Credit: Atari

To call this thing’s development “tumultuous” would be an understatement.

Nearly three years ago, video gaming granddaddy Atari announced that they were working on their first brand new console in quite a long time. In order to make this happen, they launched a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo, which raised a total of $3,058,123. The console will supposedly boast a massive library of Atari’s entire back catalog, as well as subscription service to Antstream Arcade, which offers thousands of titles from other vintage consoles (including Nintendo consoles, which is definitely going to lead to a copyright kerfuffle). Yessir, it seemed like the VCS would be the retro console to end all retro consoles.

Then it got delayed.

Then it got delayed again.

Then the project’s lead architect, Rob Wyatt, quit due to the toxic work environment.

Credit: Atari

It’s been an extremely bumpy road for Atari’s big comeback, but despite all that, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. The production team announced today that the first 500 (or so) VCS units will be officially shipping out to top tier IndieGoGo backers in the middle of June. Of course, that still leaves the remaining 11,097 campaign backers in the lurch, but now that Atari has the parts for the VCS sorted out, they are “cautiously optimistic” that they’ll be able to get units out to everyone else some time this summer.

Based on specs listed on the IndieGoGo page, the VCS definitely does have some muscle under the hood, with a AMD Ryzen processor and a custom OS, plus functionality for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. However, it’ll also cost anywhere from $249.99 to $389.99 depending on what accessories you get with it, which can be a turn off for folks who just want a retro console. The VCS is gonna need some fresh blood in addition to the back catalog if it wants to really wow the world.