Atari in conjunction with My Arcade showed off the Atari Gamestation Go last year but not much was known about it. Honestly, not much more is known now, around a month before launch and pre-orders open. What little Atari has released on the Gamestation Go sounds great, 200 games, controls for just about any game genre you can think of (including numeric keypad and trackball), decent size screen, and buttons that light up depending on the game being played. Other than that, that is about it. The price is $180 and it is available for pre-order now.
Not Just Atari
Based on the game list, we can see Jaleco and Piko Interactive are going in on this portable with decent selections. From 8-Bit to arcade releases most genres are represented here. Bases Loaded (1 through 4 on NES) but no Super Bases Loaded on SNES then all three Rival Turf games on SNES, even Hamerlock Wrestling (slightly unknown title there).
Then Jaleco Arcade brings several titles I was not aware were arcade games such as Astyanax (I wanted that but my mom got confused and got me Robowarrior – which I absolutely love) and Avenging Spirit among many others.
Piko 8-Bit is bringing 8-Eyes, Nightshade and more. Their 16-Bit offerings include Water Margin and Brave Battle Saga (both titles they brought to English speaking gamers), the Top Gear Trilogy, and more. They are also bringing four arcade games I have never heard of before, Fancy World, Lucky Boom, Maniac Square, and World Rally.
Lack of Hardware Information is Concerning
This does not look like it is going to be a North American based challenge to the Evercade as there is no mention of a cartridge slot. Amid the tariff situation you would think a company would be working to meet the interests of that market in a similar way.
Right now, it seems that the Atari Gamestation Go is a closed system. Considering the titles being played, it will surely have at least a decent CPU and hardware under the hood. Since there is obviously no way to upgrade the hardware, nor add more games without probably hacking this in some manner (missed opportunity to sell additional games) I hope there is decent hardware under the hood. It is likely to be Android of some sort when someone digs deep enough into this.
I am not trying to knock on the Atari Gamestation Go, I just intend to point out all sides of this for potential fans to go in on this purchase with all the information available.
I want things like this to succeed because it is more games, more ways to play, and potentially more fans getting to enjoy themselves in an ever crappier world.
Pre-orders are open now on the Atari.com website.