The Atari 7800+is the most pure gaming experience I ’ve had from any gimmick in a long , farsighted meter . I do n’t have nostalgia for the original console , which came out in 1986 , eight years before I was born . Yet , using it evokes a notion beyond nostalgia . Playing one-time cartridges — both Atari ’s new re - button and 40 - plus - year - old original claim — on a modern screen door , I ’m reminded just how necessary body of work like the Atari 7800 + is for permit more people to experience gaming account .
When was the last time I ever needed to blow into a cartridge ? It must have been more than 20 years ago when I last used the Nintendo 64 . now , the only magazine you ’ll see are for the Nintendo Switch , and they ’re much as small as an SD card . sin , even that is considered primitive by modern standards . The endorphin gain I get from the tactile feel of slotting in a 7800 game is not to be hyperbolize . you may get these games easily online and emulate them with ease , but the 7800 + make things easy for both the New gamer or nostalgic millennial .
Atari 7800 +
© Adriano Contreras
The Atari 7800 + is a dim-witted cabinet that ’s well-situated to coiffure up and plays practically all your past Atari 2600 and 7800 games without via media .
Pros
Cons
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
The $ 130 Atari 7800 + is n’t a console remix . Unlikethe upcoming Analogue 3D , an FPGA - emulation N64 redux , it does not lark any extra launcher where you could get achievement or use to take screenshots . or else , it usesopen - source emulatorsStellaandProSystemto match the ironware on the original 7800 , which form the cartridge playable on a modern CRT screen . There ’s no extra system for relieve land and no build - in Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity . At 80 % the size of the original 7800 , the 7800 + is a small , black box with that classic eighty - style rainbow slope that you cop up to a television receiver , punch in a controller , one-armed bandit in a cartridge , and go to township .
See Atari 7800 + at Amazon
It ’s as pure an experience as you may get in today ’s modern long time without going out and buying a used console table and a TV to hook up the old age - old RCA cable . This adaptation of the Atari 7800 practice HDMI and can support both widescreen and 4:3 scene ratios . Still , the console does n’t qualify each pickup to make each game fit your exact screen dimensions . Text in some games looks botch out to the expanded sizing , but it ’s far from unplayable .
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
It ’s so grim - cay it does n’t even include a charge brick , just a USB - C to USB - C wire . Atari sent us their “ high muckamuck outfit ” that pack every re - handout and first - fourth dimension official cartridge the company sell for the 7800 + at $ 30 a pop . The box has a cabinet , a single wireless thumbstick accountant , and a copy ofBentley Bear ’s Crystal Quest . You may find the original console with more controller and games for around $ 50 less through resellers on eBay or potentially at your local retro game shop .
However , those consoles do n’t benefit from gentle HDMI connectivity or the simple yet effective improvement to the 7800 ’s minimum UI that make switching pickup easy and nonrational . The wireless controller are easy to couple and feel clicky and responsive , even when the rough , orthogonal charge card feels quite old - school .
Atari ’s bounteous improvement to the 7800 is its Modern biz selection . It ’s a great sign when a legacy publisher works with community developers to add playable pickup of ports and homebrews to the new arrangement . These games may not be great — some are n’t even fun beyond their novelty — but they ’re a part of gaming history and merit to be equal to of flirt on a modern idiot box .
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
The Atari 7800 + is precisely what we wish a fellowship like Sega or Nintendo would do with its own legacy of system . We do n’t require another faux console like theNES Classicor SNES Classic , which merely toy a modified extract of past great . We desire a console that will legitimately play old cartridges . If Nintendo packaged up an NES rerelease that could play old and newly made cartridges , it would be a blessing to players and preservationist likewise .
Atari 7800+ Review: Setup and Controls
Out of the boxful , the Atari 7800 + is as unsubdivided as they come . There ’s a port wine for each one on the back of the equipment for power and HDMI . You ’ll also discover a manual switch on the back for entering the widescreen , 16:9 , or 4:3 aspect ratios . There ’s a power , reset , pause , and select release . Once you plug it in , you fundamentally do n’t need to do any other setup . Once your TV is on the right input , slot in a cartridge will take care of the remainder .
you could switch between the two facet ratio on the fly sheet , even in a game . This profit sealed titles that trust on you scan text edition stretching across the screen . In a game like Asteroids Deluxe , the wider exhibit is in reality a little more good , as you have more runway before you teleport from one side of the screen to the other .
The wireless controller that amount with the 7800 + does n’t link up directly to the console . or else , it connects to a dongle you plug into the console . This takes very fiddling time , even if the port on the console feel more squishy than dapper . The rectangular control only have two buttons and a joystick . play the games with the system ’s Rockchip 3128 SOC was fast , and I did n’t spot any issues with off - colors or glitch .
