Items tagged with Atari
Atari has been resting on its retro gaming laurels for the previous decade or more, it seems, with repeated follow-ups to past games like Rollercoaster Tycoon on mobile devices. However, this may be changing soon as the French company refocuses to develop “higher value-added premium games” on consoles and PCs. Yesterday, the iconic gaming company posted a press release explaining that it would be implementing a new strategy for Atari Gaming, the subdivision for games, the Atari VCS, and licensing under Atari, SA. Atari intends to “shift its video game portfolio to premium games for consoles and PC,” rather than the free-to-play market it has been in. As such, five free-to-play...
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Although it's still hard for some of us to comprehend the exorbitant prices that some rare game cartridges fetch on the open market, the practice continues unabated. For example, a mint, sealed copy of the original Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) sold for $660,000 earlier this year. Now it's time for the classic Atari 2600 game console to bask in the limelight, although the dollar figure, in this case, doesn't come close to approaching six figures. Alex Juarez, an employee of Goodwill North Texas' e-commerce processing center, began sorting through a stack of video games donated earlier this month. While Juarez likely came across plenty of duds during his search,...
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It may be hard to believe, but it's been a nearly 4-year-long saga for the Atari VCS. Atari announced the console way back in 2017, but the company now claims that it will soon be available to purchase at the retail level. And if everything goes according to plan, the Atari VCS will launch on June 15th. However, pricing for the Atari VCS might leave many scratching their heads, especially considering that it is retro-centric and uses seriously underpowered hardware compared to modern gaming consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The base Onyx system is priced at $299, while an Onyx or Black Walnut All-in Bundle includes a wireless Classic Joystick and a wireless Modern Controller. Unfortunately, that...
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The Atari VCS is one of those things that has been delayed time and time again, and it has become something of a myth. Atari still has them up on its website for preorder with claims that the new console will ship to consumers sometime this Spring. Ahead of the launch (maybe), Atari has sent some of the modern retro gaming consoles to reviewers and content creators. One such creator, TronicsFix, got his hands on the Atari VCS and promptly tore it down. When the Atari VCS was announced and shown off, people laughed at it a bit over the aging specs that would likely have to compete against other new consoles. Over time, the console was redesigned and upgraded from the Bulldozer-era part to a modern...
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There's finally light at the end of the tunnel for the initial backers of Atari's VCS retro-console. The device was first introduced to us just over three years ago as the Ataribox (before it was renamed), and preorders first went live on Indiegogo on May 30th 2018. Atari says that it has just put the "finishing touches" on the first batch of VCS consoles that will be shipping out to customers. The consoles are currently crossing the Pacific Ocean en route to Atari's fulfillment center in California. From there, they'll be shipped out to those early bird Indiegogo backers within the United States. Among the first batch of consoles being shipped are 6,000 Atari VCS 800 Collector's Edition...
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The long-delayed and long-anticipated new Atari VCS console may soon be coming to a living room near you. It was recently announced that the upcoming Atari VCS 800 will be available this autumn and is available for pre-order for $389.99 USD. The console bundles are expected to ship by the 2020 holiday season. The Atari VCS 800 bundle includes the console, Wireless Classic Joystick, a Modern Controller, free Atari Vault of 100 classic games, and access to the Atari VCS game and app store. Users can pre-order the bundle from the Atari website, GameStop, or Walmart, but each site sells a slight variation of the bundle. Users can only pre-order the system in Black Walnut from the Atari website and...
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Gamers have been waiting for years for the Atari VCS game system to launch. Development of the game console is ongoing, and the Atari VCS team has offered an update. Lots of work is being accomplished during the coronavirus pandemic and resulting quarantine. Developers say they're entering the home stretch on the project. The first 500 Atari VCS production units will exit the factory by mid-June. A slight delay was caused in the launch schedule when plastic parts were rejected by the factory and had to be re-fabricated. The developers behind the console say that the procurement teams have made significant progress with efforts to acquire outstanding parts and materials required to build the consoles...
