Earlier than blockchain, NFTs, metaverses, and, certainly, the web itself, there was Atari. The corporate launched iconic titles like Pong and Missile Command and did a lot to pioneer at the moment’s $200 billion online game business. It could have misplaced market clout, however its nostalgic pull and devoted following stays.
On Atari’s fiftieth anniversary, it’s partnered with the fashionable arcade firm Polycade on a enterprise known as Polycade Limiteds that brings collectively the previous, current, and way forward for gaming. In a enjoyable twist, Polycade’s founder Tyler Bushnell is the son of Atari creator Nolan Bushnell, generally heralded as the daddy of video video games.
As a part of the collaboration, Polycade selected 12 up to date artists to revamp the graphics and backgrounds of traditional Atari video games. These shall be minted as NFTs dubbed Digital Cartridges and offered on Coinbase’s NFT market, with NFT holders ready play the video games on Polycade’s web site, downloadable software program, and bodily Polycade machines.
Basically, it’s a collaboration that marries the retro enjoyable of the pre-internet period with the comfort and possession values of Web3.
“We wished to convey collectively video video games and up to date artwork in a means that gave the artist probably the most freedom attainable to work in a medium that’s historically very specialised,” Tyler Bushnell, Polycade’s CEO informed TheTopDailyNews. “Blockchain tech provides a built-in layer of commerce, permanence, and verification.”
Polycade Limiteds’ first launch Asteroids has been given a makeover by British artist Shantell Martin. In what Polycade phrases a “reskin,” Martin’s signature black-and-white line drawings reimagine the sport’s transferring objects, the display screen’s borders, and likewise cowl the limited-edition bodily arcade machine that the Oregon-based firm is releasing.
Courtesy of Polycade.
“It’s tremendous cool to see Asteroids in Shantell’s imaginative and prescient, her whimsical art work and selection of in-game phrases,” Bushnell stated. “It’s loads of enjoyable to see and play the sport in a special gentle.”
Set for launch on November 19 to coincide with ComplexCon in Lengthy Seaside, California, the Digital Cartridges shall be minted in three editions of accelerating rarity: artist (1,000 NFTs), Silver (10 NFTs), and Gold (one NFT).
Asteroids by Shantell Martin is the one sport to have been revealed up to now, however is the start of a broader mission, stated Bushnell, “bridging the worlds of artwork and video games in an interactive means.”
One other celebration of the corporate comes within the type of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, a launch from Digital Eclipse that features greater than 90 video games, together with a number of unreleased prototypes, and is offered throughout a large variety of consoles.
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