The 8-Bit Atari 400 Mini Review 

I appreciate you are too young to understand or appreciate the truly groundbreaking nature of the 400 and 800. As for basketball, it was the first game to ever have human shaped sprites (more accurately, player missile graphics) Taito brought out an arcade version in 1974, and it wasn't until 1979 that the black and white 'sweet georgia brown' basketball game came to the arcades. The 400 and VCS had the game the same year. Arcade conversions, especially from black and white to colour, coming out in the same year as the arcade machine, was very much the scoop back in the day. You are right to think encounter, miner 2049er, and boulderdash were good, because they were played heavily back in the day. Electraglide is only truly experienced properly when you get to the end. It's no mean feat. The replayability is in the completing the game (think of the rush of clearing the final stage in outrun) you can also change the steering weight on the title screen if you need the controls altering. If you want to see what the Atari could really do, then I'd recommend these Rainbow walker Necromancer Shamus Drol. Again, getting to the end is the goal. If you can do that, you will get the real sense of achievement!

I never heard of this machine, it was really fun watching this one and seeing some of the games. Thanks for your great work SLX. 😊🙏

adding your own games out the box is epic😊

Nice review. Don't talk down a legend though. The Atari CX-40 joystick is iconic. The CX-40 was the beginning and the bridge to all controllers that came afterward.

That CX-40 joystick actually has 7 extra buttons that can be mapped to functions normally accessed with the keyboard, like in Star Raiders, for instance. There are four buttons around the ring in the cardinal directions, a shoulder button, plus a start & menu button in the back. For advanced games that use the keyboard a lot, you can hook up a USB keyboard.

My childhood friend had an Atari 800. Some of my first personal computing was done on that. I did preorder one of these and I am liking it so far. The controller may be one of the best re-creations I have ever used. The sub buttons built into the joystick was a genius idea.

Many gamers ignore the significance of this Machine in the video game industry. Jay Miner 's Team (the father of Amiga) was responsible for this machine. IT was the first home computer with custom chips for sound(PCM) and graphics(256 color palette) something that became standard for the industry. It was the first platform with a "USB" type of port(SIO - Joe Decuir was also part of the team responsible for the development and standardization of the USB port ). It was the first machine with SVIDEO output....and a screen saver.

the Atari joystick was my go to joystick of the spectrum, amiga era. my most loved joystick.. nothing else compared to it!

My cousin gave me his 800xl when he graduated to a dos pc. Me and my friend used to have a ton of fun playing "star trek" in the game Star Raiders by taking turns one person piloting and shooting with the joystick and the other operating the keyboard to turn shields on and off and navigation and etc

It's cool that Atari made their own home computers for kids to enjoy. Sometimes it feels very nice to play a very simple system like Atari, to revist old memories.

Three recommendations to try: Alley Cat, Necromancer, and Electrician. Three of my favorites from my Atari 800.

The Atari 8-bit computers were more capable in many ways than any of the other 8-bit computers.

If that basketball game came out in 1979 - that would be incredibly impressive for that day. Well into the 80s the best basketball game I recall was, I think, the Real Sports lineup for the 2600, and that 400 version looks like a two generation leap forward. It might not be fun by today's standards, but visually, that is really impressive looking for the era.

My first computer in the early 80s was an Atari 400 with a 410 cassette recorder, so this does hold a lot of nostalgic value for me. I pre-ordered one. The console itself is very good, though I find the controller slightly flawed - particularly the Ring buttons. I find before I start any previously unplayed game, I have to edit the input buttons and make sure the configuration is saved. Overall, I am enjoying it.

MULE was my childhood.

Atari was so full of potential, and you can see that in the early to mid 80s. Its so disgusting that it never got a chance to really thrive beyond 1984 due to gross mismanagement. Such a travesty.

I picked up one of these too, also without any experience or nostalgia. More bundled games would have been nice but I’m enjoying it so far.

"The movement of the monkey feels all wrong" Another timeless quote from Sega Lord X

Liked the atari 50 collection 👌 Heard an update that adds more games is coming for the summer 🤔 Just wish it had 3rd party games.

I love me some Bruce Lee. First time I played it on a platform outside C64

Great review !!!! I bought one too and it is pretty much my introduction to the Atari 8-bit games . Really fun mini . So many games to discover .

