The 103 classic games that did, and didn’t, make the Atari 50 anniversary cut
Enlarge / The box art for Atari 50 includes teases of various console designs and game box art images. (credit: Atari Corp. / Digital Eclipse)
Earlier this year, news emerged about yet another Atari classic-gaming compilation meant to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary. As we've seen quite a few Atari-branded collections over the years, we wondered exactly what shape Atari 50's selection of "over 100 games" would take ahead of its launch on Steam, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on November 8.
Thanks to a European retailer listing that emerged over the weekend, we now have an apparently final list of the Atari 50 selection of games: 103 in all, as spread across arcade cabinets, six console families, and a selection of "reimagined," newly coded games and ports. The verdict: It's pretty good, yet it's still a glaring reminder that the compilation might better be named "Atari Corp. 50."
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We'll break this article up into platform-specific lists, which each include our own notes and analysis, and we'll start with the least-surprising list. This collection's stewards at Digital Eclipse (TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection) had already announced plans to "reimagine" six games beyond the original code supplied by Atari's archives, and these alone could be worth the price of admission for '70s and '80s gaming stalwarts.