Atari's AMD And Unbuntu Powered VCS Console Preorders Surpass $2M On Indiegogo
When we posted our initial article yesterday afternoon, Atari had racked up $1.7 million dollars in funding via Indiegogo from 6,526 backers. Nearly 24 hours later, those figures have swollen to nearly $2.2 million from 8,300 backers. Needless to say, Atari crushed its "flexible goal" of just $100,000.
Shortly after preorders opened, Indiegogo was having trouble keeping up with the voracious demand for the console, and the website had intermittent connectivity issues. In fact, we were somewhat surprised by the swarming backers due to the fact that the console won't even ship until July 2019 at the earliest and has been the subject of quite a few delays during its gestation period.
With that being said, the console is available for a little as $199, but that configuration isn’t exactly ideal for anyone who wants a true Atari gaming experience (it doesn’t come with a controller). For that, you'll will need to step up to the $229 package, which includes an Onyx console and a Classic Joystick. However, for those that truly want to put the pedal to the metal with the old Atari 2600 “feel”, you can get the VCS Collector's Edition with both the Classic Joystick and the Modern Controller for $339. This configuration also gets you woodgrain trim on the front of the console -- just like the old Atari 2600.
The Atari VCS uses an AMD Bristol Ridge-based APU with Radeon R7 graphics. 4GB of RAM and 32GB of RAM while running Ubuntu Linux. There will be over 100 classic games preinstalled on the VCS, and the console will have the ability to access the internet for online multiplayer. And just to show that the VCS is also forward-looking, there will also be all-new and "reimagined" games available to take advantage of the processing power of the console.
We're happy to see all of the interest surrounding retro console, which makes us even more hopeful that Sony will jump in on the bandwagon with a PS One Classic Edition.
