Atari CEO Fred Chesnais told GamesBeat in an exclusive interview that his fabled video game company is working on a new game console.
In doing so, the New York company might be cashing in on the popularity of retro games and Nintendo’sNES Classic Edition, which turned out to be surprisingly popular for providing a method to easily play old games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda in HD on a TV.
[…]
Chesnais declined to describe a lot of details about the console. But he said it is based on PC technology. He said Atari is still working on the design and will reveal it at a later date.
It seems extremely unlikely that this will be a console in the Xbox, Playstation, or Switch sense, but if it’s based on PC technology, it won’t be some rebranded Android tablet either. I wasn’t an Atari kid when I was young – PC and Nintendo all the way – so I have no sense of nostalgia for the company, but I’m still intrigued.
If it’s based on PC tech, it won’t be an emulator like the NES Classic or similar emulations of old consoles. None of those are PC tech. Most arcade systems and both top consoles out right now are all PC tech, so Atari is probably looking at trying to steal the low-end market from Sony and MS.
Why do you say that? There are hundred of emulators that run on PC hardware.
Yes, but commercial emulation devices are ALL invariably some ultra-cheap ARM SoC device, not PCs. Why? You can make 1000 ARM SoC emulators for the price of a single PC emulator. The only PC-based emulation systems I’ve seen for sale were hand-made MAME cabinets for people who want to play a bunch of old arcade games and have more money than sense.
Edited 2017-06-21 22:46 UTC
If it is PC based, then it is already on the level of Xbone and PS4. Now if it will compete with them… or even be as powerful, only time will tell. Software support is the key challenge.
I’m thinking they might make it a generation back from the APUs used in the PS4/XBone to make it super-cheap… something along the lines of the Switch (the power of, not the chipset of). Then they’ll remake all their old classic IP as 3D games to try and draw in the suckers.
Hmm, I was thinking something like the Intel NUC.
Can’t compute with an AMD APU of any generation, be it (computing) power, energy consumption, or value. Not to mention that AMD is VERY willing to work with people on exactly what goes into “your” APU.
I do not understand your statement. What’s the problem with AMD? From experience, they are delivering. And what would need the new Atari box to run? I don’t think they plan to be listed on top500 with their stuff, none on the legacy Atari hardware ever did, not even the Jaguar, first 64 bits gaming console.
sed ‘|compute|compete|’
AMD APUs outperform Intel in pretty much every area except raw CPU performance. The iGPU between the two really don’t compare.
I/O around the APU, though, is better on the Intel side . That may change with the new Zen-based APUs coming this fall.
But on the other hand, if you look at the graphic needs of Atari games none of the old ones will need more than a fraction of the GPU power of the AMDs.
And if they are smart as Nintendo they can deliver games that people want to play without needing the latest and greatest GPU to power the display.
Uh, yes. That SHOULD have been compete, not compute. I have no friggin idea how that happened.
If I were to think hard about it, I would say they probably only had the best tech during the rollout of the 2600 and their 8bit line. The ST was better than the Mac which came out right before it, but it arguably was surpassed by the Amiga right afterward.
The Falcon was a bit better than the A1200, but due to the rush and trying to make it cheaper, but Atari killed it off before the Microbox /Falcon 040 could be released to compete with the A4000. The Jaguar is some great hardware that is terribly under utilized in most of the games that had been released for it. So truth be told, Atari hasn’t been really innovative since Nolan Bushnell left, and it went over to the Tramiels / Midway.
There is the original era, pre 83s’, that is the original Bushnell’ Atari (Pong, VCS, …) and Atari Games (Tengen) ruled under Time Warner once they bought them. Good licenses that entertained kids’ from the 70s’.
Then there was the post 83s’ era ruled under Tramiel that was mostly about computers (ST, TT, Portfolio, Falcon). Pretty decent 68k technology sold at a fairly decent price. But that stalled for too long.
Finally there is the post 96s’ era when Atari went bankrupt after trying to come back to video games, sold its lasting assets to JTS, then Hasbro, then Infogrames, then whoever it can be.
