This Retro Atari 2600 Pac-Man Edition Might Be the Yellowest Console Ever

The Atari 2600+ is officially getting its wildest makeover yet, and it’s literally impossible to miss. Introducing the blazing, arcade-inspired Pac-Man Edition of the Atari 2600+, a bold reimagining of a retro legend that’s all about colour, character, and chomping ghosts like it’s 1982 again.

A Blast of Yellow and a Wallop of Nostalgia

Atari has teamed up with Bandai Namco to give the already-popular Atari 2600+ console a neon upgrade. This special edition, featuring a bold, fluorescent yellow shell and retro styling, is a full tribute to Pac-Man’s arcade legacy. This is not your parents’ wood-panelled console: this beauty screams arcade fever right from the shelf. Set for release later this year, it’s a celebration of Pac-Man’s influence over four decades of gaming, and judging by the promo shots shared by Atari and Namco, it’s also the most aggressively yellow gaming hardware you’ve probably ever seen. It’s vibrant, campy, and ridiculously hard to overlook, and that’s precisely the point.

What You Get in the Box

This Pac-Man Edition bundle doesn’t just reskin the hardware. The real fun starts with the pre-packaged new cartridge that brings together two classic titles into one collectible chip: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. Atari’s been creating reproduction cartridges carefully designed to work with its 2600+ re-release, and this unit is no different. Whether you’re dodging Inky or chasing cherries, this bundle is loaded with retro joy for solo players and nostalgic fans alike.

Also part of the package is the all-black CX40+ joystick, now practically an artefact of gaming history, included for that authentic tactile experience. It’s a little stiff, a little loud, and 100% 1980s charm. In typical Atari 2600+ fashion, the console can still run most original cartridges, so collecting and replaying original games remains part of the appeal.

Hardware Throwback with Modern Touches

The Atari 2600+ is no throwaway novelty. It’s a cleverly rebuilt re-issue of the original 2600, a workhorse of early home consoles, now updated to accommodate modern HDMI output and wide aspect ratios. Yet it stays true to its roots, maintaining compatibility with original cartridges and controllers. It launched in 2023 to much fanfare, with players rejoicing over a unit that didn’t just emulate games but actually ran on original software cartridges. Atari has since been adding new reproduction cartridges, many of which even support the 7800 catalogue. The Pac-Man Edition just adds another colourful layer to it.

Why This Matters for Classic Game Collectors

This isn’t just fan service. Releases like this Pac-Man-themed Atari have been instrumental in connecting younger audiences to gaming’s golden age. Retro consoles are having a bit of a cultural revival, and the 2600+ offers something most modern re-releases don’t: actual cartridge play, not just built-in games or digital-only libraries.

This edition doubles as a collector’s item. The yellow casing is being described as “aggressively bright” by fans online, and that’s absolutely meant as a compliment. Whether you’re a retro enthusiast or someone just wanting an offbeat centrepiece to your media shelf, it hits every note.

Perhaps most excitingly, this Pac-Man Edition hints at further collaborations between Atari and other intellectual property holders from the golden era of arcade gaming. If this yellow console lands well with fans, we could be looking at a whole range of custom console reissues that honour gaming’s most iconic brands.

Currently, pricing and preorder dates have not been shared publicly, but expectations are that it’ll fall into the same bracket as the standard Atari 2600+ ($129.99 for base models). Keep an eye on Atari’s official store and major retailer channels for updates as the release window approaches.

There’s something special (and just a bit insane) about seeing a Pac-Man-themed Atari in 2025, in a good way. These days, gaming nostalgia is big business, and somehow, slathering an ancient console in banana-yellow plastic is exactly the kind of marketing joyride we didn’t know we wanted. And yet, here we are, racing for preorder buttons for a 40-year-old maze-chomping icon’s comeback machine.