When I was a kid, I spent countless hours sitting on my bed gripping an Atari 2600 gaming controller while playing Centipede, Missile Command, Breakout, Pong and other games. I’d go to bed at night still seeing blocky game graphics animate behind my eyelids. The Atari 2600 was my first taste of video games and I was hooked. The only thing better than the Atari 2600 in those days would have been a version that I could have carried with me. Now I can relive those days the Atari Flashback Portable.
The Atari Flashback Portable is a version of the iconic Atari 2600 gaming console but in a pocket-friendly handheld form factor.
The Flashback Portable features a 3.2″ color display, a rechargeable battery, a built-in gaming controller, and 60 classic games built into the device. But wait, there’s more! The Flashback also has an SD card slot that allows you to load other game ROMs. And for those times when you want to enjoy the games on a larger screen, you can connect it to a TV.
The Atari Flashback Portable is priced at $49.99 and can be purchased through Amazon.
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As a huge retro gamer, I bought one of these before Christmas. At the time, they were $39.99, and I used a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. For 32 bucks after discount, it’s not a bad little device. I found that the sound of some games was not accurate, with some of it being so annoying that it was hard to play a few games (Asteroids and Yar’s Revenge, in particular). The ability to load more games via SD card makes up for those shortcomings, though. In the end, I returned it, as the sound inaccuracies bothered me, and I have many other ways to play the same games, including via portable emulation. If you want a quick nostalgia fix, it’s not hard to recommend this. $50 is at least 10 more dollars than I’d pay for it, though.
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No paddle no reason to be excited