Atari 50‘s Next DLC Features Pac-Man and Other Namco Games

By Garrett Martin | July 21, 2025 | 2:30pm

Video Games News Atari

Atari 50‘s Next DLC Features Pac-Man and Other Namco Games

Three years after Atari turned 50, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration keeps getting updated, which makes us wonder: is it time to rename it to Atari 53? Digital Eclipse’s 2022 games compilation and interactive documentary was made to observe the former gaming goliath’s half-century milestone after its founding in 1972. Here we are, three years later, and Atari and Digital Extremes still haven’t finished telling that story. A free update in 2023 added 10 games to the lineup, and a 2024 expanded edition added another three dozen (plus) games, as well as two new documentary chapters with original and archival footage. And today Atari and Digital Eclipse have announced another new DLC update, The Namco Legendary Pack DLC, focused on Namco’s relationship with Atari in the 1980s.

The new DLC, which doesn’t have a release date yet, will include multiple versions of some of Namco’s most iconic games—including, yes, the infamous Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man. Other games include the American arcade versions of Xevious and Dig Dug, “home console versions” of Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, and Xevious, and the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit versions of Pac-Man. And as exciting as all that is—and getting the U.S. arcade versions of Xevious and Dig Dug is legitimately exciting, as those specific versions have never been released for consoles before—we’re more excited for the DLC’s new “timeline,” the interactive section featuring photos, artwork, technical documents, and both old and new video footage detailing the history between Namco and Atari in the ‘80s. Like the Gold Master Series that grew out of Atari 50, the comprehensive documentary aspect of Digital Eclipse’s compilations is at least as much of a draw as the games themselves.

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You can bet that new timeline will have a lot to say about the 2600 version of Pac-Man. If you’ve never played it before, all you need to know is that it’s the all-time best-selling release for the 2600 with over eight million units moved, and that it’s also such a bad rendition of Pac-Man that it seriously hurt the reputation of the 2600 in 1982. It was obvious, undeniable proof of how outdated the 2600’s 1970s technology was by the early ‘80s. If you have played it, you probably realized two things: first off, that it genuinely earns its rep as a really bad version of Pac-Man, and secondly, that even really bad Pac-Man is still kinda okay. And whether you’ve played it or not, you’ve almost definitely heard it—as one clip in the trailer points out, sound effects from the 2600 Pac-Man made their way into a heavily used Hollywood stock sound library at some point, and became the de facto sound of almost every video game any character ever played on a TV show into the 21st century. (Also I’m pretty sure I remember our entire family going down to Sarasota Square Mall to pick up a copy one night, but I might be confusing that with the night we went and bought Trivial Pursuit after dinner; when you’re a little kid it is very weird to go to a mall after dinner on a school night.)

Again, there’s no date yet for The Namco Legendary Pack DLC. We do know it’ll be getting a few different special physical editions, and even a bright yellow Pac-Man branded version of Atari’s 2600+ console, the retro system that plays both 2600 and 7800 cartridges. The Pac-Man: Double Feature cart will feature both the 2600 version of Pac-Man and a brand new version made for the 7800, and will be available for both the 2600+ and 7800+. There’s also a special High-Score Collection box set for the 7800, which will have physical editions of Pac-Man: Double Feature, Galaga, Xevious, and Dig Dug. Pre-orders for both the Atari x Pac-Man Collection model of the 2600+ and the High-Score Collection box go live on Atari’s site on July 23.

Could there be more in store for Atari 50? Atari bought Digital Eclipse in 2023, and is obviously keen on keeping the company’s history alive. The current ownership of Atari has made some really smart moves over the last few years, iterating on many of their classic games in exciting, unexpected ways while also making a huge chunk of its past accessible to modern players, but buying Digital Eclipse was the smartest move Atari has made. Hopefully their relationship remains fruitful for years to come—or, at the very least, long enough for us to get an Activision update for Atari 50.