The 5200 legacy

[FOX2600]

I hear conflicting arguements about the 5200.

 

Some say it sold well with 1 million units and was successful until it's infamous controller starting turning people off, on top of lack of backwards compatibility.

 

Then at the same time I hear, it wasn't really exposed as much as it could of been to the public, it could of done better, so on and so forth.

 

I'm sure someone has an official answer, or I'd love to hear YOUR opinion. I'm sure we'll all agree on the god awful controller. Thanx for reading

[Keatah]

Well, the exposure was low, for sure. And it was really an 8-bit computer with minimal memory and no compatibility. Too redundant.

 

The most memorable thing about the 5200 was it's futuristic style, not unlike Syd Mead's work.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Keatah

[Koa Zo]

I can't agree with the low exposure claim.

Around Central Pennsylvania the 5200 was showcased prominently in many stores.

The major audio/video stores had 5200 on their projection TVs. Sears, Toys r Us and Kmart all had well stocked and visible selections of games. The main record store at the mall had their 5200 games in a showcase right at the entrance. 4 families in my neighborhood had active collections of 5200 games, while only a couple previously were active 2600 players.

In every instance that I know of, it was the controllers that killed interest in the system. And not the lack of self-centering, none of us complained about that - we just adapted to it, it was when the Start and fire buttons stopped working that was the problem.

We all (everyone I knew) were still very into the 5200 and wanted new games.

We bought what replacement controllers were available but selection of controllers was limited and when those options dried up that's when people I knew stopped playing. We all still wanted to, but couldn't!

 

Exposure was never an issue as far I'd experienced.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Koa Zo

[spacecadet]

I'm sure someone has an official answer,

 

Not sure any of these things really have "official" answers.

 

I don't know if I understand the question, really. The 5200 was both a victim of and contributor to the crash of 1983. As such, some of its problems were out of its hands, while at the same time it contributed to the glut of systems and games on the market that led directly to the crash. The only way it could really have been a success would have been to drive all or at least most of the other consoles out of the market, leaving it the last man standing. And that was just unrealistic.

[Keatah]

The crash, IMHO was caused by the sudden influx of poor games in too high a quantity. The industry got ahead of itself and lost focus. People whom had zero qualifications, quantifiable on paper or not, were entering the industry like wildfire.

 

What was the general public supposed to do? Pay attention to every single one of them and their games? Wasn't going to happen.

 

The 5200, like all other consoles, had only a tiny part in it. It was the software explosion that did it.

[Bryan]

Not just software. There were also too many consoles with no clear leader. Every choice carried some risk of obsolescence.

 

The other consoles were limited by their off-the-shelf designs. Atari was a chip designer who had many years to create the successor to the 2600 and deliver arcade quality gaming. In the end we got a fragile retread of the 400. I think that's a partial cause of the crash as well.

[Prosystemsearch]

Not just software. There were also too many consoles with no clear leader. Every choice carried some risk of obsolescence.

 

The other consoles were limited by their off-the-shelf designs. Atari was a chip designer who had many years to create the successor to the 2600 and deliver arcade quality gaming. In the end we got a fragile retread of the 400. I think that's a partial cause of the crash as well.

The 5200 indeed has limited memory bankswitching capabilities, along with the awful stock joystick obviously. I heard from at least several folks that many in the 5200 development crew knew that the rubber boots would not work well for a lot of games, and tried convincing execs about it, to no avail.

[Keatah]

I think we all have to look at each console as a unique and pioneering design. All of them. All of them were the first examples of either successful or failed designs. It wouldn't be until many years later that designs began sharing common features.

 

A time of experimentation like that was necessary for the industry to find direction. To see what was possible. To see what was practical. To discover what the general populace wanted.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Keatah

[CPUWIZ]

The 5200 indeed has limited memory bankswitching capabilities,

 

 

Explain.

[SoundGammon]

Atari marketed the 5200 wrong, they should have had a better pack-in game, "Super Breakout" vs. "Donkey Kong"?

 

Also they should have brought out the 5200 version of a game BEFORE the 2600 version at least by 2 months! No one would want to wait to play a hit arcade game.

 

The public would have caught on that the 2600 was "going-away" and the 5200 was the system Atari was going to make their main system

[4Ks]

The 5200 is pretty similar to the Xbox One. It's an oversized brick that is basically a mid-spec PC in a box and has little to offer besides ports of games widely available on other platforms and a few exclusives that are mostly okay at best. The difference is that Microsoft had enormous piles of marketing money and a gaming industry that was getting bigger every day while Atari had a rapidly shrinking market share and a crash waiting to happen. Under different circumstances, the 5200 could have been a modest hit. It was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And those controllers definitely didn't help.

