What is the Atari 2600+ and where can you buy one?

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but in the year 2023, Atari announced a new version of the beloved 2600 game console. The new device, which is aptly named the Atari 2600+, will play all the original cartridges from back in the day. What exactly is this new Atari 2600+ console, and where can you buy one? We’ll break it all down for you so you can dip your toe into the gaming fountain of youth.

What is the Atari 2600+?

The Atari 2600+ is a relatively faithful recreation of the original console, released in September 1977. The 2600+ will play original cartridges from the 2600 and newer 7800 consoles, opening up a vast library of games. Of course, you’ll need to have those cartridges sitting around or be able to find them at your favorite local retro game shop.

Atari includes a nifty 10-in-1 cartridge with a selection of classic games. It has Adventure, Combat, Dodge ‘Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, RealSports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball, and Yars’ Revenge. If you grew up on the Atari 2600 or are even remotely familiar with the games people loved on it, then you know this is a good selection of games. Sure, there’s no Pac-Man, but that’s likely due to licensing and how much it would cost to get the little dot-eating character on the console.

The hardware is a slightly shrunk-down Atari 2600, right down to the wood grain and metal switches for resetting, turning the console on and off, and so on. Internally, it’s not just a stock retro game console, though, as the hardware is quite a bit more modern. It has a Rockchip 3128 SOC microprocessor with 256MB DDR3 RAM and 256MB eMMC fixed internal storage, which is quite a bit more powerful than the 1977 machine, which had an 8-bit MOS Technology 6507 chip and 128 bytes of RAM.

Also modernized is the way you connect the console to the TV. There’s HDMI output and the ability to select between multiple screen resolutions. USB powers the console, so some quality-of-life improvements have certainly been made to bring this to modern gamers.

Atari includes one CX40+ Joystick, which is a faithful recreation of the original, right down to the DB9 connector and wire.

Where can you buy the Atari 2600+?

Right now, the only place we can find to pre-order the new version of the beloved game console is through Atati’s website. Other retailers could stock the console once it comes out (and if there’s enough demand), but it looks like going directly through Atari is your only option for now.

Outside of the console, Atari already offers accessories and additional software titles. For $25, you can snag an extra CX40+ to play with friends. For $40, you can grab two CX30+ paddle controllers and four games: Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Night Driver, and Video Olympics. All of these use paddle controllers, so it’s logical for Atari to include them as a bundle. Finally, there are also two games you can purchase for $30 each: Mr. Run and Jump 2600 and Berzerk – Enhanced Edition.

If you purchased the console itself, an extra controller, and the paddle controller bundle, you’re looking at $195. If you want the additional two games, you’ll need to spend $255, another reminder that nostalgia isn’t always cheap.