Yet another new Atari VCS update...

Build your own Mame system with all the ROMs you can find. Will be much more fun to play. Oh yeah... that's illegal but nobody is selling them, so who cares. Some times those games have even been totally lost because the ROM was on a RAM powered with a battery until it lasts (kind of protection or super-cheap saving), and the company owning the software disappeared or eventually lost the data.
 
Well.... for all of the naysayers who said it would never actually materialize. They are now shipping and a few have already been delivered with thousands more expected to all be delivered within the next 10 days or so. There are already at least 2 videos on Youtube from backers who got theirs in. I do not have mine or a shipping notice yet but I imagine I will within a few days.

So far the only units that will be shipping are to the original backers. Retail and other units are expected early in the year according to Atari.

So far they are so new that there are immediate updates needed and from one users who already opened his fully up to take photos they are upgradeable. There are 2 SODIMM slots and it came with 2x4gb DDR4 2666 ram (docs state it uses 2400 and can be upgraded to 32GB using 2 16gb SODIMMS). The single M.2 slot is supposedly only for SATA SSD's according to the docs. No info from anyone attempting to use an NVMe SSD yet but I'm sure someone will be very very soon.
 
Well.... for all of the naysayers who said it would never actually materialize.
Who would say that? It's a ryzen mini pc with an emulator. Not exactly rocket science. I question the market for such a device, although they did sell 11,000 of them somehow.
 
How is the slot keyed?

The slot is M keyed which can accept an NVMe SSD but it will depend on how the slot is electrically wired to know for sure. People are already talking about sticking an NVMe in to try it so it will not be too long before we know for sure.

The wireless card is a Realtek RTL8822CE which is a PCIe 2230 size M.2 card.

Board has a UEFI and you can press a key at boot to get a boot device selection. Boot order is USB, internal factory storage, M.2 slot. To boot an OS on an added on SSD in the M.2 you have to do the key press and select it. I'm not personally sure what the factory internal storage is yet. Some sort of embedded flash/ssd type storage (disk on chip type setup maybe?). Also not sure if full UEFI bios is accessible yet either. Possible the mobo will have some additional headers not yet discovered as well but it is not an off the shelf board, the mobo is custom.
 
Well.... for all of the naysayers who said it would never actually materialize. They are now shipping and a few have already been delivered with thousands more expected to all be delivered within the next 10 days or so. There are already at least 2 videos on Youtube from backers who got theirs in. I do not have mine or a shipping notice yet but I imagine I will within a few days.

So far the only units that will be shipping are to the original backers. Retail and other units are expected early in the year according to Atari.

So far they are so new that there are immediate updates needed and from one users who already opened his fully up to take photos they are upgradeable. There are 2 SODIMM slots and it came with 2x4gb DDR4 2666 ram (docs state it uses 2400 and can be upgraded to 32GB using 2 16gb SODIMMS). The single M.2 slot is supposedly only for SATA SSD's according to the docs. No info from anyone attempting to use an NVMe SSD yet but I'm sure someone will be very very soon.


I never said that - I said you could buy the exact same system 18 months before it ships from these jokers. In was right about that!

You could also pick-up a quad-core Ryzen 3 2200g for even higher performance for a tiny increase in price.

This $300 "living-room PC in a gimmicky box, with soldered-in dual-core processor " was never a great value. The constant delays just made it completely pointless!
 
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Build your own Mame system with all the ROMs you can find. Will be much more fun to play. Oh yeah... that's illegal but nobody is selling them, so who cares. Some times those games have even been totally lost because the ROM was on a RAM powered with a battery until it lasts (kind of protection or super-cheap saving), and the company owning the software disappeared or eventually lost the data.
Not completely illegal, you can find whole MAME reference ROM sets on Archive.org.


Anyway, its probably just better to buy a SBC or use old computer parts to make these types of emulation machines. I bought the Playstation Classic and was sorely disappointed. Its a neat design and the game selection was decent, but half of the ROMS (Yes ROMS, Sony used ROMS to emulate the games on the PS Classic) were the EU PAL versions which ran at 50hz. However there is a button combination that you could put in to change the ROM to run in NTSC 60hz standard. I ended up just modding it and throwing my own games on it in the end. Afterwards I made my own Playstation 1 Classic System using the original case with an Odriod N2+

Speaking of, you're better off using an Odriod N2+ and putting Batocera on it. You can get them at Ameridroid for $70 bucks.

