Atari has introduced that it has entered into an settlement to accumulate legendary port/remaster home Digital Eclipse. That is the most recent of a protracted string of acquisitions made by the corporate.

That is maybe the least shocking acquisition Atari has made shortly. Digital Eclipse are the builders behind Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, whose components of contextualizing retro video games with supplemental info was utilized in The Making of Karateka. The fashionable-day Atari (nonetheless technically a rebranding of Infogrames) is helmed by CEO Wade Rosen, who appears to have his eye on recreation preservation. Digital Eclipse is insisting that nothing is altering for them and that it’s enterprise as traditional.

Digital Eclipse has been round since 1992 and has all the time been primarily centered on porting video games to different {hardware}. Plenty of this was finished in the course of the days of the Recreation Boy line, once they would downscale console video games for the handhelds. That is going to sound unflattering, however the recreation that involves thoughts after I consider Digital Eclipse is Military Males on the Recreation Boy Shade. Say what you need in regards to the recreation. It was a reasonably spectacular translation of the PC title.

The speed of acquisitions happening within the business is tiresome, however having tracked Atari’s actions for the previous whereas, they don’t appear set on merely increasing their income. Interviews with Wade Rosen, just like the one I did for Destructoid or this unbelievable face-to-face video interview that Minnmax did, have a tendency to border the CEO as somebody who’s making an attempt to steadiness ardour with enterprise. Digging into the previous looks as if greater than merely a approach of turning a fast buck, however slightly an actual appreciation of the previous.

Ew, this optimism feels gross. I must retreat to snug cynicism. Wade Rosen travels the world and might most likely afford to personal a home. Additionally, the corporate hasn’t totally divested from its Web3 ventures.

Not too long ago, Atari has been buying the again catalogs of some adjoining corporations, has bought the remasterminds at Nightdive Studios, and bought retro databases MobyGames and AtariAge. They’ve been working with smaller studios to remaster retro video games and have begun producing bodily video games for his or her previous consoles. They’ve the Atari 2600+ and a collection of latest and reissued video games popping out on November 17, 2023.