Category: Musings

ReviewTechUSA Interviews El Reg Reporter Who Killed Ataribox (Not Really)

Courtesy of Rich of ReviewTechUSA, an interview with the man, the myth, the legend that is The Register’s own Kieren McCarthy, the so-called vulture who interviewed the Atari people about the Ataribox, wrote a hilarious yet brutally honest article about the lack of information regarding the product that Atari eventually claimed was a troll tactic, which prompted El Reg to release the full audio interview to the Interwebs, which has caused a significant stall in the Ataribox campaign.

On June 23, at 2 a.m., the campaign had reached $2,922,479, which was probably the highest it had reached up to this point. Roughly four days later at this very moment, it went down to $2,909,555. There’s always a possibility that the campaign will break three million – a lot can happen in three days, after all – and despite this mishap, the project has already made its money, so they should be ready to go.

But after hearing about Atari’s other failed ventures and abandoned concepts, I’m even more skeptical than before as to whether they can or even will pull this off. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Minus Five Star Notifications

Funny little anecdote that I can’t help but share…

I have a phone set-up where anytime I would receive a notification, it is announced with a good ol’ hearty “Minus Five Stars” courtesy of Figure Four Weekly’s Bryan Alvarez. I do this because every time I get a notification, it’s annoying. And so I gave it a sound that reflected my thoughts on the gimmick.
Well, while I was having coffee with a couple buddies, one of them was asking me about something that I don’t recall the peculiar and then before I can answer, a nice, loud “Minus Five Stars” is heard from my pocket, which scared the piss out of everybody on the table, myself included.
We get a good laugh out of it now, but I get the feeling this is going to get tiresome after a while.
Tomorrow should be seeing the RAW X: Tenth Anniversary special musings… this one covering the special DVD release since I have it. And if all goes well, there will either be a new review or a House Show special. We’ll see what happens.

Bleeding Cool On The History Of The "Current" Atari

Bleeding Cool recently ran a story on the recent spat between Atari SA and The Register over their recent interview that Atari claimed was trolling and was left with egg on their face when “El Reg” published the entire audio interview, pretty much confirming what was written. Not only did BC cover that spat, but they also detailed the history behind Atari’s attempts to get hardware out, including the Gameband watch as well as selling the brand to be used on after-market tablets, which I never knew about.

It’s a fascinating read on the history of this modern Atari and is worth checking out.

Click here to read.

AVGN’s Dirty Harry… Doesn’t Work For Me, Brother

This year, AVGN began premiering its episodes on Amazon, before eventually making its way to Youtube. This sort of follows the same route that Classic Game Room took with its latest 2085 incarnation, although those episodes are behind a paywall… and in all honesty, may not be worth it, which pains me to say as a longtime CGR fan. The AVGN episodes can be seen on Youtube on delay.

I saw his Earthbound video… or rather bits and pieces of it as it was a rather meaty episode. Given the scope and length of the game, I could understand the long-running time and from what I’ve seen, this was actually an enjoyable little episode that I’d like to sit down and watch the whole thing.

And then his latest episode hit, covering Dirty Harry for the NES… and folks, this has got to be one of the worst episodes of AVGN I’ve seen up to this point.

Okay, okay, it’s not THAT bad… but this was not a good show. It runs at eleven minutes and within that eleven minute runtime, I bore witness to pointless visual gags, unfunny referential humor, predictable jokes… all the shit that people used to mock Irate Gamer and all those other knock-off artists are on full display here and they are not any better.

The quality of the show has seen a considerable dip over the years and sometimes, I wonder if it’s the show or just me outgrowing the material. But man, I go back to those early 2006-2007 episodes and I still get a kick out of watching those episodes due to their rawness and genuine feeling. These feel overproduced, cookie-cutter, and lacks that genuine feeling.

Much like a certain sports entertainment company these days.

All that aside, it’s nice to see that James Rolfe is still kicking and I’m very much looking forward to some of the more personal small films he says he’s working on… but as far as his AVGN output goes… it’s not working for me, brother.

Ataribox After-Action Report: The Weekend Plundge

June 23 12:43 A.M. EST: $2,922,414
June 23 02:00 A.M. EST: $2,922,479
June 23 10:20 A.M. EST: $2,921,744
June 23 02:08 P.M. EST: $2,919,299
June 23 08:48 P.M. EST: $2,917,746
June 23 10:42 P.M. EST: $2,917,812
June 24 01:43 A.M. EST: $2,917,669
June 24 11:30 A.M. EST: $2,917,584
June 24 01:00 P.M. EST: $2,919,329
June 24 06:00 P.M. EST: $2,918,512
June 24 07:21 P.M. EST: $2,917,800
June 24 08:08 P.M. EST: $2,917,517
June 25 10:26 A.M. EST: $2,916,511
June 25 03:05 P.M. EST: $2,914,154
June 25 06:55 P.M. EST: $2,912,723
June 25 10:26 P.M. EST: $2,911,510
June 26 01:38 A.M. EST: $2,911,021
June 26 02:32 A.M. EST: $2,910,657
The Ataribox campaign hit a bit of a snag after the whole register debacle and actually saw a considerable drop over the weekend… and this during a time when I thought this would be the weekend where it finally breaks that three million mark.
Unless there is some miracle last-minute burst of investors jumping in on the final day of the campaign, I think it’s safe to say that this thing won’t be making Ouya numbers anytime soon. In any event, all that’s left to do is wait and see if we actually have a new Ataribox next year in retail stores.

