{"id":1205373,"date":"2023-11-22T08:40:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1205373"},"modified":"2023-11-22T08:40:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T13:40:13","slug":"review-new-atari-2600-doesnt-justify-its-plus-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1205373","title":{"rendered":"Review: New Atari 2600+ doesn\u2019t justify its plus sign"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hardware1-800x493-1.jpg\" alt=\"Well, at least they got the look of the hardware right.\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/hardware1-scaled.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"1576\" data-width=\"2560\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Well, at least they got the look of the hardware right. <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever tried plugging an unmodified early generation gaming console into an HDTV, you already know that modern flat screens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/retrogaming\/comments\/13o14dr\/how_to_use_consoles_with_rf_on_modern_tvs\/\">do a pretty poor job with RF signals<\/a> that were designed for a completely different CRT display setting. The recently released Atari 2600+ helps fix this specific problem, giving retro gamers a way to get their classic Atari cartridges looking nice and sharp on an HD screen.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, that&#8217;s about all this bare-bones, $130 hardware does. If you&#8217;re expecting the kind of modern quality-of-life features you&#8217;ve seen on other retro console revamps in recent years, lower your expectations accordingly here.<\/p>\n<h2>A cute curio<\/h2>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with the physical hardware itself, which earns points for authenticity. At a glance, the 2600+ looks exactly like an Atari 2600 unit you might remember from decades past (albeit a four-switch &#8220;CX2600-A&#8221; model introduced in 1980, not one of the larger &#8220;Sixer&#8221; models from the late &#8217;70s). The fake wood grain and suitably springy front switches are sure to activate the nostalgia centers deep in the brains of gamers of a certain age. There&#8217;s even a charming, working switch for flipping from Color to Black and White display, an option that hasn&#8217;t been relevant to most living room entertainment centers since the Carter administration (at the latest).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1986050#p3\">Read 12 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1986050&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1986050\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Review: New Atari 2600+ doesn\u2019t justify its plus sign<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge \/ Well, at least they got the look of the hardware right. If you&#8217;ve ever tried plugging an unmodified early generation gaming console into an HDTV, you already know that modern flat screens do a pretty poor job with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1205373\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1205374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1205373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1205374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}