The company that currently owns the Atari name and trademarks has decided to give owners of the old Atari Video Computer System (aka the Atari 2600) something new to do. Mr. Run and Jump is a new Atari-published platformer that is coming to vintage Atari consoles in cartridge form, complete with a box and instruction manual. Preorders for the cartridge begin on July 31 for $59.99.
of note on why the headline specifies “A company called Atari”, for the unfamiliar. it’s both a bit of snark but also an actual thing because Atari’s history is not unlike the Ship of Theseus:
[…]Today’s Atari has absolutely nothing to do with the company that launched the Atari VCS in 1977, and the brand’s history and ownership defies an easy summary. After the video game crash in 1983, the old Atari was split into two divisions by parent company Warner Communications and sold. Atari Games continued the arcade business, and Atari Corporation controlled home console releases. Atari Corporation took a few unsuccessful stabs at the console market in the late '80s and early '90s with consoles like the Jaguar and the Lynx. It ultimately merged with a now-defunct manufacturer of unreliable hard drives in 1996 before being sold to Hasbro Interactive in 1998. Hasbro was bought by Infogrames Entertainment in 2001, which dropped the “Infogrames” name in favor of “Atari” in 2009. That company’s US operations, already many degrees removed from the original Atari, filed for bankruptcy in 2013. The company that emerged is the one that’s still operating as “Atari” today, and it’s linked to the old company by its name and its trademarks and not much else.
Anybody remember the Atari VCS? It was such a total disaster that the developer of the first exclusive game on it wasn’t notified that his game was going to be on the console.
I bought one. I just run Ubuntu on it as a htpc. I played with the Atari OS for about an hour. I still think it’s a pretty box to run a pc in.
It was before my time. I’m a first was NES generation. How many Atari’s were there? They all seem the same to me.
It was released 2 years ago! The fact that nobody’s ever heard of it is another testament to modern Atari :^)
There are two VCS.
The original Atari 2600 was called the VCS and that’s what most oldish folks and the OP article are likely thinking of.
You’re talking about the 2021 Linux-based console inspired by the original, which I hadn’t even heard of until your comment.
I see, I had no idea the old 2600 was called the VCS.
I guess that’s yet another example of how confusing modern Atari is
The very fact that there is such a thing as modern Atari is, frankly, confusing. I haven’t quite gotten over that revelation yet.
I’m still struck by the realization that, apparently, Hasbro no longer exists. It’s like a part of my childhood just died.
Wait, what happened to Hasbro??
It was renamed to 2600 after the release of the 5200.