I am on my 2nd one now, when I sold the 1st one I swore that I would never have another one.
Then I found a working 5200 CIB with the 2600 adapter and a dozen carts for $75, and I got sucked back in.
The controllers are a dead horse issue, they have their defenders, and I have nothing for love for the purists the refurbish them, but most of us agree that they suck.
But controllers aside, the switch box is a piece of junk and the power supplies aren't much better.
It seems that this system was just built to die.
I love my new 5200 so much, now that it is tested, It is back in it's box and on display, unlikely to return to service.
For me the 8bit computers are sooo much better, I really don't understand why anyone would rather play the 5200.
OK, Countermeasure was cool AF, but the rest of the games were nearly identical to their XL/XE counterparts.
There are a few 5200 games that didn't make it to the computers, but the 8bit library is much larger, just with games.
The cartoons in Pac Man just don't justify the additional headaches to me.
I'm not system bashing, I just want to understand what makes the purists prefer the 5200 to the 8 bit computer line.