Key Takeaways
- Atari is making a comeback in handheld gaming with the MyArcade Gamestation Portable, featuring classic Atari games and iconic controllers like Trak-Ball and Paddle.
- The handheld aims to provide multiple control options for different games, eliminating the need for additional accessories.
- Specific details on specifications, pricing, and availability are currently limited, but a release is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
When you think about handheld game consoles in 2024 you probably think about the Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Switch Lite, and maybe the Valve Steamdeck. But now there’s a new contender. And it’s a name that some of us remember from our childhoods. Atari is a company whose name stems from the very beginning of digital gaming thanks to Pong and all the rest, but now you can play those classic Atari titles on a handheld device the likes of which we could barely have dreamed about when we were growing up.
Enter, the MyArcade Gamestation Portable, an officially-licensed product that has been announced as part of the ongoing CES 2024 fun in Las Vegas. The handheld is small and light but it isn’t quite like the handhelds that you’ve come to expect. This handheld has some of Atari’s most iconic controllers in the Trak-Ball, Paddle, and Keypad. And that’s a whole different ball game.
Game on!
The idea behind having so many different ways to control a game on one handheld device seems to be to give people the best way to play different games without them having to add accessories. For example, you can use the Trak-Ball on games that are more suited to that type of controller, like Centipede, for example. Prefer using the paddle? No problem, it’s ready and waiting for you.
In terms of specifications, Inverse says that the handheld will have a seven-inch display of an as-yet unconfirmed “high” resolution, while a rechargeable battery will also be included. We don’t know how long that battery will last, but we can’t imagine that playing classic Atari games is too taxing on whatever CPU and GPU are inside this thing. We don’t know which games those will be, although the official licensing should mean that we get the best of Atari’s classic catalog here.
Unfortunately, details are particularly hard to come by in terms of specifications, pricing, or availability. A vague fourth-quarter release window has been given so far, but these things have a tendency to change so we’ll keep our ears to the ground for more information as and when it becomes available.
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