Atari is getting ready to celebrate 50 years of the Atari 2600, and the festivities will officially get underway at this weekend’s Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2026 in Portland, Oregon. Running from October 9 through October 11 at the Oregon Convention Center, the retro gaming event will give attendees plenty of opportunities to revisit Atari’s history while also checking out some of the company’s latest retro-focused releases.
Atari’s booth will feature playable games from the recently announced Activision x Atari Collection, along with the Atari 2600+ and Intellivision consoles, new homebrew games, exclusive apparel and appearances from several notable names connected to Atari’s history. The celebration will also put a major spotlight on the people who helped establish the Atari 2600 and push its hardware to its limits.
The first of two special panels, “Creating the Atari 2600: Nolan Bushnell and Joe Decuir,” will take place on Saturday, October 10 at 1:00 p.m. PT. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and pioneering engineer Joe Decuir will discuss the origins of the Atari 2600, its launch in 1977 and the impact the console has had on the video game industry over the decades.
On Sunday, October 11 at 12:00 p.m. PT, “Developing for the Atari 2600: David Crane, Dan Kitchen and Garry Kitchen” will bring together three developers who helped define the platform’s library during the 1970s and 1980s. The trio later co-founded Audacity Games in 2021, returning to develop new games for the classic hardware. Their panel will look at their work on the original Atari 2600 as well as their more recent efforts.
Following both panels, attendees will have the opportunity to meet the panelists during signing sessions at Atari’s booth.
AtariAge will also be bringing something new to the show, with 10 cartridge games making their debut at PRGE. The lineup covers the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar and ColecoVision, giving owners of both original hardware and newer systems such as the Atari 2600+ and 7800+ some fresh games to check out. The cartridges will also be available through the AtariAge Store beginning Friday evening alongside the opening of the show.
The Atari 2600 lineup includes Asteroid Miner, Cosmic Custodian, Cosmic Custodian 2, Crossbeam, Oh No! More Peril and Tony Montezuma’s Gold. Meanwhile, Atari 7800 owners can check out Ninjish Guy Perilous Island and a new version of the classic computer game Rogue. Dragon’s Descent is coming to ColecoVision, while Atari Jaguar owners can team up with up to three friends in Yo-Yo Shuriken.
With Atari, AtariAge, classic hardware, new homebrew releases and some of the people responsible for shaping the company’s early years all coming together, PRGE 2026 looks set to be an appropriately nostalgic starting point for the Atari 2600’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
These titles are now available at AtariAge.com.