Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition announced for Switch

Today, Atari and Digital Eclipse announced Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition, a significant expansion to the original release. It’s slated for October 25, 2024 on Switch.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection adds two new timelines and 39 games to the playable Atari retrospective. Those who own the original release can obtain the new content as DLC later this year.

Here’s what to expect:

The Wider World of Atari timeline, which includes 19 playable games and eight video segments, takes a series of deep dives into stories from Atari history, showing how Atari continued to influence creators and fans over the decades. New interviews, vintage ads, historical artifacts, and more have all been researched and presented with Digital Eclipse’s signature style. Highlights from the new timeline include a deep dive into Stern Electronics’ robot-blasting Berzerk; unusual and underappreciated innovations and hidden gems from the late 1980s; a spotlight on the artist Evelyn Seto, who helped create the iconic “Fuji” Atari logo; Pong creator Al Alcorn explaining the birth of Breakout; and an exploration of the fan base’s role in discovering unreleased prototypes, creating “homebrew” games, and preserving Atari history.

The First Console War timeline, which includes 20 playable games and half-dozen video segments, tells the story of the first major console war in the gaming industry between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision. The team at Digital Eclipse curates an exploration of the rivalry, including Mattel’s quixotic decision to create games for the competing Atari 2600. Highlights include a selection of M Network games, including some fan-favorites; a mix of Atari and M Network sports games, and some rare Atari 2600 and 5200 prototypes. New interview features include former Intellivision game director Don Daglow, M Network programmer Jane Terjung, Activision’s David Crane and Garry Kitchen, homebrew programmer Dennis Debro, and historians Leonard Herman and Mike Mika.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition will be available with a physical standalone and steelbook version on Switch. The latter includes Atari 2600 art cards, miniature arcade marquee signs, an Al Alcorn Replica Syzygy Co. business card, and a steelbook case. The standard version will retail for $39.99 while the steelbook will retail for $49.99.

We have more on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration here.