What’s inside the Atari VCS: Faux wood paneling, AMD’s Ryzen, and the soul of a Steam Machine - crabtreerapen1993

Atari

Surprise! The Atari VCS still exists. The last metre we power saw IT was GDC 2018, at which time I asked "What the hell is this?" and Atari provided very few answers. As I at once have it away, that's because the entire project was in flux, a swivel point where one pardner left the project and another came happening.

Now, more a year after Atari started rearing money, the Atari VCS is a largely functional product. But will anyone corrupt it? And really, what the hell is it? We met with Atari can sealed doors at E3 2019 to find out out.

Full steam clean ahead

"Steam Machines are actually a pretty good comparison," says Atari's Rob Wyatt when I bring them up. "Everyone always compares us to ex post facto boxes, which we're non. Or they find fault PlayStation, which we're not."

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Pinning go through the Atari VCS is harder than I view. Atari is happy to say what the VCS is non—but that's not same helpful, so Steamer Machines are atomic number 3 solid a locate to outset as any. The Atari VCS is essentially a low-end PC, built just about (I was told by Atari) AMD's Ryzen Embedded R1606G processor, a dual-core/quad-thread part that redstem storksbill at 2.6GHz, with 3.5GHz boost. It's housed in a box that resembles the wood-paneled Atari 2600 of old, a retrospective feeling for whatever living room, and then smooth with a custom Linux-based operating system.

Valve's pipe dream isn't dead, it's merely set up home with a new company.

Of path, Atari believes it will succeed where Valve failing—for damage reasons, primarily. The least expensive Steam Machines retailed for around $500 in 2015. The entry-level Atari VCS with 4GB of RAM retails for $250 and the higher-end 8GB model for $280. Atari said multiple times during our demo that "We are the most powerful PC for $250."

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Prototypes (figurehead) and finished products (back)

That may be trustworthy, but it's still not much power. And the value proposition gets even dicier when you factor in controllers. Atari's provision an "All-In" kit up, with the 8GB Atari VCS, the Atari VCS Classic Joystick, and the Atari VCS Modern Controller for $390. (You tail end already preorder the All-In kit at Gamestop or Walmart.)

That's firmly in actual console territory. Speaking to Wyatt, he acknowledged that even though the Atari VCS is "not a console," the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are Atari's biggest competition. You can get an Xbox One S for $225 these years, including a copy of Battlefield V. That's an established and venerated ecosystem, with nearly a 10 of software to undergo—2, if you number rearwards compatibility.

And so why buy an Atari VCS?

Sandbox

Let me serve up you up the ven equally Atari laid information technology out for Pine Tree State. In that location are essentially deuce groups the Atari VCS might appeal to.

The first-year is obvious: Nostalgics. People WHO love Atari, or loved Atari. People who miss wood pane, simply want an Atari 2600 that can run Netflix or Spotify or whatever. People World Health Organization care about the brand OR the spirit even though Atari instantly is same different from Atari in the '70s. Turn on the VCS and at that place's a great startup animation that begins as a game of Asteroids and after a couple of well-placed shots ends with a vector-styled Atari logo. Chilly, yeah?

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Atari's Modern (Emphatically Non An Xbox) Controller

Atari's betting with child on its back catalog again, but in a frankly kind of bizarre way. Wyatt's apparently created an whole Atari emulator for the VCS from scrape up, which is a good start. Instead of just big VCS purchasers those old 2600 games though, Atari is…selling them. Piecemeal. We were shown a store demo, and classic Atari games seem to run along roughly a dollar per.

Once you experience them, you can pop open the aper at seemingly whatsoever point—even (though we didn't see this in action) while waiting through load screens for a different game, which sounds smart! I played a bit ofPlace Invaders, and it played like the Atari place variation of Space Invaders.

I can't imagine spending $280 on a machine to play Space Invaders though, and I definitely can't imagine spending that money and and then finding out I need to purchase Space Invaders for another $1.

Maybe it's simply Not For Pine Tree State, and that's fine. Atari did enunciat "We want to democratize the world of ROMs and emulators," and that the VCS is for the Atari fan WHO "doesn't eff how to go regain that stuff, who doesn't know what a Raspberry Pi is." I'm for sure non part of that aggroup.

