why does the atari 5200 get hated on?

[BassGuitari]

The atari 400/800 really doesnt have any different games than the 5200.

Wow. Yes, it absolutely does.

[Henry Lee]

My first, back in 1983, and only video game machine I own! I love everything about it including it's imperfections.

[0078265317]

 

 

Sure, but that would also likely be impractically expensive for an already expensive system. If you're going to do that you may as well just skip the 5200 and go straight to a 7800 type system.

 

No more expensive than the original 2600. It would just be reusing the same parts. Wouldn't be as simple as just using a 5200 motherboard and soldering on a 2600 cart slot instead of a 5200 cart slot.

[AtariLeaf]

I don't hate the 5200. If I could find one that works properly without spending a lot of time and money and a sprinkling of dark magic to get it to work I'd be on board. As it is I'll stick with the 8-bit computers. Yes I know the games aren't exactly the same but the differences in the few I'm interested in doesn't equate to investing in a 5200

[maxdrive]

I will always love the 5200 it was my family's first console it was my first step into video games

[0078265317]

I will always love the 5200 it was my family's first console it was my first step into video games

 

Mine too.

[atarian63]

It was the preferred console in my area vs intellivision or coleco, damn joysticks though.. we sold tons of replacements from atari and they were all just as bad it seems, send many many back to distributors . That being said we had alot of dead coleco consoles and bad intellivision controllers ( i think people were just hard on the intellivision ones).

Edited March 13, 2016 by atarian63

[+GoldLeader]

I kind of liked the 5200 based on what little I remember of it. Myself, and all but one of my friends bought ColecoVisions. I played the Atari 5200 and liked it, but thought I was just playing, admittedly superior, versions of games I already owned. Add in all the arcade games coming out for Coleco, and it seemed to be the must-have system. Before it came out, based on magazines and hype, It seemed far more interesting and exotic.

 

For example, I'd only ever played Space Fury once when I was out of town on vacation, plus I Loved me some Donkey Kong, and Space Panic was in our mall for all of two weeks before disappearing into oblivion...And the only Cosmic Avenger machine in town was in an arcade all the way across town where they set every game on the hardest level so you died inside of 5 seconds. And I'd yet to realize the sheer genius of Mr. Do! ...

 

On a quick side note, I was a newspaper carrier at the time and we had our "Christmas party"(?) at a local theater, early on a Saturday morning. We got a free showing of Star Trek The Wrath of Kahn and a raffle ticket with a chance to win a brand new Atari 5200 system in the box. Needless to say I wanted it, but some snot nosed kid 3 rows up won it. He's sitting there with the box on his lap, and the whole place hears him tell his friends, "I've already got one of these....I think I'll Sell it!"

 

Some older kids right nearby us were heard to say "Someone's gonna "lose" their 5200 in the parking lot after this movie". Mind you they were only kidding, but it was hilarious...

 

 

I kind of wish I had one now, but yeah they do seem like a bit of work...

[+Cafeman]

I don't know if it was because I didn't get the first version of 5200, but I had no problems during the years around 1983-85 when I played my 5200. The excellent Pac-Man was my pack-in game. The sticks had more rubber to self-center if you released pressure; the control buttons and firebuttons worked. It wasn't until nearly 2 decades later that I got my system out again (around 2000) and had to clean the sticks. This is when I learned that the more you play it, the less cleaning the sticks you'll have to do.

 

Little did I know at the time back then that the whole game industry was collapsing with The Crash. Slightly disappointing , but also pretty awesome to hit Hills or K-Mart and find $7 games in the bin! That's how I got most of my games, not at full $30 price.

 

The problem I have which my current 5200 (my 3rd one, I fried the first two homebrewing w/fault PCB's) is that even though I had the sticks modified, the system itself seems to have trouble recognizing left with them. And the sticks have started to degrade. When I picked up Tempest at the AA store, I played 5200 for a couple months. But eventually I got fed up like so many others because I was tired of the sticks not working. Mind you, I have a Masterplay Interface so I usually play with a Sega Genesis or Wico controller anyway. But with Missile Command and Tempest, you need to play with the analog stick. One of these days I'll take it all apart and see if I can make the necessary adjustments. But for now I just play 5200 and A8 games on my Dreamcast via emulation.

[VectorGamer]

Again, I never visited arcades. How would I know it was a bad game? It wasn't, played it to death at my friends, this game made me buy a VCS. The stories in the manuals were great fun to read as well.

 

You guys always presume everyone back then was an arcade freak.....

 

Arcade games were everywhere BITD. I admit that I can't relate to anyone that was a gamer during the golden age and didn't play arcade games which were superior to any of the home console/computer releases. I had a 2600 at the time but that was just to get my fix when I wasn't at the arcade.

 

Yes I admit it that I don't get people saying they never played Pac-Man the arcade game BITD when it could be played just about anywhere.

