Why No 5200 Love Here?

[rxd]

Ok, I admit it. I'm an Atari 5200 fanboy. But there seems to be few if any 5200 fans here. Why's that? I mean it's the SUPER SYSTEM! Was I the only one who loved this system back in the early 80's? Am I the only person who still plays it?

[-hellvin-]

My first system ever was an atari 800xl which from what I understand, is just like most of the games on a 5200. I have quite a few 5200 games and the system, but no controllers. The system I bought at a local thrift didn't come with any and I've had no luck finding any. I would love to check out the system but I have naught the ability.

[Aswald]

I have one and like it well enough, but, I don't know, somehow, there's just something not there. Sort of like the Jaguar.

Still, it could have gone much further than it was taken. Super Pac-Man and Millipede proves this.

[NE146]

5200 is actually one of my top, if not my top favorite classic console. But it's weird because it caused me the most pain as well :P

I remember dreaming about Atari's next gen system and the arcade quality games it would bring home to the living room (which of course it did...like Joust ). I remember my mom forking out about $250 for it which was a hard bargain at the time.

Anyway, here's what defined it for me: eventually my sticks of course would break.. basically the START button would cease functioning. So my mom would buy me a new pair and soon I had about 6 joysticks.. NONE of which my START button would work (eventually)! So I had my mom order me a Wico... and that worked great, but it still needed the START button. I could never find the accompanying keypad.

The only games I could play were Montezuma's Revenge and some other ones like Moon Patrol or Space Dungeon which used the "#" key to start. Occasionally I could get games to start, but it was a lot of time and heartache of me pressing that start button as hard as I could while staring forlornly at the Joust title screen And I remember to add insult to injury, after waiting 6 months for my Mr. Do's Castle to arrive from Sears, it came with a chip loose and didn't even start. My 5200 MsPac also mysteriously died one day too.. This all while I was about 12 years old or so.

Years later by the time I got to High School and I got wiser, I figured how to fix my start buttons (simply cleaning the contacts).. but that was years later. And by that time the magic was pretty much lost. All those years of games I had in my hand, but simply couldn't play.

So that's why to me the 5200 is at once nostalgic (representing a magical time), and notorious.. (having all these great games, but unable to play them). So of course in my adult age that mystique means it's my favorite classic console! :D

[Lady Jaye]

Well, in my case, the reason why I never, ever speak of the 5200 is that I've never even played it! And my few attempts at running a 5200 emulator was disastrous (for some reason, it didn't work all that well on the Mac, although things may have changed for the better since I last tried).

[NoahsMyBro]

Well, until the DC, the 5200 was my favorite console, and the two are still loved pretty much equally by me.

Those 5200 naysayers can go back to their dry white toast and their 4 fried chickens, erm, um, I mean, their Intellivisions and Colecovisions. They don't know what they're missing.

[john_soper]

I was playing Pengo, Berzerk, Defender, Popeye, Zone Ranger, Galaxian, Hero and Death Star Battle last night.

When you make your own controller out of a keypad and psx dual shock, modify your system for s-video, and play on a 92 inch screen with a projector, it's easy to feel the love :)

[Flack]

I think you hit it right on the head -- those of us who didn't grow up with a 5200 have a hard time adapting to those joysticks.

[rxd]

Really? That's strange. I find the modern controllers to be MUCH more similar to the 5200 controllers than the 2600, Intellivision or ColecoVision...

[chrisbid]

the joysticks themselves arent as bad as everyone makes them out to be, but the buttons simply will not work. i need to get my controllers rebuilt by a pro, and a mod would be nice too

[NE146]

Yeah.. the controllers are FINE. They just break. But when they work, it's old-school goodness.

[bargora]

I like the 5200. I usually don't even mind opening up the controllers and cleaning the contacts off like, every time I want to play on original equipment. But if I'm feeling lazy, the Dreamcast emulation is pretty good.

