WaverBoy

Agreed. I read a review of the Atari joystick all-in-one, and it said the ports were pretty lousy, and even included a paddle game or two. Talk about a wasted opportunity...back to the drawing board.

Cafeman, just from that one screenshot, I'm gettin' the vibes that this is going to be one fabulous game. Can't wait!

Joust, Galaxian and Pole Position And Missile Command. Congrats. I had to do some work to get my 5200 up-and-running. Voch You're all absolutely right. Luckily I have all those except Pole Position, which I hope to be acquiring soon.

Can't believe I just got around to posting this, but... after 17 years of dust and neglect, my poor Atari 5200 has risen. I had to buy a new controller port and get it installed, and luckily the guy I got the controller port from threw in a working 5200 controller as a freebie, so now all is well. Montezuma's Revenge, Countermeasure, Pac-Man, and Space Dungeon. What else is there in life?

Thanks! I just bought a Zelda off eBay that is supposedly "completely tested and works great", so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works, and that, if it doesn't work, it is the fabled BadBrad battery design.

Oh-my-goodness-gracious, someone called ElectricTroy a fanboy. Gasp. OK Troy, here's another quote from you, under the "theaveng" nick: "theaveng wrote: Fighting: It's obvious you don't know what the hell you're doing. You need to LEARN the system first, before you judge it. For example, you say you can't block. YES, you can block by pressing the R button. It's also obvious that you didn't learn how to target different areas like the head, arm, body... which is crucial to understanding the game. Nor did you learn about using "finishing moves" to recover your sanity. Basically the game sucked, because YOU sucked at playing it. You didn't take the time to learn the moves. You blamed the game, when it was actually your *own lack of expertise* that caused the problems." Semantics, semantics. You may not be calling people names per se, but, if you're telling people they suck without provocation (and believe me, I never suck without provocation ), you're definitely flaming them. All the time. And then you have the affrontery (and audacity, even) to be offended when they flame you back. Give me a break. Your tone is almost always insulting and inflammatory. You say you attack people and not ideas...that's an outright lie. Telling people that they suck is attacking THEM, not their ideas. You are convicted by your own words. Also, Mr. The-Atari-5200-Is-A-Waste-Of-Solder-And-Plastic, according to you, after only seeing the 5200 in action once, and NOT PLAYING IT, you concluded that The Atari 5200 Is A Waste Of Solder And Plastic. Again, I quote: "I finally saw one in action last month. I'm glad I didn't waste my money 20 years ago. The games did not look much better than 2600 games (some looked worse!!! - Space Invaders). The joysticks were trash (according to this site, they broke a lot) and ruined many games like Pac-Man since they weren't self-centering. Pac-Man's not any fun if you can't properly play it!!!" Hmmmm...now, according to your above quote, this would appear to make you hypocritical. You think someone should learn a game before judging it. Well...not even PLAYING a video game game system before judging it? Tsk tsk... You wouldn't know if many games like Pac-Man were ruined on the 5200, since you didn't play them on the 5200. You wouldn't know if Pac-Man's not any fun on the 5200 with non-self-centering joysticks, because you didn't play it on the 5200 with non-self-centering joysticks. It plays just fine after you LEARN THE CONTROL SYSTEM. I know, because I learned it (after a few seconds, even), and, with practice, repeatedly made it past the 6th key table. You've just been laughed out of court. For someone who's complaining that people are childishly insulting him and not being adults, howzabout another childishly flaming non-adult quote from Mr. ElectricTroy: "Quote: I wish you people would shut up. The original Atari SUCKED ASS. They treated their programmers like crap, made stupid business decisions, put out shitty games like Pac-Man, and ultimately bellyied up (dead). Infogrames is 100 times better. They are still alive and well, and putting out kickass games." Not only is that one of the funniest things I've ever read (especially the bit about Infogrames), but it's childish as hell. Methinks you'll get no sympathy from this board for being flamed because you're whiny and obnoxious, as you apparently didn't from The Digital Press: "Digital Press wrote: No one in the long history of this forum has destroyed more threads than this guy. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but pointless attacks, obnoxious behavior, and incessant whining simply does NONE of us any good. We're trying to have conversations, and this "theaveng" has nothing to add and everything to cry about. Hence, goodbye, "theaveng"." I rest my case.

Has anyone replaced the battery in their NES Legend Of Zelda cartridge? I'm going to buy this used, and if it's possible to replace the battery if it's dead, I'll be a very happy gamer.

