A retro revival console with a cool twist.
Atari will be joining the ranks of Sony and Nintendo in the world of dedicated retro consoles.
They announced the Atari 2600+ via a trailer a couple of days ago, and fans are already getting excited to return to the classics of almost five decades ago.
There’s also a nifty backwards-compatible twist that we rarely see in this type of console!
The Atari 2600 first dropped back in 1977, the year Star Wars was born. It was a milestone achievement in the world of gaming, and today will be found near the top of almost every “most influential consoles” lists.
It cemented the existence of video games in the home, rather than just in the arcade, and for a while the word “Atari” (until it was superseded by “Nintendo”) was synonymous with gaming consoles.
Atari ceased to be gods of the gaming market after the 1983 video games crash, but they’ve never been forgotten. In fact, we’ve seen a plethora of Atari compilation releases for modern consoles, and a LEGO version of the 2600 was released last year.
It seemed only a matter of time, then, that a dedicated retro console would be released.
And, as we’ve already said, the 2600+ goes further than the PlayStation Classic and the Super NES Classic Edition. Believe it or not, it’s backwards compatible: It’ll be able to play old 2600 and 7800 Atari cartridges, so if you’re a ’70s kid, get rummaging around your loft. It’s time for Bentley Bear to run again.
Check out the trailer below:
As you can see in the trailer, a lot of craftmanship has gone into the console itself. From the wood panel front, to the grooves in the top, to the recreations of the CX40 joystick controllers.
At £99.99, it comes out on 17th November, along with separate joysticks and pong controllers to purchase, a four-games-in-one cartridge, and rereleases of Berzerk and Mr Run and Jump.
We reckon they’ll be underneath a lot of Christmas trees…
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