Atari Announces Expanded Edition of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration - News

by Evan Norris , posted on 25 June 2024 / 1,591 Views

Atari and developer Digital Eclipse announced today a significant expansion to their 2022 compilation Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection. The new version, called Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition, introduces two new timelines and 39 additional games. It's scheduled to release October 25 on PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5 (and later in the year on Atari VCS).

The game is also getting a physical release, at least on Switch and PS5. The Switch edition will include a Steelbook, alongside the following bonuses: Atari 2600 art cards, miniature arcade marquee signs, and an Al Alcorn Replica Syzygy Co. business card. The standard version will retail for $39.99 and the special steelbook version will retail for $49.99.

Included in the Expanded Edition are two new timelines: "The Wider World of Atari" and "The First Console War". The former, which includes 19 playable games and eight video segments, demonstrates how Atari continued to influence creators and fans over the decades. Highlights from the new timeline include a deep dive into Stern Electronics' robot-blasting Berzerk; a spotlight on the artist Evelyn Seto, who helped create the iconic "Fuji" Atari logo; Pong creator Al Alcorn explaining the birth of Breakout; and an exploration of the fan base's role in discovering unreleased prototypes, creating homebrew games, and preserving Atari history.

The latter timeline, which includes 20 playable games and six video segments, tells the story of the first major console war in the gaming industry between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision. Highlights include a selection of M Network games (simplified ports of Intellivision games produced for rival Atari) and some rare Atari 2600 and 5200 prototypes.

All the new timelines and games will be offered to owners of the original Atari 50 release as DLCs later this year.

3 Comments

SanAndreasX (on 26 June 2024)

Berzerk alone makes this a must-buy for me.

SuntannedDuck2 (on 25 June 2024)

Fair bonuses. Got Intellivision Lives so the games/prototypes there offered, was enough for me.
So I'm good there and the history I'll find if I'm interested when already looked at a fair bit of that era already just less fancy as this offering would present that.

Not always a fan of 'next' version or another definitive edition or whatever type approaches but I think it's fine here.

This era of games don't interest me that much. I did what I wanted with the collection, I paid a fair price because it wouldn't go down lower. I binged what I could and will go back to the Lynx/Jaguar games I came for and the 2600/5200/7800/400 and 800 or ST or whichever PC games they were fine but only interest me so much and those I do like already got in the older PS4/Xbox One Atari Volume 1 didn't get Volume 2.

For modern offerings it's fair I'd say for those curious of old fans or those new to older gen stuff and in a fancy presentation.

I'm not interested in this one, the games or the bonus physical stuff. I was happy with just Atari 50 and the updates were fair of more games, fixes and whatever prototypes/remakes they offered prior.