Atari and developer Digital Eclipse have announced details of the next paid expansion for Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, a remarkable collection that’s both a compilation of many of the publisher’s games and a documentary about its half-century history. This second DLC is called The First Console War and it highlights the rivalry with Mattel’s Intellivision, Atari’s first real competitor in the console market.
The bundle includes 19 more games and eight video segments that delve into the rivalry, as well as what eventually led to Mattel making games for Atari systems. Atari and Digital Eclipse say the DLC includes more The First Console War DLC features additional interviews, vintage ads and never-before-seen historical artifacts that help tell the story of the battle between Atari and Mattel. As it happens, it was a war Atari ended up decisively winning, as it bought the Intellivision brand earlier this year.
The DLC includes prototypes and other games that never saw the light of day until now. The full list is as follows:
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Air Raiders — 2600 M Network
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Antbear — 2600 M Network (unreleased, based on Stern IP)
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Armor Ambush — 2600 M Network
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Astroblast — 2600 M Network
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Frogs & Flies — 2600 M Network
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International Soccer — 2600 M Network
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Dark Cavern — 2600 M Network
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Star Strike — 2600 M Network
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Super Challenge Baseball — 2600 M Network
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Super Challenge Football — 2600 M Network
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Swordfight — 2600 M Network (rare, unreleased)
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Sea Battle — 2600 M Network (rare, unreleased)
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Tower of Mystery (unreleased prototype, recently rescued)
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Video Pinball — 2600
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Basketball — 2600
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Hardball — Atari 8-bit (XE)
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Final Legacy (prototype) — 5200
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Xari Arena — Atari 8—bit
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Desert Falcon — 7800
The Last Console War follows a previous DLC called The Wider World of Atari that arrived in September and added another 19 games to the collection. Factoring in the two expansions, Atari 50 will have around 130 games in total.
Those who already have Atari 50 on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 and PS5 will be able to snap up The Last Console War on November 8. If you have the game on Atari VCS, you’ll get the DLC as a free update early next year.
If you’re interested in picking up a bundle of the base game and both expansions, you can do just that with Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition. That’ll be available on November 8 as well. The physical edition for Switch and PS5 costs $40. A steelbook for the Switch includes Atari 2600 art cards and other goodies and will run you $50.
