AN ATARI 5200 AT LAST!!!!!!!!

[den68]

FINALLY! my patience and refusal to resort to ebay has at last paid off. On Friday I found an Atari 5200 for $15 bucks at a local thrift. It's the 2 port model with 2 functioning sticks and all hookups. It also came with 3 games, Pac-Man, Vanguard and Gyruss.

I could finally play all the games I've found the past couple years and try out the 2600 converter I've had for over a year.

I also found out first hand all the bad things I've read about those joysticks. Some games are quite difficult to play with them. Q-bert, River Raid and Super Breakout were ones I had difficulty with.

I was qute pleased! the thing was clean as hell too, it even still had that thin layer of plastic over all the metal surfaces.

[NoahsMyBro]

A) I can't believe you got 2 fully-functional sticks with that! Amazing!

B) In my not-very-widely-shared opinion, the 5200 is second only to the Dreamcast. Until the DC it was my favorite system of all-time. You've got a great find there.

May I recommend:
-- Star Raiders
-- Space Dungeon. Try to find the dual Joystick Coupler, a plastic base that holds the two sticks in place side-by-side so you can manipulate both sticks simultaneously. Other that that, I've read about people duct-taping the two sticks to a board so they can play Space Dungeon. Whatever you do, Space Dungeon, assuming you can moount the controllers, is a great game.
-- Investigate Koffi, a brand-new homebrew from Cafeman. http://cafeman.www9.50megs.com/atari/5200dev/KoffiKopter.html
As of last night I think, Ron stated he still had a few copies available. I played an early version several months ago and the game looks great. I've already mailed in my order/payment.

Another good homebrew is Castle Blast, released a few months ago.

There's a ton of good games for the 5200. Another standout, IMO, is the 5200 version of Joust. I also liked the 5200 Football & Baseball games, games that don't get a lot of discussion. I always loved Intellivision Football & Baseball, & I think the 5200 versions are simply the Intellivision games, vastly improved.

Assuming it's not too steep, I also recommend the Sean Kelly multicart. $125 gets you almost every game ever made for the system, including not-released games.

Enjoy your new system. I love them.

[Arcade Antics]

Hopefully you had a precognitive moment and already ordered Koffi: Yellow Kopter from Cafeman! You'll definitely want to take this new 5200 game for a spin in your new 5200 :wink:

Congrats on the find!

[ubersaurus]

I just picked up a 5200 Saturday, myself..I can't wait to find room to hook this thing up, I got a few games with it, and the hookups. Guy said the controllers work fine too, included three games, which, plus the 8 or so I already had, makes for a decent starting library.