Atari Will Soon Produce Its First New 2600 Cartridge Game In Over 30 Years

You can soon preorder the first officially produced Atari 2600 new game cartridge in over 30 years. While a modernized version of the game will be coming to consoles and PC, action platformer Mr. Run And Jump will also get a limited-edition physical release exclusively on the classic console.

Developer John Mikula, from indie studio Graphite Lab, originally created Mr. Run And Jump for 2600 hardware. The titular run-and-jump man must find his dog, Leap, before he wanders too far into the Dark realm. The Atari 2600 release will feature over 80 screens across six different worlds. The game has a speedrun emphasis, illustrated by its scoring system. You start with 25000 points; every second that passes decreases the score by one and every time you collide with an enemy, the score decreases by 100.

The limited-edition cartridge will cost $60 and comes with a box, an instruction manual, and of course, the cart itself. The carts are made from new parts and materials, with beveled edges for preventing pin damage and gold-plated connectors. They will also have identical power draw to the original cartridges, so you'll hopefully be able to play Mr. Run And Jump on original hardware without technical trouble. Preorders open on July 31.

A "modern" version of Mr. Run And Jump will release later this summer on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Oh and the Atari VCS, if you have one of those.