I don't think the person that wrote this ad copy was alive when the original, fragile-as-glass 2600 joysticks were in circulation, or maybe they were and were able to slip this joke into the product description unnoticed.
I could also see that the electrical signal from the metal dome button probably wasn’t very clean/reliable, however I don’t think most people noticed that in the same way they would today.
It provided a safe way to learn about design and manufacturing techniques during disassembly and hypothesis testing re: how does it work?
It provided lessons in materials science and chemistry: "On TV, the Superglue held that construction guy in midair attached only by a small dot of glue between his hardhat and the steel girder above him. Why won't it hold the plastic ring together? Why is duct tape somewhat better if you don't mind frequent reapplication?"
Engineering: "The joystick-ring-switch mechanism is something like the levers we have to calculate mechanical advantage on at school. If so, there is a comparatively huge moment on the tip of the joystick compared to the plastic ring."
There were also some global macroeconomic principles in there that we were too naive to appreciate, but in our defense, most of our parents didn't appreciate the change that was coming either.
That is my definition of fragile.
Input lag is probably the biggest issue, but you can get very low-latency screens nowadays! None of them are actually 0ms, but neither were CRTs unless you're measuring only the top of the screen and not the bottom.
Just looking at those pictures I got a faint whiff of wood and warm plastic from 40+ years ago.
I don't see the newer generation getting suddenly attracted by the primitive graphics. Only the nostalgic, hardcore retro gamers do really care about that. And these are the kind of people who want the exact real experience, which mean using a CRT TV/monitor and the real machine. Only concession they sometimes do is using a cartdridge with sdcard support.
And it is not like those old Ataris are rare and difficult to find which would justify the existence of alternatives. I see a few ones available for around ~50€ in the local market, less than half the price of that thing.
That way, to my uneducated mind, the monitor itself would be handling the CRT shader effects and could accept any input, including real 80s/90s/00s devices.
But it’s quite likely that I’m underestimating what it would take to have a dedicated input processor in a display that works as well as the GPU shaders do, and underestimating the minimum amount of input lag required.
The old Atari consoles are common, but it's hit and miss as to whether they work well or at all, particularly the power supply and also the controllers. It's reasonable to spend a few bucks on some modern hardware if you want. I probably wouldn't play Atari games quite enough to justify it myself.
I think the 2600+ hits a sweet spot for nostalgic GenX-ers who don't want the hassle of making a 50+ yr-old console working with modern TVs. Plus, at $129, it's actually cheaper than buying a used console + converters.
Featuring a Rockchip 3128 SOC microprocessor with 256MB DDR3 RAM and 256MB eMMC fixed internal storage. Wired CX40+ Joystick with serial port connector.
Thing is Atari has been through several bankrupcies and name changes, and I think currently they are just expliting IP and licenses, including failed business like hotels, NFT tokens based games... so I'm not expecting anything great.
There are a few other brands that have had some success along the same lines.
Basically that'd turn it into a really big RP2040 ;)
and they include one "10 in 1" cart already. Expect it wont be long before someone has a Pi or Arduino shim to feed this thing any ROM one likes, assuming theres not already some direct facility for it to have an SD card or something.
I suspect there's few people who own many original Atari 2600 or 7800 carts that really want to use them like this: surely that'll degrade their antique value? Its like "dont play with the beanie babies"... And emulation will be available with all sorts of extra features as well as fewer drawbacks.
I get why a curious engineer would do this, but there are already so many devices we have laying around that can already hook into the TV and play atari (and other) games...
I suspect there's few people who own many original Atari 2600 or 7800 carts that really want to use them like this: surely that'll degrade their antique value?
History shows that if this takes off, it'll increase demand for carts and raise prices. Of course, prices on these carts aren't that high to begin with. There's a ton of them laying around, so the supply might be able to absorb the demand...
True collectors pieces might be something CIB, and yeah, you wouldn't want to crack those open, but even some games like Galaga are only going for $20 CIB...
Well sure... but that defeats the entire purpose. Of course you could just run an emulator and not even need the hardware. The point is that people enjoy collecting old cartridges. Hence why used N64s now sell for $200.
Personally I've found 2600 carts to be pretty durable. Almost all of the carts I bought new still work, and I still use them frequently!
http://8bitworkshop.com/v3.1.0/?=&platform=vcs&file=examples...
https://archive.org/details/StellaProgrammersGuide
There is also batari basic, not sure how much more accessible or easy they could make it. The first link cartridges should work in 2600+
As far as the company proper goes, the original Atari Inc from 1972 was broken up by Warner into two parts in 1984. The consumer division became Atari Corp, while the coin op division became Atari Games.
Atari Games was partially owned by Warner/Namco for a while, then JTS, Hasbro, was at Midway Games for a while, but now is back at Time Warner / Warner Bros. Games.
Atari Corp ended up at Infrogrames (IESA) in 2001ish. They bough up all public shares and took the company private in 2008. They then renamed IESA to Atari SA to better represent the brand. So IESA doesn't really exist anymore. It's all Atari SA now.
Good news is that since 2020/2021 Atari SA seems pretty focused on restoring the brand. For a long time they didn't release hardware and simply regurgitated/licensed old titles. But recently they've released new hardware/software again. Their focus seems to be around being a "retro gaming" company, old style gameplay on newer hardware. For example, there's this [1] and this [2]
Personally I'm excited that there seems to be an attempt to make Atari a "product company" again. They seem the most focused they've been since Jaguar. Who knows if it will pay off, but at least they're swinging.
[1] https://atari.com/products/mr-run-and-jump [2] https://atari.com/products/mr-run-and-jump-2600
https://atari-investisseurs.fr/en/about-atari/ is less clear though
$60 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Classic_Edition
$80 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_Classic_Edition
It's a shame, because it'd not have been too difficult to get there.
Like the Atari FlashBack 2, which reimplemented the original hardware design as an SoC and was designed to be modded with a cartridge port?
It's pretty amazing what they could do with a one megahertz processor, four kilobytes of ROM (in the cartridge), and 128 bytes of RAM.
2. Click
3. This product is only available for shipping in the United States.
Why bother with (1)?!?!?!?!
I have a couple of Atari consoles and a bunch of games that I bought on a whim a few years back, but connecting them to my current TV is no longer possible. This would solve that issue with the HDMI connection.
Website says "joystick with serial port connector". Do they mean the original DE-9 connector, or is this something different?
Do I actually want to play these ten really basic games today? Maybe for five minutes
Is it worth $120? Nope
What... no E.T.? Off to my local New Mexico landfill I guess.