Wednesday 6 December 2023

It's all about Atari

Over the last two months, there’s been a flurry of hardware releases that have taken a heavy toll on the bank balance. One of those releases is the Taito Super Pocket by Blaze under the Hyper Mega Tech! brand. They also have the Capcom Super Pocket. The Taito one has 18 arcade games built-in, a 2.8” high-quality IPS screen, and a rechargeable battery. It also plays carts for the Evercade, so it’s a great way to play those on the go. Initially, I wasn’t going to invest in these (I’ve ordered the Capcom as well, but it hasn’t arrived yet) as I have an Evercade EXP, but I find the size of that a little too unwieldy to carry around. This seems to be the perfect size for portability. I will release an unboxing video for this hopefully next week.

The Taito Super Pocket has 18 built-in arcade games

The second purchase was the Atari 2600+, a modern remake of the VCS, a seminal classic originally released in 1977. This variant is the 4-switch woody from 1980. The thing about this model is that it allows you to play your original 2600 and 7800 carts and connect your original controllers. Atari has also released a new CX40 joystick and a paddle controller with a 4 in 1 cart. The 2600+ includes one controller and 10 games in 1 cart including Missile Command, Yar’s Revenge and Combat. Output is via HDMI, and it’s powered using its USB-C port.

The 4-switch woody gets a modern remake
 
Also released is Berzerk, an arcade conversion of the Stern original converted to the 2600 in 1982 and is considered one of the best arcade conversions on the system. The great thing about this rerelease is that it adds the missing speech, the robots can now fire diagonally, there are new explosion animations and some minor bug fixes.

An absolute classic gets enhanced

Along with Berzerk, is a homebrew-style game called Mr. Run and Jump, Atari’s first new official release for the 2600 since 1990. Guide Mr. Run and Jump as he chases after his dog Leap through a series of realms, each with their own obstacles and challenges.

Chase after Leap through a series of realms

The games included with the paddle controller are Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Night Driver, and Video Olympics.

The new paddle controllers are designed to look and feel like the original

I will have unboxing and demonstration videos on these hopefully next week.


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