WEBVTT 00:00:00.590 --> 00:00:05.360 - It's retro time!? Maybe, sort of. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.850 I've been waiting for this for a long time. Like this unassuming looking package, 00:00:10.850 --> 00:00:14.600 you can probably actually tell what it is by the tape on the top. 00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:17.970 It's from a small company you might've heard of called Atari. 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:24.780 They had a console called the VCS which is currently called the Atari 2600 and that is, 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.040 I'm led to believe, what this is modeled after. 00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:33.155 So I don't have a whole lot of nostalgia for Atari personally 'cause I didn't really grow up with it 00:00:33.155 --> 00:00:36.690 but I am really interested in seeing what this is 00:00:36.690 --> 00:00:40.000 because it's more than just a game console. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.075 So let's get this open. Oh, here we go. 00:00:43.075 --> 00:00:46.277 I might be able to finagle this side. 00:00:46.277 --> 00:00:51.744 - [Jono] I taped over the top. - Yeah, yeah, you didn't tape over the bottom did you, Jono? 00:00:51.744 --> 00:00:56.150 - [Jono] Well, you're not supposed to open things from the bottom. - Well I'm opening it from the bottom. 00:00:56.150 --> 00:01:00.993 It's what you get. - [Jono] You mean like the back door? - Backdoor, best way to get in. 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:05.760 We're in through the back door and it is actually the bottom, 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:10.483 I guess they didn't expect me to open it from this end. So let's get this out of here. 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:18.110 Oh, look at that. So what size shirt did they send us? 00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:21.877 XL. - [Andy] I'm XL. Thank you! 00:01:21.877 --> 00:01:25.120 - let's show them the shirt First. (laughing) 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:28.930 Atari VCS. Quite a nice little logo there. 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:34.210 It kind of reminds me of the Atari boot screen with the like multicolored rainbow effect 00:01:34.210 --> 00:01:39.130 that they had going on there and it actually says on the back here that it was backed in 2008. 00:01:39.130 --> 00:01:41.123 So I was a year off, it was 2000, 00:01:42.153 --> 00:01:47.533 - [Jono] 2018. - It was backed in 2018. I was 10 years off. 00:01:47.533 --> 00:01:53.260 (laughing) Since Andy is XL and I am, well, 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:56.700 unfortunately not quite XL. 00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:59.000 Here you go. - [Andy] Thank you, Atari! 00:02:00.530 --> 00:02:04.050 - I don't know if we can keep that or not. Moving on. We have other things that we might be able 00:02:04.050 --> 00:02:07.400 to keep like this, this here sticker. 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:11.810 They're actually pretty high quality stickers. So that's the ancillary stuff. 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:15.283 Let's get this out of the outer wrapping and take a look at the box. 00:02:17.890 --> 00:02:21.870 Ooh, sexy. Actually that is quite fetching. 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:25.280 I actually really do like the like subtle dark walnut 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:28.910 that they got here, that's what they call it here, black walnut. 00:02:28.910 --> 00:02:32.061 Video computer system, gaming plus PC streaming. 00:02:32.061 --> 00:02:35.500 Okay. 800, I don't know what that means. 00:02:35.500 --> 00:02:39.400 Does it mean that it has Atari 800 support? Can I play 800 games? 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:42.602 - [Jono] Could you? - Could I? - [Jono] Should you? 00:02:42.602 --> 00:02:49.070 - Should I? - [Jono] Should you!? - I mean the Atari 800 was actually not a bad machine 00:02:49.070 --> 00:02:52.730 if I remember correctly, it's like the 5200 except it's a computer. 00:02:52.730 --> 00:02:55.770 One thing that might be throwing a couple of you off if you haven't been keeping up, 00:02:55.770 --> 00:03:00.630 is this gaming plus PC plus streaming bit. 00:03:00.630 --> 00:03:06.720 As it turns out, this is actually straight up an AMD Ryzen based machine. 00:03:08.050 --> 00:03:13.150 It's actually a Ryzen embedded processor and the graphics are Vega 3 I think. 00:03:13.150 --> 00:03:16.373 So it's not super powerful but it's more than enough to play. 00:03:17.922 --> 00:03:21.500 - [Jono] Can I scalp it? - These kinds of games. Can you scalp it? 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:25.020 I don't know. I mean, it'll probably be scalped a little bit 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:28.400 but I'm not sure how big the market is for it. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:34.220 So we'll have to see. - [Jono] But memories. - Memories, can you put a price on memory? 00:03:34.220 --> 00:03:37.340 I mean, I lose mine all the time. 