Retro Games THE400 Mini

I sold it around 2010 with a bunch of associated hardware and manuals. It was the last but one 1980s micro that I had held onto, because it was one of the very few that was built to a spec rather than down to a price. For it's day, the hardware was astonishing - sprites, yes, but each line of the display could come from anywhere in the memory and scrolling it was simply a matter of changing a register. This meant that games could move serious numbers of pixels around on the screen smoothly and quickly.I have missed having it but a) it took up a lot of space and b) I also got rid of the old analogue TV.So the second I saw a review of this, I ordered one. It calls itself half-size - it's smaller than that. Perhaps it's around half the size of the 65XE which had an optional keyboard.The 720p display on the HD TV is great, with the option of making it worse if you really want it to look like a CRT analogue TV. As with the original, sound comes via the TV and there is no audio jack or Bluetooth so if you want to use a computer monitor, it either needs speakers or you want an HDMI audio splitter.Twenty five games are included - Airball, Asteroids, Basketball, Battle zone, Berzerk, Boulder Dash, Bristles, Capture the Flag, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Elektraglide, Encounter!, Flip and Flop, Henry’s House, Hover Bovver, Lee (AKA 'we couldn't get the licence to keep the original "Bruce Lee" name), 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!If you had one, you'll know that includes some absolute classics.. and some that weren't. There are also some screaming omissions: the original Star Raiders, Pacman, Pole Position.. and that's just from Atari.Fortunately, a USB port at the back lets you plug in a USB stick with other games/utilities on in a variety of standard (for Atari archiving and emulation) formats. Remembering that cartridges had up to 8k of memory (16k for ones using fancy tricks) and the standard Atari disc drives held around 80k bytes - less than the size of the logos here - you can fit a LOT of things on a single stick. Sadly the flap on top that looks like the original cartridge cover is a non working fake, because it would have been so neat to be able to plug the USB stick in there.Also included is a USB joystick styled to look like the original (and terrible) Atari ones. They have some extra buttons because all the keys on the console are as fake as the cartridge cover lid. These can be mapped to any single key or you can plug in a USB keyboard. Similarly you can use (most) USB controllers etc.So for me, it's absolutely five stars. It costs less than I sold the real hardware for but is vastly easier to use and store.For you... it depends. The Atari 8-bit micros were fascinating and there's a lot of stuff out there that will run on this. Inside it is a ten year old Arm processor and graphics chip. You could get a Raspberry Pi and run the same 'atari800' emulation software as this one for less... but it wouldn't be as simple.UPDATE: it is VERY fussy about which USB sticks it will accept. Even when programs on your computer say the stick is FAT32 format with an MBR - what THE400 demands - it may not work. Formatting via Ubuntu didn't work, formatting via Windows 10 Explorer didn't work, formatting via the Windows command line didn't work. What did was using a Windows program, Partition Wizard, fortunately the free version.Given it's so fussy, why they didn't include a 'correctly' formatted stick is beyond me, as is why the Linux it uses is unable to read other formats it doubtless uses itself...Once you have the right format, it appears as 'media' in the carousel. Interestingly, it won't work with some ATR files that RetroPie does.UPDATE 2: I have agonised about it, but it's been returned. While running atari800 on a Pi isn't quite as simple as it could be, thanks to having to track down the ROM files yourself, put them in the right place etc, it does mean that when something doesn't work, you can almost always fix it.Here, I got no response at all from the maker's support email address over the USB stick issue. I still have no clue whatsoever why, say, Pole Position won't run on this, despite being able to run exactly the same files on the same emulator on the Pi, and there are no log files or anything else I can examine to see why, or emulation settings to tweak beyond the very few that this offers.

As per usual a top quality detailed unit which looks Great and very well packaged.I never had the Atari 400 as a kid but because i bought their other outstanding models, C64 Mini, A500 Mini. the full sized TheC64 and TheVic20 so it was a no brainer for me really.I'm not disappointed by a long shot.There are some great games i have never played built in and i have yet to try any of the thousands of games it will also play from the Atari 400, 800, XL,XE and Atari 5200 so looking forward to that. Everything is controlled via the joystick which also seems pretty solid and nice to use so overall if you owned an Atari 400 back in the day this is a must for you, If like me your a collector as well then this unit will not disappoint.

I had an Atari 400 and 800xl back in the 80s and loved them both so pre ordered the 400mini months ago. I've never bought a device from Retro Games before so no previous experience. I watched a short promotional video which convinced me to pull the trigger but to be honest my expectations were very low. I expected a cheap toy with limited functionality. Well I got that wrong. First off, build quality is excellent. The 400 is tiny, it fits in the palm of my hand. I laughed out loud when I opened the box, it's so small but the detail is excellent. There are 4 USB ports on the front for controller or keyboards, the packaged joystick is excellent quality. The games play flawlessly. The joystick contains additional buttons for added functionality such as navigating menus, configurations etc. Crucially, you can load a virtual keyboard. I plugged a physical USB keyboard and it worked perfectly. Power is via USB C which is my preference. USB on the back can host a formatted drive for loading any owned Roms. Overall had a blast with the device, a nostalgia fuelled trip back in time!

I bought this on sale. It is worth the sale price. I wouldn't pay full price. The included games play well. The games on my USB drive load perfectly but key mapping is not very effective; not all games loaded from my USB stick can be played.The ConsThere's no built in WiFi. There is no built in Bluetooth. The only way to do anything with the games system is through plugging things into it. There is no streaming option. The system software has been designed to favour the hardware developers (that would be Atari) and not the home users. It is such a shame that the cartridge slot housing is non functional; it would have been real neat to plug my USB drive into it. The system firmware can be updated or modded.The ProsIt works. The built in games are fun to play and they work with the provided joystick. It is easy to load games from a USB stick. A wireless keyboard or joypad can used with the system provided they use a 2.4Ghz RF USB adaptor, although your mileage will vary. In my few days of playing with this system I've not been able to get any Bluetooth adaptors to work with it. I guess the BT drivers are not shipped with the firmware. Key mapping is hit-n-miss for externally loaded games.Overall ImpressionAll in all this is a nice little box that plays Atari 8-bit games. I would love to see a firmware upgrade that gives the end user greater control over the system's settings and which makes it possible to use any 2.4 Ghz RF keyboard or joypad with minimal effort to map the keys for game play.This is what it is. It's not an open access computer. It is an Atari 8-bit emulator sold as a desk toy. It could be so much more. Hint: The hardware (SoC) is can do a lot more than 8-bit emulation. It is worth £50. Would be worth more if the developers gave more thought to how end users would like to use the system.

very nice productbut please make reconfigure 50hz or 60hz setting more easier.If your TV or monitor cannot display VIDEO output and sound only, change your monitor and reconfigure 50hz or 60hz.