Atari and Digital Eclipse have announced Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC launching this winter for $39.99.
Atari® — one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers — unveiled today Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, an interactive game experience coming this November to PC and consoles. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a robust interactive history of Atari and the creative individuals who set the video game industry in motion told through a combination of classic and modern games, videos, and unpublished interviews.
“We cannot think of a better way to celebrate our golden anniversary than to share the decades of fun, innovation, and talent with our fans worldwide through this truly remarkable collection,” said Atari CEO Wade Rosen. “To say it’s an honor to bring this collection to life is an understatement. I speak for everyone at Atari when I say we are elated to share this new Atari experience with the world as our 50th-anniversary celebration.”
Far more than just a collection of games, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a true interactive history of the iconic publisher and a celebration of the small team in Silicon Valley who combined their creativity, curiosity, and passion, resulting in what would be Atari. Through an interactive linear timeline, players access a trove of over 90 video games organized by era, as well as various files and assets, including early development sketches, hardware schematics, internal memos, images, videos, and other “artifacts,” much of which have never been accessible by the public. Behind every game are the stories of Atari, what was happening at the company, what went into the creation of the games, and the hardware they ran on—told by the people who were there.
Unlike any other video game collection in existence, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration emulates eight different Atari hardware platforms in one package—a true feat by the development team at Digital Eclipse. The collection includes titles drawn from five decades — a library of published works that represent the evolution of game development and the Atari games that influenced what would become the video game industry as we know it today.
Key Features of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Include:
Artifacts: A rich collection of discoverable photos, sketches, early marketing materials, and even classic console schematics are accessed by uncovering relevant points on the interactive Atari timeline, all of which put Atari’s library of games in historical context.Video Games by Era: Explore the Atari timeline and unlock games across decades as you learn the background of each, including their inception and the talented individuals behind the projects on six platforms: Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Atari Jaguar, and Atari Lynx.
Bonus Games: Unlocked through completing challenges and uncovering certain Artifacts, bonus games include dozens of newly finished “never-completed” or unreleased games from the 1980s, experimental new versions of classic titles, and mash-ups that marry beloved early-era titles into a single, fluid experience.
Expert Insight Through Storytelling: The collection is outfitted with a handful of various never-before-seen interviews with Atari leadership, past and present, as well as other prolific names in the games industry; complemented, of course, by the video game developers who helped raise Atari to become an industry icon.
Reimagined and Revisited: The team at Digital Eclipse created five new games for the collection that reimagine some of the most beloved Atari classics or play on classic game themes, including Haunted House, Neo Breakout, Yars’ Revenge, Vctr Sctr, and the infamously never-finished Airworld.
Developed Digital Eclipse, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration will be available in November 2022 on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Series X|S, PlayStation 4|5, and Windows PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.To stay up-to-date on all things Atari and retro-pop culture, follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
See a description of the collection here
Atari is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and with it, the spark that launched the modern video game industry. It has been five decades since a small team in Silicon Valley first combined their creativity, curiosity and passion into making video games and hardware. The result of their efforts was Atari, one of the most recognizable and enduring entertainment and pop culture brands in the world.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration takes players on an interactive journey through 50 years of video games via interviews with designers, developers and industry leaders, documentary footage, product design documents, high-resolution original artwork, and a specially-curated list of more than 90 playable games.
At the heart of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration are the Interactive Timelines, which combine historical trivia, digital artifacts, all-new video interviews, and playable games into one singular experience. When you encounter a game in the Timeline, you can immediately play it without losing your place.
The massive list of games spans six original Atari console and home computer platforms and generations of arcade titles, the most ever included in a collection by the team at Digital Eclipse. For the first time ever, games from the cult favorite Atari Jaguar and Atari Lynx platforms will be playable on modern consoles. Behind every game are the stories of Atari, what was happening at the company, what went into the creation of the games and the hardware on which they ran, all told by the people who were there. It is a rare opportunity to get a rich behind-the-scenes look at the history of video games.
In addition to presenting these Atari classics exactly as they were, the talented team at Digital Eclipse has also created the Reimagined series—six new games that revisit, mash-up and reimagine Atari Classics. Each of these new games is included in Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.
Swordquest: AirWorld – Yes, you read that right: After nearly 40 years of waiting, the team at Digital Eclipse has created the fourth and final entry in the legendary Swordquest series, inspired by the design concepts of original Swordquest creator Tod Frye. Who will be the first to solve its mysteries—and finally complete the quest?
Haunted Houses – The original “survival horror” game for the Atari 2600 gets a modern 3D voxel-based sequel, featuring more houses, more spooky situations, and more urns.
VCTR-SCTR – This mashup celebration of the vector era of gaming combines the gameplay from Asteroids, Tempest, and other vector-based arcade classics into a single, continuous challenge.
Neo Breakout – An amazing and addictive two-player competition that combines the best features of Breakout and Pong, with a modern graphic style.
Quadratank – The first new entry in the classic Tank series since 1978 combines features from the original games with four-player fun in team or free-for-all modes.
Yars’ Revenge Reimagined – Howard Scott Warshaw’s masterpiece for the Atari 2600 gets a whole new look—and you can swap between original and modern graphics at any time! Designed by Digital Eclipse studio head Mike Mika, who created the Game Boy Color version of Yars’ Revenge in 1999.Key Features
Curated List of Classics – Over 90 classic games lovingly presented with best-in-class emulation and modern quality-of-life enhancements—and the ability to play classic games that have not been available for ages. Platforms include Arcade, 2600, 5200, 7800, Atari 8-bit computers, Lynx, and Jaguar.
Interactive Timelines – Discover the games that launched the modern industry and the creative individuals behind them through interviews, archival images, special source material and behind-the-scenes content in five unique Interactive Timelines.
All-New Videos – Over 60 minutes of exclusive video interviews with key players in the games industry—early Atari designers and engineers and other luminaries of the gaming world—as they discuss Atari’s enduring impact on the video entertainment landscape.
Everything Unlocked – All game and bonus content is immediately available to players to enjoy at any time they want, in any order they want.
A retrospective on gaming history that is a must-own for collectors and fans of video games.
See a trailer below