Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is already packed to the rafters with incredible retro games, unique interviews, and rare documentation on the history of Atari, but what if you wanted even more..?
Well, the good news is that Atari and Digital Eclipse are releasing a new ‘Expanded Edition’ of the game that introduces 2 new timelines and 39 new games. A physical edition and a collector’s steelbook (exclusive to Switch) will also be made available when the game launches on October 25th 2024, but current owners will be able to download the new content as DLC (we’ve reached out to clarify if this will be free or paid DLC).
As for the new timelines, the first is titled ‘The Wider World of Atari’ and delves into more underappreciated hidden gems from the ’80s, the work that artist Evelyn Seto carried out to create the now-iconic Atari logo, the birth of Breakout with interviews from Al Alcorn, and much more. This section will contain 19 playable games and 8 video segments.
The second timeline is titled ‘The First Console War’ and chronicles the rivalry between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision. A selection of M Network games will be made available alongside a bunch of interviews with the likes of 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.
Of course, it’s likely that the Intellivision content is a direct result of Atari’s recent acqusition of the brand. Announced in May 2024, Atari purchased the rights to the brand itself and over 200 games, effectively ending the first console war. The Intellivision Amico, however, was left out of the deal and is still supposedly in development.
Digital Eclipse has already expanded upon Atari 50 via free DLC, offering up the likes of Adventure II, Save Mary, Return to Haunted House, Aquaventure, and more. The release of the Expanded Edition will bring the total number of playable games to 154.
The physical edition of the game will retail at $39.99, with the steelbook coming in at $49.99.