A new era for classic 8-bit retro gaming has arrived today! Curt Vendel over at Legacy engineering just clued-us-in today on his latest project that brings the classic era of the Atari 2600 to modern audiences.  Curt was instrumental in the development of the Atari Flashback 1 & 2 consoles for “Atarinfogrames” (and also the still sadly in development-hell Flashback 3).

This new project, the “USB Classic Game Controller” is in reality, a fully USB enabled Atari 2600 joystick.  Not only is it compatible with PC/Mac/Linux, Curt’s team has included a wealth of options so it can be expanded by hackers and hobbyists alike:

“One of the very important aspects is the fact that on the PCB are 10 additional fire button contacts to allow hardware hackers to add more buttons or pull the pcb out and use it on home made arcade controls as the interface board, even at $14.99 for just one interface, that’s cheaper then almost any arcade interface boards currently sold, so it will be a great way for MAME builders to make less expensive control panels.”

-Curt Vendel

As soon as we get our review unit, we will post about our experiences with what promises to be watershed device for playing classic 2600/Atari 8-bit/Commodore/etc. games on modern hardware.  The device will not ship until December, but you can reserve your unit right now at Legacy Engineering’s web site: http://www.legacyengineer.com/store.html