Atari has opened preorders for THE 800XL, a recreation of its 8-bit home computer that also plays games. Atari says it ships in late April 2027. The Verge and Tom's Hardware report a preorder price of $219.99. Engadget rounds it to $220.
Verge describes the machine as a collaboration with the game developer and publisher Plaion. Tom's Hardware names Atari, Plaion and Retro Games Ltd together and credits the redesign to Retro Games Ltd.
Price and availability
Atari's product page carries a "Pre-Order" tag and says: "Pre-orders open now. Shipping late April, 2027."
The Verge and Tom's Hardware report the preorder price as $219.99; Engadget writes $220. Tom's Hardware also lists £199.99 in the UK, €219.99 in the EU and AUD 349.99 in Australia. Engadget and Tom's Hardware give the ship date as April 23, 2027, and The Verge says shipping is expected to start in April 2027.
The Atari page we loaded showed a non-US storefront, and we found no US purchase page. The US price in this story is the outlets' figure.
What Atari says it includes
Atari describes THE 800XL as a recreation of the original computer with 25 built-in games, a full-size mechanical keyboard, a working cartridge slot, HDMI output and built-in Atari BASIC. It comes with the THECXSTICK, an updated eight-button joystick, and four USB-A ports for more controllers and USB storage. The outlets name Centipede, Missile Command and Millipede among the built-in games.
Atari says the cartridge slot takes most Atari 400, 800, XL and XE cartridges, and that software can be loaded from USB drives as cartridge, disk and cassette images. Tom's Hardware repeats the cartridge, disk and cassette loading and the Atari 5200 support.
Display and save features
Atari lists HDMI output with PAL (50Hz) and NTSC (60Hz) support, 4:3 and pixel-perfect display modes, optional CRT filters and 12 display frames. Its feature list also includes four save slots per game and a rewind that goes back up to 40 seconds. Tom's Hardware reports the same display modes, filters, save slots and rewind.
These are the maker's and Tom's Hardware's descriptions. We have not tested the hardware, the display modes or the save and rewind features.
Open questions
The outlets list prices for the US, UK, EU and Australia, but none gives a full market list. Atari says it is "actively working on expanding the global availability" of its products but does not name the markets for this model. We found no hands-on review in the three outlets' text.
