Atari Unveils the Atari VCS “Video Computer System” and its Controllers

Giuseppe Nelva March 19, 2018 3:36 PM EST

Atari unveils the official name, logo, and controller peripherals of what was previously called the Ataribox, and is now the Atari VCS.

Today at Game Developers Conference, Atari took another step in unveiling its upcoming hardware platform, that now has an official name: Atari VCS.

VCS stands for Video Computer System, and it was previously known with the code name “Ataribox.” It will come with a retro joystick and a modern controller, and according to the press release the pre-order date will be announced in April 2018.

It will include a lot of retro games, but we hear that there will be more than that, as Atari aims to make it a “completely new connected device designed for today’s living room.”

The promise is certainly lofty, as the manufacturer intends to “change the way you interact with your TV, just as the original Atari 2600 Video Computer System first did more than 40 years ago.”

Atari COO of Connected Devices Michael Arzt accompanied the press release with a statement:

“Every person at Atari and every partner involved with the new platform is just as fanatical about the brand and its heritage as our biggest fans are. With the Atari VCS name, we know how important it is to get everything completely right and that’s why we briefly paused an imminent launch late last year. It was a difficult decision with the countdown underway, but we weren’t willing to go forward with even one thing out of alignment. We hope that Atari’s fans appreciate our extreme attention to detail and are as excited about the Atari VCS as we are.”

You can check out the new logo and images below. Besides the generic statements provided above, we don’t yet know much about what software support will exactly look like.