I was going to buy this but I'll hold out for the Atari ST mini. I'm just glad Atari is giving their other systems attention

love the channel keep it up homie

Seriously amazing chipset for its time. Ahead of its time by miles

I remember playing the Bruce Lee game, Bulder Dash, Frogger and Rampage. But i've played those games, on different gaming systems like the Commodore C64, Atari 2600, NES and Sega Master System. Good review Segalord X.

Sega Lord X taking it back to the Atari

YOOMP immediately reminded me of the special stage design in Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X!

Definitely not disappointed after the pre-order, though the joystick gets a bit of getting used to with all the years of using controllers with thumbsticks. For the folks attempting to play 5200 games from the USB stick, the .a52 format doesn't work - needs to be .bin for it to be recognized. Edit; Also there is a file display limit of roughly 256 items in the media browsing menu, so if you have alot of roms divide them into folders and I'd recommend a roughly 200~ set of files per folder.

You stood up Froggers date.

It's cool, but I think it's mostly going to end up as a display piece next to the other minis.

Next Mini Console review by Sega Lord X: THEA500? Please!

Great One thank you!! I just got my 2600 running and been enjoying Solaris, Donkey Kong, Desert Hawk, Asteroids, Pole Position 2, Baseball, OH man and tons more!! so much fun mostly and some just nostalgia! lol

I know you can add ROMs, but it really should come with more games 🤑

Feel free to explore some more obscure vintage systems. :D

Seems before my time for sure but I like the fact it lets you play roms on it

I never got a chance to play this growing up. Looking at these games now they all look great imo. I don't do hardware anymore, but imma look into playing these to check them out. Thanks for the coverage!

I loved Battlezone in the arcade, and got really, _really_ good at it. To the point where I had issues trying to use an NES D-Pad when the Twin Sticks were sooo much better to me. Then, in the same arcade that still had Battlezone...Virtual On came in. It took weeks for someone to win a fight against me muahahaha!

Not bad for hardware released in 1979, 5 years before the NES.

I didn't know there were games on the system that only play with an alternative controller is connected, that's kind of cool.

Thanks!

I never played around with the Atari 8-bit computers. I'd like to, though. If nothing else, I'd do some comparisons to the C64 versions of the games I played. However, I'd rather play with a full-sized version of this rather than a mini version. There was a full-sized version of TheC64 that was released, and I got one of those. It's great. Bruce Lee looks really slow compared to the C64 version. I never played MULE, and Boulder Dash looked slow (I didn't care for that game, though). I'd like to play F-15 Strike Eagle, as well as Archon I and II. Thanks for reviewing this. I gotta say I disagree with your assessment of the Atari joystick, though. It's basic but it works well. I use one for my C64, and it does the job. I just hope that a full-sized version of this thing gets made. I would consider buying one then.

Here are some titles you might want to find and try: -Great American Cross Country Road Race, This game basically had a map of the U.S. and you would race from city to city. You have to keep an eye out for the fuzz and your gas level. It simulated night and day cycles as well as different weather and environments -Archon, this game is setup like a chess board with light and dark teams. They are comprised of mythical characters like wizards, genies, manticores, trolls, golems and others. You challenge other characters my moving your character to the spot the enemy is occupying. A real time fight breaks out, with each character having a specific attack power, life bar, speed, and cool down. The playfield cycles through day and night, with teams gaining an advantage in one or the other (light=day, dark=night). Some squares are always light or dark. Taking on a character on its favored time of day can be suicidal (a grunt can one-shot a high powered character under such situations) but if you have great control of the character you can come out on top. You win by capturing all of the power squares on the field, (occupying the 4 corners of the field the 4 cardinal points (NSEW) and the center), or by defeating the team leader (Wizard on the light side, Sorceress on the dark). -Racing Destruction Set, and Isometric racer that lets you construct your own courses, with variable surfaces (asphalt, mud, ice etc), change the height of each track segment, and adjust the gravity (moon, earth, jupiter etc...). It also had several different vehicle to race, from sports cars, to trucks and jeeps to dragster and motorcycles, each having its own stats. -Alley Cat, you play an alley cat trying to find a female cat in an apartment build. You start out in a back alley trying to jump into one the building's windows, avoid objects thrown out of windows, the random dog that comes walking by, and deal with mice on cloth lines(your cat will hang on to articles of clothing on the clothesline will the mice will undo any piece of clothing you hang from, to drop you). In each window you are presented with a mini game you have to complete: - in a giant fish bowl where you must dive and catch the fish swimming about while avoiding the electric eels, you have to return to the surface be your air runs out. - another room has a giant chunk of swiss cheese that has mice peeking their heads out of several holes, you have to catch them all while avoiding a broom that will try and sweep you out of the level if caught, ( you lay down foot prints to keep the broom busy) - another has a bunch of sleeping dogs which you must avoid while drinking up the bowls of milk left for them, (spend too much time at one bowl and they'll growl and wake up) Successfully completing one of these levels takes you back to the alley where a female cat will now appear in an open window. entering one of these levels you are presented with several rows lined with hearts that are patrolled by male cats, bump into them and they'll knock you down to a level below. All the while red and blue cupids are firing arrows around the screen, the arrows path adding(red) or taking away (blue) hearts from each row, adding or removing stepping platforms in your attempt to reach the top row where the female cat awaits. -There is a very impressive home brew of Sega's Space Harrier running on the Atari 800.

