[3] Since its release, Digital Eclipse has added additional games as free updates and paid downloadable content, later compiled into Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition.

Controls can be remapped, and a CRT-like filter can be enabled, while bezels recreate art and fill out the wide screen.

[4] Some games feature further enhancements, such as Star Raiders, which has overlays that show player status and rumble effects when entering hyperspace.

[8] Atari employees and former employees are interviewed in the collection, including Allan Alcorn, Owen Rubin, David Crane, Jerry Jessop, Bill Rehbock, Tod Frye, Eugene Jarvis, Howard Scott Warshaw, Nolan Bushnell and Wade Rosen, as well as other members of the game industry such as Cliff Bleszinski, Tim Schafer, and Ed Fries.

[18] The game's editorial director, Chris Kohler, joined Digital Eclipse in July 2020 following the departure of Frank Cifaldi.

Kohler went through Mechner's journals he kept while in college, discovering that the material could be used to chronologically tell the history of game's development.

This led Digital Eclipse to apply the interactive timeline which presents text, images, video footage and playable games to form a narrative.

[6][19] The engineers at Digital Eclipse built a system that allowed them to add material in a timeline without extensive programming.

"[12] Digital Eclipse created new games for the compilation based on Atari properties and individual members' interests and expertise.

These are Haunted Houses, Neo Breakout, Quadratank, Swordquest: AirWorld, VCTR-SCTR (pronounced "Vector Sector") and Yars' Revenge Reimagined.

[25] A free update to the collection was subsequently released on December 5, 2023, adding twelve games, including Bowling, Circus Atari, Double Dunk, Maze Craze, Miniature Golf, MotoRodeo, Super Football, and Warbirds,[26][10] as well as two unreleased prototypes (Aquaventure and Save Mary), and two homebrew 2600 games (Adventure II and Return to Haunted House),[27][28] Following Atari's acquisition of the Intellivision brand, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition was announced on June 24, 2024.

[29] The former was released digitally on September 26, 2024, with the latter arriving on November 8, alongside a physical edition for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

[30][29][31] The games added in "The Wider World of Atari" are: Berzerk, Frenzy, Red Baron, Sky Diver, Avalanche, Destroyer, Super Bug, Football, Stellar Track, Submarine Commander, Steeplechase, Atari Video Cube, Desert Falcon (2600) and Off the Wall;[32] The games added in "The First Console War" are: Air Raiders, Armor Ambush, Astroblast, Basketball, Frogs and Flies, International Soccer, Dark Cavern, Star Strike, Super Challenge Baseball, Super Challenge Football, Video Pinball, Antbear, Swordfight, Sea Battle, Tower of Mystery, HardBall!, Xari Arena, Final Legacy, Desert Falcon (7800).

"[18] Samuel Claiborn of IGN desired that more people be involved in the documentaries, such as the prominent women developers, Atari's art and marketing departments as well as decades of journalists, historians and collectors, saying this could have added further context.

Even the familiar old arcade and 2600 games that have been endlessly re-released can be appreciated a little more with the extra info attached in this collection.

[5] In 2023, Digital Eclipse announced they would adapt the historical timeline format used in Atari 50 into other projects, under the Gold Master Series branding.

Kohler stated that the audience immediately picked up the idea of going through a timeline within Atari 50 and following the history, which gave the team at Digital Eclipse the confidence to continue with the format.