I have an unopened Atari VCS in storage which I will not be able to access for a while (because of health reasons). At some point hopefully I will be able to access it. It will be unmodified original OS. However, now that they announced the retiring of the official servers, what will happen to "new" units of VCS? Will there still be able to login and use the official OS? I know that sunsetting will allow current users to export their interface for preservation, but what about users that have yet to even create an account? Would there be a path to finishing setup of the official OS without having to connect to the Atari servers to download additional files etc...? Or would we have to look into installing an alternate OS? I do like the idea of at least playing around with the VCS official OS...

I hate that I discovered this system weeks before the store shutdown. I'm hoping they make a similar console in the future. So bummed I didn't get to experience this thing. I'm just here venting my sadness. Lol

It is truly something to behold!!!! Emulating Wii U of course though. 😉

Do you think the Atari VCS will be on sale one last time this holiday season?

Genuinely gutted to see the consoles come ended of life before we've had a chance to get one, But does anyone know if you can run the VCS Atari OS on any other x86 computers? Thinking maybe one of the early Ryzen NUCs maybe??

Hi there! I did the preorder when the VCS came out. Haven’t used it since but wanted to do an update now after hearing the news. After selecting “check for updates”, immediately receive this error: update failed. An error occurred while checking for updates. Please try again. Version - 20230501.150219. Production build - P#1869

After clicking the “retry” button, immediately get the same error message. Please advise. Much thanks.

I am unfamiliar with hacking BIOS and all of the other work that was needed to extend my $99 VCS prior to yesterday’s announcement. I’ve had it laying around as a future project to extend it into an 80’s arcade (maybe console) emulator. With the EOL announcement, is there stuff worth getting in the closing store (both related and unrelated to the project)? Otherwise, what’s the best path for making it an early arcade Batocera now?

Update: I’m getting wind of the store for the first time and pivoting toward just going on a good shopping spree while I have a chance.

Per the official discord:

carfries [FUJI],  — 12:45 PM

Update Regarding the Atari VCS

We are reaching out to let you know about planned changes to our support of the Atari VCS platform. The Atari VCS has earned its rightful spot alongside the many console platforms Atari has launched over the past 50-plus years. We took what was planned as a one-off Kickstarter program and turned it into a platform that we have collectively supported since 2020. We want to thank our dedicated players and creators for bringing great content to the VCS, and for building a vibrant community. We are beginning the process of sun-setting our support for the Atari VCS. We will be shutting down the VCS store on February 1, 2027. You will still be able to purchase games in the store through January 31, 2027. After the store closes, our plan is to make an OS update available that allows you to migrate all functionality to your local machine, removing any dependencies on Atari infrastructure for authentication and software. Once that transition is complete, we will end support for the platform. As part of the transition, we intend to push the Atari Home Brew app to all players. This will allow everyone to add new games to your VCS independently, so developers can continue to build apps for the VCS and share them with the community. Early next year we will post information that walks you through this OS migration, and the Home Brew App functionality, so everyone has plenty of time to prepare. We recognize that this is unwelcome news. We are working hard to ensure that the community can continue to use their VCS well into the future, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition. We know this announcement is going to generate a lot of questions. Our team will be ⁠💬｜vcs-chat during this transition to answer questions and take in feedback. For any direct support please contact our Customer Service team here: https://atari.com/pages/contact.
Thank you for playing with us. The Atari VCS Team

There are some games that might have a better version on another platform. Some that are nowhere else, but probably not worth the buy. Others might be exclusive that are hidden gems. Some still might exist elsewhere, but its a nice experience to have where sideloading might not be available for after the sunset.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

New game today. Grand Theft froggo.

And that's not all on the #VCS @atari

Deadly skiing, Bobby is home, Cyber Kain, & Jet Propulsion which is free, all 2600 games.

Qubic, Vcs edition, Quest: The sword of fire, & Laser birds, zw spectrum ed.

I have connected it to Windows, but some of the buttons just aren’t working. Has anyone gotten it to work?

