Llamasoft. is known for developing Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar, Tempest 3000 for the NUON, TxK for PS Vita (which caused legal troubles with Atari S.A.), and Polybus (PS VR/Oculus), which is used in this NIN music video.
Atari, S.A. is the current rights holder to Tempest. While Llamasoft is developing Tempest 4000, Atari, S.A. is publishing it.
Last Wednesday, on May 30th, Atari, S.A. launched their crowdfunding campaign for the new Atari VCS console on Indiegogo. They have thus far raised in excess of $2.7 million.
On their official YouTube channel and on their Indiegogo page, Atari, S.A. released this video of the new Atari VCS playing Tempest 4000 in what they call a "modern game test."
The problem is that Llamasoft says it never ported the game to the platform.
On Llamasoft's forum at yakyak.org, developer Ivan Zorzin, who goes goes by the username gilesgoat, seems to have been surprised that Tempest 4000 is being shown off for the new Atari VCS.
First, he states he wasn't contracted to make a version for the Atari VCS.
And he doesn't know anything about his game being on the platform.
.. I know absolutely NOTHING about it, nor about it running, even less about the Atari box itself.
Zorzin does not even have any inside information on the project, and knows as much as we do through media reports and press releases.
Zorzin goes on to detail that the PC and PS4 versions of Tempest 4000 are done, and that the Xbox One version is awaiting certification, and he specifies frustrations he's had working with Microsoft and the Xbox One platform.
In regards to the Atari VCS version of Tempest 4000, Zorzin has specific advice for his fans.
"I'll believe it when I'll see it" that's my "best advice" for everyone.
And this is really the best advice coming from "N years of real life experience" .. see what you have in hands when you have it in your hands, don't be afraid/worried of this or that "it's not there until you don't have it".
There are two possible conclusions to draw from this.
It could be that the Atari VCS demo was running Wine software, and the video shown is the PC version.
Here's Zorzin's response to that speculation:
So, this hypothesis is plausible.
Another hypothesis is that Atari, S.A. straight up pulled a Mike Kennedy and faked the footage. Kennedy was a prominent figure in the retro gaming scene and was the publisher of RETRO, a retro gaming magazine. Kennedy fell from favor when his "Retro VGS" console, later renamed to "Coleco Chameleon," proved to be fake. The prototype shown at the 2016 New York Toy Fair proved to be an SNES in a Jaguar shell. He was later busted again for putting a capture card in a clear shell and saying it was the actual hardware.
Both hypotheses are equally possible. In either case, Atari, S.A. has not shown a game running on native hardware. Anyone considering backing this project with their own money should exercise caution.
Update: AtariAge forum members have shown that the "Yar's Revenge" footage is also fake.
Update: This one is courtesy of u/raneman25.
Official response: https://i.imgur.com/tejMTtm.png
They admit the game isn't running on their platform.
But they previously said it was:
"Get #AtariVCS at AtariVCS.com Still excited about seeing Tempest 4000 on the Atari VCS? How about some actual gameplay? We’ve snagged more behind the scenes test video! It's Tempest 4000, played with a modern controller on an Atari VCS test platform!"