The showcased prototype is trying to emulate A2600 joystick looks, but it seems to me (and I'm just speculating here) it's going to be analogue rather than digital.

If I'm correct, it might improve gameplay in some of Atari's own games (Asteroids, Breakout, Missile Command) but tough luck when precision will be important - in Bruce Lee, River Raid, Pitfall, International Karate... None of those will work as expected on analogue joystick.

On top of that, some other old classics like Commando or Blue Max or Raid over Moscow depended on digital to "simulate" second button. Analogue movement would certainly benefit all three of them (the games would have to be reprogrammed from scratch, obviously), but the lack of second/third fire buttons will make them basically incompatible.

I'm still vaguely intrigued by the Linux OS underneath the ugly console shell, but... I said it before and I'll say it again - hipster furniture isn't exactly what I'm looking for. It's just not enough.