Atari has announced that it is bringing back the legendary Atari 2600 Plus this year. The classic console has been a fan-favorite for decades and will finally get a new lease on life after getting the same treatment as the Nintendo Classic Mini. It works exactly how you remember it but is just 20% smaller. Being a re-release, it comes with some current-century bells and whistles. This includes cartridges that hold more than one game, HDMI output, and even USB type-C.
That’s not all. The console will run Atari 2600 games as well as Atari 7800 games. Since the cartridges as swappable, they will work out of the box with the original controllers. The new cartridges will hold up to 10 games which will make swapping games a lot easier.
Atari 2600 Plus Brings Classics Back to Life
Other than that, the console is pretty similar to the original, as one would expect. The Atari logo lights up, and there are 4 switches around the marginally larger cartridge slot. And those who have handled an Atari 2600 before, you will feel right at home. There is a video below that shows the console’s updated design in detail:
Under the hood, powering the Atari 2600 Plus, is a Rockchip 2128 SoC. Of course, being such an old machine, not much is required to run its games without any upscaling. All games on the console support both the Joystick and the Paddle controllers. If you wish to add even more, you can buy the new CS40 Plus Joystick and the CX30 Plus controllers.
This won’t come as news to Atari fans, but this is not the first console the company has revived. The previous one, released in 2021, was the Atari VCS. A classic gaming console that was also a streaming box for some inexplicable reason. Needless to say, the Atari 2600 Plus will likely be the fan favorite among the two. Not to mention that the Atari VCS launched at around the same price as a current generation console.
The Atari 2600 Plus will launch on November 17 for a relatively reasonable $129.99. If you’re interested in getting your hands on it, the preorders are already live.
