Atari 2600 Plus (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk)

The number of Atari Flashbacks and the varying games in each will make your head spin as will the price of an Atari VCS. This however a work of genius and 100% a time machine that will take you back to your childhood, or your parents childhood.Well packaged, and a thing of beauty when opened this is a near perfect replica in modern materials and slightly smaller. Great connectivity at the rear for your modern HDMI TV, yet the toggles and buttons on the front are just as a I remember them. The joysticks are pretty true to their 1980s ancestors as well, tough as hell to use, and not the most ergonomic to hold but thats the price for a piece of retro tech!What is most impressive for both the engineers who designed and manufactured this replica in 2023, and the software engineers and manufacturing back in the day, is that cartridges from 1982 actually work, the first I tried was Asteroids in perfect condition, practically unopened. The second River Raid, and this is where I would suggest you buy some rubbing alcohol or other suitable cleaner if you intend to buy or have original cartridges. I've tried a couple of River Raid cartridges without success, until I read a suggestion to clean the contacts on the cartridge with a suitable cleaner. £4 well spent on Amazon and I have a working cartridge of the Activision classic, and perhaps the best game of all time, River Raid.Honestly the feeling that clunk of the cartridge gives you as you insert it, and power the console on is hard to beat. Buy one, buy one now!

Do you yearn to go back to your childhood? Do you want to relive great times from the past? Do you want to recreate the look of TVs and there accessories from the 70/80s? Then this is for you.Set this up under your TV plug in the hdmi, plug in the power and attach your included controller. Push in the included games cartridge ( ensure you have selected Yars revenge, arguably one of the best games on Atari) and of you go. Your back in the 80s, hogging the family TV, surrounded by the sounds of droning from yesterday year.I love this product. It's small and neat. The controller works well (if a little stiffer than the original as my memory serves) and works easily.It is obviously emulating as there is a pause from switching on to seeing the title screen of your game, something the original never did but who cares it feels, when playing the games authentic. I have been buying from eBay some of the other games I want (like space invaders :)) and had no problems with this. I'm waiting now for the paddles etc to become available and the additional joystick and then I'm away.Please, if you remember this product with fond memories, get one you won't be disappointed. Yes the games graphics were rubbish the sound, terrible and the game play short but the memories are great and the children of today should see how lucky they are with the tech they have now!!!!

Whilst the original Atari 2600 was slightly before my time, I’ve always been curious of the earliest home games that were released during late 70s and the 80s.. So I tried the Atari Flashback series and the fantastic Atari 50 collection (available on Switch, PS5 and Xbox). Whilst the flashback series are decent 'mini' consoles, their devices were not true to the original hardware in many regards, and none had the ability to accept original cartridges. That’s why I was so excited to hear that Atari, as it is in its current form, was to release the Atari 2600 plus, a console that is as close to an original Atari machine as you can get without buying an original and all that entails.The machine itself is 80 percent the size of the original device and comes as the four switched version. The build seems pretty good and the switches seem high quality. There is a HDMI port for connection to TV (I really appreciate this, since it makes it so easy to hook up to modern TVs and the HDMI cable is provided in the box). Power is provided via a USB C port, and a cable (USB A to USB C) is provided in the box too, though note that you need to provide your own USB power adapter. Also in the box is a single joystick (CX-40) that connects via an original DB9 connector (and as far as I know, original accessories from the original are compatible). The joystick seems really good, if a bit stiff... but I don't think these joysticks were ever the most comfortable input devices. Expect sore hands after a few hours of gaming. A 10 in 1 game cartridge is provided in the box and contains a few Atari classics. Choosing each game is a matter of setting the DIP switches on the back of the cart as per the instruction on the cart label. Of these games, I felt Missile command was currently my favourite. It is a pity they don't have pitfall, asteroids, space invaders or the infamous ET on this cart.Same as the original consoles, there is a cartridge port on top that you insert the cartridge into (either the new carts released by Atari, or original carts). Once the cartridge is inserted and the unit switched on you’re presented with an Atari boot screen and after 10 or 15 seconds your game is booted up and ready to play. A nice touch is the lit up Atari logo on the front of the device!As far as I can tell, without owning original hardware… the games run as original console and play as expected. I think some reviews online have suggested some slight input lag (I believe with the paddles), but I haven't had any issues with the paddles myself. My own opinion is that there is a very, very slight amount of latency, without doing any complicated latency tests, but nothing to stop you enjoying and playing the games. Input with the joystick is perfect.According to the Atari website this console uses emulation to play games. I guess this system dumps the ROM from the games cartridge onto the internal memory for the emulation software to run it, hence the slight delay at boot up. Since this is emulation and not original hardware, there may be some games that don’t run and Atari have posted a games compatibility list on their website.Whilst the build quality and function are superb, I must warn that many of the games from the 70s and 80s have not aged well. If you know what you’re getting into and are an Atari fan, I think you will love it. Otherwise, I think many will play with this an hour or two and put it away. This really is a system for people who already have a collection of Atari games cartridges, or for those who are very much into early Atari or passionate retro collectors.Further Updates:I’ve also purchased the paddles now and my first impressions are excellent. You get two paddles in the pack and a 4 game cartridge. The paddles are of very high quality and the mechanism is really nice and smooth and with just the right amount of resistance for precision during games. The single button also gives good feedback too. The games are pretty good, especially breakout, canyon bomber and video Olympics. Night driver is ok… it’s got interesting graphics but I found it hard to control. All in all the paddles are a great deal considering what you get in the box.In addition, I bought an extra Joystick and the Mr Run and Jump game. The separate joystick is as per the Joystick included with the 2600 plus console. As such is also stiff, and from what I know, this is how it was at the time of the original 2600. The fire button is nice, with good feedback. I have to say, I think I like the looser joysticks that came with the Flashback series of mini consoles...they feel a bit more comfortable to use for long gaming sessions. But still, this joystick has fantastic build quality and it does the job well. The new Mr Run and Jump game looks superb considering its simplicity. I will update this review once I have time to give it a play through.

Bit smaller than I realised but brilliant nostalgia, really good idea to be able to use original carts from the 2600 and 7800 console plis the original controllers, be good if all other retro consoles worked liked this. The price was great, I got it for £48, not sure I would pay more than £70 for this though