Thursday, June 17th 2021
Atari VCS Retro Gaming Console Now Available to Purchase
The Atari VCS was first teased in 2017 as the "Ataribox" before a rebranding to Atari VCS and a successful IndieGoGo campaign in June 2018. The campaign raised over three million dollars with an original target release date in mid-2019 but development was repeatedly delayed resulting in the project's lead architect quitting. The console is modeled after the Atari 2600 and includes 100 Atari games of which 18 are from the arcade and 82 are from the Atari 2600. The console features an AMD Ryzen R1606G processor paired with 8 GB ram and 32 GB storage both of which can be upgraded. The console also includes support for installing various desktop operating systems including Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS. The Atari VCS has now shipped to IndieGoGo backers and is currently available to purchase from Best Buy, Micro Center, and Atari for 299.99 USD. Atari also offers a limited Walnut edition which includes a wireless joystick and controller for 399.99 USD.
Source:
The Verge
13 Comments on Atari VCS Retro Gaming Console Now Available to Purchase
At least it comes with a controller in the box.
Why is it illegal?? For the same reason Nintendo went after a ROM website. They are profiteering off Atari's intellectual property by selling it with the games.
www.amazon.com/Fightstick-Trackball-Controller-Raspberry-Preloaded/dp/B08MFG7J1K/
If you supplied the tech and said "go find your own 'games' wink wink" then that would be absolutely fine.
If Micro center is in partnership with Atari then thats fine. But we dont know if they have a partnership. Micro Center do sell a lot of Atari stuff so i assume they are in partnership or Atari dont know or know and dont care that they are doing what they are doing.
basically, Micro Center are committing piracy by selling units/kits with games pre-loaded/installed if they didnt ask for permission from Atari before doing so.
$299 for just two Zen cores just isn't good. Plus more Vega CUs and not just 3.
It would have been a different story if it was released in 2019 like it was planned. But in 2021, it just don't make sense.
You can get some pretty decent Odyssey SBC with quad core celerons. And those even come with an onboard microcontroller. To be fair, as a computer, this is miles ahead to that of this RP 3B+ based system.