The first Atari game console in 28 years, the Atari VCS aims to resurrect the idea of a “video computer system” like the ones it pioneered in the 1970s, with a library of retro and retro-inspired games, plus modern indies and the ability to act as a fully-fledged PC.
But this split approach results in what feels like a compromised game console experience and a compromised PC experience, which combined with a comparatively very high price makes it a difficult device to recommend. At $850, it’s tough to imagine the person who wouldn’t be better off with a console or mini PC, all of which can play the bulk of games available through the VCS.
The Atari VCS evokes the original look of the 2600 with a wood front panel.
Atari’s fallen on hard times since the heyday of its popular 2600 console, which was also originally called VCS. After a procession of acquisitions, name changes and bankruptcies, the brand this decade has diversified into hotels and cryptocurrency, and is now making a play to return to its home turf.
Aesthetically the new VCS, which is out this week after four uncertain years of development, nails the intended balance of nostalgia and futurism. The horizontal black ridges and wood veneer front echo the 2600 in the best way, while some glossy touches, a streamlined shape and glowing Atari logo bring things to 2021.
The system comes with a pair of controllers; one a modern take on the 2600’s joystick with added lights and paddle controls, and the other a nice imitation of a modern Xbox pad. But you can hook up just about any USB or Bluetooth controller here and it will work fine. Under the hood is a mid-range AMD Ryzen chip, 8GB of RAM and a 32GB hard drive. Atari claims 4K graphical capabilities, but I found running at that resolution made for very slow performance.
The system comes with a ‘vault’ of more than 100 very old games.
In HD the VCS’ system software is clean and pretty, with a homescreen that makes your app and game tiles look like a series of lightboxes, and an online store that feels similar to any modern console. There’s a version of Google Chrome installed which performs very well when paired with the VCS smartphone app for typing and pointing. A decent array of video streaming apps are here too, although they’re not well optimised for controller use.
The VCS comes with a “vault” of more than 100 retro games, taken from the arcade (Asteroids, Crystal Castles) and Atari home consoles (Adventure, Yars’ Revenge), and you can add an extra 50 for $7. These are well emulated, offer a raft of display and gameplay options, and in general provide a much better experience than the shoddy Atari Flashback mini consoles. Then again, many of these games are more than 40 years old; you don’t need an $850 system to play them, and in fact you can get the exact same experience on PC and consoles with the Atari Flashback Classics series.
Also pre-installed are apps for Airconsole and Antstream Arcade, two services that let you stream retro games for a fee, and they work the same here as they do on PC. That is to say, performance varies wildly depending on the strength of the connection, especially since I found the VCS’ Wi-Fi to be pretty weak. It does pack an Ethernet port for wired internet, which helps.