Semantic Nonsense: Nonplussed about the 2600 Plus
I have often contemplated the possibility of streaming ye auld Atari 2600. It was even part of the original “unfinished business” series as a follow-up to the retrospective. (There was another follow up that involved filming a person who was entirely unfamiliar with E.T. playing it blind and trying to figure out how it worked, but the footage was lost.)
Now, an Atari system isn’t exactly HDMI-ready out of the box, as one might imagine. But whether it was through a Retron 77 (which had been already out for a year by the time Unfinished Business rolled around) or making a no-so ridiculous daisy chain from the switcher box to a simple coax-HDMI converter.
But for whatever reason, I did neither. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad; we’d have been in the awkward position of having more Atari coverage than SNES coverage at that time. Eventually, Atari 50 came out and we streamed that. While it didn’t include all the games I was initially interested in featuring, there was enough content there to make me feel satisfied being done with it.
But all these old thoughts were unearthed anew today with the announcement of an official Atari 2600 not-so-miniconsole.
Dubbed the 2600+, it has no preloaded games, but comes with a multicart of 10 reasonably classic games for the system. The 2600+’s cartridge slot accepts both regular Atari 2600 carts as well as carts for the Atari 7800. It supports HDMI out of the box and draws power from a USB C-connected plug. Its design is based on the 4-switch iteration of the 2600 with the faux wood paneling, just somewhat smaller.
While $130 is pricey for a mere software-emulated ancient console, it’s certainly not pricey enough for it to be FPGA-based like Analogue’s products. Only three 2600 titles and zero 7800 games have outright failed compatibility testing with the emulator, but there are quite a few games that have not been tested.
The 2600+ maintains the classic controller ports that were more famous for being used on the Sega Genesis. It only comes with a single joystick; additional ones are available for $25, which I suppose isn’t more than I expected. Hopefully they prove to be more durable than the originals. Also sold separately are the paddle controllers, even more notorious for their poor durability, but they come with a 4-in-1 cart of games using the paddles.
While the existence of the 2600+ is enough to make me think about Atari streaming again, I feel no more called to action as I did in memories told in the beginning of this post. My interest was sparked enough to check out the 2600+, and even to write about it (demonstrably), but that’s all. My miniconsole addiction isn’t acting up, and I don’t feel any need to use the 2600+’s existence to reopen the possibility of a more complete Atari stream.
But more (less?) than that, I feel so ambivalent about it that I wonder why I’m still hanging on to my old Atari gear that I no longer anticipate ever using. Has the time come to simply be rid of it? It’s not clogging up my backlog, but the notion of going all efficiency expert on it is scratching the same itch as rejecting a game out of the backlog. That certain, almost liberating feeling that comes with committing to a change.
About The Author
Drew
Features Editor | Drew started behind the 8(bit)-ball in the video game world. He first became interested in anime by chance exposure on the Sci-Fi channel. Drew's the creative force behind blog-wide features, works the movie and food beats, and pioneered Damage Control’s entry into video, podcasts and streaming.
