from Hacker News

Atari Launches Atari 2600+

by manaskarekar on 8/22/23, 2:25 PM with 97 comments

  • by hackernoteng on 8/22/23, 2:59 PM

    Nostalgic for older genXers such as myself who grew up with these things. Hard to imagine younger generations having patience or interest in such primitive games though. Needs to be played in basement on CRT TV with wood paneled walls though.

  • by dangle1 on 8/22/23, 2:47 PM

    "The system comes with a CX40+ Joystick which has been lovingly recreated to the same specifications as the original"

    I don't think the person that wrote this ad copy was alive when the original, fragile-as-glass 2600 joysticks were in circulation, or maybe they were and were able to slip this joke into the product description unnoticed.

  • by prmoustache on 8/22/23, 3:26 PM

    Aren't people interested with that kind of retro console really more interested in scoring an Sony Trinitron and the original console in the second hand market instead?

    I don't see the newer generation getting suddenly attracted by the primitive graphics. Only the nostalgic, hardcore retro gamers do really care about that. And these are the kind of people who want the exact real experience, which mean using a CRT TV/monitor and the real machine. Only concession they sometimes do is using a cartdridge with sdcard support.

    And it is not like those old Ataris are rare and difficult to find which would justify the existence of alternatives. I see a few ones available for around ~50€ in the local market, less than half the price of that thing.

  • by manicennui on 8/22/23, 3:29 PM

    If they made it easy to write new games for it, with full documentation and a method to get the games on the console, I bet it would really take off with the fantasy console people.

  • by HeckFeck on 8/22/23, 2:44 PM

    I was hoping they'd went the FPGA route, but this looks like another emulator in a box.

  • by dusted on 8/23/23, 8:53 AM

    The fact that there's a cartridge compatibility list indicates that this is not a real machine, but an emulator which does not even do a good job of emulating the cartridge ports. I was so close. This is the same disappointment as the Ultimate64 that has a cartridge port, but one which does not actually simulate it completely.

    It's a shame, because it'd not have been too difficult to get there.

  • by mepian on 8/22/23, 3:27 PM

    I hope they will revive the ST microcomputer family, that's way more interesting to me personally.

  • by h2odragon on 8/22/23, 2:42 PM

    > Plays both Atari 2600 and 7800 game cartridges

    and they include one "10 in 1" cart already. Expect it wont be long before someone has a Pi or Arduino shim to feed this thing any ROM one likes, assuming theres not already some direct facility for it to have an SD card or something.

    I suspect there's few people who own many original Atari 2600 or 7800 carts that really want to use them like this: surely that'll degrade their antique value? Its like "dont play with the beanie babies"... And emulation will be available with all sorts of extra features as well as fewer drawbacks.

  • by fleeno on 8/22/23, 3:03 PM

    I wonder if that "10 in 1" cart will run on a real 2600?

  • by deafpolygon on 8/22/23, 4:34 PM

    I don't think Atari+ is worth 125 dollars, honestly.

  • by anonymousiam on 8/22/23, 4:09 PM

    I purchased the "Atari's Greatest Hits" iOS app for my (previous) iPad over 10 years ago. I also forked out the extra cash for ALL of the games, which included a bunch of 2600 games. The arcade game emulations are great, but the 2600 games are hardly worth playing. They are nostalgic for me because I had purchased a 2600 console as a gift for my sister on Christmas 1977, but the quality is shameful when compared against any computer game released since.

    It's pretty amazing what they could do with a one megahertz processor, four kilobytes of ROM (in the cartridge), and 128 bytes of RAM.

    https://www.codemystics.com/products.shtml?8

  • by Luc on 8/22/23, 3:00 PM

    Is Atari still the old Infogrames? Or did the brand change hands again?

  • by amanzi on 8/22/23, 9:04 PM

    I wonder what "widescreen mode" means, I couldn't find any description of that on the page?

    I have a couple of Atari consoles and a bunch of games that I bought on a whim a few years back, but connecting them to my current TV is no longer possible. This would solve that issue with the HDMI connection.

  • by glonq on 8/22/23, 3:40 PM

    Ugh; that original joystick was not comfy to use. If this uses a standard connector I'd try find an old Wico or similar.

    Website says "joystick with serial port connector". Do they mean the original DE-9 connector, or is this something different?

  • by kramerger on 8/22/23, 8:47 PM

    Nostalgic? Sure

    Do I actually want to play these ten really basic games today? Maybe for five minutes

    Is it worth $120? Nope

  • by vunderba on 8/22/23, 11:56 PM

    The system comes with a CX40+ Joystick which has been lovingly recreated to the same specifications as the original, and a 10-in-1 game cartridge featuring some of Atari’s most famous games: Adventure®, Combat®, Dodge 'Em™, Haunted House®, Maze Craze™, Missile Command®, RealSports® Volleyball, Surround™, Video Pinball™, Yars' Revenge®.

    What... no E.T.? Off to my local New Mexico landfill I guess.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial

  • by baz00 on 8/22/23, 3:01 PM

    1. Hey it looks like you're in the UK - click here to set the shipping options

    2. Click

    3. This product is only available for shipping in the United States.

    Why bother with (1)?!?!?!?!

  • by gmosx on 8/22/23, 6:31 PM

    It's a pity it's USA only.

  • by appstorelottery on 8/22/23, 3:13 PM

    Is that real wood on the front?