When I was growing up in Staten Island, NY for one Christmas back in the early 70’s we had got an Atari for Christmas. From that point going forward I was exposed to gaming in a new light as I could bring not only arcade classics home but, new experiences as well. I can remember sitting in front of the television for hours on end and loving the experience. After the Atari was released we had other consoles following in their footsteps however, if it wasn’t for the Atari we would not have gotten them.
Now fast forward to 2018 where the folks that hold the Atari license have put something online called the Atari VCS.
And it is a scam. And I am going to tell you why. These are not opinions here. These are facts.
First, let’s get to the point where this crowdfunding is located for the Atari VCS and that is IndieGogo. And why there instead of Kickstarter? Simply put you need to have NOTHING to release a game through this crowdfunding platform. To me this is a gigantic error that needs to be rectified otherwise people are going to be separated from their hard earned money.
Next let’s go with the specs. We don’t have any. The system was in development for god knows how many years. So shouldn’t we have something by now? The only thing we have had in the videos and such are mockups and the way that things COULD look. In fact during an interview for the Register which is a UK tech blog a reporter asked questions about this console. And they interviewed the Chief Operations Officer Michael Artz about this console. And they had NO INFORMATION on it! Now if this guy is the head of Atari shouldn’t he know something about a new console that is coming out?
And last let us go with how they have reacted to the press. The backlash they have given people on YouTube as well as the people from the Register will make you shake your head. They have called the people on YouTube fake news and that they are only doing this for the money/clicks. However, when they showed the Atari VCS running Tempest 4000 the developer of the game had NO idea that it was going to be developed for this system! This is insane.
And yet this IndieGoGo campaign is nearing the 3 million dollar mark!
However, this isn’t the first product that this Atari has done and tried to rip off or have ripped off gamers in the past. First they tried to rebrand cheap Chinese tablets as Atari either as handhelds, tablets or even phones and none of those made it to market. And this took place in 2014! Also, they partnered with a smart watch company called Game Band to get that out into the public space as their brand was featured on this platform. They even stated that they are working with the project and said “Atari is no longer associated with Game Band as the license has been revoked.” And this was done through a FACEBOOK POST!
So if this hasn’t made you see the light on this project you need to wake up and smell the coffee. This Atari is not the one from the 70’s which cared about vision, innovation and the gamers by bringing an innovative experience. No. The only thing that these people want is your money. If you want to see a complete history of this company go watch this documentary here by Stop Drop and Retro. You will see the truth behind the lies of this company.
So what if you wanted to start playing Atari games on your television now? Outside of the plug and play/handheld versions of the Atari Flashbacks you can invest some money in the DreamCade Replay. You can play Atari games as well as other retro systems, it works off of a Windows 10 operating system and it cost less than the base Atari VCS! For more information head over to http://dreamcade.com/ and get ready to experience your childhood once more.
