Itâs always worth revisiting the classics, and thereâs no shortage of retro consoles and emulators to enable that. The Atari 400 Mini is more niche than weâre used to, however, and thatâs what makes it so intriguing. The 8-bit retro replica console has dropped to $102 ($18 off) at Amazon in a limited-quantity opportunity thatâs nearly halfway claimed.
Technology
The Atari 400 Mini plays dozens of classic games, and it’s 15 percent off
The Atari 400 Mini retro console is down to $109 at Amazon, a new all-time low. It emulates Atari’s earliest home consoles and comes with 25 games.
Atari 400 Mini
The Atari 400 Mini is a replica of the retro brandâs first home gaming console. It comes with 25 classic titles with the ability to add more, and with 720p resolution via HDMI, you donât need to salvage an old CRT from the junkyard for your nostalgic kick.
The Atari 400 was one of the brandâs first home consoles and computers, noted for the inclusion of a keyboard alongside its iconic joystick. It launched in 1979, which probably explains why I havenât heard of most of the games in the lineup (my feet touched the planet in 1988). Asteroids, Star Raiders II, Centipede, and Berzerk ring a bell for me, and Iâve even played a few of them over the years, but there are more in the list of 25 that I was simply too late for (you can find a full lineup in our hands-on here).
It supports not just Atari 400 games but also emulates titles that launched afterward up to the Atari 5200. If you want more games, you can use one of the consoleâs five USB ports to sideload extras using a flash drive, provided you have digital copies of them. That port is also where you plug in the classic joystick that comes with it or keyboards, controllers, and other supported peripherals.
You can play in 720p over HDMI, either in the classic 4:3 aspect ratio that CRT sets of the era were confined to or a âpixel perfectâ mode that does a fine job of scaling it for modern displays. Thereâs even an option to overlay your games with digital scanlines to really sell the effect. You can also rewind gameplay up to 30 seconds, and it supports snapshot saves with up to four slots per game so you never have to lose your progress.
The Vergeâs Andrew Webster felt many of the games have aged about as well as they could. Atariâs had plenty of examples to get it right, after all, with so many other retro consoles to reference such as a clone of its own 2600 and similar options from long-time rivals like Sega and Nintendo. You could probably pass if youâre already flush with 8-bit treasure, but itâs a reasonable purchase if youâre looking for something unique and obscure for your collection.