Atari is sort of a strange company these days. Its classic, retro name has been haphazardly slapped onto everything from terrible plug-and-play machines to upcoming hotel experiences, though it’s looking like the Vegas project has experienced some setbacks. Still, you never know if one day you’ll be able to legally gamble and play Missile Command simultaneously. Fingers crossed.
I will, however, give the new guard credit for putting out the excellent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, which proves there’s some life left in one of gaming’s trailblazing granddaddies. For those still holding out hope that this legendary entity has more to give, you do have the recently released Haunted House remake that seems to be somewhat decent. To coincide with that event, Atari has launched a new line of spooky Halloween merch.
Yes, it’s weird that Atari is more branding machine than gaming company at this point, but some of this stuff looks great. The ‘Fuji the 13th’ occurrence, which references the iconic Atari mountain logo, runs from October 13th to October 31st and features merch with creepy work from Brazilian pop-culture artist Butcher Billy. There’s a Don’t Blink beanie (a nod to the original Atari cartridge/box art), a cool hoodie with a freshly updated Haunted House illustration, and a sweet pixel Atari pumpkin t-shirt, among other items like 10 limited metal art posters.
Perhaps most interestingly, there’s a new text-based adventure on the website called Don’t Make Yourself At Home, which promises plenty of old-school throwbacks for diehard fans. Also, playing through it enters you in a contest to win merch or one of those cartridge-compatible Atari 2600+ consoles. I like the nostalgia of this. We need more text-based reboots.
I have mixed feelings about Atari these days, but combining Atari and Halloween feels like a win in my book. Will you be grabbing any of these new All Hallows’ Eve items?
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