Hopefully, Atari won't ship this one with the PAL versions.
 
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Just google "virtual atari"

You can play atari games in a browser on this website.

A couple of days back, I had played Space Invaders & Berzerk games.

The main benefit of a console is the bundled controllers, which in case of the VCS, seems to be very costly
 
1608089969692.png

Indy has the right idea here.
 
Couple of updates...
Got my shipping notice this morning (just UPS label created so far).
Quite a number of people already have theirs now. Including a couple of scalpers putting them on eBay. :rolleyes:
Atari made an invite only Discord channel for VCS Founders. Has a good number of sub channels for developers, general, suggestions, documentation edits, etc. Pretty active in there. I've already been responsible for changes to the documentation on upgrading the hardware myself.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason on the shipping order. Seems that the fulfillment center that they are using to the get the backers units out (Rush Order Inc) is shipping them in some unknown order. Definitely is not by backer #. Maybe by region but I do not think even that is the case as some overseas buyers have also already received theirs. The 6,000 collector edition units have a certificate with them. One that will certainly be curious are who ends up with a few key serial numbers like 10 and under, 2020, 2600..... and if they keep them sealed for potential future value appreciation or tear in a go for it.

Also enjoyed seeing some bits silkscreened on the board... nice touch. :)

VCS800SS.jpg
 
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Couple of updates...
Got my shipping notice this morning (just UPS label created so far).
Quite a number of people already have theirs now. Including a couple of scalpers putting them on eBay. :rolleyes:
Atari made an invite only Discord channel for VCS Founders. Has a good number of sub channels for developers, general, suggestions, documentation edits, etc. Pretty active in there. I've already been responsible for changes to the documentation on upgrading the hardware myself.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason on the shipping order. Seems that the fulfillment center that they are using to the get the backers units out (Rush Order Inc) is shipping them in some unknown order. Definitely is not by backer #. Maybe by region but I do not think even that is the case as some overseas buyers have also already received theirs. The 6,000 collector edition units have a certificate with them. One that will certainly be curious are who ends up with a few key serial numbers like 10 and under, 2020, 2600..... and if they keep them sealed for potential future value appreciation or tear in a go for it.

Also enjoyed seeing some bits silkscreened on the board... nice touch. :)

View attachment 310350
That silkscreen is a nice touch! With all the blah blah blah same old same old, those little details tend to stand out in a crowded field. Looking forward to some good reviews of the hardware.
 
That silkscreen is a nice touch! With all the blah blah blah same old same old, those little details tend to stand out in a crowded field. Looking forward to some good reviews of the hardware.

Yes it does. Shows they really care about the project they're putting out.
 
I got mine in on Christmas Eve. I'll try to take a couple of pics and update this when I get a chance. A few things....

In reading on the Discord channel Atari pretty much created that invite only channel to get input from the backers. Basically the backers are beta testing the platform to help deal with bugs, documentation updates, etc that will be taken care of prior to the full public release sometime in the spring. I've already personally affected a couple of minor changes in the documents for upgrading the ram and adding an SSD to one (I have not yet done this on my own yet).
The "store" selection is very limited as of yet. More is being added almost daily though but there is still not a lot there just yet.
There are some bugs but software and firmware updates will resolve them. Small things like Canadians who try to purchase a game are unable to enter letters in the zip code field. Emailed receipts for games purchased have generic info - your address, etc are not showing up. The purchase does work though.
There was already an immediate OS update followed by a UEFI/BIOS update. Went fine for me but others have run into issues which bricks their console. That is recoverable though. Atari provided a download of the entire OS image which can be written to a USB stick and used to recover the system. Apparently at least one user has already taken that extracted image and has it running on a Lenovo laptop. lol
They have stated that there will likely be a lot of updates over the next couple of months as bugs are ironed out.