Kind of impressive how the Atari 800 XL was my primary console for a number of years, but the only game I owned for it that was represented here was Missile Command. I know that the licensing might have been an issue, but my favorite games back in the day were Lode Runner, Archon, and Ballblazer. All of those were the XE versions, so a bit more advanced than the 400 that they chose to spotlight here. As for the controller, I had an Epyx 500XJ, which was and even still is an excellent microswitch controller. There were few games that I could get by with with only a single button on the Genesis, but the interface was identical, and I enjoyed playing the Sonic the Hedgehog games with it much more than the native controller.

Miner 2049er and International Karate on my 800XL, what memories.

I hope you get to review C64 and Amiga minis too and some of their games. I think those were the 2 best computers for gaming in the 1980s and early 1990s ... by far!

I love this device, but I would love to see a SLX C64 mini and A500 mini videos as well!

It's too bad that you can't add the 2600 library to it! Either way, this console looks great, but I really don't understand why it didn't come with a power pack?? Not everyone has one just laying around lol....Also, the joystick included gave me some fond nostalgic feels!

*ATARI are so greedy with 25 games? I mean Turbo Graphix 16 had 62 games when that came out late* 😑

I loved battlezone, beserk and asteriods in the arcade. the atari releases could never do justice to vector graphics. I would love to see someone figure a way to get vector like graphics at home today.

Not a commentary on the video itself, but I never paid attention at your ending animations and the Panzer Dragoon one rocks ^^

I love the lef-handed mode of the new CX-40 joystick. For me this is the best Atari controller ever made.

First computer game I played was Space Quest II : Roger Wilco

I just knew that Pengo was gonna get mentioned in here, one way or another. :-)

Can anyone tell me why the Genesis Mini 2 is not hacked? I want to put more games on it!

The CX40 joystick works great! 👍👍

Wow - some of those games had some super cool coding tricks on display. Just goes to show what you can do when you're a good, stubborn coder 😁

I grew up with a 2600 when everybody else had a SNES and a Genesis.

Thanks. Well helpful review 👌

nice review, might consider this when it goes on sale.

I heard that many if the games that come with it are homebrews.

I think capture the flag is only 256 directions but that's still a lot!

Great video and review of the Atari 400 - a system I had never heard of prior to Retro Games announcing they were launching a mini version. I must confess, it's better than I had expected. I noticed you mentioned their next release should be the 16-bit Atari and assume you mean the Atari ST? I imagine they may go down this route, but probably worth mentioning Retro Games have already released the Amiga 500 Mini (or A500 Mini as officially known) which was it's direct competitor and the better system of the two. If you've not played one yet I suggest you do, it's Retro Games best mini release to date.

M.U.L.E. is one the best games on Atari 800 and it is, actually, pretty complex business strategy.

A computer I had as a teenager, the Amiga, is a gaming system I think you'd like a lot. The graphics are good... I think there is an Amiga mini.

I had Hovver Bovver, Miner 2049er, Bruce Lee and MULE for the C64. I loved them all.

Mule is great. Basically a trade sim.

Way too expensive, but hyped for the Controller 🥳

Cheaping out on the power adapter is so annoying. Increase the price by a few dollars/euros/whatever and include one. Cheapskates. Not the first to do this, but just as bad. While my experience with gaming in the 80s was mostly on computers, it was not on any of the 8-bit line up from Atari. No nostalgia for them, but always cool to see their games. Good video.

