Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration – Expanded Edition  

Description:

Atari and developer Digital Eclipse are proud to present a significant expansion to their acclaimed 2022 release Atari 50: the Anniversary Collection. This new version, entitled “Atari 50: the Anniversary Celebration - Expanded Edition”, includes the original release and adds two new timelines and 39 games to the playable Atari retrospective.

The Wider World of Atari timeline, which includes 19 playable games and eight video segments, takes a series of deep dives into stories from Atari history, showing how Atari continued to influence creators and fans over the decades. New interviews, vintage ads, historical artifacts, and more have all been researched and presented with Digital Eclipse’s signature style. Highlights from the new timeline include a deep dive into Stern Electronics' robot-blasting Berzerk; unusual and underappreciated innovations and hidden gems from the late 1980s; 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 First Console War timeline, which includes 20 playable games and half-dozen video segments, tells the story of the first major console war in the gaming industry between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision. The team at Digital Eclipse curates an exploration of the rivalry, including Mattel’s quixotic decision to create games for the competing Atari 2600. Highlights include a selection of M Network games, including some fan-favorites; a mix of Atari and M Network sports games, and some rare Atari 2600 and 5200 prototypes. New interview features include former Intellivision game director Don Daglow, M Network programmer Jane Terjung, Activision’s David Crane and Garry Kitchen, homebrew programmer Dennis Debro, and historians Leonard Herman and Mike Mika.

Characteristics:

• Now with 140+ 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.
• Discover the brand that launched the modern video game industry and the creative individuals behind it through interviews, archival images, special source material and behind-the-scenes content within an interactive timeline. Also explore the history of iconic brands such as Mattel’s Intellivision and Stern Electronics!
• Emulation of games, recently rescued and unreleased prototypes, and other rare gems created for seven hardware platforms: Arcade, Atari 800, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx.
• Over 13 new segments of exclusive interviews with key players in the games industry, including archival and contemporary interviews from employees, from first and 3^rd party programmers and artists, historians, fans and homebrew developers!
• An expanded retrospective on gaming history that is a must-own for collectors and fans of video games.