for the prototype stage, and it's easy to foresee it will have delays.

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                            #43
                            Footage of the Atari VCS recently shown was fake.



                            Reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming...me_that_atari/

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                              #44
                              Just when you didn't need another reason not to put money into this project, another one (well ten actually) comes along: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0...rview_in_full/

                              If you've got money ploughed into the Indiegogo, personally I'd pull it out if you still can.
                              Last edited by MartyG; 29-06-2018, 05:45.

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                                #45
                                I chuckled when he said the chip wasn't decided on yet and the interviewer retorts 'you are saying alot of things that concern me'

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