Exclusive First Look At Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

Atari 50: A Celebration of Atari’s 50th Anniversary is being celebrated this week. A classic compilation of games that goes far beyond standard bundles of games. The goal is to create a virtual interactive museum which will show how Atari’s influence and importance, especially in the early days of the videogame industry. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was my first experience with it.

Atari 50 The Anniversary Celebration packs more than 90 gameable titles in a $40 box. Players can expect classic and retro titles from six hardware platforms (Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, ST, Jaguar, and Lynx), all with emulation created by renowned retro revivalists Digital Eclipse; this is the first time Jaguar and Lynx games will be playable on modern consoles. Digital Eclipse has a lot of experience in bringing back the old classics. It is best known for the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, The Disney Afternoon Collection and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Cowabunga Collection.

Atari claims that Digital Eclipse will offer best-in class emulation as well as modern quality-of life enhancements to the many retro Atari mainstays in Atari 50. “When it comes to emulation or bringing classics back or doing really any sort of remastering or reimagining, I don’t know if there’s anybody who does it better than Digital Eclipse, so they were always our first choice,” Atari CEO Wade Rosen says. “[Digital Eclipse president]Mike Mika is an expert in Atari history and gaming history. He and his team are passionate about providing innovative experiences and preserving the rich history of Atari games. We felt it could capture everything, even for something so large as the 50th.

With so many games at your fingertips, trying to find the one you’re looking for (or even just browsing in general, for that matter) could potentially be a daunting task. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration helps to combat this problem by offering a variety of sorting options. If you choose to enter a particular game, you have the option of learning more or jumping right in. The screen can have borders, filters and various options. It also allows you to view the instructions manual and map the buttons. 

Digital Eclipse created six additional games, which pay homage or revisit old Atari classics. For example, the developer created the fourth chapter of Swordquest, Airworld, and made a modern 3D isometric adventure based on Haunted House. Atari 50 will include Vctr Sctr. This title celebrates vector gaming and combines various arcade games such as Asteroids, Tempest, and Tempest into one game. Neo Breakout is a competition for two players that includes Breakout and Pong. Yars’ Revenge Reimagined brings modern graphics to the Atari 2600’s best-selling original-party Atari 2600. Yars’ Reimagined has a great deal of enjoyment. You can switch between modern and original graphics by pressing a button. But Vctr Sctr may be my favorite game, as it seamlessly moves you from one type of game to another.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will give you unprecedented access to the personalities who made Atari one of the most prominent names in video gaming’s early years. Atari 50 includes more than 60 minutes of exclusive interviews with important people in the video game industry; Atari alumni like the creator of Pong Al Alcorn and Yars’ Revenge creator Howard Scott Warshaw are joined by other games industry members to give insight into the company’s biggest successes, struggles, and overall impact on the industry. View other historic assets such as photos from its early days, designs sketches and memos, or ads in past magazines.

It feels fitting to pay tribute to one of the most important and influential companies in gaming, as I sift through this compilation. While it is obvious that Atari’s older games don’t age as well as those from later eras of gaming, this compilation provides some small quality-of life improvements that will make the games a little more entertaining in 2022. I’m excited to dig deeper into the history and nostalgia when Atari 50: The Celebration comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Atari VCS, and PC this holiday season.

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