The Atari 2600 is a console that was released in 1978. It was designed by Atari and its creator, Nolan Bushnell, and is considered one of the most influential video game consoles of all time. This month, LEGO has announced that they will be releasing a new set of LEGO games for the Atari 2600. These games are called “Lego Star Wars: The Arcade Game” and “Lego Indiana Jones: The Arcade Game.” These games are set to release on October 25th and 26th, respectively. If you’re interested in purchasing these games, you can do so starting next month.
The upcoming Atari 2600 set is part of the same ‘LEGO ICONS’ collection as the Ghostbusters ECTO-1 car and Space Shuttle Discovery, with a total of 2,532 pieces. It’s roughly the same size as the original console, complete with functioning switches and a moving joystick.
This isn’t just a re-creation of the Atari 2600, though. The set includes replicas of the cartridges for Asteroids, Adventure, and Centipede that can be inserted into the front slot. Each of those games also has a corresponding small display — a ship blasting asteroids for Asteroids, a castle for Adventure, and a centipede for… Centipede. Finally, when the game cartridges aren’t in the console, there’s a stacked display to keep them in.
There’s one last special feature: the top panel on the Atari 2600 can flip around to reveal “a hidden 1980s scene,” depicting an era-appropriate living room with a minifgure playing a game on a TV, with a few set pieces like a wall phone and boombox. Yes, there is a tiny Atari 2600 in the scene inside the Atari 2600.
The new set will be released on August 1, 2022 for $239.99. It will only be available from LEGO’s own online store, at least initially. Many other ‘ICONS’ sets have eventually made their way to store shelves in the past.