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:40.373 So yeah, it's got the new and retro games and apps built in, 00:03:40.373 --> 00:03:44.130 a 100 plus Atari classics. Okay. 00:03:44.130 --> 00:03:48.840 Discover Atari classics with a modern controller. Yep. Okay, featuring LED effects in rumble. 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:54.920 I dunno what the LED effects are all about but we'll find out and customize, unique PC mode, 00:03:54.920 --> 00:03:59.060 upgradable RAM and storage. Every console should have this. 00:03:59.060 --> 00:04:03.080 I mean, maybe not actually but you know, this is good. 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:08.410 This is basically a console on a PC. You remember the Subor Z+ that we looked at 00:04:08.410 --> 00:04:12.880 on LTT a little while ago? That was basically the same kind of idea, 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:16.460 is to have like a special game OS filled 00:04:16.460 --> 00:04:20.720 with games and then like a straight up PC OS like Windows 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:24.500 or Linux or in this case, it also supports Chrome OS. 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:27.970 Yeah, this could be a very useful little machine 00:04:27.970 --> 00:04:32.120 for somebody who wants to, you know, play games and have a small little computer 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:35.470 to occupy a very little space in their home. 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:37.803 Let's get it out of the box. 00:04:39.520 --> 00:04:42.320 Two chambers, this feels like it might be the main unit. 00:04:45.070 --> 00:04:47.343 Oh yeah, almost certainly. 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:52.203 Let's work our way up in terms of size here. 00:04:58.380 --> 00:05:01.760 That is adorable. I like the matte. 00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:04.810 The mirror kind of works alongside it 00:05:04.810 --> 00:05:09.510 but I know that this is gonna pick up fingerprints. This button here is the connect slash pairing button, 00:05:09.510 --> 00:05:14.330 I'm sure, these two seem to be menu and back and oh yeah, 00:05:14.330 --> 00:05:17.867 here's another button on the front here. So you've got two buttons like that 00:05:17.867 --> 00:05:22.960 and then you've got your directions. Never been a fan of this particular layout for controls, 00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:26.270 but it is classic. So they've got that going for them. 00:05:26.270 --> 00:05:30.040 It feels, it feels pretty solid actually. 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:35.330 It's not like creaky or anything like that and two nice rubber strips on the bottom 00:05:35.330 --> 00:05:38.680 so you can plant it down and really get going. 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:42.300 There's no suction cups and there's no place to put suction cups though. 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:45.090 So if you're into that, then you're out of luck unfortunately. 00:05:47.260 --> 00:05:51.450 Nice lengthy micro USB cable. 00:05:51.450 --> 00:05:54.983 I'm more interested in this box though. Okay, yeah. 00:05:54.983 --> 00:05:59.440 So there's a little quick start in here. That button is in fact for pairing and for power 00:05:59.440 --> 00:06:04.030 but these two buttons here, you can toggle between VCS and Xbox mode. That basically means that you can toggle 00:06:04.030 --> 00:06:08.300 between like their proprietary like controller mode, 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:12.823 to being able to be used in the PC mode, so in Windows 10 or whatever. 00:06:15.350 --> 00:06:18.533 And here's their, not an Xbox controller. 00:06:21.001 --> 00:06:23.251 (laughing) 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:25.493 - Hmm. 00:06:31.270 --> 00:06:38.653 Okay. So Atari is much lighter than Microsoft. 00:06:40.150 --> 00:06:44.650 There's no knurling on the back or anything. It's just soft plastic. 00:06:44.650 --> 00:06:48.930 It's actually pretty solid again, it's not creaky or anything. 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:53.010 This D-pad is at very least passable. 00:06:53.010 --> 00:06:57.529 This D-pad is not good. 00:06:57.529 --> 00:07:01.220 If you don't like how the Sega Genesis controller feels 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:04.710 with it's like disc shaped D-pad, this is a million times worse 00:07:04.710 --> 00:07:07.970 because there's no like actual D-tense. 00:07:07.970 --> 00:07:12.540 Yeah, Like I don't feel like I'm pressing anything in particular after this first press. 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:16.570 So if i were to do like a Dragon Punch 00:07:16.570 --> 00:07:21.410 in Street Fighter that might or might not fire, I have no idea because there's no feedback. 00:07:21.410 --> 00:07:24.820 I'm just like rubbing my finger across the D-pad. 00:07:24.820 --> 00:07:28.933 So that's a thing, but I guess we'll have to see how it feels in game. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.590 Triggers feel okay but they're a little spongy. 