Why It's Important: The series of Nintendo's classic console remakes - and now, Atari's early success in pre-order - has demonstrated that nostalgia is a big deal. Whether or not the classic game company can keep its promise of a modern console with real appeal however remains to be seen.
The pre-orders for the Atari retro gaming console, the Atari VCS, were put online earlier today on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. The console, which starts at $ 199, seemed like a tough sell - all the more so that it is not expected to ship before the summer of 2019 but surprisingly enough, that is doing pretty well so far.
As of this writing, the Atari VCS campaign raised more than $ 1.75 million from nearly 6,700 donors. With a full month remaining and Atari having already broken its initial target of just $ 100,000, the future promises a promising future for fans of retro games.
Exactly what the Atari VCS is - and is not - is still a bit of a mystery. Atari said the machine would be able to play classic arcade games through the Atari Vault collection, but it will offer much more than just a walk in the memory.
Powered by an AMD Bristol Ridge and Radeon R7 graphics processor alongside 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, the machine will be able to push 4K HDR graphics at 60 frames per second to play "the latest titles Modern and independent PCs "a variety of developers. With Internet connectivity, it will also serve as a streaming decoder for the living room and a web browser.
Some have considered the Atari VCS as being a bit more than a vaporware and it's easy to see how they might get that impression. Even today, with the launch of preorders, we are still more than a year away from a product launch from a company whose renowned reputation goes back decades. Atari has announced several independent development partners as part of the launch of the campaign, but without some heavyweights or tantalizing exclusives, does that really mean much?
I hope I'm wrong but for the moment, color me skeptical. Your thoughts?
PS: The base model for $ 199 does not include a gamepay or a joystick - what's up?
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