Few phrases will put a catch within the throat of a Gen Xer like “Atari.” Regardless of how badly that model has been botched since Warner Bros. purchased out founder Nolan Bushnell and despatched head-smacking errors like E.T. and Pac-Man to a New Mexico grave, it’s nonetheless the title that began residence console gaming in america, and that accords a sure degree of respect, if not deference, like the sentiments Nineteen Nineties children have for Nintendo.
The place was I? Sure, Atari shall be getting an Expanded Version of its Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, an anthology which launched in November 2022 for Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Collection X.
That comprised effectively greater than 100 video games, truly, which included prototypes and unreleased ideas for the Atari VCS/2600 and Atari 5200, in addition to catalog mainstays like Air-Sea Battle, Warlords and Outlaw; residence variations of arcade quarter-eaters Asteroids and Missile Command; and pioneering ideas like Yars’ Revenge, and the Swordquest and RealSports sequence.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Version launches with 39 extra video games this fall for all of the platforms of the unique anthology, for $39.99. The brand new lineup of video games may even be out there to homeowners of the unique assortment as premium DLC.
A steelbook version provides collectors all of the video games on a disc plus a number of different premiums, together with some miniaturized replicas of arcade cupboard marquees, artwork playing cards, and even a duplicate of the enterprise card for Al Alcorn, creator of Pong, which was put in in late November 1972 at a Sunnyvale, Calif. bar that’s at the moment the Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Membership. (I do know this as a result of I used to bomb, badly, on Tuesday evenings in Rooster’s open-mic showcases.)
The 39 further video games shall be segmented into two timelines: The Wider World of Atari, and The First Console Conflict. The latter references Atari duking it out with Intellivision, a rivalry that ended solely final month when Atari’s homeowners plucked the Intellivision IP off the scrap heap with Tommy Tallarico’s pie-in-the-sky Intellivision Amico nonetheless unreleased after seven years allegedly in improvement.
What’s within the Atari 50: Anniversary Celebration Expanded Version?
Atari’s model managers’ buy of Intellivision gave them rights to some 200 video games, which might be the gas for this expanded version re-release. A press release on Tuesday talked about that the Expanded Version will embrace “each Atari and M Community video games,” referencing the third-party publishing label for the 2600 that Mattel opened as the unique console’s fortunes turned south.
Berzerk, Stern Electronics’ authentic maze-based run-n-gunner (pictured above) may even characteristic prominently. Atari acquired that property (and its sequel, Frenzy) again in 2023. It was some of the trustworthy variations of an arcade recreation (absent synthesized voice information, after all) the 2600 needed to supply.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Version shall be launched Oct. 25 for Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X.