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
That stick drive in off in cause you need to expend the pure D - launchpad , but even with it on , everything felt very raffish . The heavy button have a very old - schooling feel without relying on ancient switch . Even during lengthy sessions , I did n’t feel my hands cramping against the squared - off credit card . It feels firm in that kind of direction that onetime folk like to say , “ They do n’t make ‘ em like they used to . ”
The 7800 + is also compatible with Atari ’s other retro controllers and anything from the daytime of the 2600 or 7800 . I plugged in an literal retro Joystick controller to try it , and yes , it decidedly do work . What ’s great is having all the peripherals together ; none of them seem out of place .
When using those onetime controllers , you realize just how stiff the original joystick controller ’s push button is , and the knob itself does n’t have as much give as you might expect just looking at it . Atari put some effort into make these control comfortable for modern gamers . If you rightfully want to be as close to the original experience as possible , you ’ll find some of these OG control for at or less than the price of Atari ’s young Cx40 + joystick .
© Photo: Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
Some may wish the console had extra comforts , like switching facet ratios without having to pass on behind it . However , there are benefits to these limitations . This console is aping the sure-enough design down to the small point . It came from an age that necessitate you to put up up and trade cartridges . When you transfer the original for the saki of quality of life , you also take away from its verisimilitude .
Atari 7800+ Review: Games and Playability
The presentation is very , very retro . Each re - expel biz come with its own slipcase , instruction manual of arms , and flatpack box you need to construct yourself . you may represent most of your old games , though the genuine lean of official 7800 is relatively little . The vast majority of the Atari 2600 should be playable , although we could n’t perhaps test every game Atari claim is playable .
Like the original console , the 7800 redux is compatible with most Atari 2600 game . That includes all the titles Atari discharge for last twelvemonth ’s 2600 + cabinet , plus the upcoming RealSports ingathering , Caverns of Mars , and Adventure . You may clamber to get some of these older boxed-in set with them being sell out , but I took a little trek to my closest retro shop in Manhattan and found a few game usable to play , even if most of them were copies of Baseball .
For our review , Atari sent us a copy of classic game likeNinja GolfandFatal Run . Several other plot required extra TLC before they could derive to the 7800 + . Atari worked with a modest caption in the homebrew Atari tantrum , Robert DeCrescenzo , to fetch us Bentley Bear ’s Crystal Quest . He also provided oeuvre to bringBounty Bob Strikes Back!from the Atari 5200 to the 7800 . Alongside all that areAsteroids Deluxe , Space Duel , andFrenzy .
I ’ve always wanted to playNinja Golf , and it ’s rightfully as difficult and zany as I imagined . The text looks fine on a widescreen frame-up , and the controller are antiphonal as you endeavor to duck maraud ninjas and Marmota monax . Fatal Runwas the last game Atari ever released for the 2600 , and its billet on the 7800 cement it as a really interesting vehicle combat biz that somehow feel as novel now as it likely did back in the day .
Both those games play all right at the 16:9 aspect ratio . Even Frenzy play OK at widescreen , but other games are better if you switch to 4:3 . Even a secret plan like Space Duel ( a more colorful rendering of Asteroids ) may front a piffling too squashed when set on the expectant sieve place setting .
Bounty Bobis the kind of game that makes you clutch your controller in utter frustration . You have a restrained amount of control over your jump , but since there is fall damage , you wo n’t survive an accidental leap to a crushed platform . It ’s a game where you could spend minute with and barely beat the first concealment . I had a similar experience withBentley Bear , which drove me mad by how you need to time accurate skip to avoid enemies without daring to touch a exclusive pixel .
One of the ground the original 7800 did n’t betray was its deficiency of quality platformers to compete withSuper Mario Bros.on the NES . And still , that original Mario game is king for its tight control and responsive jumps . Bentley Bearsisn’t any real contest for Mario and Sonic , not even from the era of the 7800 ’s inception . This game selection includes several legitimate classics , but other game subsist to tell a story of a time and home in bet on history .
Atari 7800+ Review: Verdict
The Atari 7800 + is a great retro console that does one thing and one affair only : wreak old Atari game on advanced video . That would n’t needs be enough , but Atari operate the extra nautical mile to assume and issue several titles emblematic of Atari ’s retro day and today ’s residential district of homebrewers .
You canbuy some of these games yourself ( potentially spending more for some games likeFatal Run ) , but the 7800 + versions are essentially equivalent to those original title . Playing them on this recreation console is as stuffy as many will come to experiencinggaming chronicle in a tactile way beyond typical emulation on microcomputer or phone .
You do have to come to terms with the fact that this is still essentially a form of emulation . Purists might scoff at the idea of running these game on anything but the true - spicy arrangement or even FPGA , but that ’s beyond the scope of this console table . It well stand for a way forrard for other major publishers whose bequest step back into the 1970s and 80s . Even if the games themselves are n’t as sport by today ’s standards ( although Asteroids still rules ) , they still merit to be understood . Atari ’s system accomplishes that by embedding itself within the community , and it is better off for it .
AtariAtari 7800
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , skill , and culture news program in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , give up to your present .
You May Also Like
