Old-school gamers have a reason to be excited, as Atari unveils the upcoming Atari 2600+.
It's not the first time Atari has attempted to compete in the recent wave of retro consoles. In 2021, it released the Atari VCS, a streaming console that didn't win over many gamers due to the inflated price tag. The Atari 2600+, however, comes in at a much more reasonable $129.99. It's now open to pre-orders for customers based in the United States and launches on Nov. 17.
If you were a fan of Atari back in its glory days and have some old cartridges kicking around, the Atari 2600+ works with cartridges from the original Atari 2600 and 7800. If not, the Atari 2600+ comes with a 10-in-1 game cartridge with Adventure, Combat, Dodge 'Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, Realsports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball, and Yars' Revenge.
The modernized console connects via HDMI and features a USB-C power cable. It comes with one CX40+ joystick; you can purchase a second one from the Atari store.
Unlike the Atari VCS, the Atari 2600+ looks just like the original Atari 2600, with the wooden panel along the front, and the same toggle switches, including a black-and-white or color TV switcher. The only design differences are a light-up logo, a slightly larger cartridge socket to ensure cartridges don't stick, and those modern ports.
The Atari 2600+ is powered by a Rockchip 3128 SOC microprocessor and 256MB DDR3 RAM, with 256MB eMMC storage built-in.
While you wait for the Atari 2600+, check out Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation, the newest book from Jamie Lendino, Editor-in-Chief of PCMag sister publication ExtremeTech. He also has a deep dive on the Atari 2600: Adventure: The Atari 2600 at the Dawn of Console Gaming.
