Atari announces 100-strong Atari Vault game bundle

The current owners of the Atari brand have declared they will capitalise on the company's back-catalogue with the launch of The Atari Vault, a 100-strong collection of games, via the Steam digital distribution platform.

Following major losses in the 1980s video game crash and the infamous burying of since-exhumed excess inventory in a New Mexico landfill, Atari has had a rough time of it. The brand has changed hands a number of times over the years, from Commodore founder Jack Tramiel taking it over from Warner Communications to the rebranding of French company Infogrames in 2000 before filing for bankruptcy protection in 2013. To cut a long story short: the modern company known as Atari has little if anything to do with the company founded in 1971 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, but still retains the rights to the brand's impressive back-catalogue.

The modern Atari has now announced a quick and easy way to capitalise on said catalogue: the impending launch of The Atari Vault, a 100-strong collection of games to be released on Valve's Steam platform. Naturally, they're all from the company's arcade glory days: titles confirmed for inclusion in the bundle, developed by Code Mystics, include Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest, and Warlords. Changes made during the porting process include support for Valve's Steam Controller, leaderboard support, and online and local multiplayer options.

Atari has confirmed plans to release the bundle in the spring, but has not yet provided pricing information.