“Celebrate the past, look to the future.”
The year was 1972. The song “American Pie” by Don McLean was climbing the charts, the Dallas Cowboys became Super Bowl champions, and the modern gaming industry was launched through Atari. Atari celebrates this milestone with an anthology of its history in the form of an exciting 50th-anniversary box set.
Exclusive to Atari.com, the Atari XP 50th Anniversary Box Set offers 10 cartridges featuring classic game titles Centipede, Asteroids, Super Breakout, Yar’s Revenge, Crystal Castles, Missile Command, Haunted House, Adventure, Gravitar, and Warlords. Limited to just 100 units worldwide, each box set is programmed for use with the Atari 2600 console and is priced at $999.99 USD.
According to Atari, each cartridge features striking re-imagined artwork on the front label and an acrylic topper that lights up when inserted into the console. Individual packages included in the set come in a distinctive black box featuring a remastered version of the original key art. When all ten cartridges are displayed together in a row, they reveal the 50th-anniversary logo on the spine, making it a truly eye-catching centrepiece to any gaming library.
Currently in pre-production and expected to ship within the next couple of months, all 100 box sets have already sold out. According to our friends at Atari, it happened rather quickly, too. But, if you’re still looking to get in on the celebration by experiencing some of the games that changed the world, Atari has you covered!
Created in collaboration with Digital Eclipse, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration takes players on an interactive journey through five decades of video games. In addition to featuring a specialty curated list of over 90 classic Atari titles spanning everything from the 800 to the Lynx consoles, this one-of-a-kind collection also features games that have been out of production for years and includes six brand-new games exclusive to this release!
That’s not all! Also included are five unique interactive timelines designed to take players behind some of the biggest games in the industry — and to meet the creative individuals responsible for them. Explore a host of archival images, special source material, and immersive behind-the-scenes content certain to take your gaming knowledge to a new level. Atari has included over an hour of exclusive video interviews with some of the key players within the industry — early designers, engineers, and other luminaries of the gaming world – as they discuss the company’s enduring impact on the video entertainment landscape even all these years later.
Physical copies of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration are being made available for all current gaming consoles and can be purchased right now for $39.99 USD through major retailers. Digital collections can be downloaded via content platforms like Steam and Atari VCS for around $35.99 USD.
This year is going to be a big one for Atari. With the company clearly going all-in on the celebration, fans should also keep their eyes open for special 50th-anniversary apparel, collector’s edition games, and more exciting announcements throughout the course of the year.
Now, who’s ready to get this party started?
