Items tagged with Atari
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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Atari announced today that preorders for its Video Computer System (VCS), which was originally called the Ataribox, will kick off on May 30th. The initial preorders will take place exclusively through the Indiegogo platform. Atari offered up some clarification on the retro-inspired woodgrain finish for the VCS, which has been shown prominently in press photos. According to the company, this version will be known as the Atari VCS Collector's Edition and will be offered on a time-limited basis during the preorder period. If the woodgrain trim is not to your liking, there's an Onyx version that offers a more modern black finish. Both Atari VCS consoles will come with a Classic Joystick...
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When Atari first announced the Ataribox last summer, gamers that are into all things retro were rightfully excited. The forthcoming console even looked like the Atari that gamers of the '80s grew up with. Not long after, likely many folks got a bit worried when pre-orders were delayed in December, with some fearing the entire project could be nothing more than vaporware. However, as the Ataribox draws a bit closer to prime time, it has undergone a name change to the Atari VCS. We already knew that the Atari VCS would have an AMD APU inside with integrated Radeon graphics and would offer a "full PC experience," as well as built in retro classic titles. This means the ability...
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