The new Ataribox console priced and dated A lovely little Linux PC.

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...iced-and-dated

The Ataribox console will cost between $249-$299 (probably £999 thanks Brexit) and begin shipping late spring 2018.

Inside the petite PC - for it runs Linux with a custom interface - will be an AMD processor and Radeon graphics card, Atari said in a newsletter.

The Ataribox will be capable of doing more or less everything a Linux PC can do, including playing other games than the retro, pre-installed Atari lot. What those Atari games will be we don't know but apparently there will be "tons" of them, and we will hear more soon.

Atari took the opportunity to share more pictures of the, I must say, rather fetching thin curvy slab of a machine. What you see are pictures of the first prototypes, and the wood, incidentally, is wood, which is pleasing, woodn't you say?

As we've previously heard, the Ataribox will be available via an Indiegogo campaign this autumn, so "pretty soon", Atari said. Crowdfunding campaigns for hardware can be a good way to judge production amounts.

Or, in Atari's words: "We want you to have early access, grab special editions (and pricing) and to have you as active partners in the rollout of Ataribox. We want you to be part of the story."

Let's just hope the story has a happier ending than that of crowdfunded Android micro-console Ouya, which launched, flopped, ran into debt and then sold piecemeal to Razer

Serious question who is this for?

I have a super slight interest due to it running Linux and all. But really who is this for?

[grexly75]

Back in the 80's Atari were one of the first gaming consoles that a lot of people born in the 70's and 80's grew up on.. I remember thinking how cool it was to have an Atari 2600 and thought I was the bees knees having one.. The games by today's standards are really archaic but at the time that is all we had.. It wasn't till Nintendo and Sega came along did consoles become better graphics and game wise..

It will be pretty much a nostalgia trip for those of us that grew up during the early days of computer gaming..

[Deleted]

They aged even worse then NES Titles. Who wants to buy that? I also don't see a target audience for this. It is a niche inside a small niche at best.

[I Push Buttons]

Paying $300 for games that can literally run on a calculator seems silly to me.

[breadisfunny]

They aged even worse then NES Titles. Who wants to buy that? I also don't see a target audience for this. It is a niche inside a small niche at best.

people who don't give a shit about graphics and aren't graphics whores.

[DarkAmbient]

The most pointless console since the Ouya.

[Captain N]

This thing has to be doing more than just playing old 80s Atari Games -- they already have one of those at Target for $50.

http://tinyurl.com/y7nkab7y

[Edge-]

So...it's a Steambox without Steam but with some old Atari games instead?

Please be excited.

[Kallisto]

Blah this should have been more for Atari ST era games if they were going for anything. Not the era of games that severely damaged gaming in North America

[Jtbrig7390]

So...it's a Steambox without Steam but with some old Atari games instead?

Please be excited.

To be it sounds like there version of Steambox since it will be running Linux.

[Tackhisis]

What good can a Linux PC be, except running Apache?

[Bigbazz]

This is strange to me, Atari was king during an age when most of our parents were still young and when most games on the market were absolute turd, it really wasn't until the NES and Master System around the mid-late 1980s where the good stuff started to come and big strides in game development started happening. So what is this a late 1970s themed modern Linux PC with some ancient games?

I'm not sure who the market is, the good games from that era are few and far between and generally lived in the arcades.. And we've had 1970s-1980s classic arcade ports straight to PC since as far back as I can remember, this looks like it would be some niche mantlepiece item for some 50-60 year old gamers to relive some Nostalgia... A bit like the NES/SNES classic, only with a smaller audience.

[stellvia]

The price should be half that, and even then I doubt it would sell all that well. What a joke.

[VyersReaver]

It piqued my interest a bit, the specs are probably fair for the price and volume of the box, but come on, I'd rather buy Switch and have a screen on it as well.

[Deleted]

people who don't give a shit about graphics and aren't graphics whores.

Graphics are not the strong point of the Atari Games, since they are predating even the NES ones. But Story, Gameplay, Storytelling, or Immersion certainly are not a strong point of those games either. Not blaming them for the lack of that, since they are old (older than me), and the genre of video games is really a fast changing one, and there have been many radical changes and break-throughs in technology.

Is it all about nostalgia? Just a way to play those old Atari games on a new TV? Well, if that is good enough for you, I'm happy for you that you can get the Box when it is hitting the store . Really curios what you like about the games, mind sharing some details?

A bit like the NES/SNES classic, only with a smaller audience.

I don't even understand the NES Classic to be honest. Those Games really aged poorly. Most SNES games aged poorly, but there are some notable exceptions. I can get playing SMB on a nice big 50 inch TV in HD, it is a timeless classic. Or Donkey Kong Country, Zelda: A Link to the Past (aged like fine wine!), and many more. Can't say that for a single NES Game, but I guess that's just me being spoilt by growing up with the PS/GC/Xbox Generation, and taking Graphics for granted ;-)