Atari's classic 2600 console is back as a £100 "modern day faithful recreation"
And it'll even play original cartridges.
If you're old enough to remember the days when consoles were made of wood and powered by the hopes and dreams of a better future, you might be excited to know Atari is bringing its classic 70s/80s console, the Atari 2600, back as a "modern day faithful recreation" - and it'll even play original cartridges if you still have some lying around behind your Zimmer frame.
The Atari 2600+, as this updated version of the classic console is officially known, has been birthed into the world through the frantic conjoining of Atari and Plaion (formerly Koch Media), and is set to release on 17th November for £99.99/€119.99/$129.99, which is, if nothing else, cheaper than it would have cost you back in 1977.
This new-fangled update features a couple of modern-day revisions including HDMI output, USB power, and multiple screen resolutions, but the selling point here, really, is how close is adheres to the Atari 2600's iconic design - wood panel frontage and all.
For your 100 present-day pounds, you get the console, a "faithful replica" of Atari's original CX40+ joystick (a second will cost an additional £19.99/€22.99/$24.99), plus ten games on a single cartridge: Adventure, Combat, Dodge 'Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, Realsports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball, and Yars' Revenge.
Additional single-game cartridges - including Berzerk Enhanced Edition and Mr. Run and Jump - will be available on launch day, and these will cost £24.99/€29.99/$29.99 each, which certainly sounds like an optimistic price point on Plaion's part. Knob-twizzling fans can also purchase a bundle of two replica CX-30 Paddle Controllers for £29.99/€34.99/$39.99, and this'll include a 4-in-1 multi game cartridge of indeterminate content based on Plaion's press release, but if Pong's not in there, the world might as well just flip upside down right now.
This isn't the Atari 2600's first return in recent times, of course (and very nice its Lego replica was too), nor is it Atari's first attempt at resurrecting one of its classic consoles for the modern era - but the less said about its disastrous Atari VCS revival the better.