Atari CEO on making 2600+ work with cartridges: "There's a beauty to it"
radiotimes.com«This is a labour of love,» says Atari CEO Wade Rosen, gazing lovingly at the Atari 2600+ retro console on the table in front of him. (You can see this moment and many other highlights from this interview in the video embedded above!)
It's the end of a long day at the Gamescom 2023 conference, with many of his peers clocking off for the day and cracking open some cold ones mere metres away, but Rosen is still brimming with enthusiasm as he tells us about this surprising new hardware release.
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While many retro gaming brands seem content to release plastic reproductions of their classic machines without the option to insert your actual cartridges, often opting to pre-install a selection of memorable titles instead, Rosen's new product zigs where everyone else seems to zag.
The Atari 2600+ has one killer feature that most retro consoles don't — as well as having HDMI output and some other mod cons, this rebuilt version of the classic console can actually run your old cartridges!
«I have nothing against the mini consoles,» Rosen is quick to mention, «and we've had a lot of success with mini consoles in the past. I have a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo and a Genesis Mini, and I'll fire those up sometimes.»
Rosen continues: «But I still have consoles to play classic cartridges. And it's necessary for somebody who's an avid gamer, and also somebody who wants to go beyond maybe just the most well-known content on a console — you eventually need to go back to the cartridges themselves.»
Gazing down at his creation, Rosen adds: «And there is something, like, beautifully tactile about it. Having the cartridge, plugging it in, the input time is probably a little bit quicker. It just
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