The engineering and product teams return from extended trips to the Atari VCS and PowerA factories in China with lots of photos and detailed behind-the-scenes updates.

In the earliest days of the Atari VCS project, our design engineers and factory partners shared a common maxim with the leadership team: “It’s called ‘hardware’ because it’s hard!” While that sentiment still rings true, the work has been immensely satisfying and rewarding. There is nothing better than seeing a key element of the hardware or software come together in one of those wonderful “Eureka!” moments.

In the case of the Atari VCS hardware and peripherals, they are definitely coming together. There have been small setbacks, but that’s expected and considered normal, so the team is happy to report that the Atari VCS hardware and input devices are nearly final and it won’t be long before we “flip the switch” on mass production!

Engineering Validation Testing

The Atari VCS project is wrapping up a phase of intense engineering validation testing, commonly referred to as “EVT,” which is used to confirm and correct every aspect of the hardware and how it operates as a device, independent of the software, such as games and apps that will eventually run on it.

There are many things to check, validate and potentially correct during the EVT phase. Sometimes they are just subtle tweaks, and other times they are genuine course corrections that require the engineers to completely rethink how they approached something in the original design.

Before the product team can undertake the production run for EVT, they get all the various parts and sub-assemblies collected and coordinated with suppliers. Much of this process was described in our “Plastics, Thermals and Internals” blog. As we said in that report, the plastic housings and fascia pieces are the very last things to be addressed. The units shown here today still have the shiny plastics of pre-production that we have described previously. The finished Atari VCS units will look super-premium, with all the beautiful matte surfaces, rich wood fascias, and other details everyone expects.

Atari VCS EVT Hand-Assembly Time Lapse, November 2019

While all of that preparation work and component collection is going on, the factory team is busy planning for how the final assembly line processes will go. They carefully develop plans for how all the parts are stored, handled and deployed through every step of the process. This includes creating jigs and guides and determining the best order of assembly, deciding when and where they will use automation (yes, there are numerous robots, plus also many conveyor belts and other factory machines available) versus skilled human workers. The EVT line is essentially the factory’s dress rehearsal of the manufacturing process or “box build” assembly line.