After a long period of development, Atari announced the pre-sale of its new “Retro console”, the Atari VCS, learn more details now:
Atari announced yesterday (Wednesday, May 30, 2018) the pre-sale availability of its Linux-based console, the so-called “Atari VCS” has been financed through IndieGOGO, raising so far more than 1.5 million of dollars. According to the information, the company’s console carries a modified version of Ubuntu (most likely the 16.04 LTS), at least currently, as the launch of the final version of the console will be only in 2019, most likely the upgrade to the base 18.04 LTS will occur.
Looking at the hardware we have a curious combination: AMD + Linux.
The console will load an A10 Bristol Ridge APU with Radeon R7x graphics chip, with version with up to 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 32GB eMMC storage, also supporting SD cards and external devices such as SSDs or HDs. In addition, in terms of peripherals, it will be possible to connect devices via bluetooth and USB, such as joysticks, mice, keyboards and webcam. Those who wish can also buy the classic Atari joysticks or buy a modern version, both sold separately for 30 and 50 dollars each, respectively.
The console will bring more than 100 classic Atari games uploaded to the internal library, but players will also be able to buy more titles through the ‘Atari VCS Store’, another speculation that is being made is a partnership with Valve and GOG, both companies that have games for Linux in their catalog to further expand the console’s native game library.
Another interesting factor of this Atari console is that users will be able to customize it however they want, installing other operating systems on it, there is also a rumor that the new sizes of Atari games will be exclusive to Linux. The console will be sold in different editions, with boxes with and without controls with a value starting at around $ 200.
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