Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Hands-On Preview

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration brings Atari history to life

With Atari marking its 50th anniversary this week, the company has announced Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Rather than being another conventional bundle of old games, this compilation aims to operate as a virtual interactive museum, illustrating Atari’s extraordinary influence and significance, especially during the formative years of the video game industry. I spent time playing Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration to find out whether it can meet that ambitious objective.

Fundamentally, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration contains more than 90 playable games in a single $40 package. The line-up includes classic and retro titles from six hardware systems: Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, ST, Jaguar, and Lynx. All are emulated by celebrated retro specialist Digital Eclipse, and this marks the first occasion that Jaguar and Lynx games will be playable on contemporary consoles. Digital Eclipse has extensive experience in bringing older titles to modern audiences, having most recently worked on Mega Man Legacy Collection, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, The Disney Afternoon Collection, and the forthcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection.

Atari says Digital Eclipse will deliver best-in-class emulation, alongside modern quality-of-life additions, across the substantial selection of familiar retro Atari games 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 a savant when it comes to Atari history and gaming history in general, so they always take great care to not just provide the games, but provide a really innovative way to experience them and the history around them. For something as big as the 50th, it was the only studio that we felt could properly capture all of that.”

Browsing the Atari 50 game collection

With such a large number of games readily available, locating a particular title-or simply exploring the catalogue-might otherwise feel overwhelming. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration addresses this through a range of sorting choices. On selecting a game, you can either read more about it or immediately start playing. You can also use filters and borders, choose from different screen settings, consult the instruction manual, and remap the controls.

The compilation goes further still: Digital Eclipse has made six new games that either revisit or pay tribute to Atari classics. The developer has, for instance, produced the fourth Swordquest chapter, Airworld, as well as a contemporary 3D isometric adventure inspired by Haunted House. Atari 50 also features Vctr Sctr, which honours gaming’s vector era by combining elements from arcade classics such as Asteroids and Tempest into one experience; Neo Breakout, a two-player competitive game merging Breakout and Pong; Quadratank, a new four-player instalment in the Tank series; and Yars' Revenge Reimagined, which gives modern visuals to the best-selling first-party Atari 2600 game. Yars' Revenge Reimagined is enormously enjoyable, and I particularly like that a single button press lets you switch between its original and updated graphics. However, Vctr Sctr may be my favourite of the new additions because it moves so smoothly from one gameplay style to another.

Interviews and archive material from Atari’s early years

Beyond the playable games, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration intends to offer players unparalleled access to many of the individuals who helped turn Atari into one of gaming’s biggest early names. It includes more than 60 minutes of exclusive interviews with notable figures from the video game industry. Atari veterans, including Pong creator Al Alcorn and Yars' Revenge creator Howard Scott Warshaw, are joined by other industry members to discuss the company’s major achievements, difficulties, and wider influence on gaming. Historical material is also available to view, including photographs from the company’s earliest days, design sketches, memos, and magazine advertisements.

Having explored the extensive material in this new compilation, it seems a suitable celebration of one of gaming’s most influential and significant companies. Many Atari titles have undeniably not aged as successfully as games from later eras, but that may be the chief reason I am anticipating this collection: its modest quality-of-life enhancements should make these games a little more enjoyable in 2022. I am keen to delve further into the history and nostalgia when Atari 50: The Celebration arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Atari VCS, and PC this holiday season.