This year marks the 50th anniversary of Pong appearing at a local bar near Atari headquarters and breaking down repeatedly because the coin mechanism was too full of quarters. It wasn’t the first video game, but it was the one that broke the floodgates and created the gaming industry as we know it today. The current Atari doesn’t have a large connection to the innovative company of the past, but they have brought on the archival specialists at Digital Eclipse to create a 90-game collection that will let players everywhere experience the full history of gaming’s first first-party publisher. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is set for release later this year on Atari VCS, Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC for $39.99.
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Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will include the games people always think of when they hear the name Atari (even though the full list of games hasn’t been revealed). From Yar’s Revenge to Adventure, they’re all on the roster. However, Atari 50 reaches into the more obscure sections of the company’s past to give a full glimpse at gaming history. For the first time, Jaguar and Lynx games will see rerelease on modern consoles, joined by titles from Atari’s 2600, 5200, 7800, and ST.
Digital Eclipse (known for Mega Man Legacy Collection and the upcoming TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection) is going one step further with its latest retro compilation, presenting the huge list of included titles in an interactive timeline alongside 60 minutes of interviews with great minds from across the industry and the developers that brought these classics to life. If everything goes to plan, players will listen to a creator give context for a specific 2600 game and then load right in to experience it for themselves before returning to the timeline. The collection supports modern retro staples like save states as well, making it easy to jump around and experience everything Atari at your own pace, as well as button remapping, filters, and borders.
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Atari 50 also includes six new games that remaster or remix classics from the past. There’s a remake of Yar’s Revenge, a new entry on the Tank series called Quadratank, and a mash-up that celebrates vector-based games that are otherwise hard to emulate on modern systems called Vctr Sctr. This reimagining links up with Atari’s recent Recharged series, which has seen everything from Asteroids to Breakout get a modern makeover. According to Game Informer, Atari 50 will also have the fourth chapter of Swordquest called Airworld, a 3D isometric adventure based on 1982’s Haunted House, and Neo Breakout, which is a combination of Breakout and Pong.
