During E3 2017, Atari teased its return to producing video game hardware with a brief trailer for a mysterious product dubbed the Ataribox. Now, the company has offered up some more details on the project in an email blast distributed to fans who subscribe to a newsletter on the system’s official website.
The email offers up a slightly clearer view of the Ataribox than the quick cuts that we saw in the previous trailer. Its design is clearly inspired by the Atari 2600, but it’s been streamlined a little for 2017, and outfitted with a glowing Atari logo that will presumably be used as a power indicator.
It seems that there are currently two designs of the Ataribox being developed. One utilizes the classic wood-grain aesthetic of the 2600, while the other is predominantly black, with red highlights. While retro gamers will appreciate the throwback model, it makes sense that a more modern variant would be released, too.
The email doesn’t offer up too much information in terms of technical specifications, but there are some interesting hints at the scope of the project. There is confirmation that the system will feature four USB ports, a HDMI port, and an SD card slot.
The blurb notes that this array of ports suggests that the system will possess “modern internal specs” — although it falls short of detailing exactly what those might entail. However, it does state that the Ataribox will offer “current gaming content” alongside its library of classic titles.
A follow-up note that was issued to investors at the end of June 2017 has recently surfaced, according to Eurogamer.net, which indicates that the Ataribox will be a crowdfunded effort:
“To limit risk taking, this product will initially be launched within the framework of a crowdfunding campaign.”
The fact that the system features expandable storage options seems to confirm that games will be downloadable, rather than being drawn from a fixed library in the vein of Nintendo’s NES Classic. The reference to current content is intriguing, although it remains to be seen how powerful the Ataribox will be, as of course that dictates what kind of software it will be able to run.
We still don’t know too much about the Ataribox — and there are still some valid doubts about whether the project will ever progress beyond the conceptual stage. The team behind the console obviously has a lot of ambition, but there’s a long way to go before the hardware is ready for prime time.
Updated: Added information that the project will be crowdfunded.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.