This is turning out to be a banner decade for Gen Xers who can’t get their fill of 1970s nostalgia. In addition to enjoying the Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong that’s streaming on Hulu and last Sunday’s roof-raising Grammy performance honoring 50 years of hip-hop, aging latchkey kids can now shell out a cool grand for a complete set of 50th anniversary Atari XP collectible cartridges.
For those of you struggling to do the math: last year was the official 50th anniversary of the company, as Atari was founded in 1972. However, the first Atari 2600 home gaming console didn’t hit the shelves until 1977, and many of the games didn’t come out until the early 1980s.
Beginning Feb. 7, Atari fanatics can place preorders for one of only 100 sets, which includes the following 10 games:
- Adventure
- Asteroids
- Centipede
- Crystal Castles
- Gravitar
- Haunted House
- Missile Command
- Super Breakout
- Warlords
- Yars’ Revenge
The collectible box set comes on the heels of the November 2022 release of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, which, according to its press release, is an “interactive journey through 50 years of video games, including a specially curated list of more than 100 playable classics and six entirely new titles.”
Notably absent from the collection is everyone’s favorite insatiable yellow sphere, Pac-Man, which Atari released in 1982 after adapting it from Namco’s 1980 arcade game. Pac-Man went on to sell more than 8 million units worldwide, becoming the best-selling Atari 2600 game of all time.
While the hefty price tag means gamers will essentially be paying $100 for each of the 10 games (which are admittedly pretty primitive by today’s standards), the fact that only 100 sets are on offer points to the likelihood of eBay bidding wars in the not-too-distant future.
