Atari Official 2600+ Console & Joystick - HDMI Output - Includes 10 Games

This was such a thrill to activate this unit.Many of us 20th century gamers grew up with the 6507-equipped CX-2600 with its 160x192 pixels in 128 colors with 128 bytes of RAM in a RIOT chip. We still have the dozens, even hundreds of cartridges and controllers, but our ability to maintain our heavy-sixers and light-fours is steadily waning away.We can rebuild our boards with capacitor and resistor kits, but the CPU chip is impossible to find. Also, the video played on a modern video panel jitters and flickers. All of these problems are now gone.This new unit plugs right in and goes to work without a hiccup. The old controllers plug right in and work. Games do the same. The unit is of quality construction on the outside though the switches are very clunky. Image reproduction is excellent with 4:3 and 16:9 ratios available.The slow downs: 1. finding a wall nub with a USB-C connector to plug into this unit is necessary; just as in the 1970s, everything here is strung together by short wires which means gamers have to sit up close to their huge video panels to play games; the unit is in a reduced size similar to the Atari flashback series of consoles; the included cartridge has dip switches which all original games did not have; it's a shame this unit does not play the 5600 series games.I highly recommend this unit. Giving up on updating and maintaining our forty five year old consoles is now possible. The buyer will not regret this purchase and play Atari for another forty years.

I ultimately decided to get a 2600+ mainly because of its HDMI connectivity, and to be sure 2600/7800 games have never looked better on a modern TV. The aesthetics of the console are also quite nice - it looks like a classic woodgrain 2600 in about 3/4 scale and the various switches have the same feel as a classic 2600. That said, there are a few disclaimers for prospective buyers.1. If you have any homebrew titles, you effectively have to get the beta firmware upgrade from the AtariAge website (at least as of March 2024). The 2600+ is effectively a Stella emulator, and when you use a cartridge, the emulator looks for the corresponding ROM. Version 1.0 of the firmware simply couldn't play homebrews. Updating the firmware is not hard, but it takes some effort.2. Additionally, the 1.0 firmware had its share of bugs, with some games not playing correctly, some difficulty switch settings were backwards, etc.3. The console is a little too faithful to the original design - in particular, the controller jacks are on the back of the unit just like on the original 2600, but it would be more practical to have the jacks on the front.4. The cord on the included joystick is quite short, much like the cords on original 2600 controllers. However, in the year 2024, you probably don't want to sit 3 feet from your 60 inch TV the way you did your 19" CRT back in the 80s.5. There's no USB power brick in the box. Sure, everyone has one, but come on. Additionally, to do firmware updates, you need a USB-C cord which supports data transfer - a micro SD card slot would have been much appreciated.All in all, it's a fun system, and if you have a 2600/7800 library it's worth a purchase.

Yeah, it's an emulation box - but one of the better (best?) ones out there. Think if Nintendo allowed cartridges on the NES or SNES minis (and made the console a little larger) and that is kind of what you have here with Atari's offering.Controllers and games (including the 10-in-1 and new ones being produced) work in the old Atari's as well as vice versa (that includes your original controllers too). There are a small amount of games that don't work and a lot of homebrew doesn't (to be expected on emulation machines), however (as seen in the picture) I was able to boot up a rather obscure PAL multicart from Australia and it worked (though Ice Hockey was played on a black screen instead of white).Like another reviewer stated, maintaining old Atari units are getting cumbersome and are more and more for the hardcore hobbyists and tinkerers. Those who just want to play their old games and maintain a collection of Atari carts they can easily play will love this little unit. That goes for me who dug up my old carts a few months ago but haven't been able to test my original 2600 to see if it even works (let alone try to figure out the cable math to hook it up to a modern TV). This thing is just easy and fun.It doesn't come with a power plug but the USB will plug into any TV with a USB port and will power the console that way (so you don't need an extra wall adapter if you don't want to use one). Everything else looks and feels like the original 2600, which is kinda wild.I'd probably give it a 4.5 in a vacuum, but will give Atari the benefit of the doubt as far as furthering game compatibilities with updates as well as supporting future original 2600/7800 game releases. This has the potential to breathe a lot of life into retro gaming as whole and I'm all for it.