The previously teased Atari Gameband has hit Kickstarter. The wearable gaming device project only went live yesterday and it has already broken through its funding goal of $75,000. The Atari Gameband is described, in short, as a powerful Smartwatch with a built-in upgradable MicroSD drive, gaming design and exclusive content. For Atari gaming content up to 20 mini-screen games will be bundled including classics such as Asteroids, Pong, Breakout and Centipede.
Essentially the Gameband is an Android smartwatch with the specifications as outlined in the image below. The OS behind it is not Android Wear but a customised version of Android Marshmallow. You can still get plenty of smartwatch functionality like notifications, calendar, contacts, dialer, fitness, weather, alarm, stopwatch, and a music player. However, what makes this smartwatch particularly appealing, are the gaming features available.
The headlining Atati edition of the GameBand contains up to 20 classic titles which can be played directly on the smartwatch OLED screen while on the go, or plugged into a computer and played on the much bigger screen that provides.
Once plugged into the computer a game management app called PixelFurnace runs and allows computer access of any games you have loaded, as well as lots of other file types like photos and music which you can store on the (up to 256GB) microSD card. Connections are said to be at USB 3.0 speeds.
As well as the Atari Edition, FMTwo - the company behind the project, are producing a standard edition (plus 5x mini games), and a Terraria game (plus 5x mini games) edition. All three versions are available via Kickstarter. With all the smartwatches offered at the same price it's understandable that the Atari and Terraria editions are noticeably more popular.
All the $99 'super early bird' smartwatch offers have been snapped up now, so we are left with 'early bird' options at $149. Final retail prices of these smartwatches is said to be $199. Gameband smartwatches are scheduled to ship in September 2017.
