Ah yes, Atari VCS, the delayed Linux-powered gaming box that was crowdfunded on IndieGoGo. It's still a thing and the team seem to think it's all going well.
In a new development update on the Atari VCS Medium account, the team posted a set of questions and answers from the COO Michael Arzt as to what's been happening recently. This follows on from the news back in October, where their system architect Rob Wyatt quit citing non-payment.
From the post they said they're currently going over the hardware to test "for functionality and reliability" and doing tweaks as needed, as then design and engineering teams recently went over to visit their partners in China who are building the actual Atari VCS units along with some photos:
Also detailed in the Q&A post is that they're developing the UI and store in the Unity game engine and they say it's "almost complete". Unity are apparently working closely with them on this, and they have "several studios" lined up ready for the Atari VCS launch. They're not saying who or what games though.
For streaming services like Amazon, Netflix and so on, it does sound like they will not have dedicated applications for them. Not yet anyway, they said for such service there will be the choice of viewing them through a web browser and that "the first big wave of apps isn’t likely to come before Q1".
When talking about the Atari OS, they confirmed yet again it's based on a "Linux foundation" with their integrated Atari VCS store and the Sandbox Mode will be available for installing and booting more traditional operating systems, like a standard Linux distribution (or Windows) so you could boot up Steam on it if you wanted.
IndieGoGo backers were supposed to be getting their units before the public release in December this year. That is now being delayed, although they claim "we are talking weeks here, not months, and the Indiegogo backers remain our top priority".
According to the post, they are on schedule for a full release in March 2020. Let's see what happens.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: ElectricPrism
The black label strip is out of alignment too far to the left.
Text alignment of each label looks like it was spaced out in Microsoft Word using spaces between labels instead of measured and aligned to the center of each port in Photoshop like any sane designer would do.
It seems like the labels are, more or less, centered correctly but the
strip as a whole is placed too far to the left.
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Quoting: ElectricPrismThe USB ports are blue completely ruining the aesthetic.I think usb3 is always blue.
Quoting: fleskYeah, why on earth did they choose Unity over something more lightweight, and with a more liberal license?
If they expect some kind of partnership it would actually make good sense. If they just choosing it because they think this is easier then it is a stupid choice and it is only because they do not know any better. I do not know which case it is, I would bet it is just a stupid choice just because this is what they know.
Last edited by lucinos on 30 November 2019 at 9:13 am UTC
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TheRiddick Nov 30, 2019
well that appears to be the back of the unit so maybe the front looks better, lol
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Quoting: lucinosQuoting: fleskYeah, why on earth did they choose Unity over something more lightweight, and with a more liberal license?
If they expect some kind of partnership it would actually make good sense. If they just choosing it because they think this is easier then it is a stupid choice and it is only because they do not know any better. I do not know which case it is, I would bet it is just a stupid choice just because this is what they know.
The article says that Unity has been working closely with them, so I hope that's the case, and that it works out well for them.
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Nevertheless Nov 30, 2019
Quoting: MohandevirQuoting: NeverthelessQuoting: MohandevirGoogle Stadia... Atari VCS... I still wonder if we'll ever see a Linux gaming system that starts with a "Bang! Nailed it!".
It's not impossible... Sony's Playstation is similar to a BSD platform... They did it.
They did it because they could legally own the underlying pre-existing operating system, and because it's relatively easy to support uniform hardware of dedicated vendors with drivers. It did not help people wanting to play games on their BSD boxes.
To support Desktop Linux means wanting to support open gaming on a wide variety of hardware and drivers.
Totally... Still, I'm wondering what would have happened if Valve decided to go all in in the Console market with a Steam Machine initiative like Microsoft's Xbox. I mean, with a dedicated Steam Machine store that's a subset of what you may find in the desktop client (100% Linux/Proton and controller supported titles only) and optimized for the Steam Machine (dedicated hardware built by Valve)... But the games you buy on the Steam Machines' store are then available and synced on any other desktop clients...
Well we'll never know, I guess...
Maybe Valve is sort of "all in" already. The question is what they want to achieve.
I think you have to look at the revenue side and the expenditure side. Someone who wants to market a closed console system like XBox, has to spend money to solve a manageable technical problem. The more defined the hardware and OS to be supported, the smaller the amount of money needed. Much more money is needed to get developers to support the console with games and to establish the platform on the market. In return, the owner of the platform earns an exclusive share on the software, while the hardware is often sold at a loss in the beginning.
Valve seems to pursue (or have to pursue) the exact opposite goal with its Linux initiative. An open system consisting of various hardware and OS variants, which even starts the (partly outdated) software of other platforms, sometimes even coming from other distribution platforms. It is the approach which needs the biggest technical effort, but has the advantage of lots of existing software. They get money for all they sell on the Steam shop and support the software they already sold. The Steam Machine plus Steam Controller could have been an attempt to standardize the hardware and the controller concept. This didn't work very well, baybe partly because the Steam Machines weren't nessessary to use the software.
I also see the VCS as a kind of in-between thing with a uniform controller concept for Atari retro software and the possibility for other more open uses, which probably will be very limited considering the performance of the hardware, and from which Atari won't earn anything or at least not much.