[Spartacus]

It wasn't that long ago that somebody posted here asking where you'd plug in the power supply to a 5200. I dug mine up out of the bottom of my closet and and replied "If it's a 4 port like mine, it's in the rear next to the channel 3/4 switch". For some inexplicable reason, it didn't even strike me as odd why somebody would ask when it was so obvious.
Turns out I DON'T have a 4 port, and people corrected me pretty quickly. Hell, it's got 4 holes for controller ports in the front of it and I never even noticed that two were just holes! Sheesh! That was embarrassing. But the nice thing that happened is that while I was re-packing it back up I noticed a loose cart mixed in with a tangle of non-working controllers. It's Meteorites. I really wouldn't have thought much of it, but I had remembered an even earlier post here about that cart being somewhat valuable. Well Hot Damn!! that would have to be the only game I have ever bought in my life that is actually worth more now than the day I bought it!
The 5200 was my very first console, so I hang on to it for sentimental reasons. I remember buying it new at TRUS. I also remember buying games there for it and returning them all the time. Hell, they were expensive for me! That can only mean there were some pretty crappy games for it. I definately remember returning Kaboom and Kangaroo. Man those sucked. After awhile though, TRUS stopped letting me return them. When I asked why they told me it was because they could be copied (ie: like software). I looked at those plastic carts and thought to myself 'Now how in the Hell is anyone going to copy something like this!'. I remember that really pissing me off!
I also remember trying to fix those damn controllers ALL THE TIME! Once, after I botched fixing a controller with a rebuild kit, I went back to TRUS to buy new ones. This had to be right about the time of the video game crash because they had the exact same 5200 system I had in a discount bin with a $20.00 price tag on it. I bought it just for the controllers!
I wish like hell I never threw away those system box's 'cause now I'd like to have one of them boxed just to keep for nostalgia. They're kinda hard to find now. All the game box's are naturally gone now too. But those never seemed to be designed to keep anyway. The top flaps were glued, not tucked in. I've been slowly replacing most of my carts with boxed ones off Ebay for awhile. Not a priority project for me, just something I want to do. Your first game console is something I think you should show some respect for and I'd like to get this system squared away in a reasonably presentable fashion. My two favorite games, River Raid and Pitfall II, I've secured nice boxed copies of. That Pitfall II! I've never made it past those damn balloons!!!! But with that craptacular controller, is it any wonder?

[rxd]

5200 is actually one of my top, if not my top favorite classic console. But it's weird because it caused me the most pain as well :P

I remember dreaming about Atari's next gen system and the arcade quality games it would bring home to the living room (which of course it did...like Joust ). I remember my mom forking out about $250 for it which was a hard bargain at the time.

Anyway, here's what defined it for me: eventually my sticks of course would break.. basically the START button would cease functioning. So my mom would buy me a new pair and soon I had about 6 joysticks.. NONE of which my START button would work (eventually)! So I had my mom order me a Wico... and that worked great, but it still needed the START button. I could never find the accompanying keypad.

The only games I could play were Montezuma's Revenge and some other ones like Moon Patrol or Space Dungeon which used the "#" key to start. Occasionally I could get games to start, but it was a lot of time and heartache of me pressing that start button as hard as I could while staring forlornly at the Joust title screen And I remember to add insult to injury, after waiting 6 months for my Mr. Do's Castle to arrive from Sears, it came with a chip loose and didn't even start. My 5200 MsPac also mysteriously died one day too.. This all while I was about 12 years old or so.

Years later by the time I got to High School and I got wiser, I figured how to fix my start buttons (simply cleaning the contacts).. but that was years later. And by that time the magic was pretty much lost. All those years of games I had in my hand, but simply couldn't play.

So that's why to me the 5200 is at once nostalgic (representing a magical time), and notorious.. (having all these great games, but unable to play them). So of course in my adult age that mystique means it's my favorite classic console! :D

It's funny but it did seem that the Start, Pause and Reset buttons gave me much more trouble that the fire buttons did. I remember that I just pried off the bezel around those buttons and used to use a penny to start the games...

But all 4 years of college I needed a bat to get everyone out of my dorm room. My best friend was a Pengo nut and I couldn't get hime off my 5200. Ah - good times.

