Atari’s new mini console plays 2600 and 7800 game carts

It's Wednesday, August 23, 2023.

Atari is launching another retro home console, after its last effort. The Atari 2600+ pays homage to the original Atari 2600, launched in 1977, but this remake echoes the four-switch model from 1980. (Of course, we’re going to get specific.)

Atari

The console has been “lovingly recreated to the same specifications as the original” but is only 80 percent of its size. The console’s plus features are the HDMI output and widescreen support. It’ll have 10 titles in the box, but Atari die-hards will want to track down physical cartridges if they want to play the big hits of the era, like Pac-Man or Pitfall! The mini console also has a remade Atari CX40 joystick. The Atari 2600+ will launch worldwide on November 17 for $130, and pre-orders are already open. Now, to find a copy of E.T. the video game…

– Mat Smith

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

The best iPads for 2023

Tekken 8 will arrive on January 26, 2024

NBA 2K24 introduces a LeBron era and more updates

The Apple Watch Ultra falls to a new low of $700

Microsoft will bring PC Game Pass to NVIDIA's GeForce Now on August 24

Meta's new multimodal translator uses a single model to speak 100 languages

NVIDIA's DLSS 3.5 makes ray-traced games look better with AI

Half-Life 2 is getting an unofficial RTX remaster

The community is using an NVIDIA toolkit to modernize the classic shooter.

NVIDIA

From cartridge games to ray tracing. NVIDIA has unveiled a community-led Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project that, as the name implies, will remaster the classic shooter for PCs with GeForce RTX graphics. The team isn't just adding ray tracing, though — this is an attempt to modernize the overall look and feel of the game.

The ray-traced lights are the star attraction, of course, but the modders are also using an early version of RTX Remix to add extra model detail (through Valve's own Hammer editor) and rework materials with physical-based rendering properties. The RTX port, so far, looks moodier and far more detailed, with light sources bouncing and diffusing in a far more realistic manner. Existing RTX conversions, like those for Portal and Quake II, are pretty but limited by either the age of a game or its relative scale. Half-Life 2 is a much bigger challenge.

Continue reading.

X plans to remove news headlines and text in shared articles

Elon Musk said it’s his idea.

According to Fortune, X (formerly Twitter) is planning to implement major changes to the way shared articles appear on a tweet, by removing their text elements and leaving just their lead images with an overlay of the URL. Musk confirmed the incoming change, saying it came directly from him, adding it would greatly improve the “esthetics.” It’s the latest big change, following news that user-blocking will soon go. I’m taking bets on what the social network will strip out next.

Continue reading.

Microsoft will sell Activision Blizzard streaming rights to Ubisoft to win UK approval

It said the deal makes for a 'substantially different transaction under UK law.'

Microsoft is significantly restructuring its Activision Blizzard merger proposal by selling cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to rival Ubisoft, it wrote in a blog late yesterday. That would address a key concern of UK regulators, who blocked the deal in part because of Microsoft's potential dominance in cloud gaming. The UK regulator will now examine the restructured deal and deliver a decision by October 18.

Continue reading.

Facebook and Instagram will offer chronological Stories and Reels to comply with EU law

Users will also be able to see search results not personalized to them specifically.

Meta will soon offer Stories and Reels in chronological order to comply with the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The changes were expected after the European Commission announced it had agreed in April to create new rules, demanding social media platforms offer alternative systems "not based on profiling." Starting later this month, Meta will offer Reels, Stories, Search and other parts of Facebook and Instagram unaffected by Meta’s existing AI recommendation process.

Continue reading.