And let me add another big That quote is about the most blatant fanboyism I've ever seen. Sorry Troy. You lose. You're a Commodore 64 fanboy. Denial won't help you. Although, I believe there's a 12-step program for unfortunates like yourself...dial 1-8-ATARI-RULZ, ext. 5200

VirtuaNES works better for me than JNES. For example, JNES had serious problems with Double Dragon, but VirtuaNES runs it perfectly. At any rate, I'm going to get me an NES system again, because it just isn't the same playing these games on a computer, dammit. For one thing, PC controllers SUCK!!!!! Not a really functional D-pad in existence among PC controllers, apparently. Give me the old NES controllers any day. Plus, it's just somehow comforting to have that old console on the coffee table in front of you. My Atari 2600 and 5200 console resurrection projects are nigh complete, and then it's OPERATION NES!!! I wish I still had my original console...it was stolen by an ex-housemate, probably not coincidentally after he found out it was once played by Kurt Cobain; he stayed with me and a friend for a couple of weeks, a month or two before he hit the big time with Nevermind. There, that's my name-drop for the day. Never liked his music, but he was a nice guy.

Bring on the Bounty Bob Repros!!! I'd love to play this game, but no way am I going to shell out $200+ to do it. Unfortunately, a sanctioned repro of this title is highly unlikely; here's an excerpt from an email I got from Charles Guinn (Voltman3) in response to an inquiry I made about the possibility of him making a repro for Bounty Bob (he's made other 5200 repro carts): "Well, surprisingly enough you are not the only one who has asked for a repro of BBSB. A couple friends and I have approached Mr. Bill Hogue, about releasing a complete boxed Repro of his most wanted game, but sadly- he has no desire to allow that at this time. Hopefully, one day soon he will. Until then we will comply with his wishes." So, the $64,000 question is, how do we convince Mr. Hogue to give us hungry non-rich Atari 5200 fans what we want???

The VCS console was not produced consecutively for those 14 years. The NES is just going out of production this year. 1985-2003= 18 years of UNINTERRUPTED production. Keep trying. The NES has still been produced up until now??? I had no idea. In what country is it being sold? Certainly not in the US of A... Interesting!

They are just left and right versions of the same functions. For instance, if the bottom button fires during a game, it will fire on either side. Never do all four buttons perform different functions; only the top and the bottom buttons will be different.

Sorry, I meant the Parker Bros. titles in my collection.

The reason I ask is, I'm pretty sure I saved all my overlays, sticking them in the handy storage slot on the back of each cartridge, but the following in my collection don't have any (and I bought them all new back in '82-'83): Joust Space Dungeon James Bond 007 Montezuma's Revenge Kangaroo Star Wars Arcade Game Am I missing any? I don't think I am...but I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure no overlays came with the Parker Bros. titles.

Tunnel glitch? Eating a dot without eating it? Hmmm...I seem to remember that I once knew what this was, but I have no idea now. Could you provide more details?

Kaz, I'm right there with you. When I was a kid, I played 5200 Pac-Man for hours with these fantastic controllers, and frequently made it past the 7th key. As you say, case closed. Hey...isn't there a point sometime after the 7th key where, after flashing blue the entire time for many boards, the monsters become deadly again? I seem to remember something like that happening...of course, it's been around 17 years, so I could be mistaken.

Now, that is the biggest pipe dream ever. Never in a zillion years would that happen. The gamers of today want to keep playing the same old crappy 3-D polygon-infested one-on-one fighting games, sports games, racing games, and 1st-person Doom-style shooters. Maybe it's best as it is...the people like us who really love the real Atari know where to look for the real deal. I'd rather be playing an actual 2600 or 5200 anyway than some new "retro-styled" console. And who cares if they don't release the ROMs? They're EVERYWHERE ALREADY. Search for 30 seconds online and you can find them. If you can't afford a used console, you can play them thru emulation. Early '80s-style videogames won't ever come back en masse. And maybe that's a good thing; they're more special this way. I'll never forget the time that, soon after Jackie Chan's appearance on MTV, teenagers started pouring into the video store where I worked, asking for Jackie Chan movies. Sigh...

Um...if you're never going to use them to play the games, what are you preserving them for? Are you going to turn them into table lamps eventually?

I would say it's ALWAYS had a bigger following... but that of course is the fault of "Jackass" Tramiel and not the timing of the 7800's original development cycle.... It may also be partially the fault of the sound, upon which everyone seems to agree is inferior to the 5200, and also the controllers, which many people seem to think are the worst, most uncomfortable ever. At least that takes some heat off of the 5200 controllers. The 7800 was in production for basically 4 years (not counting the 5000 units produced in 1984), '86 to around '90, finally completely petering out around '92. The 5200 was cancelled after only 2 years, and has a bigger following. I think that says something.

