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Atari Flashback on USAToday

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Stingray:

--- Quote from: MPS on September 27, 2005, 09:29:29 pm ---
--- Quote from: Stingray on September 27, 2005, 12:21:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: MPS on September 26, 2005, 11:09:00 pm ---
Flashback 3 is already on the drawing board!!


--- End quote ---

Is this the rumored FB that will finally have a built in cart port?

-S

--- End quote ---

Well, like I said, we are still in the "drawing board" stage for FB3.  We won't even have the hardware in "prototype" form until (at least) February '06.

Having said that, we are planning for FB3 to be more of a console, and less of a Plug & Play unit.

Mike Stulir
Flashback 2 Engineering Team

--- End quote ---

Ooh! This kind of tease makes me giddy! :)

-S

missioncontrol:

--- Quote from: MPS on September 27, 2005, 09:34:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: missioncontrol on September 27, 2005, 01:12:47 pm ---They should have gone with the switches insted of the big orange buttons.........

--- End quote ---

....and the cost of reproducing the original 2600 switches would have raised the price of FB2 by $10+ per unit.

Mike Stulir
Flashback 2 Engineering Team

--- End quote ---

well in that case the orange buttons are fine....



I'm liking what I'm hearing so far for the FB3

please keep us updated on it......

Havok:

--- Quote from: MPS on September 27, 2005, 09:34:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: missioncontrol on September 27, 2005, 01:12:47 pm ---They should have gone with the switches insted of the big orange buttons.........

--- End quote ---

....and the cost of reproducing the original 2600 switches would have raised the price of FB2 by $10+ per unit.

Mike Stulir
Flashback 2 Engineering Team

--- End quote ---

Any switches would have been better than those orange buttons - but keep us in the loop about the FB3. I like the idea of a new 2600 - make it a heavy sixer repro!

I would pay another $15 - $20 more, no problem...

Stingray:

--- Quote from: Havok on September 28, 2005, 04:21:15 pm ---
I would pay another $15 - $20 more, no problem...

--- End quote ---

Well so would I, but somehow I doubt that you and I are this item's target demographic. This is holiday impulse buying at it's finest. I hope somebody gets one for me. ;)

-S

MPS:

--- Quote from: Havok on September 28, 2005, 04:21:15 pm ---keep us in the loop about the FB3. I like the idea of a new 2600 - make it a heavy sixer repro!

--- End quote ---

Who said anything about FB3 being another 2600?   ;D


--- Quote from: Havok on September 28, 2005, 04:21:15 pm ---I would pay another $15 - $20 more, no problem...

--- End quote ---

I don't think people really understand what a problem it was.  It isn't that we didn't want to use them.  It was a simple matter of economics.  The buttons weren't my first choice either, and I understand that the hardcore classic gaming audience would have spend the extra money for the original switches.

Let me see if I can paint "the big picture" on these manufacturing costs.  No one makes those switches anymore.  Reproducing those switches with a special factory production run would raise the overall manufacturing cost of each FB2 unit by around $10+.  Now, multiply that $10 times the 1.5 million FB2 units that are in the initial production run.  The people who sign the checks for building these units weren't ready to spend $15 Million just on switches.  Once I saw the numbers myself, it made sense not to use them.

If you really want those switches, it is easy enough to hack them in....assuming that you have a broken 2600 laying around that can be used for parts.  I posted a link in a message above with some photos of someone who has already done it.  Making the system "hacker-friendly" for the classic gaming community was something we really strived for.

Mike Stulir
Flashback 2 Engineering Team

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