Bottom line: For Atari, the Intellivision Sprint is less about rekindling rivalry and more about consolidating gaming heritage under its own name. The move follows a series of retro hardware revivals, including the Atari 2600+ and Atari 400 Mini, which have allowed the company to repackage its early influence for today's market. This latest system extends that effort – an acknowledgment that the first great console war of the 1980s is now an archive that belongs to history, and to Atari itself.
Atari is reviving a familiar name in gaming history – but this time, it belongs to one of its earliest rivals. The company has announced the Intellivision Sprint, a compact console that recreates the look and feel of the original 1980 Intellivision system while introducing modern hardware updates.
Developed in partnership with Plaion, the device arrives as part of the Intellivision brand's 45th anniversary and marks the first new product under Atari's ownership of the label, which it acquired from Mattel in 2024.
The Intellivision Sprint adheres to the aesthetic of its predecessor with a black and gold casing accented by a woodgrain front panel – a design that evokes the bold, furniture-inspired electronics of the late 1970s. Even though it looks retro, the technology inside is built for modern use. The console connects to a television using a single HDMI cable.
Also see: Intellivision: Gone But Not Forgotten
Two controllers, shaped much like the distinctive number pad remotes of the original Intellivision, are now wireless and recharge through a docking station built into the console itself.
Each controller retains the circular input disc and numeric keypad that defined gameplay in the system's early years, but the button overlays – translucent cards printed with visual cues for each game – have been reimagined with new artwork.
In addition to the HDMI port, the console features a USB-C port for power and dual USB-A ports. These can be used to connect original Intellivision controllers with an adapter or to access additional games from external USB drives.
Inside, the Intellivision Sprint houses a library of 45 preloaded titles spanning sports, strategy, and action genres. Its collection draws heavily from the games that once defined the system's identity: Baseball, Soccer, Super Pro Football, Chip Shot Super Pro Golf, and Tennis appear alongside strategy titles like B-17 Bomber, Utopia, Space Battle, and Sea Battle. Fan favorites such as Boulder Dash, Thin Ice, Thunder Castle, Star Strike, and Astrosmash round out the catalog, accompanied by the aquatic arcade-style Shark! Shark!
When the original Intellivision launched in 1980, its competition with the Atari 2600 was among the first battles of the console industry. Mattel marketed its machine as a technically superior system with more realistic gameplay, richer graphics, and a distinctive controller design. Atari countered with a broader and less expensive game library, an advantage that helped cement its early dominance.
Preorders for the Intellivision Sprint opened October 17 at $149.99 through Atari's online store, with shipments scheduled to begin December 5, 2025. Atari is positioning the system as both a piece of gaming history and a plug-and-play entertainment option for players seeking a simpler alternative to modern consoles like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.
Atari brings back Intellivision with HDMI, wireless controllers, and 45 games
