Retro Games THE400 Mini

Under the hood, it seems to be something like a raspberry pi Or a 5 V powered nano computer with 25 built-in Atari cartridges. The price is reasonable at a penny under £100, considering that it is five Atari consoles in one , the entire range. Oh, one thing to note don’t be like me and spend five minutes scratching your head over why you can’t set up the initial set up because it doesn’t seem to obey the joystick directions that you push the stick iin. I thought the joystick was broken, But what the little startup booklet doesn’t Obvious is that the Atari joystick remake is an improvement on the original because The dotted line around the joystick with the up down left right markers are buttons! D’oh! It is powered by a British ARM processor With 128 Mb of storage memory more than enough for plenty of cartridges. The 30 second rewind function is genius Along with the ability to save your games. The Minoi400 I would say is not even a microcomputer In fact, it is a nano computer, No larger than a paperback and later than an iPhone 14. Upon opening the box, it may surprise you to find how dinky and cute it is. In fact, inside the case, they had to add four small weights to give it a little bit of heft. In order to play other cartridges aside from the 25 that are built in you will need to put them on a fat 32 format thumb drive. One thing you might want to do is remap a control or two in case you accidentally press one of the buttons that resets the game I did this several times with star Raiders two until I realised I was pressing the right direction button on the joystick By accident. Emulation is flawless. Buy with confidence. This little unit will replace all of your Atari consoles and you can sell all of the others because this one is ALL of them. This thing doesn’t even run warm it’s barely lukewarm. its processor has a passive heat sink. I noticed no problems, no glitches no slowdowns nothing. I am thinking very hard of something, but I don’t like about it, but I can’t think of anything. Nothing is ever perfect but this is pretty close hence the four stars. I’m not giving it five because there must be something about it that I’ve missed out is a quirk or a niggle but I struggle to think of one.

I've held off a few weeks before reviewing. This is very much the same as what you would expect from their other retro products which I also have. The 64 Mini and Maxi, and the 500 Mini. I had an Atari 800 XL and I would have preferred that style of case but this one is actually growing on me. The build quality is good and the provided joystick is excellent. I had concerns about accidentally pressing the additional buttons as mentioned in other reviews but honestly it hasn't been an issue at all for me. I only had success playing 800/XL games from the USB. 2600 games were hit and miss. 7800 wouldn't even show up the files and 5200, though showing, would not run and go straight to the notepad. There may be workarounds or the community may provide fixes. I've more or less got this just for collection. Playing from USB is not perfect at the moment but that could change with updates or patches. For me, it's just about adding to my collection and being on display . It's not my go to console but the controller is great and responsive and I have had fun with the games that I have played. Mr. Do and Bruce Lee were my games of the time but I've played them too much and not much of a challenge as they once were. The only game I have never completed and still find difficult is Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum, maybe one day I will do it.

I have original Atari 8 and 16bit hardware but this is perfect for plug and play use in the 20’s. The pick up and play nature of the system is generally good but the control system and interface is a bit clunky and could be better. Most mini systems are pretty intuitive but the 400 mini is less so and takes a bit of work plus some of the games you are able to download yourself and add through SD card take a bit of tweaking to run- adding basic on some games helps, putting it into 130XE mode also. In fairness these issues are also present on Retro Games highly successful and otherwise wonderful A500 Amiga mini too. The 8bit Atari systems are somewhat undervalued in the UK apart from a dedicated hardcore following -this new machine throws a wonderful light onto a computer line that revolutionised gaming - the original system appeared in 1979 and was way way ahead of its time- it took the Commodore 64 to appear in 1982 before a system of comparable power was on the market. I’m going to 5 star it but feel that the beginner may need to watch a few YouTube tutorials to get the most out of it. Given the quality of the games and the Atari 8bit line in general I think that it’s well worth the effort.

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 Cons There'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 Pros It 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 Impression All 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.

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!

The unit looks great, but is almost shockingly tiny. It is wonderful to play eight-bit Atari games on a TV via HDMI. Audio and video are of a high standard. The problem is the control buttons on the CX Stick included with the console. While playing Pole Position, for instance (not an included game, but playable via a USB stick) I accidentally and repeatedly pressed the Top button, which reset the games to the start screen. This happened so many times, especially when I was absolutely immersed in the game, that it became very irritating! Hopefully Retro Games will issue a firmware update that at least mitigates this.

Never had one as a kids have to say brilliant games worth a buy if you like atari and 80s gaming

Just like their previous products this is a terrific little device that works flawlessly. I never had a 400 when I was younger (had a C64) so this was especially exciting for me, getting to play games that I've not played before. Encounter and Star Raiders 2 have proved to be especially addictive! All the games have 4 save states so you can continue where you left off or maintain a high score from game to game. You can add scanlines if that's your thing and also go a for a 'pixel perfect' 1:1 aspect ratio too. Playing additional 'downloaded' games is a doddle - just whack them on a FAT32 formatted USB drive and plug in the back and away you go. Have to admit I'm not a fan of the Atari joystick though. Never have been as I find them too stiff and accurately controlling some games can be difficult as a result. The circular ring around the stick also incorporates 4 more buttons around the compass points which can be accidentally pressed in the heat of battle. Very annoying! Thankfully you can use any USB gamepad or controller, so I suggest you try one if you have the same issue as me. All in all, an amazing little device that will give me years of pleasure, despite the less than stellar joystick.

Bello per veri nerd….

I set up THE400 Mini in about 15 minutes using the provided directions and had no issues with any of the documentation or the on-screen menu. Much better quality than the older retros I have for NES and Super NES. My wife used to love the K-razy Shootout cartridge game for the Atari 800 that I sold long ago, because it's easier to play than Atari Berserk, which is built in. I gave the download instructions a try and got the Shootout game onto USB drive in about 20 minutes. It ran perfectly the first time. I'd give THE400 Mini six stars if Amazon would let me!

Fonctionne sur tous modèles atari-8bit (vcs-400/800/xl/xe/7800 d'origine) Donc également sur les vic20/c-64 et autres.

Es una manera de jugar retro sin gastar mucho.

Ich hatte früher nie einen Atari 400, daher war ich neugierig. Die Technik funktioniert gut, man kann sich bei jedem Spiel die Tastenbelegung anzeigen lassen und auch abspeichern. Wo nötig, gibt es eine Bildschirmtastatur, denn die Tastatur am Gerät ist nur Deko, damit es so aussieht wie der Original-Heimcomputer. Besonders gut gefielen mir Berzerk und M.U.L.E. Letzteres kannte ich schon vom C-64, die Atari-Version ist ähnlich, hat aber (bei mir) kleine Grafik- und Tonfehler, während man sich in der Stadt aufhält.