Atari, one of the pioneers of the early video game industry, was founded 50 years ago. LEGO is celebrating the occasion with an Atari 2600 set, arriving 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.