After a few setback themed emails, the Atari VCS team finally released a positive update on the project.
Hardware Pre-Production
Thankfully, the Atari VCS has entered Pre-Production. A lot of the update focuses on the Atari team finalizing the plastic enclosure for the console. While the plastic enclosure update is exciting, I believe this update was the first time we saw a near finalized version of the main circuit board for the console.
It has been a while since I first backed the Atari VCS project. However, I don’t remember reading any concrete details about what exactly would be upgradable when the project first launched on Indiegogo. This update did mention that the console’s RAM would be expandable thanks to a pair of SODIMM DDR4 slots. For the VCS’console’s main hard drive, the console will be using a standard M.2 SATA SSD drive that can be easily upgraded.
This information about upgrades is excellent, but I am a little wary, especially when it comes to the mentioned RAM slots. There are multiple photos of the circuit board showing the M.2 SATA connector, but not a single image of the RAM slots. This omission could have just been a mistake. Maybe the person photographing the circuit board was in a rush and forgot to photograph the RAM slots. It is essential to be completely transparent when it comes to the manufacturing process of any crowdfunded project. By doing so, you limit the amount of anxiety from your customers that the product they are receiving isn’t what they backed.
Software Worries
As with a lot of crowdfunded projects, I feel like the Atari VCS might struggle out of the gate due to software shortcomings. This update gave us the first photograph of the VCS booting into Linux. The image of Linux running is an excellent sign that the team will be able to deliver on their promise of dual-booting different operating systems.
However, the update did mention that the other pieces of software, including the dedicated Atari OS frontend, was still under development. The current status of the frontend isn’t a significant deal-breaker in my opinion. We are still a few months away from receiving the device, and software can be changed right up to the point of release thanks to Day-One Patches. However, I’m still a little cautious about how the final software will look when I turn on the machine for the first time
It is nice to know that at the very least, backers will receive a console that can run Linux and Windows. Plus, even if the Atari OS frontend never ships, I can easily see the open-source gaming community build something similar, and to be honest probably better, than what was promised from the campaign.
Overall I’m still pretty hopeful and positive about the Atari VCS meeting my expectations. I’m expecting that as we get closer to launch, we get more concrete updates on software. I’m hoping that we may even have some way to run a beta version of the Atari OS frontend on existing computers.