[fultonbot]

I sooooo wanted a 5200 in 1982. I tried so hard to win one in that summer 1982 McDonald's contest. I can still smell the McDonald's garbage my brother and I searched through, looking for tickets. However, the stories in EG about the controllers, the massive size of the console itself, and size of the carts seem weird. We lived in a tiny house, and the idea of something "bigger" was not going to work, especially at a time when most electronics were getting smaller and smaller. Then I read that the 5200 was "just an Atari 400 without a keyboard" (I know now that's not exactly true) and it just reinforced my want of an 8-bit computer instead of next-gen video game system.

Edited March 14, 2016 by fultonbot

[Gabriel]

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

 

I got my original 5200 on a summer day in 1983. I had just graduated 7th grade. That day I went to see Return of the Jedi for the first time. It was fantastic. Directly after that I went to K-Mart to buy my dream game system.

 

You've never seen someone so happy to be playing Super Breakout.

 

I milked every bit of goodwill I could to get myself games that summer. I played a huge amount of Defender, Qix, Star Trek, Star Raiders, Pole Position, Baseball, and Football.

 

My stepdad and I would play games of Football against each other and wager a dollar on each game. Then I discovered the awesome play 2-5 and won nearly all the time.

 

With Baseball, I'd move the centerfielder down directly in front of the batter to cause instant outs and irritate the piss out of whoever I was playing against.

 

I showed off Defender to all my friends and they would immediately not care about the Colecovision anymore, because Defender was so damn awesome. I was such an Atari fanboy back then.

 

Star Trek and Star Raiders were my personal starship Enterprise to roam the galaxy in.

 

I probably drove enough around the track in Pole Position to reach Saturn at least.

 

And Qix? I remember I used to play on Expert and usually give up at 500K, but I think my high score was in the high 700K or so. I played the holy shit out of that one too.

[fultonbot]

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

 

I got my original 5200 on a summer day in 1983. I had just graduated 7th grade. That day I went to see Return of the Jedi for the first time. It was fantastic. Directly after that I went to K-Mart to buy my dream game system.

 

You've never seen someone so happy to be playing Super Breakout.

 

 

Very cool story. I'm the same age, and did pretty much the same thing...except my brother and I chose to buy a Vectrex at Fedmart instead of the 5200. We were considering all the next gen systems, and the Vectrex won out because of MineStorm and Star Castle. I think we felt that 5200 had too many of the "same" games we had played on other systems, but the Vectrex was a bright open field of "newness" I was so sure it was going to be the best game system ever. It was a fine system, but I think we still felt we had "betrayed" Atari by getting it. It made getting an Atari 8-bit all the more important.

[atari2800man]

Would you buy an atari 5200 kiosk controller if you found one for sale?

[sirlynxalot]

Here is my atari 5200 story in which the 5200 is the butt of a joke.

I got a 5200 in the 90s at a church tag sale for $10. It was the console only with no ac adapter, rca cable, or controllers. I did actually have some games that a friend gave me thinking my atari 2600 might be able to somehow play them. I tried to scavenge some parts to hook it up, but in the pre-ebay days, this was pretty difficult, so the 5200 just gathered dust in a box.

Then it is my friend's birthday maybe 5 years later, and I get him a dreamcast game that comes in a standard small lightweight jewelcase. I decide to play a prank on him, and put the game inside a gigantic box for a washing machine, decide the add the 5200 into the box for extra weight, and then wrap this giant box as the present. He opens it, sees the dreamcast game and the atari 5200, and everyone jokes that the 5200 is part of the gift. I go along with it b/c I could never get the parts to get the thing to work. Everyone is ribbing the 5200 saying it is ludicrous in size. My friend hoists it out of the cardboard box, starts walking across the room as he says "yay! my first atari!", then he trips, and accidentally sends the 5200 flying, falling hard onto a polished wood floor.

Surprisingly the console didn't look too bad. I think the controller hinge door might have fallen off, but was able to be put back on. No one ever got the correct parts to hook it up, and last I knew, a couple years after that, his mom cleaned house and brought most of his consoles and games to a charity shop.

The 5200 definitely did get hated on for its bulk... but in retrospect, it's a pretty cool design and I actually wish I still had the darn thing, the design reminds me of something out of the original star wars trilogy. As a retro game connoisseur these days, I would go out of my way to find the parts to hook it up. I'll probably wind up buying a 5200 just as soon as I get more space to set things up (currently in a 1 bdrm apartment with many other game consoles taking up space)

Edited March 16, 2016 by sirlynxalot

[0078265317]

Find out what charity shop he went to. Maybe somebody donated one recently. Or they are cheap and never tossed yours.

[The Evener]

I'm not sure if it was a thing in our town or with Canadian distribution, but the 5200 seemed harder to find in smaller towns -- I didn't know anyone in my circle of friends, or the extended circle of kids in my grade, that owned a 5200. In my family, we had a ColecoVision but I always dreamed of owning a 5200 as well. Years later, I picked up a two port and four port model at flea markets, and now it is one of the systems in my classic console "display."

