Back in January Retro Games, creators of TheC64 series of emulation consoles announced an Atari 8bit version that appears inspired in all the right ways and I like what I see so far.
As the name suggests, The 400 Mini takes its design cues from the original Atari 400 but the guts of it will be able to play titles from the whole 8bit range including the 5200 console. Choosing the 400 seems like an inspired choice as it lends itself well to the mini design as well as the games provided. The front of the unit supports four USB controller ports meaning games in the library that supported it will work fine. The membrane keyboard is not happening (thankfully) and the panel is just decorative, but a USB keyboard can be plugged in if needed.
I do like the small design touches that have gone into all aspects of the product. While I might have fonder memories of the later 800XL model, choosing the 400 design works really well for one of these mini console systems thanks to the location of the controller ports at the front of the system. Even the manual is made to look like one from the era so you know that the people behind it really care about what they are doing.
The list of games preinstalled are:
- Basketball (1979)
- Asteroids (1981)
- Centipede (1981)
- Missile Command (1981)
- Miner 2049er (1982)
- Berzerk (1983)
- Bristles (1983)
- Capture the Flag (1983)
- Encounter! (1983)
- Flip and Flap (1983)
- M.U.L.E. (1983)
- O’Reily’s Mine (1983)
- Wavy Navy (1983)
- Hover Bover (1984)
- Lee (1984)
- Millipede (1984)
- The Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
- Boulder Dash (1985)
- ElektraGlide (1985)
- Battlezone (1987)
- Henry’s House (1987)
- Star Raiders II (1987)
- Airball (1988)
- Crystal Castles (1988)
- Yoomp! (2007)
More games can be played on it by plugging in a USB stick with disk images which I’m assuming will support existing file formats that are available online for use by Atari emulators and systems. If there’s one thing I wish they considered, it was that they supported the 9 pin classic controllers. While the USB versions sold with the system (called the CXSTICK) looks adequate and has extra buttons to make up for the lack of keyboard, other systems like the 2600+ are supporting the old spec (and they are even making new ones) so it would be nice for some consistency with the peripherals.
The 400 Mini arrives in late March. I’m really curious to see what the general reaction to it will be but if it is as well received as its Commodore 64 predecessor it’ll make a lot of retro computer fans very happy.
Categories: Fun & Games, Gaming, News, Technology
The Late Night Session 
I was really happy to see The 400 Mini being a thing. Practically speaking, I have very little reason to buy one as I have multiple working Atari 8-bits plus a robust emulation setup, but I’ll likely still buy one just to support the rerelease of classic Atari 8-bit games — and to have an easy means of taking 4-player M.U.L.E. to a friend’s house!
The Atari 8-bit has a great lineup of titles — many of which are exclusives — and they often run the risk of being forgotten by history in favour of the Speccy and C64’s respective lineups. There’s a really nice mix of stuff on the built-in games (it’s a delight to see stuff like Bristles, Flip and Flop and Encounter! as well as the predictable “Atari’s own” stuff) and, with the ability to play your own stuff too, this will hopefully get a lot more people into the good ol’ Atari 8-bits.
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Hi Pete! 🙂 It’s a good mix with a few classics as well as some graphical showcases… in the case of Encounter! it’s both! Being an Atari fan I was of course hoping we’d see something like this, but I was also thinking it might not happen because the system didn’t have the same following as others of the era. I’m happy to be proven wrong!
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