Atari VCS console is available to order from May 30 and will be released in spring 2019 2019
Atari has announced that pre-orders for the Atari VCS will be available starting May 30. The first deliveries of the console, which was previously known as the Ataribox, will start in the spring of 2019.
Pre-orders can only be placed through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Atari said. Interested parties can choose from a collector’s edition with a special wooden front, or a black variant with the name Atari VCS Onyx. The latter will temporarily be available to the first customers for $199. There will also be special packages that include both the classic joystick and a modern controller, but the controllers will also be available as standalone products. It is therefore possible that there are also variants of the Atari VCS without the controllers already included.
Atari has previously revealed the name of the console and the design of the controller, but then the company remained silent about the specifications, for example. The manufacturer repeats that AMD makes the custom processor and the Radeon GPU, and now says that there is support for 4k resolutions, HDR and 60fps gameplay. Furthermore, the amount of storage space can be expanded, dual-band WiFi is supported, as are Bluetooth 5.0 and USB 3.0. Atari will publish a full list of specifications on May 30.
The manufacturer has also lifted a corner of the veil about the games that can be played on the console. Atari gives users of the Atari VCS access to an archive of 100 classic games, such as Asteroids, Centipede, Breakout, Missile Command, Gravitar and Yars’ Revenge. Incidentally, Atari says that the console should not be seen as a ‘retro device’; at a later date, the manufacturer will also announce which modern titles interested parties can expect. Atari calls the VCS a “completely customizable entertainment experience” with not only games, but various media and streaming options.
Atari announced in 2017 that the device will run on Linux with a custom interface and that the console will cost $249 to $299, depending on version and amount of storage. The console’s design is based on the classic Atari 2600, which came out in the 1970s. The new name, Atari VCS, is a reference to the original name of that console and stands for video computer system.