scotland wrote:Its amazing to think they have gone nearly a decade making Atari Flashbacks of Atari 2600 games. I can only assume that the lack of the SD card is mostly so that they have an upgrade ready for next year.
The handheld edition launched last year with it, and will retain the feature this year.
I think it's mostly a holdover from the Sega line from AtGames. The portables don't have the cartridge slot that the consoles do, so they get the SD slot and rom loading ability to offer expandability of their own in a more portable friendly fashion. But sadly, AtGames seems to forget that the Atari console doesn't accept original cartridges and thus has no expandability at all without a SD slot, unlike the entire Sega line and the Atari handheld.
Crossing my fingers this changes in 2018.
scotland wrote:IThe change to HDMI is more than a tweak or the addition of a few games, but doesn't that mean its running some software emulation inside?
It has actually been software emulation since AtGames started with the Atari Flashback 3. Only the Atari Flashback 2 and 2+ from Legacy Engineering had a 2600-on-a-chip.
scotland wrote:Perhaps my affinity for hardware emulation is unfounded, but once we have gone to software why would I buy this over other linux, android, retropie or other OS emulators where the OS and the emulators can be updated? It certainly has nice features like pausing and rewinding somehow, but this is a closed system.
Remember, you're not the market that they're aiming for. These are casual mass market items for people that even if they knew what emulation meant, attach no significance to it. They don't care how the software is ran on this, they just want something that's plug and play to relive some memories with.
If you want the best way to enjoy 2600 games on a modern high definition display, you'd be best served loading up Stella. This mostly just holds appeal to those that haunt forums like AtariAge for the novelty of it all. We're 2600 fanatics and enjoy seeing the platform receive mass market attention over 40 years after the system launched.
Even with SD rom loading, solid hardware, and quality emulation, it's not going to ever be a full substitute. No Supercharger Frogger, Space Rocks, or Pitfall II for instance. AtGames has no incentive to emulate hardware that isn't required by a single game that they're including.