[rxd]

It wasn't that long ago that somebody posted here asking where you'd plug in the power supply to a 5200. I dug mine up out of the bottom of my closet and and replied "If it's a 4 port like mine, it's in the rear next to the channel 3/4 switch". For some inexplicable reason, it didn't even strike me as odd why somebody would ask when it was so obvious.
Turns out I DON'T have a 4 port, and people corrected me pretty quickly. Hell, it's got 4 holes for controller ports in the front of it and I never even noticed that two were just holes! Sheesh! That was embarrassing. But the nice thing that happened is that while I was re-packing it back up I noticed a loose cart mixed in with a tangle of non-working controllers. It's Meteorites. I really wouldn't have thought much of it, but I had remembered an even earlier post here about that cart being somewhat valuable. Well Hot Damn!! that would have to be the only game I have ever bought in my life that is actually worth more now than the day I bought it!
The 5200 was my very first console, so I hang on to it for sentimental reasons. I remember buying it new at TRUS. I also remember buying games there for it and returning them all the time. Hell, they were expensive for me! That can only mean there were some pretty crappy games for it. I definately remember returning Kaboom and Kangaroo. Man those sucked. After awhile though, TRUS stopped letting me return them. When I asked why they told me it was because they could be copied (ie: like software). I looked at those plastic carts and thought to myself 'Now how in the Hell is anyone going to copy something like this!'. I remember that really pissing me off!
I also remember trying to fix those damn controllers ALL THE TIME! Once, after I botched fixing a controller with a rebuild kit, I went back to TRUS to buy new ones. This had to be right about the time of the video game crash because they had the exact same 5200 system I had in a discount bin with a $20.00 price tag on it. I bought it just for the controllers!
I wish like hell I never threw away those system box's 'cause now I'd like to have one of them boxed just to keep for nostalgia. They're kinda hard to find now. All the game box's are naturally gone now too. But those never seemed to be designed to keep anyway. The top flaps were glued, not tucked in. I've been slowly replacing most of my carts with boxed ones off Ebay for awhile. Not a priority project for me, just something I want to do. Your first game console is something I think you should show some respect for and I'd like to get this system squared away in a reasonably presentable fashion. My two favorite games, River Raid and Pitfall II, I've secured nice boxed copies of. That Pitfall II! I've never made it past those damn balloons!!!! But with that craptacular controller, is it any wonder?

I guess everyones tastes are different but I always thought the 5200 had the best ratio of good games to total games of any system I've ever seen. Not really many dogs in that line up. And as far as the controllers go I always kinda liked them.... when they work. They are not very durable that's for sure, but when they worked I thought they were the BEST controllers od any system in the early 80's.

[rxd]

I like the 5200. I usually don't even mind opening up the controllers and cleaning the contacts off like, every time I want to play on original equipment. But if I'm feeling lazy, the Dreamcast emulation is pretty good.

Actually it's extremely good. That's one fine emulator and I used to use it all the time myself until I bought rebuilt controllers with gold plated circuitry recenty.

[calthaer]

http://www.x-entertainment.com/downloads/commercials/atari.html

A-TA-RIIIIIII!

[BIGMIKE]

wow, what a topic to find on the day i find a store with two boxed 5200 sticks.....managed to pick one up for 20. thinkin bout gettin the other one tomorrow. got a nice selection of games as well. congo bongo, pengo, q bert and others funny thing is i have never played the 5200. got one a few years back at a flea with the 4 port but no sticks. needless to say i came home and scrambled up all the hardware. popped in a game and bam........nothing the game was on but nobody was home. didn't want to beat up on my brand new sticks :angry: :angry: now i'm steamed so ..

luckily a friend of mine from work hooked me up with a spare 5200 a few months back. told my boy to go find it. plugged it up and it worked just fine. man that stick feels good. kinda different feel. kinda free floats to me at least. i guess my ports must be bad on the other one. and it's the best looking cosmetically. i only got pac man and mrs, and pole position for it now, so i am in pacman mania.. :D

[Flack]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23618

One of the most awesome 5200 machines I've ever seen.

[Kamino]

the controllers, and the fact?(Rumour) that the atari computers are the same damn thing inside but with useable controllers, drove me from the 5200. Went for an XEGS instead.
I KNOW i remember this from VBENDER one day when i was about to get that XEGS:

Every 5200 should be replaced with an XEGS.

