The Atari 2600 is back! The year is 2023 and you can forget all your 4K and teraflops. The new Atari 2600+ console is all about blowing in your cartridges and using a joystick with one button!
Atari is one of the most iconic brands in the world. And I don’t just mean the world of video games. It is one of those things that most people have heard of. Many of us grew up with Atari, and the likes of Pong, Asteroids and Centipede are some of the most famous of all video games.
Younger gamers may not know it as well, because despite being the grandaddy of all video game makers, they’ve struggled since the mid 1980s. The Nintendo Entertainment System took Atari’s crown as THE home video game console, and although Atari stayed in the game with the 7800, Jaguar and Lynx, it was never able to recapture the magic or success as the Atari 2600.
In the years since the Atari Jaguar failed at retail, the Atari company has passed through multiple hands, and the current version of the company have been on something of a mission to revitalise their brand. Their focus has been on the modern retro gaming market, and the Atari 2600+ is the latest and perhaps greatest of their output.
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Atari 2600 PlusThe new console is a slightly smaller recreation of the original design of the Atari 2600 athletically, but my understanding is that the internals are emulation based and that this just loads in the game and runs it that way. Atari have put out a full list of games that are compatible and from what I could see the majority of games are.
There are a few that aren’t that are notable and these include the likes of Pitfall 2, James Bond 007 and Masters of the Universe. I think this is a bit of a bummer as I’m particularly interested in tracking down old licensed games based on IP like He-Man as these are unlikely to get rereleases the same way that you can play Breakout on twenty different devices.
Over the years there have been tons of home brew Atari 2600 games and there so far isn’t an official list of which of these carts will be compatible on the 2600+. One of the more exciting aspects of this console being released is that it will surely see more home brew games made and will also possibly see more of these getting released with limited or wider runs.
To accompany this new console, Atari have released several new cartridges. This includes the fantastic Mr Run and Jump, which is the first new game from Atari released for the 2600 in 30 years. I hope this isn’t a one and done and that they have several new games in the works. There is also a new enhanced version of Bezerk and a multi-cart of four games that come with paddle controls.
Included in the box with the system is a ten-in-one cartridge that gives you the likes of Adventure, Yars Revenge and Haunted House. This is certainly enough to get new players going on the system, although I expect any players who are buying the system to use the old carts will already have copies of things like Combat, Missile Command and Video Pinball. Rounding out the ten games are Maze Craze, Realsports Volleyball and Dodge ‘Em.
The cart comes with dip switches so you have to manually adjust the switches on the cart to make it load the various games. This is super retro and I’ve seen some complain that this should have been achieved with a menu when you switch on the console. Maybe this is possible, but to me I like that this is part of the old experience that they can bring back. Everything can be done as a download nowadays if we really wanted, but if we’re choosing to buy old school products like this I don’t mind a little bit of the quirky old school experience like this.
Another of these quirks from the original that may take modern players by surprise is that there are a bunch of switches on the console itself that you’ll need to be familiar with to get the most out of the games. Changing difficulty levels and sometimes even starting gameplay is done with the switches on the console itself.
The design is based on the four switch Atari 2600 and not a six switcher, and whilst some would have like to have seen that I think they did as much as they could to shrink down the console whilst still feeling like a legitimate home console and not just a mini console or Atari Flashback device.
One question that a lot of people have had is who is this console for? Atari have been great at leveraging their classic IP in recent years and they’re taking many steps to remind old players and educate new ones about their library of franchises. This has been done with the recharged games that have released on modern consoles, and in one sense those games will lead players to revisit the old 2600 and arcade versions of those games like Centipede and Black Widow as much as the original games will drive interest in the modern remakes.
Last year Atari released the 50th Anniversary Collection on every modern console and that gave you over a hundred classic games to play. As an owner of the modern Atari VCS I noticed that a lot of these games were already available as part of the Atari Vault collections on the VCS. Then Atari also released new iterations of the Atari Flashback plug and play consoles and this also had 100 or more games on it. Plus you can download some classic games individually in the VCS store. Then there is the Atari 50 home arcade machine. And let’s not forget the Atari Gamestation Pro plug and play from My Arcade which has also just released.
So, again, I ask, who is this for? It’s great in one sense that Atari have given players many options to revisit their old games, but my concern is that with so many ways to play, can they all be successful? The Gamestation Pro allows you to add roms, but doesn’t let you play original carts. The VCS has modern Atari games and indie games mostly, and the 2600+ is all about original carts. I appreciate that they released a way for players to play their old collection, and as a 7800 owner I love that this is forward compatible with those games.
I do half wonder if they could have released all of these ideas as one device to be the ultimate Atari box. There is a certain appeal to mini consoles or recreations of old hardware, and I understand that, but imagine if this had been a device that looks like the 2600, plays original carts from the 2600 and 7800 through a cartridge slot, but also had 200 games built in like the Gamestation pro has? Unless Atari plan to rerelease all the old games, it won’t be easy for some players to track down certain old carts that haven’t been available in 35 years.
A premium version of this device could have been what the VCS is. Or I guess what I’m saying is that the VCS could have included a cart slot for backwards compatibility too. But heck, I’m sure Atari knows there will be players who will buy all three of the 2600+, Gamestation Pro and VCS just to play Pong three times over.
