Atari has announced the next in the line of Retro Games’ mini PC consoles, the Atari 400 Mini, based on the classic Atari home computer. It will be available starting March 28.
For younger readers, before IBM and Microsoft devastated the proprietary home computer market with the introduction of DOS, computers were often their own platform. There was the Commodore line, the Sinclairs, the Apples, and, of course, Atari. The Atari 400 and 800 were first introduced in 1979 and gave birth to the Atari 8-bit line.
Retro Games previously released The C64 Mini, the A500 Mini (Amiga), and The Vic20, based on the Commodore lineup of home computers.
The Atari 400 Mini comes with 25 preinstalled games, including M.U.L.E. and Millipede and the store page says you can load and play programs “you already own.” It comes with a USB controller styled off the Atari CX40, displays at 720p, and is powered by USB (no included adapter). It is also compatible with other USB controllers.
I feel like mini emulation boxes are a good fit for old computers. Unless you’re an enthusiast, you probably have no interest in owning the actual hardware for, say, spreadsheets. Therefore, you don’t really need the keyboard, which was rarely ever used to play games. As for me, I own an Atari 600XL and an Atari XEGS, so I’m probably passing on this. On the other hand, games for them are kind of hard to come by and often expensive.
Currently, the Atari 400 Mini is only announced in the UK where it releases on March 28. No plans have been announced for North America.
