Atari Flashbacks
In the last few years, before the NES Mini and the rumoured SNES Mini, there was the Atari Flashbacks. These were smaller consoles than their ancestors and they were preloaded with any number of games. Some of them had as many as 100 games. The price was pretty reasonable and they were a hit with the hardcore Atari crowd.
New Hardware?
So this week at E3, there was a tease for a brand new potential hardware with a 22 second trailer that did not tell us much. It had the traditional Atari wood panelling. You can see the teaser below.
Ataribox Trailer
As you can see it does not reveal a hell of a lot. However it seems that it has rejuvenated the Atari fanbase. They seem to be super excited about this new Atari hardware. What could it be? Will it be 100 % new? Will it have new games? We were able to get some information, but it is still pretty little.
According to VentureBeat the CEO of Atari, Fred Chesnais, confirmed that the rumours are true. They are working on something.
From Mr. Chesnais:
Chesnais declined to describe a lot of details about the console. But he said it is based on PC technology. He said Atari is still working on the design and will reveal it at a later date.
According to the article, Atari did go bankrupt in 2013 and the current CEO bought it out. He has apparently been turning in a small profit now and it looking to make Atari live up to its name. They are also focused on creating mobile games.
Bottomline
Allow me to be a little skeptical. A few years back we were teased with a Coleco Chameleon that had all this promise and ended up being a mirage and never materialized. I do have a little more faith in Atari, but I still cannot be excited with something that is a proof of concept.
I understand that it is awesome to hear and I am sure many Atari fans could possibly buy this but when Mr. Chesnais says, it is based on PC Technology. That is a pretty vague statement. That pretty much encompasses any console that ever existed. They were all considered mini computers at some point. Also, at first glance, it sounds like it will be an emulator machine. This is what all the Flashbacks and NES Mini's were.
I think that for it to be successful, it would have to be able to play old games but also be able to play homebrew games. There have been many people interested in creating more content for Atari. May be it is the start of a new beginning. I am just not keeping my hopes up cause I have been disappointed in the past.
What do you guys think? Do you think that this will eventually come out? Let me know below.
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