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Nevertheless Nov 30, 2019
Quoting: lucinosQuoting: NeverthelessTo support Desktop Linux means wanting to support open gaming on a wide variety of hardware and drivers.
This is not such a big problem as you make it sound. One should just say "64bit only and an open source vulkan implementation"
If games are working good in these terms then old hardware, who cares, and all other drivers should just get good as it does work on an open source driver there is no real handicap for every other modern enough hardware.
For lightweight games you want to run on older hardware just support OGL3.
If you want to support even older hardware then why not make it all the way and support DOS or even old 8bit computers?
Maybe limiting the scope of the executable software is not what Valve wants. Or did I understand you wrongly?
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Quoting: NeverthelessMaybe limiting the scope of the executable software is not what Valve wants. Or did I understand you wrongly?
Saying "this is the right way to do it" does not limit executable software. It changes nothing about what is executable or not, it only informs about the right way so they will have the best support.
Last edited by lucinos on 30 November 2019 at 10:59 am UTC
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Nevertheless Nov 30, 2019
Quoting: lucinosQuoting: NeverthelessMaybe limiting the scope of the executable software is not what Valve wants. Or did I understand you wrongly?
Saying "this is the right way to do it" does not limit executable software. It changes nothing about what is executable or not, it only informs about the right way so they will have the best support.
I did understand you wrongly! Well I think Valve do tell developers to best use Vulkan and multiplatform tools for their games, but they want to support as much of the other (and older) software too.
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Mohandevir Nov 30, 2019
Quoting: NeverthelessQuoting: MohandevirQuoting: NeverthelessQuoting: MohandevirGoogle Stadia... Atari VCS... I still wonder if we'll ever see a Linux gaming system that starts with a "Bang! Nailed it!".
It's not impossible... Sony's Playstation is similar to a BSD platform... They did it.
They did it because they could legally own the underlying pre-existing operating system, and because it's relatively easy to support uniform hardware of dedicated vendors with drivers. It did not help people wanting to play games on their BSD boxes.
To support Desktop Linux means wanting to support open gaming on a wide variety of hardware and drivers.
Totally... Still, I'm wondering what would have happened if Valve decided to go all in in the Console market with a Steam Machine initiative like Microsoft's Xbox. I mean, with a dedicated Steam Machine store that's a subset of what you may find in the desktop client (100% Linux/Proton and controller supported titles only) and optimized for the Steam Machine (dedicated hardware built by Valve)... But the games you buy on the Steam Machines' store are then available and synced on any other desktop clients...
Well we'll never know, I guess...
Maybe Valve is sort of "all in" already. The question is what they want to achieve.
I think you have to look at the revenue side and the expenditure side. Someone who wants to market a closed console system like XBox, has to spend money to solve a manageable technical problem. The more defined the hardware and OS to be supported, the smaller the amount of money needed. Much more money is needed to get developers to support the console with games and to establish the platform on the market. In return, the owner of the platform earns an exclusive share on the software, while the hardware is often sold at a loss in the beginning.
Valve seems to pursue (or have to pursue) the exact opposite goal with its Linux initiative. An open system consisting of various hardware and OS variants, which even starts the (partly outdated) software of other platforms, sometimes even coming from other distribution platforms. It is the approach which needs the biggest technical effort, but has the advantage of lots of existing software. They get money for all they sell on the Steam shop and support the software they already sold. The Steam Machine plus Steam Controller could have been an attempt to standardize the hardware and the controller concept. This didn't work very well, baybe partly because the Steam Machines weren't nessessary to use the software.
I also see the VCS as a kind of in-between thing with a uniform controller concept for Atari retro software and the possibility for other more open uses, which probably will be very limited considering the performance of the hardware, and from which Atari won't earn anything or at least not much.
You got my point. Thing is Valve tried a "middle" solution that resulted in a confusing offer... Was it to bring PC gamers to the console market, or console gamers to the PC market? They failed at both. Nobody knew who it was for.
I think it could have been possible to create a pure Linux based console (SteamOS, remember?), based on one or two sets of x64 PC hardware built by Valve (Just like the Atari VCS) and support the PC market as two separate offers, that would benefit both, software side (it's all open source afterall); one for the console gamers and one for the PC gamers. Yes, it requires more investments and that's what I would have liked to see. More investments also means more determination.
This said, don't get me wrong, Valve is doing awesome things for Linux on the desktop and I'm really thankful for that, but for the Steam Machine thing, they seem to have got it off the door, and never looked at it again. Like they knew, from the start, that it would fail. Just maintaining SteamOS looked like it became a burden, early on.
But I'm no insider and I don't want to underestimate the work of anyone. The guys who worked directly on the project have all my admiration (PLGriffais, Timothee Besset, JVert and others I can't remember)... It's just my impressions.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 30 November 2019 at 4:26 pm UTC
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slaapliedje Nov 30, 2019
Quoting: fleskIt's what all the cool kids use!Quoting: emphyUnity for the user interface and store :D
Yeah, why on earth did they choose Unity over something more lightweight, and with a more liberal license?
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