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Researchers around the world are working on new types of artificial intelligence (AI) that can dominate in games created by humans. Typically, these AI complete video games with much higher scores than a human is capable of achieving. A team of Uber AI researchers has developed a new set of algorithms capable of defeating any Atari 2600 game, and it's called Go-Explore. The developers say that Go-Explore can defeat Atari 2600 games with "superhuman" scores, including games that previous AI had trouble with. The team says the key to their new system is that it remembers promising states and returns to the states before it begins exploring the game. Uber AI researchers say that Go-Explore improved...
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Atari has announced a new casino gaming system that it says has no local restrictions because of its use of cryptocurrencies. The gaming company says that its dedicated Atari Casino team has designed the service to provide users with the best online casino experience to date. The casino has a "collection of all the best Atari games" and boasts popular casino games as well. Stakes are adjustable for each player allowing users to always find a table in a game that's right for them. The casino has no local restrictions, and oddly there is no mention of age restrictions. Atari promises that payouts will arrive to players quickly because crypto transactions are faster than bank transfers. Standard...
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We’ve seen Alphabet/Google’s DeepMind AI crush human opponents in games like StarCraft II, but now the team is going back in time to tackle games from 4 decades ago. Dubbed Agent57, this new AI is gaining attention for learning how to play a total of – you guessed it – 57 Atari 2600 games. The DeepMind team often looks to existing games to help improve its AI routines, and it explains that they provide “excellent testing ground for building adaptive algorithms” that can encompass a “rich suite of tasks which players must develop sophisticated behavioral strategies to master.” More importantly, each game has its own high...
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The first half of January was a busy month for the Atari VCS team. It was on hand at CES 2020, showing off the Atari VCS game console with live demos and more. After CES 2020 wrapped, the team headed to China to work on manufacturing. The company says that over a two-week period in January, the team oversaw a pre-production run of Atari VCS dev units. Those dev machines reportedly left the factory just as the team prepared for the two-week holiday break and New Year celebrations. A bunch of photos of the pre-production build process and the jigs used for construction were shared. Most of the work in the pre-production area was done by hand with workers plugging in individual components and wires....
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When it comes to modern gaming, we typically think of hardcore PC gaming rigs, or consoles from the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Atari doesn't typically enter the discussion due to its long absence from the gaming market. The fact that the company's VCS retro gaming console has been delayed multiple times hasn't helped its mindshare with the public either. Despite this, the company is pushing forward with what is quite an ambitious undertaking -- Atari-branded gaming hotels. The company says that its goal is to deliver "one-of-a-kind video game-themed destination(s)" for its patrons. The hotels will provide the ultimate in gaming experiences when you're away from home...
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Many vintage Atari documents and projects have been lost to the ages. Thankfully historians, former employees, and hobbyists are working to find and preserve as much as they can. The engineering schematics for the Atari 7800 have been released to the public for the first time. The documents were originally found in a dumpster, but thankfully have been preserved by the Atari Museum History Project. The schematics were released by Curt Vendel, a historian at the Atari Museum History Project and the document is 50 pages long, created between 1983 and 1984. It includes information about the TIA-MARIA-STEPHANIE chip. Vendel noted that the documents could potentially be used for other projects,...
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A key member of the Atari VCS project has quit the team, claiming Atari has not paid him for his work in six months. And by key member, we are talking about Rob Wyatt, the lead architect of the Atari VCS. From the outside looking in, Wyatt's departure is seemingly a big blow to a project that has seen multiple delays. Wyatt is an industry veteran who also helped design and launch the original Xbox console. He joined the Atari VCS team in June 2018, with Atari at the time promoting his expertise and resume in GPU hardware and 3D graphics. "While at Microsoft, Wyatt held roles on the development teams on DirectX and the Windows kernel before becoming the system architect of the original Xbox game...