And that pretty much sums it up. I don't have time to do controller maintenence.

[NE146]

the fact?(Rumour) that the atari computers are the same damn thing inside but with useable controllers,

It was always well known even to us kids when the 5200 was launched that it was basically the same as the Atari computers in a different shell. Actually I think it was most comparable to the Atari 400.

[rxd]

the controllers, and the fact?(Rumour) that the atari computers are the same damn thing inside but with useable controllers, drove me from the 5200. Went for an XEGS instead.
I KNOW i remember this from VBENDER one day when i was about to get that XEGS:

Every 5200 should be replaced with an XEGS.

And that pretty much sums it up. I don't have time to do controller maintenence.

Then I guess every 2600, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis and TG-16 should be replaced with a modded Xbox running an emulator. No controller issues and it won't clutter up my place. Hell let's throw out all our old systems and just use PC's instead....

[Kamino]

the controllers, and the fact?(Rumour) that the atari computers are the same damn thing inside but with useable controllers, drove me from the 5200. Went for an XEGS instead.
I KNOW i remember this from VBENDER one day when i was about to get that XEGS:

Every 5200 should be replaced with an XEGS.

And that pretty much sums it up. I don't have time to do controller maintenence.

Then I guess every 2600, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis and TG-16 should be replaced with a modded Xbox running an emulator. No controller issues and it won't clutter up my place. Hell let's throw out all our old systems and just use PC's instead....
Hrm, that almost made sense.
Oh wait. It didnt.
the 5200's controllers are known to be unreliable.
I once did read through the DP ,and it was between one and three half-ass games that were released on 5200 carts and not on atari computer carts.
So wait. You DON'T MAKE SENSE. Atari 5200 CAN be replaced with atari computer,because the games actually WERE officially released on carts for the computer - with instant compatibility for better controllers - and in the case of the XEGS, insanely better video quality(call me Anthony1 and i kill you....it's simple, Mono AV > RF).
I question why atari even bothered making the 5200. I consider my XE a 5200 on steroids, seeing as it does so much better. My only gripe, is it is much harder to find a damn pengo cart for XE than it is for 5200. :\

[rxd]

the controllers, and the fact?(Rumour) that the atari computers are the same damn thing inside but with useable controllers, drove me from the 5200. Went for an XEGS instead.
I KNOW i remember this from VBENDER one day when i was about to get that XEGS:

Every 5200 should be replaced with an XEGS.

And that pretty much sums it up. I don't have time to do controller maintenence.

Then I guess every 2600, NES, SMS, SNES, Genesis and TG-16 should be replaced with a modded Xbox running an emulator. No controller issues and it won't clutter up my place. Hell let's throw out all our old systems and just use PC's instead....
Hrm, that almost made sense.
Oh wait. It didnt.
the 5200's controllers are known to be unreliable.
I once did read through the DP ,and it was between one and three half-ass games that were released on 5200 carts and not on atari computer carts.
So wait. You DON'T MAKE SENSE. Atari 5200 CAN be replaced with atari computer,because the games actually WERE officially released on carts for the computer - with instant compatibility for better controllers - and in the case of the XEGS, insanely better video quality(call me Anthony1 and i kill you....it's simple, Mono AV > RF).
I question why atari even bothered making the 5200. I consider my XE a 5200 on steroids, seeing as it does so much better. My only gripe, is it is much harder to find a damn pengo cart for XE than it is for 5200. :\

But my Xbox has every NES, SMS, Genesis, SNES, 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision and TG-16 game ever made on it. It's much more powerful, has better video and sound output, takes up less space, and I can use 1 common controller that's sweet (the s controller not the stock one). So what's the difference? My Xbox is the Jason Giambi of all these systems. My point is that it's NOT the same as playing the real thing....

[Pantechnicon]

I love my 5200's. They get a lot of playtime. I've got a 2-port and 4-port and a Sean Kelly multi-cart for complete library goodness.

