Dust off your Atari 7800, because Plaion and Atari have announced that three of the console’s titles are getting a new cartridge run on May 24, 2024.
The games in question are 1990’s Fatal Run, 1986’s Food Fight, and 1990’s Ninja Golf. All of these are favorites on the platform, but Fatal Run and Ninja Golf were both featured as part of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Food Fight, on the other hand, was only present in its arcade and Atari 800 formats.
If you don’t have an Atari 7800, there’s good news. The Atari 2600+ supports 7800 cartridges, though I had some issues trying to find a controller that was recognized by the hardware. Good news again on that front! Atari is also reissuing the CX78 gamepad. Also, Plaion is working on updating the console’s firmware, so hopefully, better controller compatibility will be added.
After the failure of the Atari 5200, the 1983 crash, the launch of the NES, and the sale of the company to Jack Tramiel, the Atari 7800 wasn’t really able to find its footing in the market. To make matters worse, the slow release of software left gamers unenthused. It didn’t quite find the audience that the NES or even the Sega Master System did, but some who played it are still affectionate toward the console.
If you’re like me and were too young to really get in on the platform while it was on the market, these reissues might be an exciting piece of history.
The three Atari 7800 reproductions come with a box and cartridge, but that seems to be it. I’m not sure why Atari and Plaion don’t include instruction manuals with their re-releases, but that seems to be continuing with these. They’ll run you $29.99 and release May 24, 2024. They’re available for preorder in some places now.
