Forget the PS5 Pro. The Atari 7800+ is this holiday’s hottest console

digitaltrends.com:

Nobody is making consoles quite like Atari these days.

That may sound like an ironic joke in 2024, but anyone who has been paying attention to the legendary company can attest to how serious that claim is. Over the past few years, Atari has gone to great lengths to preserve its history. It hasn’t accomplished that by simply bringing old games to new consoles, as it did with its excellent Atari 50 collection, but also by preserving hardware itself. Last year, the company took that to the next level with the Atari 2600+, a near-perfect recreation of its iconic system that actually played old cartridges. Now, Atari has done it again — and raised the bar in the process.

This year’s retro recreation is the Atari 7800+, which gives players a fully functional, but carefully modernized replica of its third home console (sorry to the 5200 fans in the house). Like the 2600+, it’s a nostalgic treat that captures the exact look, feel, and functionality of its 1986 counterpart. This time, though, Atari has gone the extra mile to lightly upgrade the original system without losing its charm. The result is the ultimate retro gaming machine for Atari history buffs.

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Faithfully recreated

If the 7800+ looks a little different than you remember, that’s because it’s modeled after the European version of the system, which featured a more distinct rainbow decal across the top, as well as a totally different controller. It’s a gorgeous little console that retains the exact look of its ’80s counterpart, complete with its hard black plastic shell, familiar controller ports, and four control buttons (power, pause, select, and reset).

That’s one thing I love about Atari’s best consoles. I’ve always found it magical that I used to be able to control games at a