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Latest Comments by emphy
Looks like Narita Boy from Studio Koba will now not be supported on Linux
30 March 2021 at 9:16 am UTC Likes: 14

Quote[…] we did what we could to do a Linux version. But, to do so we have had to bear a negative return on investment because of high costs of testing and QA compared to the low demand of Linux […]

So they got to profit from the extra media attention and support from linux users without wanting to spend on the obligation that got them into.

Even if they give a full refund to the linux backers that doesn't repay the benefits they received.

Atari VCS games really are just plain Linux desktop builds
2 January 2021 at 3:39 pm UTC

Quoting: Narvarth
Quoting: TheRiddickShame this couldn't sell for $99usd or something

I don't see how that would be possible. The processor alone costs about $100. Even a raspberry pi with a box, memory and storage would be more expensive...

The processor is an Embedded R1606G, a slower version of the athlon 3000g, that cost below $75 boxed at the time atari was negotiating their deals with amd. I suspect $50 for this embedded processor is nearer to the price they paid.

I agree with the sentiment, though. $100 would have been rather ambitious for the whole system.

Atari VCS has some game announcements, actually shipping soon
12 December 2020 at 11:23 pm UTC

Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: emphy
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: sarmad
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: M@GOidThey cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.
From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.
Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

Official specs say it's an Embedded R1606G from amd. That's roughly an athlon 3000g with inferior cpu and slightly faster clocked igpu (1200mhz vs 1100Mhz). That igpu is not going to come even close to that of the ps4.

The Lowspecgamer youtube channel has a few videos on the 3000g if you are curious about what sort of performance you can expect. It's quite a nice low budget part with surprising performance for the price, and I'd choose the 3000g's cpu part over the one in the ps4 any day - but graphics performance is definitely not at the ps4's level.

Sources:
https://shop.atarivcs.com/hardware-specs
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/11411
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-athlon-3000g
Ha, this reminds me of the conversation I was having with my brother yesterday about the video game generations.
Basically, if you look back through all of the PS versions, you can REALLY see the differsnce in the jump from PS1 era consoles (like the Saturn) and the jump to the PS2 / Dreamcast.
Then it gets fuzzy going from PS2 to PS3 as mostly you have higher resolutions, but more detailed textures, and better frame rate. And going from PS3 to PS4, there really doesn't seem to be that big of a difference at all until you get to the game that have come out in the last couple of years that really start to push the system.
Then nkw with the PS5, what do you get over the ps4? Higher resolution, better framerate and ray tracing... so probably for the next while you'll end up with the equivalent of the HDR ads you see on bluray movies and wonder why if they can show that nicer picture on your non-hdr picture, then why don't they all look that anyhow...
For me, the only cool thing about the PS5 would be load times and the potential with the new controller. Problem Sony and everyone else has always had, in the entire history of video games, is if you have a controller with special features, it will go unused outside of first party titles, or a very few random ones. Like hiw many games for the PS4 use the gyroscope? Or even the touchpad?
Sorry, went on a rant there... but really what it comes down to is specs don't mean a whole lot in the end as long as the games are fun! If the VCS doesn't float ykur boat? Don't buy one. Sony and Microsoft can sell their hardware at a loss, and make up for it easily with software sales / subscription fees. Atari SA cannot, but also tgey are bundling games with it, since when has that happened? It has been years since a console came with any game, without buying special bundles.

It was your exotic claim of PS4 level performance (hence justifying the high price) that pushed the conversation in the direction of the specs in the first place.

Atari VCS has some game announcements, actually shipping soon
12 December 2020 at 10:59 am UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: sarmad
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: M@GOidThey cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.
From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

So the price is probably about right actually. It is abkut as available to order as the PS5 is too... :p

Not accurate. The GPU is far from being on par with PS4, let alone PS4 Pro. If I remember correctly, the GPU is around half the performance of PS4, if not even less than that.
This is a machine designed for indie games so don't expect any graphics beyond what a Wii U can achieve, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is still a big market for indie games and they can compete against traditional consoles with price and availability of those indie games.
Did you miss that it got a huge upgrade from their original development board? Pretty sure the specs are out there for a newer one that was a decent amount better and not the weaker board you are thinking of.
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/atari-vcs-upgrade-launch-1203166492/#!

Official specs say it's an Embedded R1606G from amd. That's roughly an athlon 3000g with inferior cpu and slightly faster clocked igpu (1200mhz vs 1100Mhz). That igpu is not going to come even close to that of the ps4.

The Lowspecgamer youtube channel has a few videos on the 3000g if you are curious about what sort of performance you can expect. It's quite a nice low budget part with surprising performance for the price, and I'd choose the 3000g's cpu part over the one in the ps4 any day - but graphics performance is definitely not at the ps4's level.

Sources:
https://shop.atarivcs.com/hardware-specs
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/embedded/11411
https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-athlon-3000g

Atari VCS has some game announcements, actually shipping soon
11 December 2020 at 11:39 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: M@GOidThey cornered themselves badly with those prices. $390 bucks is PS5 money, and a XB Series S is $300.

They need a $150 price tag fast or this thing will be a collectors thing in a couple months.
From my understanding, the Atari VCS is somewhere spec wise between the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There is no way they could sell it for 150. PS4s are still selling for 300-400. (Okay, just checked Amazon, some of the bundles are 640!)

CPU is a fair improvement (per core) on the ps4(pro)'s, but the integrated gpu is not even close and even then likely to be strangled by memory bandwith and temperature restrictions. A $150 price point would have been reachable for any credible console manufacturer.

Get colourful with the new release of the open source lighting control OpenRGB
7 December 2020 at 10:58 pm UTC Likes: 1

From the openrgb page:
QuoteIf you have a project or product that is compatible with OpenRGB, you may use the above OpenRGB Compatible badge on your project/product page.

Is there any manufacturer that officially supports openrgb and/or displays the compatibility badge? Bonus points for one that is actively engaged in openrgb development.

Meet the Raspberry Pi 400, a complete setup inside a tiny keyboard
2 November 2020 at 3:55 pm UTC Likes: 2

Imo, the lack of space for an ssd (either sata or m.2, or even integrated like in the compute module) is a bit of a missed opportunity, especially for the advertised daily desktop use.

505 Games confirm that Indivisible is finished due to Lab Zero Games imploding
12 October 2020 at 12:47 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: robvv
Quoting: damarrinThat was my impression as well. The only problem if it's not updated at all is it's going to stop working sooner or later.

That's the case will nearly all games, though. However, Linux users do have a way of resurrecting older software!

Heh, I've set up a virtual machine with Ubuntu 8.04 with the sole purpose of running 4 of Grubby Games' games. Among those is Professor Fizzwizzle, a game I bought in 2005(!). I got tired of ubuntu's 32bit compatibility libraries breaking their sound support at every new release.

NVIDIA delays launch of GeForce RTX 3070 until end of October
5 October 2020 at 10:50 am UTC

Coincidentally, this will also give board partners an opportunity to test for instability like the one the 3080 shipped with.

Enjoy the classic Unreal Tournament on modern platforms with OldUnreal - new update out
23 September 2020 at 12:28 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuestUT is (mainly?) multiplayer, is it? The GOG page says it also has a single user mode. Any comment on the quality of that one?

Single player is the multi-player against bots.