Atari plans to re-enter the gaming hardware business next year by shipping the Atari VCS in spring, 2019. The company has been teasing the upcoming device for nearly a year, and from what I can gather, it’s basically a Linux-based computer stuffed in a small box designed to resemble a classic Atari game console.
While Atari has yet to release detailed specifications, we know that the system will feature a gaming-centric user interface and support a number of classic Atari games, but it should also run some newer Linux titles.
And now Atari has announced that the system will go up for pre-order for $199 and up through an Indiegogo campaign set to launch on May 30th, 2018.
The company says it’ll released complete specifications when the campaign goes live, but here are some of the details Atari is willing to provide so far:
- AMD Radeon graphics
- Support for 4K HDR content at 60 frames per second
- Onboard and expandable storage options
- Dual band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
- USB 3.0
The system supports a classic Atari-style joystick and a “modern controller” that looks like an Xbox-style game controller. They’ve been developed in collaboration with gaming hardware company PowerA, and Atari says both controllers “will be available in select packages and as standalone purchases.”
The system will also be available with an “onyx” black design or with a retro-style design featuring wood paneling.
Atari notes that the $199 price is only for a limited number of early-bird units of the Onyx black version, and it sounds like not all packages will ship with both game controllers, so you may end up spending more than that to reserve an Atari VCS system that may not ship for almost a year.
Of course, the present Atari Interactive, other than owning the name and (I’m guessing) the rights to some if not all of the original Atari’s intellectual property, has absolutely nothing to with the original Atari Corporation that went bust in the 1990s (which was particularly painful for me since I owned shares in the company!).
Since the original demise of Atari, the company name has changed hands no fewer than five times as well as going through a bankruptcy, as various companies have tried to cash in on the nostalgia for the Atari brand… and failed.
I don’t believe that there is that much nostalgia for the Atari brand. Those games are so old and so archaic now that I can’t see them being any sort of a real draw for a new console.
They’d better have something really new to show off, or this will be just another failed console.
Let’s face it, the description of this project doesn’t involve much:
* You take a pretty generic mid-performance PC parts and stuff them in an Atari shaped case.
* You package some Linux games and Linux steam along with an emulator for old Atari games.
Otherwise it is a Linux box.
* You throw in some exclusive or near-exclusive rights to some old Atari titles.
They are not talking about delivering this *next* year?
I’m sorry, a randomly assembled group of High School students could have built that product over the more than two years they will have been working on this.
Sorry if I am skeptical, but why they don’t show the specifications? Is one year (2 in the end of the campaign) this smells bad.
How long before someone turns it into a steam box??
It might already *be* a steam machine. They’re pretty vague about the software.