SLX, as for the Atari ST computer line, there were some good games on there which have been since ported to the Jaguar. However, the Atari ST was designed as a business machine as well as desktop publishing and music creation (thanks to the built-in MIDI ports), while the Amiga computers had their origin as a next-generation chipset for Atari for use in advanced computers and consoles. However, when Atari's home division was sold to Jack Tramiel, Amiga was bought by Commodire. The Amiga comouters were more impressive in terms of graphics and sound compared to the ST. Thats why the Amiga outsold the ST. However, graphics and sound do not guarantee good games. The ST and Amiga had good games, but they also had a lot of stinkers.

I think there is a version of this on the PS5 (maybe the PS4 also) if you have the plus sub. I never played it because I have had my fill of Atari from my younger years. But they also have a Sega 16bit collection on there also. I am replaying the Phantasy Star games again, I really love those.

Got a link to the power brick you use? I wonder if that may be the issue I'm having with some games on the a500 mini.

Love that new outro

I was big in the Atari 8-bit games in the late 80s and am familiar with the library. I'm disappointed with the lineup of games for the mini. About 7 of them are good, but some of them like Basketball and Asteroids are junk.

5:14 thats what she said

Atari Lord X

Fake scan lines suck I agree

They sold the mini without a power brick? Wow. That's crazy.

But when is a Sega Dreamcast mini coming out?

Um about the 2:05 quote about misleading is not misleading at all. They all have the same CPU, GPU, and Pokey Sound Chip. The only difference is amount of RAM, or for the 5200 the ROM is stripped down for console use (and added instructions for the awful controllers). Other than that it's all the same you can plug a Atari 8-bit cartridge from the XE/XL models into the original 400/800 models however Disk/Tape based games may require that additional RAM. They call it the 400 for the cosmetic look only. I do wish they would release a full size "800" version with a working Keyboard like they did with the C64. If you really want to see how good the 8-bit computers were there is a free to download ROM of a port of Prince Of Persia that can run only natively on a Atari 8-Bit system with 128K of RAM (or with certain Flash Carts). There is a guy making a Port of Space Harrier as well with a ROM available too.

were you running at 50hz or 60 hz

Atari ST / 16 bit would be interesting, but it's kind of cursed in that most of the Amiga versions are better... also it uses a Motorola 68k CPU, which was also found in, that's right, the Genesis!

I really enjoyed the C64 and A500 minis, but this one's def not worth the price to me (and you have to buy a seperate VCS controller to unlock two more games to play with its paddle feature)...very easy pass.

🎉

4:24 uk viewing

It's quite funny see how you celebrate simple games and skip or criticise real gems, like M.U.L.E., StarRaiders 2 (which is anything else than repetitive and contains space combats, bossfights, bombarding planets, energy management and quite nice strategy part of the game) and some more :D

controversial opinion: bruce lee is best on pc, it's 4 color sick cga but still it's the best playing version(on 8mhz) controls etc wise.

Getting a bit annoying all these mini consoles that are sensitive to their power sources, they need to start including one again.

For those who are wondering why Atari 5200 games are included, seemingly for no reason, it does have historically a purpose. The Atari 5200 is actually a consolized atari 800, it couldn't possibly be build from the ground up to be a new competitor in the marked like all retro youtubers say. Just look at the library and games side by side, it's identical, so the hardware has to have been very similar. I don't know how Atari Corp and Atari Games had no communications between each other if this came to be, it's so obvious they did loan chips to each other.

really sad to see such mini consoles and yet, no Lynx mini or jaguar mini, seems Atari really hates money.

Doesn't come with it's own power supply?? Not ok in my book.

When i still had my 2600, i would plug in my Master System controller (and later the Genesis controller) when i wanted to play games on it. The Atari joysticks are my least liked peripheral as well. Ugh, so clunky and uncomfortable and unresponsive.

Interesting I've never heard of the 400 before!

I'm not quite old enough to have played Atari growing up, but I have to say that these games have not aged well. I don't think there's a single game in the Atari library that actually interests me in any way. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that mini consoles like this exist, but I would never buy an Atari console in any form.

Atari does what Coleco no

Altirra emulator on a mini PC can do all of this and more.

Yeah, not a fan of the Atari era games. Played some of them back in the day, but its a bit too primitive for me.

It could be just my interpretation but I think you truly despised this little console.

I wouldn't mind the joystick so much (then and now) if it were more robustly built; all the ones I had back in the day broke in the same way, and this re-creation, sadly, re-creates that same weak design, so will itself break sooner or later.

Sadly not for me. I could never get into how simple Atari styled games were a bit too old for me and I never had any nostalgia for them

❗️Is the Atari and its ilk WORTH playing in this day and age?