I used to dutifully do my controller maintenance whenever needed. However, at CGE2K4 I finally got a hold of a couple of those 5200 contoller upgrade kits (they were at the 4Jays booth). They use gold contacts instead of the nasty old carbon dots. Best $50 I ever spent on this hobby. Now I don't have to do controller maintenance :D !

[tyranthraxus]

Well I prefer my Colecovision as thats what I played 20 years ago. But
when I got a 5200 2 years ago I really came around. I sold my 800XL
with about 25 cartridges in preference to the 5200. Why? Well I got lucky
and have got one of the rare 'iron man' joysticks, it worked the day I got
the thing and the seller had no clue on how to fiix them and has never
needed a repair in 2 years (but the second stick I have is a goner).

The analog and non self centering is actually quite cool to use, although it
makes Pitfall II very hard to play but Pac-man is actually pretty good. Two
fire buttons r always better than one. And having the Start Pause Reset
buttons is just one modern convience that is just fantastic to have on a
vintage console. I find the joysticks to be the most comfortable of the
keypad joystick trend of the early 80s. And of course the trakball is one
sweet accessory for Missile Command and Centipede.

Also I love the look and size of the thing, sleek yet such a dinosaur! Also the
cartridges are pretty solid to hold compared to most of the older consoles.
The games are generally good. Almost all of the great games of 1980 to
1984 made it to the machine. And the 5200 has one of the coolest
prototype scenes to explore. The homebrew scene is very strong
(although I don't buy).

As mentioned the joystick issue makes this more of an 'advanced' system
to collect for and it is expensive to get setup via ebay. But it is one of
the coolest systems to collect for among the 'also ran' consoles. Don't
knock it unless you've tried it!

[Kamino]

Don't
knock it unless you've tried it!
Ah, Yeah i tried it. Sold it. One of THREE systems i've ever abandoned(3do, intv, and 5200)

[Captain Wrong]

I love my 5200, but I'm afraid that's mostly nostalgia for my 400 talking. I will admit though, Pole Position with the 5200 sticks is a lot cooler than it ever was with the 400 sticks.

[digitalpress]

Linking onto what Tyranthraxus said, I was much more a ColecoVision player at that time, but I certainly did learn to love the 5200.

A 5200 with the Masterplay Interface is a joy to behold. The graphics are ultra-vivid and always smooth. I always felt that the 5200 and it's 8-bit computer core had the best color palette of any Atari system ever.

My favorites are the arcade games, especially Joust, Moon Patrol, and Kangaroo. Very close to those is the incredibly rare Bounty Bob Strikes Back (a game I finally scored last year to complete my collection). BBSB is a suprisingly fluid and challenging platformer with isometric-style graphics. Very unusual look for its time.

No love? Of course there is! Especialy here at DP HQ. We even had the 5200 hooked up at our latest NJ Classic gathering.

http://www.digitpress.com/images/njclassic/tn_nj30_313_jpg.jpg
(That's the brilliantly converted Activision HERO being played) (http://www.digitpress.com/images/njclassic/nj30_313.jpg)

[rxd]

Linking onto what Tyranthraxus said, I was much more a ColecoVision player at that time, but I certainly did learn to love the 5200.

A 5200 with the Masterplay Interface is a joy to behold. The graphics are ultra-vivid and always smooth. I always felt that the 5200 and it's 8-bit computer core had the best color palette of any Atari system ever.

My favorites are the arcade games, especially Joust, Moon Patrol, and Kangaroo. Very close to those is the incredibly rare Bounty Bob Strikes Back (a game I finally scored last year to complete my collection). BBSB is a suprisingly fluid and challenging platformer with isometric-style graphics. Very unusual look for its time.

No love? Of course there is! Especialy here at DP HQ. We even had the 5200 hooked up at our latest NJ Classic gathering.

http://www.digitpress.com/images/njclassic/tn_nj30_313_jpg.jpg
(That's the brilliantly converted Activision HERO being played) (http://www.digitpress.com/images/njclassic/nj30_313.jpg)

I'd love to get my hands an a Bounty Bob Strikes Back. Miner 2049'er has always been one of my favorite 5200 games. I'd love to see the sequel someday...