There’s no shortage of games on Apple Watch and Wear OS devices. People will figure out ways to play on anything with a screen and a processor. after all. However, if you find yourself hankering for some classic Atari games on your wrist, that doesn’t seem like an option with the two most popular smartwatch platforms. Instead, you’ll have to get it with the Atari 2600 My Play Watch, a wearable designed with retro Atari gamers in mind.
A smartwatch built around the Atari 2600, the device comes preloaded with four classic Atari titles, all of which can be played by using the rotating crown as a paddle controller. Whether you’re an Atari fanboy, a retro gaming enthusiast, or just some dude who likes cheeky gaming stuff, this thing looks like it can make for a fun addition to your personal collection.
The Atari 2600 My Play Watch is an inexpensive smartwatch that’s, pretty much, tailor-built for playing the preloaded roster of Atari games. The game lineup consists of Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, and Super Breakout, all of which you can play either using the touchscreen controls or, if you prefer, the rotating crown on the right side that’s meant to function as a paddle controller during gameplay. We love the addition of that paddle controller, by the way, since any self-respecting retro gaming nerd will probably opt for physical controls over virtual ones. At the least, Nintendo seems to know well who their audience is for this thing.
The time display can also be customized with watch faces feature retro Atari graphics of all sorts, so you can walk around wearing your retro gaming obsession in plain sight. Hopefully, they had some good designers put together some nice watch faces because some well-done Atari 2600-themed time display layouts does seem like a pretty fun idea. The watch is also preloaded with sound effects from the Atari 2600, which are used extensively for alarms, notifications, and all sorts of audio feedback.
The Atari 2600 My Play Watch also comes with basic activity tracking, so it can monitor steps, heart rate, and active calorie burn, among other details. This seems to use the same software as the Space Invaders My Play Watch from last year, so the activity monitoring should be pretty basic but functional. Suffice to say, the four Atari games and the watch faces are the main selling point here, with the device being cheap enough that we have a feeling many retro gaming folks won’t mind picking one up just for those. The darn watch keeps things so basic, in fact, it doesn’t even have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, so there are no future updates here – what you see is what you’ll get.
It comes with a 2.02-inch TFT touchscreen display that, the outfit claims, delivers vibrant colors and sharp visuals, although they didn’t specify the actual screen resolution. We don’t know what the case is made of, but the bezel is supposedly some type of metal alloy, with the device boasting an IP68 rating for water resistance.
The Atari 2600 My Play Watch is now available for preorder, priced at $79.99. It ships June 10th.