This modern take on the Atari 2600 lets you use your old cartridges

I have several retro consoles collecting dust in a storage locker — including a rather beat-up-looking Atari 2600 — because there’s no way to hook them up via HDMI (they all connect to TVs via RCA or a coaxial adapter).

This is where Atari’s relaunched 2600 Plus comes in. Releasing on November 17th for $129 USD (about $174 CAD). Unfortunately, there’s no shipping to Canada, but Atari says an “international retailer list coming soon.”

This new take on the classic wood panel-clad system features an HDMI-out port, making it simple to connect to modern TVs at various resolutions, several USB-C ports and a 10-in-one game cartridge.

The system is powered by a Rockchip 3128 processor, a relatively lower-power chip that should be more than capable of playing Atari 2600 titles like Pitfall!, Space Invaders and, of course, E.T the Extra-Terrestrial. The 10-in-1 game cartridge features several of the 2600’s most popular titles, including Adventure, Missile Command and Yars’ Revenge.

However, what makes this classic system unique is that, unlike the NES/SNES Classic, the Atari 2600 Plus is compatible with original Atari 2600 and 7800 game cartridges alongside the old school joystick and paddle controllers (the company is also selling replica controllers).

On the other hand, unlike Nintendo’s classic systems, there aren’t really many 8-bit Atari titles worth diving back into, with both the visuals and gameplay of most games aging exceedingly poorly. So unless you have a strong nostalgic connection to the Atari brand, this unique retro revival console likely isn’t for you.

The Atari 2600 released in the U.S. and Canada back in 1977 and is widely credited with popularizing the concept of home video game consoles and also subsequently causing the industry’s brief fall several years later due to an oversaturated market full of awful games.

The Atari 2600 Plus is available to pre-order now for $129 USD (about $174 CAD).