Digital Eclipse is making an Atari compilation with 90+ games, including Jaguar titles
Atari 50th: The Anniversary Celebration covers six Atari systems
Retro compilation specialist Digital Eclipse has announced that it’s working on a new Atari title covering over 90 games across six classic formats.
Atari 50th: The Anniversary Celebration will celebrate the history of Atari with a range of games previously released on the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, 8-bit home computer, Lynx and Jaguar.
Most notably, the compilation will mark the first time Lynx and Jaguar games have been made available to play on modern consoles.
According to Digital Eclipse, the game will consist of five interactive timelines, which contain information on “the games that launched the modern industry […] through interviews, archival images, special source material and behind-the-scenes content”.
As players discover games in the timeline, they’ll be able to come out of the timeline and play them, then return to where they left off to continue the story.
“Behind every game are the stories of Atari, what was happening at the company, what went into the creation of the games and the hardware on which they ran, all told by the people who were there,” a press release says.
“It is a rare opportunity to get a rich behind-the-scenes look at the history of video games.”
As well as the retro games in the compilation, Digital Eclipse has also created the ‘Reimagined’ series – six games that “revisit, mash up and reimagine Atari classics” – which will be included in the compilation too.
These are described as follows:
Swordquest: AirWorld
Yes, you read that right: After nearly 40 years of waiting, the team at Digital Eclipse has created the fourth and final entry in the legendary Swordquest series, inspired by the design concepts of original Swordquest creator Tod Frye. Who will be the first to solve its mysteries – and finally complete the quest?
Haunted Houses
The original “survival horror” game for the Atari 2600 gets a modern 3D voxel-based sequel, featuring more houses, more spooky situations, and more urns.
VCTR-SCTR
This mashup celebration of the vector era of gaming combines the gameplay from Asteroids, Tempest, and other vector-based arcade classics into a single, continuous challenge.
Neo Breakout
An amazing and addictive two-player competition that combines the best features of Breakout and Pong, with a modern graphic style.
Quadratank
The first new entry in the classic Tank series since 1978 combines features from the original games with four-player fun in team or free-for-all modes.
Yars’ Revenge Reimagined
Howard Scott Warshaw’s masterpiece for the Atari 2600 gets a whole new look – and you can swap between original and modern graphics at any time! Designed by Digital Eclipse studio head Mike Mika, who created the Game Boy Color version of Yars’ Revenge in 1999.
Further reading
A Lego Atari VCS / 2600 50th anniversary set has been spotted online
Digital Eclipse is currently putting the finishing touches to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, which consists of 13 separate games covering releases on arcade, NES, SNES, Mega Drive / Genesis and Game Boy.
The studio has gained a reputation for its handling of retro compilations, which often include large helpings of behind-the-scenes content that almost present the games as museum pieces.
Previous releases have included Mega Man Legacy Collection, The Disney Afternoon Collection, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and SNK 40th Anniversary Collection.
Atari 50th: The Anniversary Celebration will be released in Q4 2022 for Switch, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC.