Does anyone know why they don't appear to be planning to release Activision titles for the VCS? Increasingly feeling like this community got Atari off the ground again (demonstrating the demand and willingness to pay), but then...not so much.

Running Ubuntu on my VCS 800, tried to play Minecraft and it's getting like 9 FPS. Checked and it's using software rendering (llvmpipe) instead of the actual Vega GPU. Driver's installed and everything looks fine on that end but it's still not using the GPU. Anyone else deal with this or know the fix?

Hi all! I got an Onyx VCS off eBay from a reputable seller, advertised as "brand new in the box." It is in working condition, boots up fine, nothing weird, except the stock Atari OS seems to have been replaced by Bazzite.

EDIT: Success! I downloaded the Atari recovery image from the Internet Archive (2020 version) and got the “Flashing succeeded” message!

—-

I followed the instructions on Atari's support site for reflashing the OS.

It downloads the atari-flasher-ab-upgrade.img disk image file from an Amazon Web Services server, that measures 2GB on my Mac once it finishes.

I'm using a USB stick that was reformatted in Disk Utility to FAT32 / MBR, and used Balena Etcher to write the .img file to it. Got no errors during the flash process.

However, when I reboot with the USB stick inserted, and select the "Flash AtariOS" option from the boot menu, It starts the flash process, displaying the Atari logo and a message saying "Flashing Atari VCS with XXXXX.production", but then nothing happens.

The activity light on the USB drive stays dark, so it's clearly not loading anything. I have a standard PC USB keyboard and mouse plugged in to the front ports, and the USB stick is in one of the rear USB ports.

Is it possible the previous owner did something in the BIOS that's preventing the flash procedure from working? What should I look for there?

I would think it would show at least an error message, but I got nothin, even after leaving it to think for 30+ minutes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

It has "retro style" games, so it counts.

I saw so much love for the vcs 800 I saw one on ebay for $100 shipped brand new unopened with 2 controllers. It comes with the worst games Atari had and has no options to get the Atari games a normal person would want to have. to make it worse the controllers are worthless unless you use the Atari os. which was kinda the selling point of the unit I’d guess, to have great Atari controllers (the classic). I already knew about the controllers tho. I bought 2 of each a year or so ago when they had them on sale for $15. I got 2 classics and 2 modern for under $60. they kept giving you a deal if you bought more. I figured when I bought the vcs 800 I’d be able to at least buy the games I wanted if it didn’t have them on it but, nope. there are like 200 games In the store that are so random and no one has heard of them. I know you can use it as a mini pc, I already have one of those that’s way more powerful with 4tb of games up to the ps2. so, why bother making the vcs a mini pc. the controllers still won’t work? I would love to just put it all in the boxes everything came in and get rid of it all. this should have been an easy slam dunk. I mean, how do you fuck up controllers that bad? you would think they would make them so they would work on a pc, like they say they do. I’ll put this back in the box and away in a dark corner it will go. I ordered an atari gamestation pro for $35 that seems it will do what I want. if the shit controllers worked like they should I’d be all set over a year ago. did Atari really think they made something people would want here? controllers that only work in their os where none of the games you want to play are available. only shot Indy games no one has heard of and the Atari games you never played when they were new in 1982. so great, I can now play carnival games and 3d tic tac tow. and don’t forget the ever beloved basic math, so glad I have that now.

With the release of the Steam Machine, Valve is saying that Steam OS 3.8 is ready for most AMD computers. Anyone try it on the VCS yet? I know some have used Bazzite but I was curious if anyone had used the pure version again with the new release.

Even this forum is basically dead. I didn't realize we'd come this far. Guess the VCS really is on life support when even the main community behind it is no longer engaged.

Has anybody played it ON VCS? Does it run well?

Is it available in the VCS EShop?

Im stuck at the boss fight with the swarm of bees. I cant seem to damage them, what am I missing?

EDIT: I figured it out and now I feel silly lol

Anyone had any luck with running Xbox through Batocera on the Atari VCS?