Atari to begin shipping restyled version of classic game console in June

By Trevor Mogg Published April 25, 2023

Atari’s VCS console has suffered several production delays over the last two years, leaving many of its 11,597 Indiegogo backers wondering when they’ll actually get to use it.

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The good news is that up to 500 of these very patient folks are set to receive the restyled version of the classic console by mid-June. That’s June 2020, just to be clear.

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The $390 device, which promises to be more than just a simple retro game console, caused much excitement when the idea was first unveiled in 2017. But it has taken far longer than expected to come to fruition.

Home stretch

In an update announced over the weekend, Atari insisted it’s “about to enter the home stretch” of a project that for many customers may have started to feel like a marathon.

The company said the most recent delay had been caused by “rejected plastic parts that required re-fabrication.” Likening its response to a very difficult global treasure hunt, Atari said its team had “searched all over the planet to find or replace the parts and materials needed to start and complete the full production run of Atari VCS units.”

This means the 11,095 or so backers who don’t receive the Atari VCS console in mid-June could get it later in the summer, though the company describes this time frame rather ominously as a “cautious estimate.” Anyone else who has pre-ordered the device via Atari’s website may have to wait even longer.

Final testing

Atari said that in recent weeks it sent out a number of production units for testers ranging from “core to casual gamers [who] cover a wide demographic range” to see how the VCS experience went down.

“Overall, the feedback has been very positive and instructive, with [testers] sampling an assortment of classic Atari and third-party games, the Antstream App [a subscription-based game streaming service], and streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ in Atari Mode,” the company said. “Other adventurous group members have connected their USB keyboards and tested out the unique Atari PC Mode (formerly known as ‘PC Sandbox Mode’) by booting up Windows and playing some of their favorite PC games on their big-screen TVs.”

With the first units set to ship in the coming weeks, let’s hope this really is the beginning of the end of the long wait for the Atari VCS.

To find out more about the console, check out Digital Trends’ piece explaining all you need to know.

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Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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Atari’s latest acquisition is a game preservation power play

Atari continues to grow its stake in the game remaster market with the acquisition of Digital Eclipse, the developer behind 2022's fantastic Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration collection.
Digital Eclipse has existed since the early 1990s but has made a name for itself over the last decade or so in creating fantastic remastered collections like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection. More recently, it has honed a documentary-style presentation for titles like Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka, providing thorough looks at the history of important companies and games. Atari seems interested in growing its library of IP and stake in retro re-releases, so it's understandable why Atari would purchase Digital Eclipse following its acquisition of the System Shock remake's Nightdive Studios earlier in the year.
It's a $20 million acquisition, with Atari paying $6.5 million when the deal closes soon and another $13.5 million over the next decade if Digital Eclipse meets performance targets. As for what this means when it comes to Digital Eclipse functioning day-to-day, an FAQ on the developer's website goes into more detail.
Digital Eclipse confirms that while this acquisition will give it greater access to the library of franchises that Atari owns, it is not locked into only working on Atari properties. The Gold Master Series that The Making of Karateka is a part of will continue as well, with Digital Eclipse teasing that the next entry is almost done in a recent newsletter. Ultimately, Digital Eclipse seems to hope that Atari's support will mainly give them more resources to continue to refine projects that align with what the studio is already known for, including a Wizardry: Proving Ground of the Mad Overlord remake that's currently in early access on Steam.
"Our experience collaborating on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was revelatory. The trust that Atari showed our team, and our clear mutual love and respect for the content, positioned us to produce something truly remarkable," Digital Eclipse President Mike Mika said of the acquisition. "I know Atari will continue to champion our approach and that we will be bringing fans exciting new projects for years to come."

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If you love game history, you need to try Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

Video game collections are becoming more common these days as companies look back on their past. That’s great for game preservation, but collections like Super Mario 3D All-Stars can ultimately feel underwhelming when the end product is little more than a simple port. Atari’s classic lineup of games is no stranger to this treatment; you can play an Atari 2600 game collection on pretty much any platform you desire. Due to the overwhelming amount of Atari collections out there, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration might not seem like a compelling release at first.
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In practice, Atari 50 feels like a museum exhibit-turned-video game. It made me feel like I was walking through the Smithsonian’s The Art of Video Games exhibit for the first time, except everything is about Atari's 50-year history. Not only does Atari 50 contain everything from Pong to some of the weirdest titles the Atari Jaguar had to offer, but it embellishes those games with trivia, scans of game-related material from the time, and video interviews with people connected to them. Anyone who loves gaming history owes it to themselves to check out Atari 50.
Eclipsing other collections
Digital Eclipse has been bringing old games to new platforms for years -- it made Atari game collections for the original PlayStation. Over time, it has slowly put more effort into its approach, moving beyond mere emulation. Earlier this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection included the Turtle’s Lair, which had boxes, manuals, ads, catalogs, comics, TV show clips, and development document. Atari 50 takes that one step further by transforming similar content into exhibit-like Interactive Timelines.
From its title screen, you can immediately access almost all of Atari 50’s 100-plus game lineup. The real draw, though, is choosing one of five Interactive Timelines recounting Atari’s 50-year history. Arcade Origins focuses on the founding of Atari, its earliest success, weird prototypes, and classic arcade games that were released from 1971 to 1984. “Birth of the Console” is about the creation, hits, and triumphs of the Atari 2600, while “High and Lows” discusses the video game crash of 1983 and how the Atari 5200 and 7800 fared during it.
The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself ...

Meanwhile, “The Dawn of PCs” recounts Atari’s efforts in the PC space from the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979 until the rare Atari Falcon’s release in 1992. Finally, “The 1990s and Beyond” covers everything else, emphasizing the Atari Lynx handheld and 32-bit Atari Jaguar home console. Games will pop up as players navigate these timelines, and you can play them at the press of a button. As is always the case with Digital Eclipse collections, the emulation is smooth, and players can access various visual filters and even the instruction manuals when pausing.
On top of that, almost every game included has some piece of trivia, scanned development document or ad, preserved commercial, or relevant interview to check out. Notable former Atari developers like Pong creator Al Alcorn and programmer Tod Frye frequently appear in these videos, but other prominent industry figures like Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and former Epic Games dev Cliff Bleszinski show up to offer their thoughts. The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself, so it’s incredible to see Digital Eclipse’s effort to include all this supplemental information.

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