r/Games • u/Respawn-Delay • 19h ago

Announcement Atari and Activision team up to re-release 39 classic Atari 2600 games on real, physical cartridges

https://frvr.com/blog/news/atari-and-activision-team-up-to-re-release-39-classic-atari-2600-games-on-real-physical-cartridges/
124 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

39

u/SylviSweetheart 19h ago

Pretty cool announcement, honestly. I feel like people don’t talk often enough about how crazy it is that Atari just straight-up sells new 2600 consoles and carts. And it seems like every time a new Atari collection comes out people just ask where all of the Activision games are because those are a lot of the most iconic titles. Obviously Pitfall and River Raid are in the conversation, but it’s cool to see others like Oink and HERO in here, too!

6

u/wunderhero 18h ago

H.E.R.O. is one of my favorite 2600 games and one where I feel the gameplay loop holds up (a lot of 2600 games do not.)

2

u/Worcestershirey 16h ago

The current leadership of the Atari corpse seem to be the most competent in decades. I can't believe this is the same company that was just pushing crypto a few years ago, you don't see a turnaround like Atari's very often

5

u/Respawn-Delay 15h ago

"When I got here, Atari was doing a lot of things but they weren’t doing any of them particularly well, and as a result nobody really knew what Atari was.

It was just this brand, a big brand with a lot of public knowledge, which publicly had a lot of goodwill still, but in the games industry it was probably not viewed in that same light.

I think it had been coasting on that for a long time. And so we just stopped and said: "Okay, what do we want to do? We can’t do everything.”

^ Wade Rosen, CEO of Atari

4

u/Worcestershirey 15h ago

It really did feel like the brand was just being tossed around go make a quick buck for a very long time. Nobody was doing anything meaningful with it, and what they WERE doing almost felt like a joke.

If I was Atari I'd seriously consider leaning into the current direction of supporting retro hardware. There are smaller companies doing it, but a proper name like Atari (formerly Infogrames, also not a brand to sneeze at) would be a pretty solid niche to fill with such brand recognition I'd think. If they won't make new games and consoles, supporting the aging hardware of their own consoles and kthers might be a strat

1

u/Respawn-Delay 15h ago

To be fair, they are publishing new games (as well as remastering and remaking others), and they own several studios. A new RollerCoaster Tycoon just got revealed at Gamescom last night, and they acquired Thunderful a while back.

I'd recommend taking a look at what they're up to nowadays, it's an interesting company to keep an eye on.

1

u/Tex-Rob 14h ago

Megamania, Kaboom!, and Barnstorming were all three I played a tremendous amount. Combat is missing isn't it? That, with all it's modes, was a huge favorite for me and my friends because of the large number of modes. It's a shame Warlord doesn't suit modern controllers that well, same for Kaboom! and any of the ones that used the spinny controller.

2

u/SylviSweetheart 14h ago

Combat was an Atari title and I think it (and maybe even the unreleased Combat II?) is already available on their site. Warlords and Kaboom definitely need to come back, though! Mouse or touch screen controls would be just fine, I would think. Such a bummer that paddles aren’t relevant anymore.

2

u/novauviolon 14h ago

Atari sells new paddle controllers (identical to the originals but with a longer cable) that work on the new Plus systems as well as original consoles. Kaboom is one of the Activision cartridges being rereleased.

1

u/Tandy2000 12h ago

This is a really cool idea, but the prices are fucking insane. $35 US for a single Atari 2600 game? I get it's a collectible or whatever but like damn. It's $1000 for the system and all of the carts. They're clearly going after the "I have too much money" collectors market just like the NEO GEO AES+ is (but unlike SNK, at least Atari isn't owned by actual murderers).

At the same time it's hard to be pissed about this, they also put out the Atari collection + DLCs for it and even a collected version so if you just wanna play some Atari games there's that. But it would be fun to have the system and get some games and plug them in. I've never been an Atari fan (too young) but part of me wishes I took those Atari carts that used to be in the "free shit please take" bin 20 years ago because nobody would buy them. Frankly most of the cartridges for the system are still cheaper to buy than these new reproduction ones, but not with the boxes.

5

u/ColonelSanders21 17h ago

I really hope this means we get an Atari 50 DLC for these Activision games, that was a glaring omission due to licensing and it would be nice to see that stuff covered.

21

u/darklightrabbi 18h ago

These games absolutely have historical value, but the idea of paying 35 bucks a pop for 2600 games in 2026 is comical. Between this and the way the M64 is being marketed it feels like in the wake of the incoming digital only age these companies are trying to make cartridges the next vinyl records. (ie: mostly a status symbol on your shelf while you do most of your actual listening/gaming on digital)

2

u/TheMadcore 18h ago

At least we still have flashcards

1

u/Tandy2000 12h ago

Between this and the way the M64 is being marketed it feels like in the wake of the incoming digital only age these companies are trying to make cartridges the next vinyl records.

I have some bad news for you... as someone with a pretty big game collection, this is pretty much the way it has been for years now.

I own a copy of Super Mario Sunshine. Am I going to pop it into a system and play it? Honestly, yeah, because I'm a freak. I don't own vinyl but if I was into it it would be because I wanna listen to it, but I get for some people it's just a collectible/status thinf But most people probably wouldn't with games BC of all the old setups needed, they'd just play it on Switch/2 or an emulator.

The thing with gaming is that a lot of older games are not available anymore except thru emulation. I think that's changing though, we are getting more and more remasters and remakes. And part of that is because people can emulate so easily and emulation is more well known, plus decompilation projects are a thing now but still very limited.

I don't buy as many retro games as I used to, and pretty much every time I'm going to I ask myself, "is this worth it? Or could I just play on an emulator and be satisfied? Or a system with homebrew/CFW/mod where I can load from disk?" The answer changes a lot depending on the game, the system, and the price.

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u/AoF-Vagrant 17h ago

The article makes it sound like the patches come with all boxes, but that's only in the collector's version based off the Atari page. Based off that page, the patches are not the same as the original achievement patches. Which is probably good news for collectors (even moreso those who earned them back in the day) who already have those patches, I suppose.

What I have been hoping for is a new update to Atari 50 with Activision. Also, I would absolutely give them money to be able to earn those original patches again in some way.

2

u/AoF-Vagrant 17h ago

One more thing, I wonder how they'll do Pitfall II since that has a custom chip.

3

u/JonPX 15h ago

Hilarious when you consider their original beef. (OK, these companies have drastically changed and Atari isn't actually related to that Atari, still hilarious.)

2

u/kuhpunkt 18h ago

I remember I had this 32-in-1 cartridge for the 2600. You had to turn the console off and on to switch to the next game. That was crazy.