Atari's recreation of the classic VCS, the 2600+, delivers a spot-on experience that takes me back to my childhood.
As a Gen Xer, I grew up with the Atari 2600. While yesterday's games are so much simpler than today's amazing offerings, they are still a lot of fun and have tons to offer. Most emulators packed with old-school games give me a few minutes of fun, but when the nostalgia wears off, the experience is nothing like what I remember from childhood. The new 2600+ is a vastly different experience and is as tactile as visual.
A tiny box packed with 50,000 games sounds like a lot of fun, but when the controllers are no good, the entire experience becomes crap, and you'll never play it. The Atari 2600+ looks, feels, and plays like the game machine we all know and love, but it has just the right tiny tweaks to make it far better. The OG chonky blocks of black rubberized plastic Atari joysticks are back. They work and feel exactly like the ones from the 1970s, and while they give you the feel — at 52 years old, my hands hate them after just a few games, and I switch to the Atari CX-78+ gamepad from the 7800 series. This controller is sold as an accessory and is a fantastic replacement for the Joystick. With the gamepad, I can play for as long as I can sit in a chair without my back giving me grief.
Inserting cartridges is a big deal. Going to my shelf to select from one of the 31 I have found at local Los Angeles gamestores, and a few I just had to have via eBay, and selecting the games I'll have on my desk to choose from is a fun activity. Cleaning the contacts on ancient carts when necessary is also kinda fun! Wiggling a cartridge around in the slot is nostalgic!
I've been loving how Video Chess can still beat me, and I've been playing the crazy shooter "Megamania" this week. There are so many games out there, and now that Atari seems rededicated to the old console, new ones are arriving. It is baffling how programmers got so much out of the 2600 and 7800 hardware.
Previously:
• Enjoying the Atari 2600+ experience
• How to play movies on a vintage Atari 2600
• Atari 400 Mini minier than expected
