Cyberpunk 2077 can run on the Atari VCS — here's how

Cyberpunk 2077 can run on the Atari VCS — here'southward how

(Prototype credit: CD Projekt Red)

The troubled Cyberpunk 2077 game has been getting a lot of criticism for how poorly it plays on the standard Xbox One and PS4 consoles. Just where those two consoles failed, information technology seems the long-awaited might take Atari VCS succeeded.

That's right, the crowdfunded Atari revival, which was never intended to compete with consoles and gaming PCs, tin run CD Projekt Red's controversial RPG. Crucially, information technology doesn't cheat by streaming the game from a cloud service such as Google Stadia.

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The feat was accomplished by YouTuber Kevin Kenson, who managed to install and run Cyberpunk 2077 on the Atari VCS. Different playing the game on Switch, which utilized the cloud, this time it's really running on the panel.

How? As Kenson explains, the Atari VCS is actually a custom PC running a class of Linux. Obviously, that wouldn't play so well with typical PC releases, and so Kenson installed Windows 10 instead — an Bone that can play AAA PC games similar Cyberpunk 2077. But information technology wasn't quite so uncomplicated, since the Atari VCS does not have the hardware to run such procedure-heavy games.

Considering the Atari VCS only has 8GB of RAM, and doesn't have a dedicated graphics carte, information technology couldn't merely run Cyberpunk 2077 out of the box. In fact, it struggled with much smaller games like Fortnite on their lowest settings, significant some piece of work had to be done. This involved forcing the machine to cancel processes and free upwards infinite, then using a partition on the SSD as virtual RAM.

That enabled Cyberpunk 2077 to run on the machine, albeit not very well. The sample shots we meet in the video bear witness a sluggish frame charge per unit, and graphics that aren't specially pretty, so y'all wouldn't desire to set this upward for yourself in identify of a final-gen console.

In fact, Kenson specifically says it's noticeably worse than playing a hotfixed version of the game on Xbox One S. He notes that the Atari VCS might exist running it better than a last-gen console on launch solar day, but the recent slew of updates have changed that.

In other words, don't buy an Atari VCS merely so you tin can hack information technology to play console games. Cyberpunk 2077 runs badly, and Kenson noted he couldn't get Doom Eternal to run at all. And that's after all the hassle of modifying the software to run the games. If a console isn't for you, and so information technology'south best to only option up i of the best gaming PCs or sign up for Google Stadia.

Tom is the Tom's Guide's Automotive Editor, which ways he tin can usually exist found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It'due south long manner from his days equally editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He's commonly establish trying to squeeze another behemothic Lego set up onto the shelf, draining very large cups of java, or complaining that Ikea won't permit him buy the stuff he really needs online.