 

The 5200 was always a cool system, but even BITD I wondered if it made more sense for people to get the 400/800 given the longer life cycle of the computer; I also wondered if "repurposing" the computer into a console dented sales? I suppose at the very least, the 5200 didn't tempt any current Atari computer owners.

[sn8k]

5200 was a good console. I prefer 7800 versions of the games, or which ever actually got released. 5200 controllers are complete garbage. The design is stupid and I doubt gold contacts really make that non centering joystick any better. The damn thing Is a pain in the ass to get used to even when the controller is new. 5200 is great but I gotta go with colecovision. Something i can play right away will always win in favor of me scouring the net looking for 5200 controller alternatives. I gave up. Until Ed laddin comes out with a 5200 joystick, I don't wanna hear about 5200 ever again.

[BassGuitari]

5200 was a good console...[snip]...I don't wanna hear about 5200 ever again.

A'ight...

[+GoldenWheels]

Why do people hate someone who drives by in a Rolls Royce?

 

Because its a big, beautiful, rare, powerful, and luxurious machine. Not everyone can have one, handle one, and the tlc involved in keeping it clean and running on all cylinders.

 

Tricky analogy though as it works both ways IMO....there's lot of cars that handle far better and do most of the same job, for a less money and hassle, than a Rolls.

[VectorGamer]

Years ago I bot a lot of broken Atari 5200 controllers - maybe a half-dozen of them. This last summer I finally bought new parts and I was able to get 5 working controllers out of it. About a month after I was done with that project, one of the controllers stopped working. On that controller the only thing I didn't replace was the cable. Here I thought I would be good to go for years...

 

Anyway, I kind of like the 5200 controllers - it helps if you have brand new fire buttons.

 

The controllers are horrible for maze games like Pac-Man and Wizard of Wor. But they are really good for games like Star Wars, Pole Position and Sinistar.

 

Of all the systems I have, I don't think the 5200 controllers are the worst. Maybe least reliable. I think the INTV controllers are the worst.

 

Lastly, I really didn't enjoy the 5200 until I got a multicart. Once I was able to download all the ROMs that were released along with the 8-bit conversions I enjoyed the system more so than when I was limited to a collection of maybe 30 carts.

[0078265317]

5200 was a good console. I prefer 7800 versions of the games, or which ever actually got released. 5200 controllers are complete garbage. The design is stupid and I doubt gold contacts really make that non centering joystick any better. The damn thing Is a pain in the ass to get used to even when the controller is new. 5200 is great but I gotta go with colecovision. Something i can play right away will always win in favor of me scouring the net looking for 5200 controller alternatives. I gave up. Until Ed laddin comes out with a 5200 joystick, I don't wanna hear about 5200 ever again.

 

Get a masterplay clone. Opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And also a tototek genesis to PSX adapter. Playstation controller works great on 5200 for most games with analog.

[+sramirez2008]

 

Get a masterplay clone. Opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And also a tototek genesis to PSX adapter. Playstation controller works great on 5200 for most games with analog.

 

+1 on the Masterplay Clone. I have two clones, just so I can hook them up to my Edladdin Super Twin 78 and enjoy Space Dungeon and Robotron.

 

[0078265317]

 

+1 on the Masterplay Clone. I have two clones, just so I can hook them up to my Edladdin Super Twin 78 and enjoy Space Dungeon and Robotron.

 

Masterplay Cone with Edladdin Twin Stick.JPG

 

You don't need 2 clones. Just get a Y cable 15 pin with all pins wired. And hook it in to both player 1 and 2. And the other end a 2600 9 pin splitter into both of that big thing.

[PhoenixMoonPatrol]

5200 was a good console. I prefer 7800 versions of the games, or which ever actually got released. 5200 controllers are complete garbage. The design is stupid and I doubt gold contacts really make that non centering joystick any better. The damn thing Is a pain in the ass to get used to even when the controller is new. 5200 is great but I gotta go with colecovision. Something i can play right away will always win in favor of me scouring the net looking for 5200 controller alternatives. I gave up. Until Ed laddin comes out with a 5200 joystick, I don't wanna hear about 5200 ever again.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-5200-MasterPlay-Type-Controller-Interface-w-Keypad-and-Paddle-Mode-/152010224188?hash=item236483f23c:g:O3cAAOSwl9BWKnIh

 

Abit harsh but i can relate to how you feel.

There use to be times when I was fed up of the system because of the stock controllers.

But get a masterplay clone. Trust me - its worth every penny. Works beyond amazing.

 

.....And I just now see that 3 people mentioned getting one....

Ok enough about the damn thing then.

Edited March 17, 2016 by PhoenixMoonPatrol