In case you're wondering where the inspiration for the recent return of Artie the Atari came from...

As I've posted before, I collect Super Impulse's Tiny Arcade series of arcade games.

While they haven't released any new arcade cabinets this year, they did release something else recently – a Tiny Atari 2600!

It even comes packaged in an authentic 70's living room! Unfortunately, to get everything out, you have to basically destroy the packaging.  So much for the wood paneling and shag carpet.

They did a nice job capturing the look of a four-switch 2600 and vintage console TV. And this really lives up to its "Tiny" moniker - the 2600 is only 1 3/4" wide!

The red "cartridge" is actually the Power On/Reset button (the 2600's "switches" are so tiny they'd just break).

The details are pretty nicely done. There's even a non-functional switchbox on the cord. Even though the wires aren't entering/exiting where they should, it's a nice detail to include. Clearly, someone was paying attention.

The joystick, proportionately, is comically huge. But if it were scaled down to match the console, it would be unusably small.

One minor quibble: the ring on the joystick is painted white (not orange). With the work they put into the rest of this, I don't know why they missed that. Still, the joystick actually works pretty well. It's not something you'd want to play Track & Field with, but it does the job here.

The little handle at the bottom of the TV screen lets you angle the screen a little for better viewing. It's really a smart idea, since you tend to look down at it from above (and all of their arcade cabinet screens are tilted by design). But I usually leave it closed flat when not playing it since it looks better.

So... how about the games?

Well, you can find YouTube videos out there showing them, so I'll leave it to you to dig those up. But here's what's included on the console:

• Asteroids
• Breakout (misspelled "Breakouts" in the menu)
• Centipede
• Combat
• Pong
• Millipede
• Missile Command
• Tempest
• Warlords
• Pac-Man (listed on the packaging as a "bonus" game)

Only Combat and Pac-Man are "2600" versions. The rest are all "arcade" versions.

Note that none of these are original arcade or 2600 ROMs. This isn't an emulator. These are re-creations running on system-on-a-chip hardware. You can't dump these and play them in Stella or MAME.

Even though this is supposed to be a 2600, I can see why Super Impulse used the arcade versions of these games. At this scale and price point ($19.99 at Target), there's no pretense that this is anything other than a cute toy, and any semi-functional version of these games would've been acceptable to the casual impulse buyer (pun intended). They already had most of these games in their Micro Arcade series, so repurposing them saved the expense of creating 2600 versions, and certainly Atari wouldn't care as long as they got paid licensing fees. Plus Super Impulse can repurpose them for their Tiny Arcade series, and sell them all over again in dedicated cabinets. I'd buy 'em!

Of course, the downside of using the arcade versions is that it really hurts the authenticity of this for us actual Atari 2600 fans (especially with the vertically-oriented TV screen). I wish they'd used 2600 adaptations here instead (except Tempest because the 2600 version is awful). And of course the 2600 library is so vast there are countless other titles they could have tried licensing, but given the price point of this, that seems incredibly unlikely. Again, it's a novelty and should be taken in that context. If the lack of more 2600-ish re-creations is a deal-breaker for you, save your 20 bucks for pizza.

So... how do the games actually play?

Once turned on, the games are accessed through an onscreen menu. A few have game options, and Tempest and Millipede even include the starting level select. The fire button on the joystick starts the game. Pressing the red "cartridge" on the console resets back to the menu. There's no volume control, which is unfortunate given that they included knobs on the TV. Some games save High Scores.

As is typical with Tiny Arcade, playability varies depending on the game. But here's a quick breakdown:

• Asteroids - Plays pretty well. The auto-fire really helps. Although you're using a mini-2600 joystick rather than a proper 5-button layout, so expect accidental hyperspacings.
• Breakout - It has options for speed and paddle size which are welcomed, but the whole game feels sluggish and I have yet to be able to change the angle the ball bounces off the paddle even once.
• Centipede - Quite playable, although the tiny graphics are pushing the limits of what's practical on such a tiny screen. The 2600 version would have looked just fine. Maybe better.
• Combat - Needs better contrast in the Simple and Open mazes, but the Complex maze looks good. They included a number of gameplay options and a dumb-as-a-post AI opponent. The 2600-ish graphics lend themselves well to the tiny TV though. The "piano" sound effects of the shots bouncing around the maze are pretty funny, if inaccurate.
• Pong - Also sluggish like Breakout, but unlike Breakout, you can change the direction of the ball. The AI is as dumb as Combat's. (I have to keep reminding myself this is more of a novelty than something that should be taken seriously as a polished game.)
• Millipede - Plays about as well as Centipede, but most of the insects become indistinguishable from each other at that size. The reduced resolution of the 2600 version would have fared better here.
• Missile Command - This plays remarkably well, despite the lack of a Trak-Ball. Controls are smooth, graphics look good (again, the 2600 version would've been just fine here). "The End" is missing from the end of the game though. Bummer!
• Tempest - Well... I suppose it's admirable to attempt it. Actually, on the surface it looks pretty good. The controls are acceptable, although because of the control scheme (where "down" is the Superzapper), you'll trigger a lot of accidental Superzappings. This would work a lot better in a dedicated cabinet with two buttons. The fire rate of your player is half of what it should be, and a lot of iconic sounds are absent. But it's still better than the actual 2600 version. So there's that.
• Warlords - This actually plays really well. You can only play as the lower left Warlord, but the controls work well and multiple fireballs and fireball capturing are both included. This is one of the standouts in this collection of games. The AI isn't brilliant here either, but with three enemies vs. one, at least you have some more work to do.
• Pac-Man - This is the other 2600-ish game, and somehow they managed to make it worse than the original. The game feels sluggish and they went to great pains to make it flicker as badly as the original. On a screen this small, with colors that don't contrast well to begin with, you often can't tell when the power pellets wear off, or even where the ghosts are at. But it feels the most authentic of the group, 2600-wise.

As with the rest of the Tiny Arcade line, the Tiny Arcade 2600 is a collectible, more than it is a serious game. It's a novelty that you can turn on and play games with. It's a cute, fun, desktop conversation piece and accoutrement, and a nice nod to the 2600. If you take it for what it is, it's worth the 20 bucks.