The new Atari VCS console is finally available for purchase

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Atari has finally delivered its latest console. The Atari VCS, which is essentially a PC with a retro-gaming system inside of it, has released and is now available for purchase at a few retail stores. In addition to being available on the Atari website, you can get the console at Best Buy and Micro Center.

The long-awaited console has seen a turbulent development process. The project was originally announced in 2017 as the “Ataribox,” and has since seen some difficulties. The company then started an IndieGoGo pre-order for consoles to be shipped in mid-2019. But that never happened.

The Atari VCS then saw even more delays, and people even began leaving the project. After missing another deadline, this time in March of 2020, Atari went back to the drawing board and worked hard on development for another year. Finally, the console shipped to early backers and has made its way to the public.

Unfortunately, people aren’t overly excited about the console. The base version of the console is $299.99, and much less powerful than the Xbox Series S at a comparable price.

The VCS is powered by an AMD Ryzen R1606G chip paired with 8 gigs of ram and 32 gigs of storage. Both the storage and ram are upgradeable, however, so you can boost performance a bit.

While you get access to 100 retro Atari games with the VCS, those games are pretty lackluster when compared to today’s games. The one real redeeming quality of the VCS is the ability to turn the console into a full-on computer. You can install an operating system and turn the console into an all-in-one media device.

Still, the overall function of the Atari VCS doesn’t seem worth $299.99, or $399.99 for the Walnut version that comes with a wireless controller and joystick.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Your Xbox One may soon be able to play next-gen games through xCloud
• PlayStation exclusive Uncharted 4 is making its way to PC
• The next PSVR headset might be available by the 2022 holiday season
• Online E3 was an experience, but was it a good one?

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.