Atari to get Back into Game Console Business

Back in the early days of gaming if you wanted to play a videogame at home there was only one console to get your hands on and that was the Atari. That old-school Atari 2600 is how children of the late ’70s and early ’80s spent time playing games like Pac-Man and Asteroids among others. It’s been over 20 years since the company made game console hardware, but it is set to return.

Atari has teased a new product and Telegraph.co.uk reports executive Fred Chesnais has stated “We’re back in the hardware business.” A video floating around out there shows the front of a game console that appears to have the serrated plastic and wood paneling that old school gamers will remember from the Atari 2600.

I hope it also has those big metal toggle switches that I remember from that original game console on each side of the slot where the cartridge goes. The tagline mentions the Atari Box and word from Chesnais is that the console will run PC technology. Presumably that means that there will be emulator software.

With the success that Nintendo found with its old-school game console, presumably the Atari Box will follow a similar plan as the Nintendo Classic offered with a box running a number of classic games. I’d expect to see all those old school video games we loved back in the ’80s too like Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pitfall!, and others.