Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration's passionate look-back on industry legends

Back in November Atari released their Anthology of Atari games ranging from the legendary Atari 2600, Home computer, handhelds, Arcade releases, all the way to their last breath with the Atari Jaguar. The entire collection is a showcase of the rich Atari history and shows the enormous legacy as well as infamy they left behind as they brought videogames to the masses for the first time in history. What is surprising is that they have not dumped and abandoned the release but actually added more content recently for free. The collection had completely passed me by but thanks to the folks at Atari I was able to check it out on the Nintendo Switch and deep dive into its nostalgic content.

With Atari celebrating its 50th anniversary it is clear that the current owners of the brand looked forward to honor the legacy of the granddaddy of video games. With the recent release of the 2600 + console which plays real original cartridges, the One up special edition Arcade to the upcoming release of the Atari 400 mini as well as this anthology they are pulling out all the stops to make people relive their childhoods as well as introduce new generations to the history that created the foundation of their current favorite games.

Over five decades ago a team of young bright and wild engineers put their heads together and created a new genre of entertainment that would grow to become a 200-billion-dollar industry.

What you can find in this collection is a whopping 80+ games a list that has grown even with the latest free update.  The team at Digital Eclipse went through each one to make them workable on a modern system and play with ease as well as look at least somewhat like we think they did. Remember we have (mostly) all transitioned away from the analog TV tubes and are playing on out flatscreens with extremely powerful hardware which oddly enough does not always allow for a good presentation of older games. Lucky the team at D.E. put all the effort in to make that experience very good and gave the games a ton of polish. On top of that they also created new versions or interpretations of five of the biggest Atari classics such as breakout and Yar's Revenge which look and sound amazing while still honoring and preserving their gameplay loops.

The collection does of course not have ALL games, but it does cover the majority of many great ones. You will find games from six hardware platforms: Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx. Some of them more than others. I sure also missed some classic ones such as for the Atari Lynx and I still will have to wait to try Alien Verses Predator on the Jaguar because it is also missing. 

For a full list check out their official page here

Despite being short perhaps your favorite game, there are so many still covered I can guarantee you will find something. However, the strength of bundle does not lie in the games, at least not primary. What makes this anniversary celebration so good is the presentation. When starting up the game you have a choice to just hop from game to game, traditionally like any other collection before it you can sort by platform, title etc., but I highly advice to actually use the timeline view. 

The timeline is not only filled with videogames in order of appearance but also loaded with historic retelling of the entire Atari history up and downs. There are original photo's, artwork, and best of all interviews with people who worked at Atari and in the industry over all these years. They address challenges such as the underpowered hardware of the 2600, rumors and myths about the company, and much more. From the same timeline you can then jump into games they discuss and after hop right back in and continue your exploration. There are even games that were never release as well as the five fun remakes/reimagining 's by Digital Eclipse that make those classic a bit more contemporary. I have spent dozens of hours just going through this archive of little gaming treasurers and soaked in every second of interviews. Yes, there is a big part of nostalgia involved where I am reliving a big part of my childhood, but there is also the history part of it.

Even if you have not lived through this gaming age and you started gaming on PlayStation or later, if you have even the slightest interest in gaming history or even just fun story telling you can find some great stuff here. Most games are a blurb to play and go ' oh yeah, I remember ' and a few will keep you busy a little longer. But the journey of this 50th anniversary celebration is greater than its destination. It sets a high bar for other collections to come.

Title:  Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

Publisher: Atari
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Platform: PC, Atari VCS, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5, Xbox (one and X/S)
Release Date: Q4 2022
Release Price: $39.99

About the writer: DadGeek (Rob) is the co-founder of GeeksVsGeeks. He is a product of the eighties and never let go of his geek interest and hobbies no matter how often someone told him to stop. His love for gaming and all things geeks has been part of his parenting style and permeates throughout the whole family. A family of Geeks vs Geeks