Atari and Activision Are Reuniting for New Cartridges and Bringing Classic Games Back to Life

Atari and Activision are getting the band back together, and the result involves brand-new cartridges in 2026.

The two companies have reunited for the Atari x Activision Collection, a massive retro gaming release that brings classic Activision games back to physical cartridges compatible with original Atari hardware as well as newer systems like the Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+.

For collectors who want to go nuts, there are also some seriously expensive deluxe editions packed with games and extras.

It's a cool reunion considering Activision exists in the first place because a group of Atari programmers walked away from the company nearly 50 years ago.

The story goes back to 1979, when David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan left Atari after becoming frustrated with how they were being treated.

They formed Activision and became the first third-party video game developer for the Atari 2600, eventually producing some of the console's most memorable games.

Now their work is coming home in cartridge form. The standard Atari x Activision releases include 12 games, with classics such as Pitfall!, River Raid, Kaboom!, and H.E.R.O. among the lineup.

These physical cartridges will work with original Atari hardware along with the modern Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+ systems.

Each standard release costs $34.99 in the U.S. That's already getting into pricey territory for individual retro games, but things get considerably crazier once you start looking at the collector's editions.

Atari is offering four Deluxe collections called Treasure, Speed, Secrets, and Victory. Together, they cover 39 games and include additional collectibles such as patches and pins. Each Deluxe box costs $249.99 in the U.S.

Then there's the Complete Collection. Buying the whole thing will set you back $999.96, although Atari is throwing in a mysterious collectible that hasn't been revealed yet. For almost a thousand bucks, I'm expecting that mystery item to be something pretty damn impressive!

Still, the collection is clearly aimed at serious Atari and Activision collectors rather than someone casually looking to play a few old games on Saturday afternoon. Even $35 per standard cartridge isn't exactly impulse-buy territory when we're talking about games that have been rereleased plenty of times over the years.

The history behind the project makes it much more interesting, though. Atari VP of hardware Matt Burnett addressed Activision's origins while announcing the collection:

“In 1979, a group of Atari programmers set out to prove that great games could come from independent creators and ended up changing the industry forever.

“The Atari x Activision Collection brings that legacy to life through the games themselves, giving fans an opportunity to experience, collect and preserve the work of the developers who helped establish a new model for the video game industry.”

He's right about the significance of what those developers did. Activision breaking away from Atari helped establish the idea that developers could create games for hardware made by somebody else.

It's hard to imagine the modern video game business without third-party developers and publishers, but somebody had to crack that door open.

Seeing Atari and Activision together again also makes me wonder where this could go next. We've already reached an interesting point for Atari retro gaming.

The Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+ have given collectors modern hardware that can use physical cartridges, while products such as the Activision Super Pocket have put Activision's library into dedicated handhelds.

The Atari x Activision Collection finally brings those worlds together instead of keeping the libraries separated by branding and licensing.

Activision owns Imagic, which means there's an opportunity here to dig beyond the most recognizable Atari 2600 hits. Dragonfire would be an awesome cartridge rerelease. I'd happily take Laser Gates and Moonsweeper as well, especially if Atari brought back the metallic-style packaging associated with those games.

That's the stuff I want to see from this partnership. Pitfall! absolutely deserves its place in Atari history, and nobody is going to argue against River Raid getting another day in the sun. But retro gaming gets much more interesting when publishers start digging into the strange corners of their catalogs instead of repeatedly serving up the same handful of famous games.

I'd even take an Atari or Activision handheld packed with some of those less obvious releases. The important thing is that this new collection shows the corporate and licensing walls separating these libraries aren't impossible to get around.

Hopefully, the Atari x Activision Collection isn't just an expensive nostalgia victory lap. There's a huge library of Atari 2600 games sitting there waiting to become physical releases again.

Just maybe don't make me spend another thousand dollars to get them.