Plex plays Atari at its own game with classic titles on your TV

Plex Arcade oozes charm with a sweet hit of old-school goodness

Plex Arcade
(Image credit: plex.tv)

Needless to say, everyone's fed up with the lack of PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Woefully inadequate stock supplies have left many fans without a console to play on, and little chance of grabbing a rare restock because of the ongoing issues with scalpers.

One remedy for these stock issues is a hefty dose of gaming nostalgia. With that said, Plex Arcade is bringing a plethora of classic Atari titles to its app platform. Users will host their own game ROMs through a subscription service, bringing the joys of retro gaming into the modern-day.

Plex’s retro gaming service is competitively priced, too: Plex Arcade is $2.99 / £2.00 / AU$3.80 per month for existing Plex Pass subscribers; those that aren’t subscribers can nab a monthly pass for $4.99 / £3.60 / AU$6.50; if you’d rather pay a lump sum, Plex offers a lifetime membership option for $119.99 / £87.00 / AU$156.00. 

Atari itself, of course, has been busy cultivating its very own solution to the console wars. T3’s coverage of the Atari VCS gaming machine, which will hit shelves in only a matter of months, has shown an ingenious piece of retro kit that looks to fuse the perks of a console, streaming hub, and a powerful PC rig. It's the holy trinity of gaming hardware to take the challenge straight to Sony and Microsoft's doorstep. 

Plex has joined up with Parsec to guarantee a smooth gaming experience; it’s set to offer a dizzying array of titles, including Asteroids, Centipede, Combat, Dark Chambers, and Desert Falcon. Many more titles are available – it basically includes any retro classic you can think of ever. 

Plex's retro arcade games will be available to play on Apple's iPhones, including the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Apple TV 4K, Chromecast, and Android Devices. It’s not quite as simple as plug and play; therefore, it’ll require a Plex Media server, either on macOS or Windows, and the addition of a USB game controller that is compatible and Bluetooth connected. And don't forget that you'll want to lounge back in a pristine gaming chair to make the most of Plex: look no further than T3's best gaming chairs to dial up the experience into pure gaming euphoria. 

And there's more gaming innovation to be excited about in the year ahead. Like the Atari VCS gaming machine for console platforms, there are other examples of challengers looking to capitalize on the fallout from this inflection point that the gaming industry seems to finds itself in. T3 covered what looks set to be an upcoming Windows 10 handheld in the GPD WIN 3, which is looking to usurp the Nintendo Switch from its handheld throne, and illustrates how new devices are looking to offer alternative gaming experiences with the ongoing scarcity of next-gen hardware.

Plex's plush arcade experience looks to take you back to simpler times before scalpers got their mitts on shopping bots. We think Plex Arcade should offer a really pleasant, low-latency, and very user-friendly, piece of gaming escapism. We're certainly excited.

Source: Pocket-lint

Luke Wilson

Luke is a former news writer at T3 who covered all things tech at T3. Disc golf enthusiast, keen jogger, and fond of all things outdoors (when not indoors messing around with gadgets), Luke wrote about a wide-array of subjects for T3.com, including Android Auto, WhatsApp, Sky, Virgin Media, Amazon Kindle, Windows 11, Chromebooks, iPhones and much more, too.