Huh?

Does your gamer cave have a very particular aesthetic centered across the golden age of arcades? Then Atari has your precise wants in thoughts with a spread of printed circuit boards primarily based on three of their traditional titles. These titles are Black Widow (1982), Gravitar (1982), and Main Havoc (1983).

So, should you’re like me and that form of comes near matching what you’re on the lookout for, you might marvel what these provide. No, these aren’t really video games. You’ll be able to’t hook them into an outdated cupboard to switch your decades-old vintage. These are simply unpopulated circuit boards. They’re supposedly very genuine however barely extra fashionable, however that’s it.

Weirdly, the product itemizing describes them as “non-functional” whereas additionally saying, “can be utilized to switch broken authentic boards by utilizing the unique components from these boards.” So, like, I suppose if you wish to painstakingly transplant all of the chips and resistors from an actual board, then this is able to work? Perhaps. They apparently observe the precise schematics of the originals. I don’t know why you’d try this. I’m simply reaching for a operate right here.

Dear silicon

They’re apparently supposed for use as wall ornament, and one facet is printed with the marquee and a short historical past of the sport itself. That’s type of a neat factor to hold on the wall. I personally have a marquee from an outdated Centipede bootleg.

Nevertheless, they’re asking for $245 USD. That isn’t unreasonable for this form of factor, however it’s simply such a selected area of interest. I’m making an attempt to consider the goal demographic for these, and I can solely consider retired Boomers who’ve just a few arcade cupboards tucked away subsequent to the TV they use particularly to observe sports activities.

Personally, I’d in all probability simply purchase a damaged PCB from a sport that I like and fee an artist to color on it for that cash. Outdated PCBs aren’t onerous to come back by if you recognize the place to look. As soon as these items broke, they’d go in a field for spare components or simply straight up land within the trash.

If that is your form of factor – and I’m not judging right here – they’re obtainable beginning right now from Atari’s web site.