Skip to main content

Plex Arcade brings classic Atari console titles to your TV for $5 per month

Plex Arcade Library
Plex

Plex, the company that helps people organize and access all of their movies, TV shows, and music using media server software, has announced its first subscription streaming service, Plex Arcade. As the name suggests, it’s a gaming service, but unlike similar products from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia, Plex Arcade is focused (for now) on giving subscribers access to classic Atari console titles from the 1980s. Plex Arcade costs $5 per month, but Plex Pass subscribers get a $2 discount, bringing the price down to $3 per month. There’s also a seven-day free trial period.

Plex Arcade will initially feature a 30-game selection of Atari’s library of 2600 and 7800 console games, including titles like Centipede, Missile Command, Lunar Lander, Food Fight, and Gravitar. Unfortunately, many of the most popular titles for these consoles, like Pac Man, Space Invaders, Joust, and Donkey Kong are not among the available games at launch.

Plex Arcade Centipede
Plex

You’ll be able to play these streamed games on  Android (mobile and TV), iOS, tvOS, and Chrome devices with the free Plex client installed, but Plex Arcade also has a server requirement, which is unusual in the streaming game world.

To use Plex Arcade, you’ll need the free Plex Media Server installed on a Windows PC or a Mac (Linux is currently unsupported) on your home network. Setting up a Plex server is fairly straightforward — check out our guide to using Plex for a full walk-through.

As with all of Plex’s supported content, Plex Arcade games will show up as their own content category within the main Plex interface.

Plex Arcade is compatible with virtually any Bluetooth or USB game controller that works with your streaming device, e.g. Apple TV, Nvidia Shield TV, etc., or you can use a keyboard for Chrome-based gaming. Plex recommends the Sony DualShock 4 or Xbox One controller for the best results.

Curiously, Plex is striking an experimental tone with its introduction of Plex Arcade. In its launch blog post, the company says, “…it’s far from done and we see it as a kind of internal Kickstarter-type project.” It goes on to say that if subscriber interest remains strong, Plex will continue to grow the service, but if not, the experiment will end.

Creating a game subscription service that caters to fans of retro gaming is clever — it’s a niche that none of the other services have opted to fill. But it’s also risky: At $5 per month, Plex Arcade is the same price as Apple Arcade, which follows the same model of unlimited gaming for one monthly price. But Apple Arcade’s titles are slick, modern affairs, with hi-res graphics and sound. It’s unclear if people will be willing to pay the same price for a relatively small selection of games that are, in some cases, more than 40 years old.

Then there’s the question of the Atari VCS, a new Atari game console that has been years in the making, and that promises access to all of the same content as Plex Arcade, plus modern gaming titles, too.

Until now, Plex has stayed clear of creating its own subscription streaming service, opting instead for the free, ad-supported model. It began this approach with its on-demand movies and TV show service, then followed up with an 80-channel live TV streaming option. Depending on its experience with Plex Arcade, this could be the beginning of a slew of new subscription services from the company — a move that has been expected since 2019.

Here’s the full list of Atari games available at launch:

  • 3D Tic-Tac-Toe
  • Adventure
  • Alien Brigade
  • Aquaventure
  • Asteroids
  • Avalanche
  • Basketbrawl
  • Centipede
  • Combat
  • Dark Chambers
  • Desert Falcon
  • Fatal Run
  • Food Fight (Charley Chuck’s)
  • Gravitar
  • Haunted House
  • Human Cannonball
  • Lunar Battle
  • Lunar Lander
  • Major Havoc
  • Millipede
  • Missile Command
  • Motor Psycho
  • Ninja Golf
  • Outlaw
  • Planet Smashers
  • Radar Lock
  • Sky Diver
  • Sky Raider
  • Solaris
  • Super Breakout

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Tubi supercharges its search with ChatGPT-4 and Rabbit AI
Press images and screenshots of the ChatGPT-powered Rabbit AI search features on Tubi on an iPhone.

Tubi — the ad-supported on-demand streaming service owned by Fox that's part of the FAST explosion — has more than 200,000 movies and TV shows at the ready for its 74 million monthly active users. The trick is figuring out what to watch. Or, rather, Tubi wants to figure out what you want to watch. And to that end, today it announced that it’s using a new search scheme to help you make your way through the platform.

Rabbit AI, as it’s being called, uses ChatGPT-4 (that’s a step above the free one you’ve probably been using) to go beyond what Tubi says its previous keyword searches could suss out. First is that the whole thing is much more conversational, like if you were talking to a buddy.

Read more
This LG OLED TV deal brings the 65-inch B2 down by $800
The LG B2 OLED 4K TV in a living room.

We recommend going straight to the source for excellent TV deals today with LG offering an LG 65-inch B2 OLED TV at a fantastic price. Usually priced at $2,300, the TV is $800 off for a limited time only so it's down to $1,500. That's a huge saving on a TV that continues to be a great bet for anyone considering OLED technology. You can either click through on the button below to get straight to buying or read on while we take you through what you need to know about it.

Why you should buy the LG 65-inch B2 OLED TV
LG is one of the best TV brands thanks to its expertise with OLED screens. OLED means that every pixel you see on screen is self-lit so they light up independently of each other, giving you exceptional picture quality. With each of them working separately, it means you can have incredibly deep blacks at the same time as somewhere else on the screen displays vibrant colors.

Read more
Is Dolby Atmos FlexConnect a potential soundbar killer?
A diagram showing how Dolby Atmos FlexConnect combines wireless speakers with a TV's sound system.

In this day and age of tech, you can’t blink without missing something. So I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you missed a cameo that Dolby Atmos FlexConnect made during a recent TCL announcement. I mean, I almost missed it. Perhaps that’s why nobody is talking about it. Or … is there another reason?

I’m going to take a closer look at this new Dolby Atmos FlexConnect technology. Given the kind of power Dolby has in the industry and the fact that at least TCL seems pretty on board, I figured it's worth a quick conversation.

Read more