The system comes with one joystick and it’s true to the original. This is both good and bad. It’s great that it’s faithful, but it’s also true that gaming controllers improved over time, and I found the joystick that came with the 2600+ here to be very stiff. It’s fine for many games, but I found that I was longing for a joypad when playing Mr Run and Jump to review that game. I’m sure it’s just because it’s new and with a lot of use this will either loosen up slightly or I’ll just get used to it.
If you’re not happy with the controller, the good news is that the console will work with a variety of other controllers that have the same old school Atari port. So bad news, your Bluetooth and USB controllers won’t work. But if you have original joysticks or game pads from the Atari 2600 or 7800 they should work just fine.
I tested a bunch of controllers on the system and this is what I found. Old joysticks that I’d hd from my Amiga 500 and Atari ST work great. I have various from companies like Quickshot and they all worked and for me made some games easier to play. I also tested my Sega Master System joypad and it works fine as well. The bad news is that I also tried multiple Sega Mega Drive/Genesis controllers and they didn’t work. This included both official Sega pads and third-party ones. This is a shame as they have the same port, but I guess the internals won’t allow it to be used. I did look up and found there may be adaptors available, but it’s probably easier to get a new controller if you want one.
I have a Retron 77 and the joystick from that worked great and I slightly preferred it to the official one as it was looser and easier to control. There is also the Hyperkin Ranger controller which combines a mini joystick which is closer to a dpad in function with a paddle built in.
Atari have also released paddles you can get to use with this, but I didn’t get that to test for this review, and don’t have any original paddles. When I get some I’ll do another review of what they’re like.
One of the best things about the console is that it allows you to play your old carts on modern TVs with an HDMI cable. This is great, and also great that it’s a solution for both the 2600 and 7800 in this respect. I have a Retron 77, and that allows me to play Atari 2600 games on HDTVs already, but I’ve been stuck on the 7800 front, so this is good.
With the new carts released it got me thinking that they’ve made Mr Run and Jump and Bezerk Enhanced so they will work on original Atari 2600 consoles as well and that is cool. Even if new players don’t buy the plus, they can still sell games to owners of the original hardware. But this has come concerned in one regard. As the 2600+ can also play 7800 games they could also make games that are targeted at that power level. We could get brand new 7800 games which I think is just as exciting if not more so. The 7800 didn’t get many games back in the day, but it’s also true that not many people have original 7800 hardware.
If Atari are serious about putting out some new carts that will work on the 2600+ I hope to see some that are 7800 level games. But my gut feeling tells me this is less likely. As the 7800 was in a similar wheel house as the NES, it can have more advanced games and this may just be seen as too time consuming or costly to make new games compared to what they must have done to make Mr Run and Jump. I get that. But I also worry that they would look at the market and say there aren’t many people with original 7800 consoles and therefore not make a new game or two for the 7800 because of the past install base. In theory the 2600+ may only get 2600 level games because more people own the original 2600 than people own the 7800. That would be a shame as this console could be something of a revival and redemption for the 7800.
The 7800 could have released much earlier than it originally had and if Atari hadn’t been going through issues at the time, and got it out when they could have the 7800 would have had a shot at giving the NES a better run for its money.
I hope Atari give this console support with several new carts. Over the past couple of years they have released expensive special edition carts of old games, but the new carts that have accompanied the launch of the 2600+ have all been more reasonably priced. Mr Run and Jump was £24.99 on Amazon and I’d say that £19.99 would have been the optimal price to convince me to buy a few more games here and there.
If this sells well enough, I’d love to see some third party support on the console. Even if it’s like things were back in the day and Atari actually make new games based on third party franchises. I’d quite like to see a new version of Pac-Man made for the 2600 that redeemed the rushed port that came out back in the day. I’d also love if a enhanced version of E.T the Extraterrestrial came out for it that fixed the game to make a happily ever after for that game. More than that I’d love to see 2600 or 7800 versions of Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Final Fantasy and Minecraft. Imagine if new retro games based on these that didn’t exist when the 2600 was out saw a release.
So, the big question is whether you should get this or not? The answer will depend on a couple of things. Do you have a collection of 2600 and/or 7800 games? If so and you want to play them on an HDTV and have hardware that is new without the concern of maintaining forty-year-old consoles then this is for you. It’d also be for you if you want to start getting into collecting.
It’s just released, but I’m sure it won’t take long before we get news on this being modded or hacked in some fashion. The console has a single usb type C port which is used to supply power, but it may be that port can also be used to connect the 2600+ to a computer for firmware updates.
If you just want a quick way to play games and don’t have carts or want to start collecting, I’d suggest getting an Atari Flashback or the Atari Gamestation Pro. Or you could just download games on the Atari VCS store or get the Atari 50 Collection that has loads of the same games on it.
Conclusion
For me, I’m very happy with the console so far. All the games I’ve tested work just fine and I’m excited to use this to record gameplay footage and see new games released on the console. I think this is the perfect new device for old collectors and will encourage new ones too. Have you played Atari today? I know I have!
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