Ataribox House Show Scheduled For Next Week

So the planned show for last night didn’t happen due to technical difficulties… difficulties that are too stupid and too ridiculous to describe here. However, said difficulties seemed to be resolved and I can proceed with said House Show next week, when this whole Ataribox campaign will be over and I can instill my thoughts on this pathetic endeavor to do Ouya numbers… a campaign that has stalled this weekend due to Atari management being complete morons in trying to call out a negative article for being trolls… and then said publication posting said audio recording for good measure.

When these guys wanted to bring Atari back, I didn’t think they’d want to bring back the stupid.

So, for those wondering, all the best and I hope you get a box. In the meantime, however, I’m trying to fix this stupid Linux laptop that’s stalling me from doing moar reviews.

Ataribox IndieGoGo Progress Report

The planned House Show is being held off until further notice due to unseen technical difficulties. Sorry. In the mean time, I decided to publish my tracking of the Indiegogo campaign’s progress as I follow its journey to see this campaign finally break the three million mark… which is has yet to do.

The numbers seen here was taken from the main Atari VCS Indiegogo page at the time and date specified. There will be occasional dips here and there, but beyond that, it has been a steady stream upwards. Just not quite the rocket launch that we got to that first day.

And for comparison’s sake…

High Score: OUYA – $8,596,474

Also, Atari did a Gameband watch thing that made $325,996. Don’t know what became of that, but…  anyway, here are my recorded numbers.

June 02 09:50 a.m. EST: $2,327,376
June 02 04:14 p.m. EST: $2,327,376
June 02 05:25 p.m. EST: $2,367,076
June 03 11:07 a.m. EST: $2,410,371
June 03 06:45 p.m. EST: $2,445,373
June 04 12:33 a.m. EST: $2,461,554
June 07 10:01 a.m. EST: $2,764,620
June 10 09:50 a.m. EST: $2,793,207
June 10 11:05 a.m. EST: $2,793,441
June 11 01:58 a.m. EST: $2,825,498
June 11 02:24 p.m. EST: $2,853,309
June 12 04:03 p.m. EST: $2,872,070
June 12 11:00 p.m. EST: $2,872,395
June 13 02:24 a.m. EST: $2,873,319
June 13 02:48 p.m. EST: $2,870,176
June 13 05:52 p.m. EST: $2,870,879
June 13 06:59 p.m. EST: $2,871,019
June 13 07:34 p.m. EST: $2,872,044
June 13 11:13 p.m. EST: $2,874,743
June 14 10:30 a.m. EST: $2,878,083
June 14 03:10 p.m. EST: $2,877,258
June 14 04:24 p.m. EST: $2,876,879
June 14 05:12 p.m. EST: $2,876,209
June 15 10:41 a.m. EST: $2,882,255
June 18 01:00 p.m. EST: $2,907,984
June 18 07:11 P.M. EST: $2,909,306
June 18 11:55 p.m. EST: $2,910,203
June 19 02:05 A.M. EST: $2,910,824
June 19 09:46 A.M. EST: $2,913,530
June 19 04:02 p.m. EST: $2,913,354
June 19 05:23 P.M. EST: $2,913,419
June 20 03:49 P.M. EST: $2,915,785
June 21 03:49 P.M. EST: $2,920,730
June 21 11:05 P.M. EST: $2,922,310
June 22 03:49 P.M. EST: $2,920,280
June 22 05:09 P.M. EST: $2,920,019
June 22 05:28 P.M. EST: $2,920,342
June 22 05:40 P.M. EST: $2,920,484
June 22 11:18 P.M. EST: $2,922,311
June 23 12:43 A.M. EST: $2,922,414
June 23 02:00 A.M. EST: $2,922,479
June 23 10:20 A.M. EST: $2,921,744
June 23 11:15 A.M. EST: $2,920,642
June 23 12:52 A.M. EST: $2,920,348
June 23 02:08 A.M. EST: $2,919,299

And yes, before anyone asks, there have been drops here and there. Nothing too significant since it eventually gets back up, but it does happen. Beyond that, it’s a slow, steady climb.

Started Writing Again

Or more accurately, starting typing on a keyboard in the hopes of putting together a fictional narrative for people to read.

It’s been a good long while since I’ve sat down and decided to write a story of some kind. The itch has been going on about doing some creative writing in varying degrees of actual creative and I think that last little Star Trek thing with the Double Eagle might’ve scratched that itch a little bit more to a degree that I simply can’t ignore the thing.

Writing little blog things and things to read into a microphone is cool and all… and even the occasional doodle and silly comic seems like a quick way to get something out there, but there’s something satisfying about telling a longer story and just get some of that creative energy out there, regardless of whether it ends up being a good idea or not.

So, there you go. Another hobby I’ve decided to revive among many.

More clutter… oh noes.

End Of The World This Sunday… Yes… Again…

So according to this Express.Co.Uk article, the world is supposed to end on June 24. Because we’ve all heard this crap before. Then again, this same article claims that a mythical being was supposed to show up on April 23rd and I’ve heard nothing regarding any sort of alien creature appearing in the skies.

Who knows? Maybe June 24th is the day Thanos collects all the Infinity Gems/Stones/Whatevers and uses them to wipe out half of all life in the universe or something.

So is it worth making a silly video out of this whole mess?

Probably not.