Hey everyone,
Has anyone heard anything on the Atari Box?
There have been some fairly interesting news about this little Linux machine. Albeit no specs yet.
They have teamed up with AMD for the SoC.
They are going to Indiegogo however so I am not sure how I feel about that. I am not sure if this is planned to be a pre-order kind of deal or a fund this console.
My main thought is just… why? Unless it ties in deeply with already existing services like Steam Link or something I don’t see much of a need to purchase a console that has 0 guarantee of any unique games/experiences.
So what you’re telling me that this won’t run Crysis? Jokes aside, I honestly see the appeal of this little thing. However, since they seem to be going after the indie/classics market, I think they won’t gain that much of an audience because of the Switch. I could be extremely wrong and the mass market will LOVE IT to death.
I just don’t see that happening and the price point itself is just, not that great. Why spend $250 on the Ataribox when you could spend $50 more on the Switch, PS4 Slim, or for an Xbox One?
I know this is a joke but recent AMD SoCs can run more demanding things than Crysis. Crysis ran well on a dual core and a quad core CPUs back in the day on an 8800 GT. So I would imagine that Crysis would run well on an SoC providing that it was ported properly. Crytek got Crysis 3 working on a Nvidia Sheild.
Again - I know that it was intended to be a joke.
I like retro gaming. Having a good time with the SNES classic mini and built up a RetroPie.
But up to 300 bucks for an emulator station? Guess not.
Shit, I didn’t know that at all. That’s really cool then. Thank you for telling me!!
Welcome 
@ArtTeitlebaum - While the Atari Box will have a built in emulator. It will also play newer games made in both Unity and Unreal.
my thoughts on the ataribox, based on everything i’ve seen, are dependent on the specs.
if it retails at 250 and it can’t run games the PS4 can, I really don’t see it getting traction. I’m not even a specs guy. I just think they should be making something that plays the games that will get people excited.
The linux thing is kinda secondary. If it has the specs, it’ll probably draw devs to port to linux.
straight up, if this can run the witcher 3, it’ll be a good product.
This feels to me like another Ouya, but with the Atari branding. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that the name Atari is going to bring enough of these home to make it worth their time and energy, unless it’s a small, limited run geared towards collectors.
If it runs Steam, however, then maybe it’ll have a shot. But at this point, Atari crowdfunding a box that has a marketplace that competes with Steam probably won’t be incredibly successful.
I hope I’m wrong, because the box itself looks beautiful, but it really does seem too niche to make an impact.
Well, I’m not big on Atari in particular, but I am a bit of a retro enthusiast from the GAF threads. Hmm… I can’t see anywhere that mentions if it will be cycle accurate emulation at least. It seems to have the horse power to at least attempt cycle accuracy, but I’m no programmer. I’ll go on a limb and say they probably won’t strive for it and just follow Nintendo’s example with their emulation boxes like the NES mini.
That price is a bit high for anything short of a steambox with atari emulators built in and perhaps a selection of games included as well.
The sun rises and sets, the tides wash in and recede, and Atari tries to stage yet another comeback.
But at least it’s not another Android box.
Problem is, we already have (lots of!) devices for playing these.
TBH I like the (faux) retro design of that box and Linux as an open platform looks like an interesting solution, but with that price tag entering an already crowded market, I have difficulty in seeing the appeal.
I for one welcome our Linux overlords 
I have to agree on this. I know that they have said in an email update that it will be able to play medium end games. I am guessing here that it will have specs similar to that of a PS4 or similar. I doubt that CDPR will port anythinbg to the atari box.
I feel the same way sadly :\
The aesthetics of the unit itself are nice, but I also don’t quite see this being anything other than another Ouya, as mentioned before. The $250 minimum price tag feels like the largest albatross here, being both outside the realm of impulse and in range of the Playstation 4.
I would love to be wrong, though.
I don’t really understand why it exists, worry that the tiny company making it has no idea what they are doing, and think a good number of people are going to end up feeling ripped off.
I missed the Ouya also and I’m glad someone is imagineering in this space again.
Love the aesthetics of the box, especially the wood grain version. May pick one up just for that.
Yeah, as long as the build quality is good, I also think that the design is pretty neat
I just don’t understand what or who this is for? I know Atari have said they’re going to release their own new games on it, but what does that even look like? Who at Atari is even going to develop it?
After SPEAKER HAT I just don’t have any faith that this Atari knows what they want to do
If it ends up being just a cool looking emulation box then that’s okay I guess, but I really, really don’t understand what it’s meant to be outside of that
There is nothing about the Atari Box that sells me on it. Atari has failed again and again in the recent history with game releases outside of their mobile version of Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic.
You know what would sell people on this? Things like Kodi and Emulation Station. Get other developers that have started to push out more Linux builds like SNK and Sega on board. Give us actual information other then “Trust us” because from where I stand Atari deserves no trust.
