Crossy Road studio Hipster Whale is digging through Atari's archives for mobile possibilities

Hipster Whale may have found the world's largest box of retro toys. The Australian developer behind Crossy Road is examining Atari's enormous catalogue following its acquisition by Atari earlier this year, and co-founder Matt Hall says classics such as Pong, Breakout, Centipede and Missile Command are obvious properties to consider for modern mobile audiences. None of those projects has been formally announced, so this is not confirmation that a new Centipede will suddenly appear on the App Store tomorrow.

It does, however, reveal how Hipster Whale is thinking about life inside Atari. The studio was acquired in June in a deal worth an initial $29.3 million after remaining independent for more than a decade. Crossy Road itself has exceeded 340 million downloads, giving Hipster Whale unusually deep experience in translating arcade simplicity into modern mobile design. Hall also highlighted game preservation as a priority and suggested collections such as Atari 50 could make sense on phones.

The fit is unusually logical: Atari's best-known games were designed around instant readability and short sessions decades before anybody used the phrase mobile-friendly. Hipster Whale's challenge will be deciding which titles should be preserved faithfully and which deserve more ambitious reinterpretations. Either way, Atari has plenty of source material. The hard part may simply be choosing which cupboard to open first.