00:07:34.378 --> 00:07:40.853 Yeah, these are a little bit spongy on the way down too I guess. It's soft, let's put it that way. 00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:45.590 They're not bad though and then there's these bumpers, which 00:07:45.590 --> 00:07:50.160 I mean, they're just bumpers. Presumably this has a built-in battery and yes it does. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.320 It's at 75% charged right now if the three dots are 00:07:53.320 --> 00:07:56.950 to be believed. That's Atari's controller. 00:07:56.950 --> 00:08:01.950 It's basically this but it's different. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:05.513 I would say for the worse, but I mean, they tried. 00:08:06.950 --> 00:08:13.440 Yeah, just another micro B cable, and finally the main event, the Atari VCS itself. 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:20.310 There it is. These nice little tabs to pull it out. 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:21.143 That's cute. 00:08:23.330 --> 00:08:27.760 It's got an external power supply. What are these different types of bags here? 00:08:27.760 --> 00:08:33.374 This one is resealable. This one is just open and this one is sealed. 00:08:33.374 --> 00:08:39.530 - [Andy] It gives you three types of unboxing experiences. - Yeah, you get three times the unboxing experience. 00:08:39.530 --> 00:08:45.870 Anyway, this guy here is just the other end to this power adapter and we've got an HDMI cable. 00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:46.970 Anything else in here? 00:08:49.970 --> 00:08:53.616 Snack for later. All right. So all of this stuff is boring. 00:08:53.616 --> 00:08:57.183 This is the real meat of the experience here. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:02.580 Stop, thank you for your Atari VCS purchase. 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:06.480 If you have questions or problems with your purchase please do not return it 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:09.840 to the retail store. Great. We didn't get it from a retail store. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:12.960 So I don't know where we return it if we had any problems with it. 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:16.603 So thank you. We're stuck with it. 00:09:16.603 --> 00:09:20.113 (laughing) This is mine now. I'll just make it so 00:09:20.113 --> 00:09:24.583 that the taking up space in the warehouse and then at some point they'll beg me to take them. 00:09:25.571 --> 00:09:30.820 That is real wood. I'm touching real wood right now. 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.920 - [Jono] How much does this thing cost? - 399. 00:09:33.920 --> 00:09:37.300 It's more than most mini consoles but when you consider it's like a Ryzen computer 00:09:37.300 --> 00:09:40.430 that's upgradable, like it's not too bad. 00:09:40.430 --> 00:09:43.963 You got your two USB ports upfront, these are 3.0 type A. 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:49.260 Around the back we've got two USB ports. 00:09:49.260 --> 00:09:54.260 HDMI, Ethernet, Gigabit, AC power and power, power. 00:09:55.390 --> 00:09:59.603 Okay, so should we get set up then? 00:10:01.162 --> 00:10:05.394 I mean, I could like do this kind of thing. Verify the account, Jono. 00:10:05.394 --> 00:10:09.563 - [Jono] I did! - [Presenter] Hi, Short. 00:10:09.563 --> 00:10:13.160 - [Jono] Hi, Linus. (laughing) 00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:19.200 - How to install Companion APP, yep. Okay, so I have the VCS Companion APP here. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:24.870 I may actually have to connect it to the same Wi-Fi network but it's taking a minute 00:10:24.870 --> 00:10:29.897 to find the VCS. Okay, you know what? I think I don't care enough about that feature. 00:10:29.897 --> 00:10:34.340 - [Jono] I wanna play some games. - Yeah, let's play some games. 00:10:34.340 --> 00:10:39.470 Thanks Grammarly for sponsoring today's video and hopefully you don't hate that we forgot to segue this. 00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:43.530 Grammarly is a digital writing assistant that helps you with grammar and spelling suggestions. 00:10:43.530 --> 00:10:46.740 Simply install the browser extension, log in and start typing. 00:10:46.740 --> 00:10:50.030 There's also Grammarly Premium which provides more feedback on your writing. 00:10:50.030 --> 00:10:53.490 For the job hunters out there, we recommend checking out the vocabulary 00:10:53.490 --> 00:10:56.670 and clarity suggestion tools. They help you save time 00:10:56.670 --> 00:11:00.000 and make your writing more compelling by finding synonyms for overused words 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.550 and completely removing unnecessary words. Now it's much easier to make a great first impression 00:11:04.550 --> 00:11:08.830 on every application or introductory email. Go to grammarly.com/shortcircuit 00:11:08.830 --> 00:11:14.320 to sign up for a free account and get 20% off Grammarly Premium and get Premium today 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:17.320 to help you save time and work more efficiently. 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:20.470 Well, let's go to the VCS Vault, see what happens. 00:11:20.470 --> 00:11:25.713 Ooh. Okay, so Asteroids, I guess these are the arcade versions? 