Retro Games THE400 Mini

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.

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.

Looks fantastic. Very easy to set up. Easy to load your own Roms via a usb stick. Absolutely love it 😍

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 a 600XL back in the 80's so couldn't wait to try out all the old 8-bit Atari games. I highly recommend the 400 mini which is a perfect miniature of the old 400. It's really easy to set up and navigate the menu's etc. There are some great games included and you can add to the library with a USB.

Bello per veri nerd….

Works great but limited number of games. No keyboard. Haven't figured out how to add more games yet

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.