Better Than Ever: 100 Atari Games Coming to Steam

Atari Vault, a bundle of 100 classic Atari games available on Steam for PC, was unveiled to play at PAX East this year. The download includes iconic games like Centipede, Warlords, Mission Control and Asteroids.

The bundle was designed by Code Mystics and released by Atari Entertainment. The price is rumored to be around $20 and it looks like it’ll be released this Spring. Atari Vault has already been tested by lucky PAX attendees, so it shouldn’t be long now. And the word from PAX is, Atari Vault is awesome.

This isn’t the only re-release of classic Atari games, but it’s the most extensive and highest quality of any release so far. They could have gone in for an easy data dump, but every game is carefully re-rendered to a vibrancy and sharpness that just wasn’t possible in 1984.

They also added easy sorting for the games, which is great because that’s a lot of files to keep track of otherwise. For the first time ever, there will be online multi-player and leaderboard options. You thought having bragging rights at the mall arcade was awesome? Try beating the whole freakin’ world in Asteroids.

On the original console games like Centipede used a trackball controller. That’s not really an option (or particularly attractive) to modern gamers, so they’ve updated the technology. They’ve promised that the Steam Controller will provide ‘significantly improved precision control.”

The graphics are so high quality, it really brings back the awe of first playing a game. The vector graphics are particularly vibrant. As a bonus, they’ve included flyers, promotional materials and other material from the original releases of the games. Atari Vault could have easily have been a nostalgia cash-grab, but instead it’s a collection of video game history that will remind old gamers of being a kid and introduce new gamers to the challenge of the classics.

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