Atari has put up its Gamestation Go retro handheld up for pre-order, priced at $179 and with shipping scheduled to begin next month. In the U.S. you’ll be able to get it from places like Best Buy, EB Games, and GameStop - as well as directly from the erstwhile gaming brand. For your money, you’ll get a handheld with 200+ classic games onboard (you know the ones). However, the design of this device actually puts it above the yet-another-blatant-retro-cash-grab category.
The new Atari Gamestation Go retro handheld has a lot in common with the current portable PC gaming device meta. The device is a landscape orientated portable with controls flanking a “high resolution” 7-inch screen to the left and right.
Elevating the Atari beyond something like a Steam Deck with an emulator, though, are the compelling array of physical controls that are implemented. For a start, there’s an integrated paddle, track-ball, and keypad, which are unusual for the form factor. Of course, you can see contemporary standard control components like a D-pad, buttons, and bumpers, are available too.
A smart RGB highlighting system called ‘Smart Glow’ uses built-in LEDs to show what controls work best with the current game.
With its rechargeable battery, you can play the Gamestation Go for between 4 and 5 hours, according to Atari. It can also be plugged in to an HDMI display for big screen action with external controllers attached to the USB-C port.
As mentioned, there are over 200 games built into the Atari Gamestation Go. These fall into the categories of Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Arcade, Atari Recharged, M-Network, Balls of Steel, Pac-Man, Jaleco 8- and 16-bit, Jaleco Arcade, Piko 8- and 16-bit, and Piko Arcade games. Check out the official product page for the long list.
Personally, I looked for Joust and Defender in the list. They are both Williams games but were stapes of Atari consoles. Sadly, they aren’t in the official games list, in any versions. Meanwhile, you’ll get five versions of Asteroids, spread across those categories we mentioned. The particular one you see featured, playing on the Atari Gamestation Go in several promo images, is Asteroids: Recharged. It makes good use of the sharp screen on this portable device.
We haven’t seen any information about (side)loading more games. Atari says the Wi-Fi functionality of the console is used “for easy updates.” We’d hope there is some tinkering access, either via Wi-Fi or the USB port.
The Atari Gamestation Go has been a while coming. The earliest versions of this portable emerged back in 2023, but the design and branding was only set in stone at CES this year. Now you only need to wait until October to get your hands on one of these nicely crafted handhelds. It won't worry the ranks of the best handheld gaming PCs, but might hold appeal to some retro gaming fans thanks to the built-in physical controls.
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