Atari 2600 PlusCart+ WiFi Multigame Cartridge – Play Every 2600 Game Online

The PlusCart+ is a WiFi-connected multigame cartridge for the original Atari 2600. Plug it in, join your home WiFi, and stream the entire PlusCart+ library — homebrews, demos, DPC+ bB titles, and online-enabled "PlusROM" games — straight into your console. No SD card to manage, no loose ROM files to chase down.

What you get

One (1) PlusCart+, assembled and bench-tested, in a functional 3D-printed snap-fit case. Case color varies batch to batch.

Compatibility

The original Atari 2600 only. It is not compatible with the 2600+, the AtGames GameStation Pro, the RETRON 77, or other emulation-based systems — the PlusCart+ relies on original 2600 timing that those clones don't reproduce.

You'll need WiFi at the play location and the ability to reach the PlusCart+ servers (the PlusStore).

If you'd prefer a different shell — your own donor cartridge, say — you can recase the PCB yourself. The included case is fully functional and protects the board.

Designed by

The PlusCart+ is community-on-community work, and I want every layer credited:

• Wolfgang Stubig — known as Al_Nafuur on AtariAge — created the PlusCart+: the firmware, the PlusROM feature, and the PlusStore server the whole system runs on.
• It builds on Robin Edwards' UnoCart-2600, with extensions from DirtyHairy's fork.
• Andrew Davie designed the snap-fit 3D-printed shell and the cart's animated loading icon, and — with Thomas Jensch — built the 24-character on-screen menu display.

Project site: pluscart.firmaplus.de
Source: github.com/Al-Nafuur/United-Carts-of-Atari
Original AtariAge thread: PlusCart thread on AtariAge

How it works

Unlike the SD-card UnoCart-2600 it descends from, the PlusCart+ has no SD slot. An onboard ESP8266 connects to your WiFi and downloads ROM files on demand from an internet server — the PlusStore. The cartridge fetches the ROM while the VCS runs a wait-routine in RAM, the same trick the UnoCart-2600 used to read from its SD card.

PlusROM goes a step further. A specially encoded header lets a game send and receive bytes to a backend host with no VCS-side wait-routine — which turns the cartridge into a general-purpose internet device, not just a ROM loader. Some of what people have built isn't even games: a news ticker that scrolls live headlines, a tracker that pulls the International Space Station's position to your screen, a clock that sets itself from the internet. Online high scores and multiplayer experiments run on the same feature.

PlusROM works with 2K, 4K, 3F, 3E, and 3E+ cartridges, plus any standard bankswitching cartridge — with or without 128 bytes of RAM at $1000–$10FF — and standard F4 bankswitching at $1FF4–$1FFB.

High Score Club

Play a PlusROM game and your score posts automatically over WiFi to the PlusCart High Score Club — a live, worldwide leaderboard with tens of thousands of scores across dozens of classic and homebrew titles, plus seasonal competitions. Register on the PlusCart+ website and your runs land right alongside players around the world. Your original 2600, on a global scoreboard, with no extra hardware.

More info

• Setup and walkthrough video: youtu.be/1wLrP6PyBMs
• PlusCart+ website (firmware, PlusStore, High Score Club): pluscart.firmaplus.de

Built and bench-tested at the CRT workshop on a real Atari 2600 with a CRT television before shipping.