Atari Console Games Officially Come To PC

Atari is bringing a collection of 100 classic console games to the PC. It’s promising a range of usability upgrades to the originals.

The games will be packaged in a single title, Atari Vault. Among those already announced are Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest and Warlord.

The company describes the games as re-imagined, though it’s not clear how extensive any gameplay changes will be. What is known is that there’ll be a change to user interfaces, support for the Steam controller, and both online and local multiplayer where appropriate. As you’d expect, there’ll also be a worldwide leaderboard system for comparing high scores.

The initial release is planned for both Windows and the Steam system in the spring, with Mac support added later. Pricing hasn’t been revealed yet.

As always with such retro projects, it’s the selection of the 100 titles that may be the most important factor. There’s always the risk it will be a few of the better-known titles and then a lot of padding, with other top games held off for an expansion or second edition.

While some of these games have been available (if not always officially) in emulated versions before, one selling point this time is that the Steam controller might offer the closest modern peripheral equivalent to the trackball used for some Atari 5200 games, most notably Centipede and Missile Command.