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There’s more to enjoy with Atari’s throwback than just vibes

The Atari 2600 Plus retro console, Pac-Man EditionImage: Atari / Bandai Namco

I’ll be honest: Part of the reason I wanted the Pac-Man Edition Atari 2600 Plus console was because I thought it would look cute in my living room, where I’m trying for a kind of late ’70s look. But having spent several days with Atari’s retro console, it’s a lot more than just a conversation piece. If you’re interested in retro games and ephemera, these new-old consoles are the purest dopamine rush.

The yellow Pac-Man 2600 Plus console is fairly petite, especially compared to beefy modern consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series S. Though it’s lightweight, the construction is solid and robust. There are four big toggle switches flanking the cartridge slot, which are satisfying to fiddle with. While Atari’s standard-model 2600 Plus console features glorious late ’70s woodgrain, the Pac-Man Edition, which is available to pre-order now for a late November arrival, has a distinctly ’80s feel to it, with vibrant yellow panels making a stark contrast to black trim. Best of all, the front illustration of Pac-Man and the four ghosts on the lights up when the console powers on. It’s a nice touch that lends the console a bit of modern flourish without sacrificing retro flair.

The Pac-Man Edition Atari 2600 Plus also plays 7800 games, and Atari has dozens of titles available in its online store, with cart prices topping out at $35. If you have an existing collection of retro carts that you’ve been holding onto, the 2600 Plus can play those too. The special edition will set you back $169, and comes with one CX40 Plus joystick in a matching vivid yellow hue, decorated with pellets surrounding the joystick and a Pac-Man cap at the top. Unlike the original 2600, the controllers are wireless, and easy to set up thanks to the included USB dongle. Additional controllers will set you back $34.99 for traditional black and $39.99 for Pac-Man-themed colors.

The Atari 2600 Plus retro console, Pac-Man EditionImage: Atari / Bandai Namco

Coming from the dual-thumbstick era of modern consoles, the CX40 Plus takes a bit of getting used to. It’s quite literally just a joystick and a single red button. (It took me a minute even to figure out that the button is meant to be facing away from you — I was spinning the controller around in my hands, pushing up on the stick only for my cursor to move down on the screen.) Once I actually got it facing the right way, I found myself “missing turns” in Pac-Man, mostly because I was being a little too gentle with the joystick. You’re gonna have to crank the CX40 Plus a bit more than you’re accustomed to with newfangled controllers, but it’s robust enough to handle it.

The special-edition 2600 Plus console is bundled with a *Pac-Man Double Feature *cartridge, which includes both the familiar arcade version of the iconic pellet-gobbler and the 2600 version, which is very flickery, elongated, and trippy. (To be honest, I enjoyed the 2600 version more in a lava lamp / historical oddity way than as an actual video game.) Everybody loves Pac-Man, and something about playing with an old-school joystick makes it a bit more enjoyable.

I also had a lot of fun with 1980’s *Berzerk *and its sequel. Frenzy, both of which are top-down shooters where you dodge skeletons and aliens while weaving through a maze. These were both totally new to me, but also felt strangely familiar. It took me a few runs to realize it probably (at least partly) inspired the Jackenstein boss fight in *Deltarune Chapter 4 *from earlier this year. The visuals were super simple, but the vibes were there all the same.

Image: Atari

Another new one for me was 1984’s Food Fight, where you’re a kid dodging a bunch of deadly chefs in order to secure an ice cream cone. As you cross the screen, you can pick up bananas and cupcakes to toss at your foes. Once you reach your objective, the kid’s head opens freakishly wide and his tongue unfurls like a magic carpet to gobble up the cone. It looks like something out of a nightmare, and I love that.

As someone who pored over printed game guides as a kid, I appreciate that all of Atari’s new-wave 2600 and 7800 games include detailed instruction manuals. Each one includes basic “how to play the game” information, which can be genuinely helpful with stuff from an era where in-game text is super minimal. Several also include historical details about the game’s development and restoration, along with cool archival art and illustrations. I’m sure there are legal and not-so-legal ways to play 2600 games for far less than $35 a pop, but the packaging and presentation are a big part of the charm here. In an era when games libraries are increasingly digital, it’s refreshing to see this level of care and attention devoted to paper boxes, cartridge sleeves, and pamphlets.

Some of Atari’s game cartridges, including *Pac-Man Double Feature, *also include an array of four small “dip switches” on the underside. These can be toggled up and down with a fingernail. For *Double Feature, *it’s how you choose between the arcade and 2600 versions of the game. As a ’90s kid, this whole concept was totally new to me, and I love that Atari retained this tactile element of the cart design, rather than just making the alternate version an option to select in the main menu.

So who is this for? There’s no way around it: older games can be pretty darn unforgiving. Giving a modern child an Atari 2600 is like giving them a copy of The Canterbury Tales: probably more of a clever punishment than anything else. A sweet summer child raised on Pikachu and Peely would get their shit wrecked by Galaga or Bounty Bob Strikes Back. If you give this to a kid, they will hate you.

Even so, the Pac-Man Edition Atari 2600 Plus is a fantastic holiday gift, especially at a time when it’s all but impossible to get any game console under $200. (Hell, even Soulja Boy’s new bootleg handheld is $400+.) If you’re at all interested in gaming history, it’s super rewarding to take these older games for a spin and see all the connective threads that are still there, even 40+ years later. This is one for the old-heads and the retro fans, the collector types with too many Ikea Billy bookcases to count. You know who you are.

The Atari 2600 Plus Pac-Man Edition was reviewed using a unit provided by Atari. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.