But I assume you, a reader of PCWorld, ISN't in that group either—and so what's the time value proposition for you?

Sandbox Mode.

Again, this isn't an idea that's unique to Atari. Really, I'm stunned how similar the Atari VCS is to Steam Machines. Load Atari's OS and you'll encounte a Games tablet with your purchases (both emulated classics and Atari's Modern original-political party games). In that respect's also an Apps page, with placeholder art in our show for Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, and and so on. And then in that location's the stock, as wel done in the same tiled interface.

On to each one tab key, there's a roofing tile deadened-center labeled Sandpile Mode. It's a prettied-up bootloader in essence. Select information technology, and you can choose whether to boot into Atari's OS or any other OS you've installed—including Ubuntu (which we adage running at E3) or Windows.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Atari's (Reimagined) Classic Joystick Comptroller

For better or worse, Sandbox Mode is the reason the Atari VCS Mary Leontyne Pric is so high. Via Wyatt, "By non entry the market with a expiration-leader product, we fire be Thomas More flexible." Sony and Microsoft lose money on consoles for the first few years, expecting to pull through up over the hardware's lifespan through software and licensing fees. Atari isn't doing that. You don't have to buy any games from Atari.

"The goal is you'll stay in the Atari world and use the Atari store and buy games from Atari," said Wyatt, "But because we Don't bear to lock the hardware down, we lavatory open it capable the Sandpile Mode where you give the sack just use it as a PC under your TV."

Beaver State in other actor's line, "You never own to enter the Atari world again. If you want to tonic this under your TV—a fancy-superficial box that's evenhandedly strong, rear end do 4K, can stream all your apps—but you want to love from Ubuntu, you can. We want you to stay in the Atari world, but information technology's up to U.S.A to create a compelling reason for you to do that."

Atari's betting on people liking the look into of the VCS plenty to want it for customized projects, essentially. "Emulation" is unremarkably a dirty word in these sorts of presentations, but information technology was finished the place during my VCS demo—not just in regards to Atari's official imitator, but discussions of more gray-area emulation atomic number 3 well.

Put IT this way, Atari's not endorsing you purchasing the VCS and turn it into a NES/SNES/PlayStation/N64 box with a sturdy case and progressive hookups—just it's also not preventing you from doing so. Atomic number 3 Wyatt put it, "You're not hurting us by buying it." Atari doesn't lose money regardless of what you choose to do with the VCS later.

Bottom line

Whether that's enough to entice people? I'm not sure.

Atari

If anything, the component I'm to the highest degree excited about is really the Classic Joystick. Atari plans to betray it separately for $50, and the Xbox-style "Moderne Controller" for $60. Some will apparently work with Windows machines at release.

And frankly it's the most powerful division of the package. It looks similar an old 2600 joystick, with a stick and single clit on top. In that respect's an extra trigger on the side though, plus rumble capabilities inside, and the joint rotates to simulate a flywheel too. If you're looking a cheap and sturdy way to emulate old colonnade games, the Standard Stick mightiness be a solid jack-of-all-trades solvent.

The rest, I'm more incredulous about. Admittedly to a lesser extent skeptical than I was coming out of GDC last year, as Atari's proved the VCS is (probably) a real product and not vaporware. "Most regnant PC for $250" or not though, I'm just not really sure what people will do with it, what niche it'll satiate. Atari clearly believes there is a ecological niche, but thus did Valve—and 5 years later the fact, we've never seen a second generation of Steam clean Machines. I'm no slavish Valve fanatic, but I do run to think if they can't pull out something off (with more money and connections than god), information technology's probably a dead end.

We'll see though. The Atari VCS is due to embark in March 2020, and is available for preorder at Gamestop or Walmart start today, with more than info on games, apps, and et cetera due later in the twelvemonth. Keep an eye out.

Note: When you buy out something after clicking links in our articles, we may clear a small commission. Read our affiliate link insurance policy for more details.

• Computers
• Microsoft
• Gaming
• Computers and Peripherals

Hayden writes about games for PCWorld and doubles as the resident Zork enthusiast.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/397624/whats-inside-the-atari-vcs-ryzen-emulator.html

Posted by: crabtreerapen1993.blogspot.com

Share this post