Atari Announces Ataribox Pre-Orders Going Live 12/14, Discounts For Early Birds
Retro gaming is all the rage right now, fueled in large part by Nintendo's NES Classic Edition and SNES Classic Edition game consoles, both of which are incredibly scarce (in relation to demand). But before the original versions of those miniaturized modern remakes materialized, there was the Atari 2600, the console that really put in-home gaming on the map. It too is getting a rebirth of sorts in the form of the Ataribox, which will be available to pre-order on Indiegogo starting on Thursday, December 14.
We have been hearing about the Ataribox for several months now, and little by little, new details have emerged. More recently, we learned the Ataribox will feature an AMD accelerated processing unit (APU) with Radeon graphics to deliver a "full PC experience for the TV." It will also run Linux and come preloaded with "tons of classic Atari retro games," as well as some current titles that different studios are currently developing.
"Most TV devices have closed systems and content stores. Linux lets us be more open; you can access and customize the OS, and you can access games you've bought from other content platforms (if compatible with the OS and HW)," the Ataribox team said in September.
From the images that have been released, the Ataribox looks to retain the looks of its classic roots, but with an updated design that is decidedly sleeker. It also brings some modern connectivity options to the retro gaming party, including HDMI output, a handful of USB ports, an Ethernet port for wired connections to the Internet, and an SD card slot. Those are all welcome upgrades over the RF switch box that was used with the original Atari 2600.
Atari will be offering an exclusive discount on Indiegogo when the listing goes live. The company warns that these Early Bird deals will be "extremely limited," and depending on demand, they could sell out fast. If you are interested, mark your calendars, bookmark the Indiegogo page (hit the source link), and join the waitlist to stay in the loop.
