Review: New Atari 2600+ doesn’t justify its plus sign

Enlarge / Well, at least they got the look of the hardware right.

If you’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 RF signals 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.

Unfortunately, that’s about all this bare-bones, $130 hardware does. If you’re expecting the kind of modern quality-of-life features you’ve seen on other retro console revamps in recent years, lower your expectations accordingly here.

A cute curio

Let’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 “CX2600-A” model introduced in 1980, not one of the larger “Sixer” models from the late ’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’s even a charming, working switch for flipping from Color to Black and White display, an option that hasn’t been relevant to most living room entertainment centers since the Carter administration (at the latest).