Have you played Atari today?
Atari, (or at least the current iteration of Atari), has announced that it will be releasing an ambitious new compilation that hopes to capture the 50-year history of the legendary game developer. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will look back at Atari’s five decades in gaming, dating all the way back to the birth of the industry itself.
We cannot think of a better way to celebrate our golden anniversary than to share the decades of fun, innovation, and talent with our fans worldwide through this truly remarkable collection,” said Atari CEO Wade Rosen. “To say it’s an honor to bring this collection to life is an understatement. I speak for everyone at Atari when I say we are elated to share this new Atari experience with the world as our 50th-anniversary celebration.”
The compilation contains over 90 titles pulled from the Atari catalog, including games released for the arcade market, the Atari 2600, the Atari Lynx, and even the ill-fated Atari Jaguar. More than just a game compilation, however, Atari 50 promises a fully interactive timeline, loaded with marketing materials, concept artwork, video interviews, archival footage, documentation, and other trivia tidbits pertaining to the company’s legacy of hardware and software.
In addition, developer Digital Eclipse has crafted five new games for the collection: revamped editions of Atari classics Haunted House, Neo Breakout, Yars’ Revenge, Vctr Sctr, and the never-released Airworld. With Atari 50, it seems that the developer is looking to provide a truly playable museum of the studio, allowing older players to follow a chronological timeline of their youth, while teaching younger players not only about Atari, but also about the evolution of gaming as a whole.
While Atari’s latter-day history is convoluted and, well, strange, there’s no denying the company’s impact on gaming history, particularly in its formative years. This new collection looks set to perfectly capture the highs and lows of one of the most recognizable gaming brands on the planet. I’m certainly more interested in this than I am in any hotel, even less so in your shitty blockchain projects.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration launches this winter on PlayStation, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
