Atari recharges the arcades with new cabinets

Last Updated on March 19, 2024

Atari arcade machines will no longer be a thing of the past, thanks to a new partnership with Alan-1.

The Atari Recharged cabinets will be targeted at “family fun centers” and “barcades” (we think this means holiday resorts, retail parks, entertainment complexes, and places like NQ64) and will boast some modern, connected features.

Games in the Atari Recharged collection of updated, modernised titles so far are:

Atari Recharged Title	Release Date
Missile Command: Recharged	May 27, 2021
Centipede: Recharged	September 29, 2021
Black Widow: Recharged	October 28, 2021
Asteroids: Recharged	December 13, 2021
Breakout: Recharged	February 10, 2022
Basic Math: Recharged	April 1, 2022
Gravitar: Recharged	June 2, 2022
Yars: Recharged	August 23, 2022
Caverns of Mars: Recharged	March 9, 2023
Quantum: Recharged	August 17, 2023
Berzerk: Recharged	November 8, 2023

These titles are already available across a variety of platforms, including Atari VCS, PC, Google Stadia, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, and physical versions were issued by Limited Run Games.

Luke Anderson, Chief Game Designer (CGD) at Alan-1, said “Our games will be new and fresh while providing nostalgic experiences. We have also created fun, innovative classic game mechanics combined with modern interactive mechanical effects that will delight players of all generations.

“We look forward to releasing several games in collaboration with Atari over the years and bringing them to many locations nationwide.  It is our hope that a new generation will experience the thrill and excitement of competitive location based hyper-casual arcade fun.”

There’s a term for you: “competitive location based hyper-casual arcade fun.” How do you make something “hyper-casual” that is also “competitive” – we don’t think you can.

But what we are impressed with is Alan-1’s eSports integration with these new units. Alan-1’s Video Arcade System includes iPhone and Android notifications about high score status, and invites players to return to the arcade machine where they played the game.

That’s a pretty nice feature, one that I’m interested to try out when these new Atari arcade machines start to appear.