News Atari VCS smashes crowdfunding goal

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Lining Infogrames' Atari's pockets, duh. (No, but seriously, aside from having outdated hardware and being too expensive, it's a neato Linux box in a small chassis. Quite fancy one myself, but I'm stony at the moment.)

 

But you can't run your Steam games on a Raspberry Pi, while you can run (some of) your Steam games on an Atari VCS. Err, the new one, not the original one.

 

You're going to love these, then...

 

Sounds like the author of that piece hasn't heard of WINE: I often play games for which there's no native Linux port, and they appear to be native - it's only if you look at the shortcut that you'd notice it running through WINE.

I'm not saying that's what Atari was doing, but it'd be perfectly possible: there are plenty of classic games available on Steam and GOG.com that ship with a preconfigured DOSbox environment to work on modern systems, and WINE has the "bottles" feature to do the same thing and pull Windows-only games onto Linux. If you asked the people behind System Shock Classic, they'd tell you there's no Windows or Linux version either - but there it is in the Steam store nonetheless.

 

Gah - pet peeve time: a "PC" is a personal computer, and a Linux machine designed for personal use is a personal computer - which makes the Atari VCS Redux a PC. What the author meant to say, I assume, was "running on a Windows PC."

I can't find where Atari said "this is a native Linux build of the game" on a quick "atari vcs tempest 4000 native" Google search, but I can find where Giles Zorzin at Llamasoft confirms that 'there will be T4K on VCS... that IS GOING TO HAPPEN, it will be there' and '"There is going to be a working version of T4K made for the VCS", that's what I am saying, there's plenty of time to get things done properly,' which sounds like there isn't a native version yet but there will be. So, sounds like a bit of a storm in a teacup t'me.

 

That's what I haven't been able to find: what Atari actually said. Do you have a source that has the company's actual words, so I can see for myself whether they directly lied or not? All I can find is, as in your quote, "Atari confirmed," not a direct quote.

There's a world of difference between Atari saying "what you're seeing is definitely a native Linux build of Tempest 4000 running directly on the Atari VCS" (a lie) and answering "this will be native" with "yes" (the truth, according to Zorzin), and everything in-between.

EDIT: Having done some more digging, everyone appears to be basing the "OMGBBQ ATARI LIED" narrative on this video, which says in its description it's showing 'the PC version of Tempest 4000' - which, as with the article you quoted, would (inaccurately) mean the existing Windows build. It only goes on to say that it's being 'played with a modern controller on an Atari VCS test platform' - which, if we're assuming they're using Steam In-Home Streaming to run the game on a Windows PC and stream the resulting video to the Atari VCS, is also true.

Add to that the fact that Zorzin himself has described a communications breakdown and admitted that Llamasoft is working on a build of the game for the Atari VCS, and I can't see anywhere that Atari lied. Misled, possibly, as it looks like the game is running on the VCS, but the video description clears things up nicely (if you know to read "PC version" as "Windows PC version" - and even if you don't, it doesn't say anything about "native version," "Linux version," or "Atari VCS version.")

So, yeah. Storm in a teacup.

EDIT EDIT: If this 'ere quote, taken from the Reddit thread that appears to have triggered all the articles, is to be believed, the video description has been edited. It originally said: 'Get #AtariVCS at AtariVCS.com Still excited about seeing Tempest 4000 on the Atari VCS? How about some actual gameplay? We’ve snagged more behind the scenes test video! It's Tempest 4000, played with a modern controller on an Atari VCS test platform!'

That, I'll grant you, is much more misleading - but still doesn't say it's native (though "actual gameplay" comes very, very close.) The game is, indeed, Tempest 4000, and it is, indeed, being played on an Atari VCS test platform - just through Steam In-Home Streaming, not natively.

Another thing that the Reddit thread has cleared up: anyone (including the site you linked to) claiming Jeff Minter, founder of Llamasoft and creator of Tempest 4000, said anything about not working on a Linux/Atari VCS port of the game is wrong. The original poster took Zorzin's initial reaction on the Llamasoft forum (which he has now walked back, confirming they are working on an Atari VCS version of the game after all) and incorrectly attributed them to Minter.

 

Did you see my edit of 0802 this morning, which quotes the original video description you're quoting there and explains why it's misleading but not a lie?

I'm no fan of Infogratarimes, but people are going seriously out of their way to assume malice where I don't believe any was intended.

To recap:
Atari said Tempest 4000 will be a VCS title (it will.)
Atari showed footage of Tempest 4000 being "played with a modern controller on an Atari VCS test platform" (it was - not natively, but it was).

Bad communication? Sure. Misleading, either accidentally or deliberately? Yeah, okay. A lie? Not unless you're running a gaming news site and fancy DAE HATE ATARI LOL clicks, I'd say.