Jolt Country

Coming to an online retailer near you in 2019, and bargain bins in 2021: The all new Atari VCS



A console running Linux that comes with Atari Vault pre-installed ($9.99 on Steam) for $199 (with no joysticks) or $299 with two joysticks.

Here's my quick take: http://www.robohara.com/?p=11318

Here's the Indiegogo page, with more specs: Atari VCS on Indiegogo

People just love crap, I guess.

What kind of Atari jotstick is THAT?

Of course it's the Atari Xbox Controller Copy Joystick.

AArdvark wrote: ↑Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:47 pm What kind of Atari jotstick is THAT?

There's the "retro inspired" joystick (to show people that this system has ties with the original, maaaaan), and there's the 4-button gamepad (to show gamers that it'll play more modern titles, and not scare developers away).

What happened to that updated Commodore machine that went nowhere? Will this suffer the same fate?

The C64MINI was released a month or two ago, if that's the one you're thinking of. It has 30 or 60 built in games, but most of them are ones that were big in the UK and not hits here in the US. It does have the ability to play external games, but it's a very clunky system (and only available in the UK so far).

The c64 sucked at games, why is anyone emulating it? Shit, it wasn't much better than the VIC-20 in that regard.

Casual Observer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:15 am The c64 sucked at games, why is anyone emulating it? Shit, it wasn't much better than the VIC-20 in that regard.

Nostalgia.

Casual Observer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:15 am The c64 sucked at games, why is anyone emulating it? Shit, it wasn't much better than the VIC-20 in that regard.

Alright Flack. You hold him and I'll punch him.

Jizaboz wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:06 pm

Casual Observer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:15 am The c64 sucked at games, why is anyone emulating it? Shit, it wasn't much better than the VIC-20 in that regard.

Alright Flack. You hold him and I'll punch him.

Got lots of nostalgia for old arcade games and game systems but I have no nostalgia for my early computers like my (what $400 in 80's cash) vic20 which shorted itself out or the c64 that wasn't much better. I'll say this too, the Apple IIe was a piece of shit. Only decent game on that was Autoduel. The IIe and early macs turned me off Apple forever and i couldn't be happier. Early PCs were awful all the way up to at least 486dx's. We got through it but looking back on it isn't pleasant.

You're really pushing that "C64 = Vic 20" thing. Your opinions are not widely shared here, that's all I'm going to say.

The IIe thing doesn't even deserve a response. So here ya go: That is an even worse opinion than the other one.

Not the mini, the Linux one with 2gigs of ram and the DVD drive on the side. I was on the fence about buying one and just never pulled the trigger. Probably because it wasn't as good as the PC I already had, just in a breadbox case

pinback wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:09 pm The IIe thing doesn't even deserve a response. So here ya go: That is an even worse opinion than the other one.

yeah, I remember fondly things like multiple bad disk controllers burning out drives, exclusive and expensive shops to get replacement drives. The thing cost like $1400 plus repairs of that much. I learned basic programming on those old things and digital system design for the 6502 chip was the only engineering class I enjoyed but for most things I'm glad not to have to deal with hardware issues like old days.

You just switched the subject. This isn't about how good the hardware was, this was about the gaming. Some of the games on the C64 and IIe (not the VIC fucking 20) were magnificent.

Jizaboz wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:06 pmAlright Flack. You hold him and I'll punch him.

It was such obvious trolling that I skipped right over it.

AArdvark wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 3:27 pm Not the mini, the Linux one with 2gigs of ram and the DVD drive on the side. I was on the fence about buying one and just never pulled the trigger. Probably because it wasn't as good as the PC I already had, just in a breadbox case

OH yeah, that one. I'm not sure that ever made it past the rendering stage.

There's another C64 out now -- the Ultimate 64. It's the old system (FPGA) with new hardware. It's a drop in replacement for an original motherboard that uses modern (USB) power supplies, has USB ports, and HDMI out. It also has the Ultimate 1541 built in, so it can play emulated D64 disk images, or games from a physical floppy drive. Assuming it works with the WiFi modem I currently have, it feels like the last Commodore system I would ever need.

Casual Observer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:15 am The c64 sucked at games, why is anyone emulating it? Shit, it wasn't much better than the VIC-20 in that regard.

The VIC-20 was trash. I had no nostalgia for it but man... as someone who really feels he sees the best in old computer systems, that thing just didn't have any magic in it.

I would say that if I had a gun to my head and had to pick the best system of the C64, Atari 800, Apple ][, IBM PC era, whatever wave that was, I'd say that the average game was best on the C64. I have a feeling that when a game was good, it felt best on the 800, but I don't have facts to support that. But yeah, I think I can say it was the Commodore that had the best stuff.

The C64 was the best selling computer of all time up until it was surpassed by the Raspberry Pi, half of which have C64 emulators running on them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that tens of millions of people aren't nostalgic for 40-column word processors.

Oh, and yeah -- the VIC-20 was and is garbage. It had 3.5k of RAM to work with.

Apparently I didn't appreciate the magic I had, thanks for the perspective Flack.