According to George Reese of Stella's Boneyard, you are wrong. The Atari 7800 was developed in April, 1984, almost TWO YEARS after the release of the 5200 in the summer of 1982. Read on: "In the summer of 1983 the 'Great Videogame Crash' was starting to manifest itself. The video game market, already saturated with too many game systems and tons of poor quality 2600 rip-offs, was dumping product as fast as possible. New-in-box games were being unloaded for pennies on the dollar, some still with rebates greater than the selling price (one game purchased at a department store for $2.00 still offered a $5.00 rebate - a $3.00 profit!). Software houses folded left and right, some merged or were bought up by larger companies. A few actually weathered the storm and are still a strong presence in the software market today, Activision being a prime example. That summer CEO Ray Kasser was ousted (amidst accusations of insider trading regarding the sale of personal stocks the previous year) and replaced in September by James Morgan. Warner Communications, after posting a year-end loss of $536 million, was ready to dump video games and Atari in general, and decided that the 5200 would cease production. The last units rolled off the assembly line in spring of 1984. Atari's newest game system, the 7800 ProSystem, had been developed in April of that same year, and 5,000 units produced at Atari's San Antonio, Texas plant (the rare expansion port model) but shelved after Warner sold Atari to Commodore computers founder Jack Tramiel and sons." Here's the link to the complete article: http://www.atari7800.com/5200/history.htm As you should know, many technological advance can be made in two years. And, it's funny, then, that even delayed until a few years later, it's still inferior to the 5200 in some ways, especially the sound and controllers! There are reasons why the 5200 has a bigger following than the 7800 these days.

Actually, these new parts have been around for a few years now; the gold dot contact auxiliary keypads (start/pause/reset) since mid-'99. Best Electronics has extensively tested the gold dot contacts, with excellent results. From their website: "The Major Upgrade/Improvement that is now in house, is a Brand New Best Electronics version of the CX52 Auxiliary Keypad using Gold Plated Metal Disks (Current State of the Art Technology). Right from the Get Go, these Gold Plated Metal Conductive Disks have a Contact Resistance of 0 Ohms! Our in house tests have shown even after 4,000+ Up/Down, On/ Off cycles (on all three conductive metal disks) that the conduct resistance stayed the same 0 Ohms. Our Manufacture has tested this New Version Auxiliary 5200 Key pad to over 100,000 cycles with No failures! One of the Major Advantages of the Gold Plated Molded in Metal Dots over the Carbon Dot equivalent contacts, is the Metal Disks are Self cleaning (or in worst case, can be cleaned very easily) when you use them with the current Rev. 9 Metal CX52 Flex Circuits! The Only Minor Draw back with these New designed 5200 Best Auxiliary Keypads with the Gold Plated Metal contacts are, they are NOT Recommended for use with the Older CX52 Flex Circuits with the silk-screened black Carbon traces (non metal traces)." A link to their entire writeup on the controller improvements: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/cx52.htm A link to their step-by-step 5200 controller rebuild tutorial & FAQ: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/cx52_j.htm A link to their home page: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ They've been in the Atari biz for almost 20 years, and most ebayers who sell replacement Atari parts on eBay just get them from Best and jack up the prices. And no, I don't work for them.

That would be nice, but I'm not crazy about shelling out $75.00 to do it. Has anyone done this themselves? How difficult is it?

Atleast you can get to 'cramping' on the 7800 sticks - The 5200 sticks wear out before then The Inty sticks suck also but they did sell a joystick shape that would attach to the disc and give you better feel - There is nothing you can do for the 5200 sticks - I got a new stick but didnt use it for a few months and now it doesnt work. The 5200 sticks are the worst bar none! Rebuild them using Rev. 9 flex circuits, and gold dot contact auxiliary keypads and (coming soon) fire buttons from Best Electronics, and you won't have any more 5200 controller reliability problems.

If you're worried about that, sorry, but any joystick = carpal tunnel syndrome. Actually, I think being able to use the 5200 controllers on a PC would be the only way to go for the 5200 emulators, for those who had an Atari 5200 when they were kids, but don't have access to one now and who would be satisified just playing the emulator. Some of the games just don't cut it with other controllers, especially Space Dungeon, Robotron, and Montezuma's Revenge. As another poster has mentioned, the Trackball would be another obvious reason.

If you're worried about that, sorry, but any joystick = carpal tunnel syndrome. Actually, I think being able to use the 5200 controllers on a PC would be the only way to go for the 5200 emulators, for those who had an Atari 5200 when they were kids, but don't have access to one now and who would be satisified just playing the emulator. Some of the games just don't cut it with other controllers, especially Space Dungeon, Robotron, and Montezuma's Revenge. As another poster has mentioned, the Trackball would be another obvious reason.