The two former eras are the most interesting, the later is bullshit. Only trying to surf on nostalgia and past fame. Forget about Atari, it’s now no more than overpaid executives running an empty shell but a few IPs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari#Infogrames.2FAtari_SA_.282001-pr…
Bold move that doesn’t sounds quite as fun as Atari was before.
Yeah, I grew up in the old-school Warner/Tramiel eras. My first game console was a 5200. My family’s first computer was an Atari 400, then an 800. My parents bought ST’s and got me my own 130XE and eventually a Lynx to scratch my handheld itch.
I really enjoyed their 8-bit computers (the 5200 was just a crippled 400) and the ST line. The 8-bits were ahead of their time in several ways and they never capitalized on the platforms strong points. The ST’s IMHO were a better Mac than the early Macs but stagnated before successors were brought to the table.
Putting all their eggs in the Jaguar basket was suicidal IMHO. Had the TT and Falcon hit the market sooner, they might have been contenders during the 90’s. We switched to Macs in ’92ish when it was clear the Atari computers were going to be a dead-end in the future.
My first computer was an Atari 400, but I went from there to an Amiga 500. The Amiga was the true successor to the Atari 8-bit line, but CBM managed to buy it out from under Atari… and then proceeded to squander away their tremendous lead over every other computer out.
What the world really needs is a retro Colecovision console like the NES Classic Edition.
Nah, I’d rather have a retro Pong machine.
I have one of those at home. Unfortunately, it doesn’t power on anymore. Tried hacking it awhile back, but couldn’t get it to work.
This was my first introduction to “video gaming”, plugged into my grandma’s “huge” 21″ colour TV. It’s one of the later variants that includes a game selector switch for tennis (aka normal pong), racketball (both players on one side of screen bouncing ball off the other side), and something else I can’t remember.
Had a lot of fun on that system back in the 80s.
You mean like the ColecoVision Flashback: https://www.amazon.com/ColecoVision-AtGames-Flashback-Classic-Game-E…
I had no idea that existed, but from looking at the reviews, it seems the actual product isn’t nearly as good as the one in my mind would be.
Colecovision Flashback came out last year, from the same company that releases the Atari Flashback systems as well as the Sega Genesis with both built-in games and a cartridge slot.
They also did one for Intellivision. .
they are asking for developers to make new games, so I don’t think this is going to be some retro emulator type device.
Remember the Ouya? It gave people exactly what it promised and people hated it for that.
People get so easily carried away by hype, and this is no exception. But no matter what they will bring forward, it will be not nearly as good as the competiton. Regardless if it’s a Xbox/PS “killer”, a Steam machine, a PC in disguise, a dedicated emulator or a Ouya ripoff.
It. Will. Suck. People will go:
– This is no fun!
– But this is what we said we would make.
– I know, but I didn’t know back then that I don’t want this.
Edited 2017-06-22 07:55 UTC
At least you could hack the Atari Flashback 2 to run original VCS cartridges :
http://portablesofdoom.org/?p=244
http://www.atarimuseum.com/fb2hacks/page1.htm
Wondering what they would sell as PC, since the only few PC Atari ever made, while pretty decent at their time, were never to gaming purposes :
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/pccomputers/ataripcs.html
After all PC is quite a broad naming for a computer in general, not always x86 based.
It is clean from the beginning that these platforms suck. It is only the marketing and magazines that put the hype behind these, because hype=clicks=revenue
Pretty much the Ouya and companies like YoYo Games failed to empower nascent game creators. The only people left were those just technical enough to be wannabe Android and Steam market asset flippers.
I suspect the new Atari will try to cherry pick AAA game companies who don’t want to risk investing in a 3 way war.
That being said Atari has responded to developer inquires so far. We’ll see.
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Edited 2017-06-22 12:55 UTC
What year is this?
The maker computer is the market I would like to see this device target. I really like the pocket C.H.I.P ( https://getchip.com/ ), and think there is a lot of general buzz in the SBC arena – RPI, ASUS TinkerBoard, etc. I have multiple devices and I love putting them with small LCD’s and making mini desktops and laptops. This could be a good time for a mini Atari computer with classic games, easy programming and simple expandability.
Or they could just release another “it plays classic Atari games” and sell it for $19.99 at COSTCO.