First things first: they’re making a video game console with woodgrain as part of the design in 2017. It’s the Ataribox, the brand’s heralded return to the game market….and we say “brand” since it is literally all that exists of the original company, having been taken down in the mid-90’s after the Jaguar flopped. The Atari name has bounced around under the ownership of different people ever since. Whoever has it now is trying to bring back its glory days to the fullest.
And yet we barely know anything about the Ataribox. This is intentional. The machine was first announced last month and there weren’t even any pictures. Now we have some (which could be renderings) and a couple more questions answered, but not much else.
Two models of the Ataribox are presented here: one with the woodgrain design and one with a black glass front. Both models light up in red when active. A turnaround reveals the Ataribox has four USB ports and an HDMI output. “As you can guess, those ports suggest modern internal specs,” Atari hinted in a newsletter mailing. “It also means that while we will be delivering classic gaming content, we will also be delivering current gaming content.”
“Current gaming content” covers a lot of ground. Given what little we know thus far, it’s most likely the Ataribox is one of those Android-running consoles, like the Ouya was (remember the Ouya?) And if that’s the case, it’s easy to be skeptical, because we’ve seen similar game-playing machines to this one crash and burn.
The specs have yet to be revealed, however. If Atari’s intention is to provide serious competition, this box is going to have to provide some cutting-edge power, 4K style. When they define exactly what the Ataribox is, we’ll let you know.
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At first sight, it looks amazingly sleek and cool. Still, we'd need more information about it. I find it interesting that there's no slot for CD games or anything. It might be a console in which only online games can be played, or it might be that games need to be downloaded.
Wow, 😮 I'm shocked. This is literally like something going from the stone age to the space age. Anyway, I hope they can pull of this new scheme, but exactly how will this new system be different from the current ones? Will it still use the same odd controller it had back in the 80s?