I'm posting this review even though it's June 1st of 2023 and I think AtGames has already discontinued this unit. I was able to get one from their marketplace store on Newegg, but that was literally the only store that had any brand new at this point, though their store seemed to have plenty of the non-Gold 50th anniversary versions, from what I can tell, which are the same but with 20 less games and no paddles. Their official website here says both units are "Coming Soon," but I can't imagine that's the case.
In any event, I just plugged it in to have a little look at what's there. The Atari 2600 games were especially rudimentary. I didn't have an Atari growing up, so these are new to me, but I guess I was hoping the graphics would be at least slightly more advanced. The home game market really advanced with leaps and bounds by the time the NES showed up, when you compare that to what's here. Still, if you want some 70's or early 80's nostalgia, here you go.
My only real complaint out of the box is that the cables are all too short. They must expect you to sit right in front of your TV to play these, and God forbid I want to sit eight or ten feet back.
It seems to work fine, just keep your expectations in check. Beyond the novelty of playing truly one of the first home game system games, there's nothing here that's making me want to binge a game for hours at a time. I turn it on, pick a few games, play for a few minutes and then sarcastically go, "Okay, that was fun." And then I get bored and turn it off.
IF you have fond memories of these games, then I'll bet you'll love this. I think it was just ever so slightly before my time, and trying to enjoy it now just isn't really all that enthralling for me. I give Atari credit, had they not come along when they did, who knows if home gaming would have taken off the way it did. Too bad the company didn't really keep developing the way their competitors did back then.
