The Atari 2600 turned 50 last year. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped celebrating the greatest video game console of all time. And I even bought myself a little something to join in on the fun: The Atari Adventure Limited Edition cartridge.
Now if you had an Atari growing up, no doubt you owned Adventure. Or knew someone who did. Or played it at a friend’s house. Or bribed that weird neighborhood kid with chocolate pudding for a month, just so he’d let you play it at his house.
Adventure may seem simplistic in appearance (as most Atari 2600 games do at first glance), but this one opened up a whole new world to gamers. As a valiant knight (represented by a yellow square), you’d work your way through a colorful maze to find keys and items to help you recover and return the Enchanted Chalice to its rightful home. Along the way are various villains to stop you, including annoying flying bats and a wave of colored dragons, that for some reason looked like ducks.
Oh, and you can find an arrow to use as a weapon. Yes, an arrow that looks like this: <– .
With no soundtrack as you play, you’ll enjoy various sound effects as you find items and kill the evil ducks. And once you win, you get a cool crescendoing noise, as the screen flashes through all the colors of the rainbow.
It’s seriously a fun one-player game that I still enjoy playing. And my Atari 2600 game library has just received an upgrade.
Atari Adventure Limited Edition
In honor of its 50th Anniversary, Atari has put out 10 different games in a limited edition. (Only $1,000 for the full set!) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and yesterday my order was finally delivered.
I couldn’t believe it. Roughly 40 years since I last held a new boxed Atari game. But here it was. Fresh from the company itself.
The Limited Edition version includes some nifty extras such as an Adventure Dragon Slayers patch, Adventure pin, an extended instruction manual and, of course, an actual working cartridge of the Atari Adventure game.
Atari Adventure Dragon Slayers Patch
Atari Adventure Pin
Atari Adventure Limited Edition Box
The game box itself is actually a neat little piece of art. Rather than just opening at the ends to pull the cartridge out, there’s also a flap that opens up to display the Atari 50 logo and messaging on one side, and a window of the game cartridge with game art on the right side. You can actually see the duck dragon opening its mouth. Pretty sure you’re “hearing” it too.
It’s also neat that on the box it lists game creator Warren Robinett. Astute players will remember that good ol’ Warren made history when he created a secret room in the game that featured his name on it. Yep, we’re talking about the very first Easter Egg in a console game.
Atari Adventure Cartridge
How cool does this limited edition look? Atari even tosses in a cute little stand to proudly display the cartridge.
And yes, it actually fits into an Atari 2600. Even cooler, once you turn on your console… the game lights up!
Seriously, how cool is that? Pictures don’t do it justice. Just take my word for it.
But this Adventure game isn’t just another pretty collectible. It’s actually a fully functional cartridge! I sat down and started playing level 1, the easy one. It probably took me about 10 minutes but I managed to kill the dragons and rescue the chalice, cheering triumphantly.
Even though I have my Atari 2600 hooked up to a 60″ 4K Samsung TV, I was still able to play no problem. Colors were slightly off as you can see in the photos but that’s completely due to the hi-resolution of the television. I really wish I still had our old 20″ Mitsubishi color TV. Those were truly the best. They must’ve weighed like 500 pounds with the cathode-ray tube in the back. The picture was crystal clear for our Atari though.
I really love that Atari is still around as a company and that they are currently putting out products (T-shirts, speaker hats, artwork) that appeal to nostalgic ’80s lovers like myself.
I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Perhaps an Atari Adventure Action Figure set that features an articulated square holding an arrow sword as he goes up against the duck-like green dragon? Seriously, I’d pay good money for that!
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