Page 36 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #40 FREE Edition

THE400 MINI
AN ATARI 8-BIT HOME COMPUTER EMULATOR BY BILL LANGE
When THE400 Mini was announced in January 2024, I was excited because I have a nostalgic connection to the Atari 400, which was my first home computer from way back last century, in the early 1980s. Until now, the Atari 8-bit computer line hadn’t yet seen a commercially released, modern reproduction
like various other retro systems, such as Nintendo, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari 2600. Thanks
to Atari, Plaion, Retrogames, and Old School Gamer Magazine, I was lucky enough to get a review unit to play with a few weeks ahead of the official March 28th release date.
THE400 Mini Packaging
The box, a little smaller than an average shoebox, is in the style of
the Atari 8-bit silver packaging circa 1981. It included THE400 Mini, a THECXSTICK Atari CX40- styled USB joystick, a power cord,
a HDMI cable, and a small Quick Start Guide. The power cord and
the HDMI cable are both styled in the original ATARI 400/800 ATARI Sunset (beige) color scheme which is a nice touch. The only thing I had to provide was an AC power adapter to plug in the USB power cord. I was up and running on a modern TV with HDMI in less than a minute
of opening the box. Note that I was also able to run THE400 Mini off a USB battery pack.
THE400 Mini is a less than half- sized version of the distinctively styled Atari 400 home computer, but it emulates the whole Atari 8-bit range from the Atari 400
to the Atari 130XE, and the Atari 5200 home console. The unit itself
looks great. The cartridge port doesn’t open and the keyboard doesn’t function but if you press the appropriate joystick buttons, you will get a popup virtual keyboard which can be manipulated with
the joystick. I was also able to use
a standard USB keyboard with it when using the built in Atari BASIC and Atari DOS 2.5. The unit has four USB ports on the front where the original Atari 400 had controller ports. There is even a fifth USB port on the back.
THE400 Mini includes a Quick Start Guide that is very brief. It's all of ten pages, and that includes both English and French languages.
You are referred to the retrogames. biz/links/the400-mini website for the THE400 Mini User Manual, instructions for all of the included games, as well as other pertinent information.
Upon booting the unit the first time, you are presented with some setup screens. Once that is taken care of, the game carousel is displayed with the 25 built-in games. If you plug in a USB memory stick, that will show up in the carousel as well.
The 25 built-in games include
Airball, Asteroids, Basketball, Battlezone, Berzerk, Boulder
Dash, Bristles, Capture the Flag, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Elektra Glide, Encounter!, Flip and Flop, Henry’s House, Hover Bovver, Lee (aka Bruce Lee), M.U.L.E., Millipede, Miner 2049er, Missile Command, O’Riley’s Mine, Star Raiders II, The Seven Cities of Gold, Wavy Navy, and Yoomp!
Some of the included games in the carousel are missing some
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OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #40