SirMossyBloke
Member
Dear god, what a shockingly hideous piece of hardware.
Why is it ribbed? Why does it turn into a pyramid?
You're showing your age here, or lack thereof I think.
Dear god, what a shockingly hideous piece of hardware.
Why is it ribbed? Why does it turn into a pyramid?
Exactly. Actually, I would say that retro gaming as a whole IS hot, or at least could be if made and marketed well.
EXCEPT for Atari. Their heyday was in the early arcade and 2600 days. I was there. 2600 games do not hold up. Some arcade titles do, but they're short, shallow, and difficult.
Atari's name recognition has been considered valuable for 30+ years. And in all that time, as it's been bought and sold and kicked around, never has that proven to be the case. If this box is going to succeed, it won't be because of nostalgia, name recognition, or the strength of its past library. It'll have to be on compelling new content.
I have a hard time picturing that happening.
They need to treat the games with love and respect, instead of just pasting the names of their properties onto some barely-related mobile phone game or PC shovelware. I'd love to see them do "new" games in the spirit of their classics. Look at games like Luftrausers, Race the Sun, or Downwell--those are great modern games with simple concepts that are easy to grasp, yet highly addictive, just as games like Asteroids and Centipede and Breakout were. That is what Atari needs to focus on.
Regardless of what it does this design is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to a 'new Atari' console sitting next to my TV.
Not enough info yet about this device, but it looks pretty cool. Would be great if 2600, 5200, 7800, ST, Lynx, Jaguar and arcade games are going to be released for it. Also, I wonder what the controller will look like. No number pad please
Forbe's contributor is mistakenly assuming that Retro Nintendo games being hot means all retro gaming is hot. It's not. Nobody is clamoring for Asteroids and Outlaw.
It's ribbed for your pleasure.Dear god, what a shockingly hideous piece of hardware.
Why is it ribbed? Why does it turn into a pyramid?
I honestly love how this looks.
AMD Semi-Custom Silicon May Power Atari's All New Ataribox
Early last week, Atari finally revealed to the world the [hopefully] final design of its Ataribox gaming console. Pulling from some retro design cues that were introduced with the decades-old Atari 2600 console, the smallish box will do battle with the likes of the Nintendo NES Classic and SNES Classic in vying for attention of nostalgic gamers.
However, we still to this day do not know exactly what will be powering the console (or when it will launch). However, in an interview last month, Atari CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed that the Ataribox would be based on PC technology. That isnt too terribly surprising given that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 families of consoles are based on AMDs x86 processor architecture.
However commentary from AMD CEO Lisa Su during yesterdays earning call might suggest that the chip company could have scored a design win with Atari for the Ataribox. This is pure speculation on our part, of course. The chips that AMD supplies to Microsoft and Sony are part of its semi-custom business. So, when Su was asked by Barrons if there was another new semi-custom chip in the pipeline, she gave a rather curious answer.
She said that there is one additional design that will ramp in the second half of 2018. Su went on to mention that AMD would be mum on the subject until its partner is ready to discuss the project further. We have to also consider that Su mentioned this new prospect while at the same time describing an overall softness in the console market.
In our semi-custom business, unit shipments were up sequentially and down year-over-year as we enter the fifth year of the current game console sales cycle, said Su. As we look at the remainder of the year and given the maturity of the current game console cycle, we expect semi-custom revenue to be down for the full year.
We know that Sony and Microsoft dont have any additional consoles in the pipeline that will be launching next year (Xbox One X launches in November), and the Nintendo Switch is running on NVIDIA Tegra hardware. Given that the Ataribox is supposed to be a PC-based system which to this day still doesnt have a launch date it seems like the prime candidate for such a semi-custom chip from AMD.
Ataribox: Coming Soon!
The buzz on Ataribox continues to grow, and we can't wait to share more news in the weeks ahead.
Ataribox will first be made available via a crowdfunding campaign this Fall 2017 with shipments planned to start in Spring 2018.
Why Crowdfunding? Amazing brands are driven by amazing communities. Coming back to hardware is an important step for Atari, and something we intend to do carefully, hand-in-hand with the Atari community that loves our brand as much as we do. Crowdfunding is the ultimate community approach to bring great products to life; and for Atari, it allows us to reward our community with exclusive access, special editions, and include them as active participants in the rollout of the Ataribox.
Sign up now at www.ataribox.com to join our community and be among the first to get news and updates!
Check it Out !
Reminder that you should never ever back hardware crowdfundingsGot an email with an update a couple of days ago:
Reminder that you should never ever back hardware crowdfundings
I think a lot of people speculated that they would go the crowdfunding way.
Its Blaze thus it sucks.
.Design and color scheme are kinda sexy
.
The design is hot. I hope the games back it up.
I'm just hoping for a proper alien vs predator
No ET, no sale.
No ET, no sale.
Blaze (and that price) implies that it's probably an AtGames system again, and they already have the Atari Flashback Portable - which is a heap of trash like all their other retro handhelds - so I wouldn't be surprised if it's just that but in a custom shell rather than the decade old recycled Mega Drive portable shell used on the AFP.
The sad part about Atari as a company is that they never lived up to their potential and always under delivered.I will never forget the Et fiasco or the Pacman arcade to home controversy. Crowd funding is impractable and three years too late. To produce ten aaa games at a conservative 50 million a pop, create an online service and have an infrastructure to sell and repair your hardware would cost a minimum of 1.5 billion. If you throw in a decent marketing campaign the final price could double. In the end the nostalgia hits me hard but my brain screams it's cash grab with little respect for the fans and most importantly their legacy.
Got an email from Atari hawking their Speakerhats, but there was a paragraph that might be interesting?
"Meanwhile, tune your attention to AtariLife.com and AtariLife social where we will unveil something very big... live from the Genius IQ/BBQ on 9/9/17!"
Maybe it's just another hat, who knows.
Got an email from Atari hawking their Speakerhats, but there was a paragraph that might be interesting?
"Meanwhile, tune your attention to AtariLife.com and AtariLife social where we will unveil something very big... live from the Genius IQ/BBQ on 9/9/17!"
Maybe it's just another hat, who knows.
Got some new info in my email:
The pictures we're sharing today are of first prototypes. Everyone that has seen Ataribox first-hand loves it, feeling the Atari 2600 influence, while still being a modern design.
Ataribox will be powered by an AMD customized processor, with Radeon Graphics technology. It'll run Linux, with a customized, easy-to-use user interface. This approach means that as well as being a great gaming device, Ataribox is also a full PC experience for the TV, bringing you streaming, applications, social, browsing, music, and more.
Most TV devices have closed systems and content stores. Linux lets us be more open; you can access & customise the OS, & you can access games you've bought from other content platforms (if compatible with the OS and HW).
There will be tons of classic Atari retro games pre-loaded, & current titles from a range of studios (we'll start talking titles very soon, stay tuned).
Got some new info in my email:
The pictures we're sharing today are of first prototypes. Everyone that has seen Ataribox first-hand loves it, feeling the Atari 2600 influence, while still being a modern design.
Ataribox will be powered by an AMD customized processor, with Radeon Graphics technology. It'll run Linux, with a customized, easy-to-use user interface. This approach means that as well as being a great gaming device, Ataribox is also a full PC experience for the TV, bringing you streaming, applications, social, browsing, music, and more.
Most TV devices have closed systems and content stores. Linux lets us be more open; you can access & customise the OS, & you can access games you've bought from other content platforms (if compatible with the OS and HW).
There will be tons of classic Atari retro games pre-loaded, & current titles from a range of studios (we'll start talking titles very soon, stay tuned).