On mine - I scored a pretty low number on the collectors edition. #377 of 6000. :)
Feels nice and solid. I'm not really much of a gamer so I cannot really compare the feel or quality of the controllers to others like an Xbox one. They do seem pretty nice though. The joystick is slick and you can rotate the handle for a paddle style capability. I have not really had a chance to mess with it much though. Played Centipede, Pong, Breakout, Lunar Lander for a couple of minutes each is all. Also did the updates (including one for the modern controllers - I got two joysticks and two modern controllers with mine), installed a few more apps like Youtube and Antstream. Youtube is basically a browser session of the web based Youtube so I was not really able to do anything with a controller. Apparently you will need a keyboard/mouse for that. Its already been suggested that they need to make some of the streaming apps an actual "app" that is specifically for streaming instead of just launching a Chrome instance with the webpage.
I suggested they need to produce an Atari remote control as well. A lot of owners will want to increase the wife acceptance factor and making the streaming capability work more like a Roku or other dedicated video streaming device with a simple remote that can also control TV power and volume would be a big plus as it coudl then be considered a nice replacement for something like a Roku with a lot of extra capabilities when desired.
 
What will be the difference between the collector's edition and the upcoming retail version?
 
I'm not really much of a gamer so I cannot really compare the feel or quality of the controllers to others like an Xbox one. They do seem pretty nice though. The joystick is slick and you can rotate the handle for a paddle style capability.

The original controllers used to break frequently for me due to the abuse they had to put up with !!!
 
What will be the difference between the collector's edition and the upcoming retail version?
Correct - what kamikazi said. They offered 6000 collectors editions with a real teak wood front panel which include a certificate of authenticity and are individually numbered. In the original backers campaign you could also opt for a onyx black plastic face.
On the retail side (still in pre-order) you can choose a real black walnut wood face, onyx black plastic face, or a plastic gold carbon fiber face.
 
I like the upgradeability, LOVE the industrial design (srsly at least 9/10 for me), appreciate the effort that went into making this a real product- unfortunately my interest is all lost at the CPU/iGPU spec :arghh:
if they were to make a successor with the same exact design but something like a Ryzen 4600U/5600U or i5 1135G7 inside, I'd recommend it to everyone I know if the price was =<500$
"hay k8 I want a PC that can play Civ and ESO and indie Steam games and stuff"
"get an Atari"
"like... Atari Atari?"
"yah, they got one that runs Windows games now and it's cute and compact"

i hope the clearly-talented designers of this can appreciate that the cachet of the Atari name has value beyond retrogaming... impressive engineering went into this (lookit those lines! those vents! that awesome Xbox-type controller with the Atari logo on it!) and IMO it deserves to run more than 40 year old games. Atari could have made just another ARM-based retroconsole but they chose the bold route of making a full x86-64 SFF entertainment PC and I think that concept deserves to be fully realized.

anyways that's my latest sleep-deprived rant... been following the VCS for awhile and I have feelings and opinions
 
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More board art..... these shots are of the board in mine. I also went ahead and pulled the HSF off and will put it back on with some better thermal paste. A couple of notes. It came with 2 4GB sticks of Kingston Ram that is DDR4 2666 which I assume was cheaper than 2400 which is all the processor/chipset supports for speed. That or maybe they made a deal with Kingston to provide the ram and the on board eMMC. The 32GB on board eMMC is Kingston part #emmc32g-ta29.

Anyways a couple of full board shots starting with the backside. Not terribly interesting or much to look at. Obviously the two SODIMM slots and the run of the mill CR2032 battery are on the back. Of note - a tiny key graphic (that would be hidden when a dimm is installed) by the dimm slots, a Pacman and Ghost graphics.
IMG_3603a.jpg


The front of the board is far more interesting. We see some additional graphics that were not seen before in my earlier posts. Cropped images of the various art is at the end... The board is apparently made by Askpcb. Of note is of course the graphics including the large one normally hidden by the heatsink. My guess is the letters around the circle are peoples initials. Also of note are 3 through hole 3 pin headers (J41, J43, & J59) - possibly JTAG/ TTL serial/serial headers?
IMG_3590a.jpg


And finally the various board art all together.
BoredArt.jpg
 
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