00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:32.070 Okay, so you can choose 2600 games or Atari arcade games. 00:11:32.070 --> 00:11:38.530 Let's go with Asteroids. Up is thrust, directions are directions. 00:11:38.530 --> 00:11:44.180 The A button is shoot. B is that teleport thing that almost always kills you. 00:11:44.180 --> 00:11:48.723 It's got some pretty hefty rumble actually, like it's hefty. 00:11:50.410 --> 00:11:55.817 So that's Asteroids. It's neat how the box is in 3D and the cabinet is in 3D, 00:11:55.817 --> 00:11:59.190 ah, the back of the box isn't modeled, come on. 00:11:59.190 --> 00:12:03.663 I'm gonna switch to the other controller for the authentic 2600 experience. 00:12:04.770 --> 00:12:08.100 To be clear, I've never actually played a real 2600. 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:11.213 So I'm gonna suck at this. Sprint Master. 00:12:12.610 --> 00:12:16.690 Oh cool. Oh, that's neat. It's got the owner's manual. 00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:19.750 There was an NES emulator for Dreamcast called NesterDC SE 00:12:19.750 --> 00:12:23.160 that let you do this as well. This is super sweet. 00:12:23.160 --> 00:12:28.180 I love it. Oh, okay, you can turn on scan lines. 00:12:28.180 --> 00:12:32.260 Oh, you can do realistic vector display, bright, bold, standard, okay, cool. 00:12:32.260 --> 00:12:36.870 So they're actually giving you a lot of options here. Audio, yeah. Flicker authentic, yeah, you can, 00:12:37.920 --> 00:12:41.520 I think what that means is either they're actually filtering 00:12:41.520 --> 00:12:46.303 it or they're removing the Sprite Limit which I mean, I guess technically this didn't, 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:52.170 the 2600 hardware was weird. Right, These are all the settings that you would set 00:12:52.170 --> 00:12:55.653 with jumpers, like switches on the original 2600, 00:12:56.560 --> 00:12:59.780 it's kind of hilarious. Oh, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be. 00:12:59.780 --> 00:13:04.543 Oh yeah, I crashed immediately and I crashed again. 00:13:05.420 --> 00:13:09.020 I am not good at this game. I'm not good with this controller. 00:13:09.020 --> 00:13:13.204 Yeah, he lapped me like twice. And oftentimes this is what happened 00:13:13.204 --> 00:13:17.290 when you play a 2600 game, 00:13:17.290 --> 00:13:21.633 the game just runs and you do a game and then it kicks you back out. 00:13:22.510 --> 00:13:26.010 There's the back of the box. So I guess they have the back of the box 00:13:26.010 --> 00:13:31.910 for some games but not all of them. Yars' Revenge, that's a classic. 00:13:31.910 --> 00:13:35.710 I've never played it but this is far more minimal 00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:40.330 to the joystick than Sprint Race 00:13:40.330 --> 00:13:43.630 or whatever it was called was. Like I've seen this game played before 00:13:43.630 --> 00:13:50.650 but I've never played it myself. Let's try something with like dial support here. 00:13:50.760 --> 00:13:55.520 Oh yeah and I immediately missed. 00:13:55.520 --> 00:14:01.300 Oh hey, this even has rumble in it. Okay, This rotary encoder is really good, I love it. 00:14:01.300 --> 00:14:09.100 There is the slight issue of there being a little bit of stiction when you turn it, 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:12.270 making finer adjustments is a little bit difficult 00:14:12.270 --> 00:14:15.870 but making flicks is super satisfying. What else is there to say? 00:14:15.870 --> 00:14:20.390 This is a pretty neat little console. Oh, we don't, we didn't try the operating system PC mode 00:14:20.390 --> 00:14:25.160 but they didn't have a PC mode. So I don't know what we can do with that. Yeah, like obviously there's more to this. 00:14:25.160 --> 00:14:28.230 Let us know if you wanna see a full in-depth review in LTT, 00:14:28.230 --> 00:14:32.210 like, I mean there's the PC mode, there's the upgradability, 00:14:32.210 --> 00:14:36.140 there's so many different things that can be done with this. 00:14:36.140 --> 00:14:41.870 I mean, I know there have been reviews of it already but maybe we can find some other angle to kind 00:14:41.870 --> 00:14:45.240 of really push it or do something weird with it. 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:50.400 I don't know. All I know is that it's a really neat little mini PC 00:14:51.790 --> 00:14:54.800 for 400 bucks you're getting a 100 games for free. 00:14:54.800 --> 00:15:01.350 Well, a 100 games built in. Now they're not the most complex games, 00:15:01.350 --> 00:15:04.700 they're certainly not the games that I have the most nostalgia for 00:15:04.700 --> 00:15:08.460 but they are still like classic games and some 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:12.060 that I wasn't even expecting to see there, like the Swordquest games 00:15:12.060 --> 00:15:17.517 which you should actually read up on. Those are ridiculously interesting. 00:15:17.517 --> 00:15:21.330 So yeah, like, let us know if you want to see more about this, 00:15:21.330 --> 00:15:25.130 otherwise for now, thanks for watching. Make sure you get subscribed 00:15:25.130 --> 00:15:32.014 to see more ShortCircuits in the future. - Oh my, don't do this!