Atari 7800+ Console & Gamepad

Such a fun console that brings me back to the day of 2600 games also plays 7800, Hope they continue to keep releasing new games. 5 star cons

The console itself is excellent and brings me right back to my earliest gaming memories. There's a brand new game included with this! Great game too, a difficult retro platformer that is fun to keep coming back to. The included controller isn't my favorite but the very wide range of compatible controllers makes up for that. Overall, this is one of my favorite retro gaming purchases is a long time.

The Atari 7800+ feels less like a new console and more like someone finally listening to all of us who have been keeping the originals alive with soldering irons, composite mods, and rescue missions from random garage sales. I come at this as a collector and a player. I own real hardware, a stack of carts with questionable labels, and I know exactly what a slightly tired TIA chip looks like when the colors drift. The 7800+ lands in a strange but welcome space between nostalgia machine and practical daily driver.

First thing I noticed was how honest it feels. This is not one of those mini plug-and-play toys with an emulated menu and a fake wood sticker. It takes real cartridges. My Haunted House, Food Fight, and the janky 2600 commons all clicked in without drama. That alone changes the experience. You are not browsing a ROM list. You are using the physical library you spent years building.

Video output is the obvious upgrade. The original 7800 was always a little hostage to RF, and even with composite mods you were fighting noise. The 7800+ finally gives clean modern output without me having to open the shell and wonder if I am about to lift a forty-year-old trace. Games look the way they did in my head, not the way a bad coax cable made them look in 1989.

Compatibility has been solid with my collection. The 2600 side behaves like the real thing, including all the charming quirks. The 7800 titles feel right in timing and sound. I am sensitive to that stuff because I have spent too many nights testing carts and diagnosing whether a glitch is the board or the console. Here, the glitches are the authentic ones.

The controller is better than it has any right to be. I grew up on the ProLine sticks and learned to tolerate them rather than love them. The new pad feels modern without pretending the past never happened. It makes games like Ninja Golf and Robotron actually comfortable instead of an exercise in thumb endurance.

Where the system really wins for me is in how it fits a working collection. I am building an Atari museum in my house. I clean labels, flatten manuals, and worry about preserving the originals. The 7800+ lets me play without guilt. My mint carts can stay mint while a reliable new console takes the wear.

It is not perfect. The shell is lighter than the original and lacks that tank-like density. Purists will argue about audio differences and whether the soul lives in aging silicon. I get that. But as someone who wants to actually use the library, stream gameplay, maybe even develop a diagnostic cart one day, this thing makes sense.

The 7800+ is what I wanted the retro market to do all along: respect the real hardware culture instead of replacing it. It acknowledges that people like me still collect variants, still keep spreadsheets of condition, and still care about the feel of a cartridge sliding home. It is a bridge between the museum shelf and the living room TV.

If you are the kind of person who only wants a menu of ROMs, this will seem old fashioned. If you are the kind who can identify a cartridge by the weight of the plastic, the 7800+ feels like coming home with cleaner video and fewer RF burns on your fingers.

It was a little cumbersome getting the latest firmware on the system. You need Windows and my world is surrounded by MacOS and Linux.

Great well built and durable console, there's plenty of games out there and on this site for sale. All in all a blast from the past.

Great well built and durable console, there's plenty of games out there and on this site for sale. All in all a blast from the past.

Fantastic value for this pack of games and the new 7800+ console. Love they are give new life to these systems!

This is an amazing collection and brings back so much nostalgia!

amazing retro nostalgia with an HD upgrade! i have the original 7800 but this new 7800+ is great. its smaller so it stores away nicely and of course the wireless controllers and HDMI is so great.

This system proves just as enjoyable as it always was, proving that "graphics do not make a game!" And it's awesome seeing NEW games come out for it!

I was in junior high when the original 7800 was released. I never bought it but always wish I did. Now, I get my 7800 experience but with modern features. I love that I can connect this to my modern TV without issues. The wireless controllers are nice; not the most ergonomic but decent. Lots of games available - old and new.