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Now more than two years in the making, the Atari VCS is finally coming together in a literal sense—pre-production of the retro game console is underway, and at least for the prototype build, a printed circuit board (PCB) with an AMD Ryzen APU installed exists, as shown in the photo above. It has been a somewhat long and turbulent road getting to this point, or an "ongoing journey...filled with plenty of twists and turns," as Atari describes the situation. First revealed as the Ataribox at E3 in 2017, the Atari VCS is finally "nearing mass production," though Atari is not yet ready to change its status on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo from "Prototype" to "Production." The implication there...
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As of September 6th, 2019, the officially-licensed Evercade retro handheld console is available for pre-order. Like other retro consoles, Evercade is capable of emulating a number of older game systems, and like a few others, Evercade is also a portable handheld. Where Evercade differs from most retro emulation machines, however, is that it doesn't rely on digital ROM files or original release game cartridges. Instead, Evercade ships with its own officially-licensed cartridges, which carry a number of different games from certain publishers. Each cartridge serves as a numbered "Collection" from a Publisher's catalog, and can carry anywhere from 6 games to 20 games. For a full list of...
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We are finally starting to see light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the Atari VCS... at least we hope so. We were first introduced to the Atari VCS (previously known as Ataribox) back in July 2017 as a retro Atari console that would offer a more powerful alternative to similar products like the Nintendo NES Classic and SNES Classic. However, the console has been plagued with numerous delays and most recently got a brain transplant in the form of an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 APU. Today, we're learning that Atari has advanced past its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and has officially cranked up its official presales of the Atari VCS. The console will be available...
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Retro gaming fans who have been awaiting the release of the Atari VCS (formerly known as Ataribox) are going to have to wait a little bit longer. Atari announced that it is pushing back the release again, this time until the end of the 2019, though the final product will be faster, cooler, and quieter thanks to a platform upgrade. Barring any further changes, the Atari VCS will ship with an embedded Ryzen processor with Vega graphics. It's essentially an APU (accelerated processing unit), though AMD has shied away from using that nomenclature. Nevertheless, the new chip is apparently a brand new SKU that AMD has not yet announced. Atari is not divulging all of the details at the moment, but did...
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It looks as though the VCS isn't the only "new" console on the way from Atari. The company has announced that it will soon be releasing the Atari Retro Handheld, which is in essence a portable version of the classic Atari 2600 home console. However, while the original Atari 2600 hooked up to your old 13-inch(ish) tube television, the Atari Retro Handheld has all the action taking place on a rather small 2.4-inch display. Flanking the display is a directional joystick on the left and two game buttons on the right. You'll also find select and start buttons near the top of the device. Atari is really playing up the retro aspect of its new portable device with the same ribbed black plastic...
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Four decades after the launch of the Atari 2600, it appears that the gaming company has "still go it". Yesterday, Atari opened up preorders for its VCS console, and things got off to an incredible start. 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,...
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May 30th is here, which means that Atari VCS preorders are now open. You can preorder the console via Indiegogo for as little as $199 (in Onyx), which will get you just the console and no accessories. You'll have to pay an additional $30 to get a bundle with the Classic Joystick. You can preorder the VCS Collector's Edition with old school [real] woodgrain trim across the front for $299, which comes with a Classic Joystick. For those that want to go all-out, you can get the VCS Collector's Edition with Classic Controller and Modern Controller for $339. You can also separately purchase the controllers or get them together in a bundle for $59. As for the actual...
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Ted Dabney (left) and Nolan Bushnell (right) With A Pong Cabinet, Alongside Fred Marincic And Al Alcorn Ted Dabney, a video game pioneer and one of the co-founders of Atari, has died after having just recently celebrated his 81st birthday. News of this death sent a ripple through social media after Dabney's friend and video games historian Leonard Herman posted the unfortunate news update on Facebook. Apparently Dabney had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in late 2017 and was given less than a year to live, according to Eurogamer. Born in San Francisco, California in 1937, Dabney enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. out of high school where he studied electronics. He was later hired...
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