[kiwilove]

The right time for the 5200 would have been shortly after the release of the 400/800 computers.

The videogame crash was the result of the poor 2600 games - at a time when the 2600 was past it's use by date - the era of 8-bit graphics.

 

It would have been vitally important for the 5200 to have been established before it's competitors - the NES and Sega Master System - which do boast superior graphics capabilities - look at R-Type on the Master System, and any top game on the NES. So it would have been outclassed anyway.

(For some though it would have been redundant for the 5200 to have appeared earlier - that if you went 400/800 - there was no reason to get a 5200 as well)

 

Atari is to be blamed for the late release of the 5200 - and of it's 7800. Even if the 7800 was released when it should have been - it does not have the graphic capabilities to have fared well against the rivals that appeared. Atari did not have the necessary graphics improvements from the 7800 onwards - ie. the ST computers and Jaguar - noticeably it lacked the necessary software support/companies to back it.

 

Harvey

Edited March 28, 2017 by kiwilove

[NE146]

....until it's infamous controller starting turning people off, on top of lack of backwards compatibility.

 

 

 

As a child consumer I'll tell you what turned me off, or maybe it was just disappointment, but it was the pack-in game SUPER BREAKOUT. Good god could they have picked something lamer. ;p It showed absolutely zero of the 5200's graphical power (except for the dissolving bricks animation). It was such a hugely underwhelming title and totally didn't give you that "I just jumped into the next gen" feel. Colecovision on the other hand had the jaw-dropping Donkey Kong.

[arcadegeek23]

I owned a 5200 shortly after it came out. I loved it. The joysticks never bothered me. I think centipede should have been the pack in (IMO). I have very found memories of this system as I do the others from that time. Coming from the 2600 like many others I also had an Intellivision and a Colecovision. They all had games I very much enjoyed. I really don't recall a "crash" other than just getting more into computers as I reached 16. I got interested in programming and how they worked. Playing the 5200 today I with a master play and and a genesis controller or the 5200 trackball or the original joysticks are great for Kaboom and Gremlins. I still find it to be one of my favorites consoles. Good memories for me...

[+sramirez2008]

You can't talk 5200 legacy without mentioning Space Dungeon. A true 5200 exclusive. I wish I could find an actual arcade cabinet to play and compare.

[SoundGammon]

You can't talk 5200 legacy without mentioning Space Dungeon. A true 5200 exclusive. I wish I could find an actual arcade cabinet to play and compare.

Space Dungeon for sure!

 

It's one of those rare games that make you say: "ONE MORE"!

[+sramirez2008]

Space Dungeon for sure!

 

It's one of those rare games that make you say: "ONE MORE"!

 

Amen to that! I can spend hours on this one. This is my favorite 5200 twin-stick shooter as I prefer the 7800 version of Robotron over the 5200.

[Keatah]

Don't know why they didn't include a #1 hit with the console.. Star Raiders, Pac-Man, Centipede.. Were they too afraid of giving a little something away?

 

The notion of HAVING to go get the hits was a disappointment as a child. It's important to make the consumer feel like they got a deal! Ya'know? Well fuck'em all..

[Zonie]

Pac Man as the pack-in and a digital, perhaps only two-button joystick would have changed everything. Put all the other buttons on the console itself. I mean, how many games actually use more than one or two of the keypad buttons, and of those, was it really necessary or just done because they could...

 

We were already used to hitting select and reset on the console itself...

Edited March 28, 2017 by Zonie

[Omega-TI]

 

The most memorable thing about the 5200 was it's futuristic style, not unlike Syd Mead's work.

 

Agreed! The 5200 was a work of art. It was sleek and clean looking enough to be in your entertainment center along with all your other '80's large' entertainment items like the tuner, amplifier, cassette deck, turntable, and the new CD player and or course the TV.

[Omega-TI]

I've always liked the 5200. I finally got one awhile ago, but since then I've been too busy and have had too many unexpected expenses pop up to do anything else with it.

[Laner]

While I only have anecdotal evidence to point to, my rationale for the 5200's lack of success was due to the fact that "upgrading" to a new console was a foreign concept at the time. You didn't upgrade your board games or Star Wars toys. Why would you buy a slightly different version of an Atari when the current one works fine?

 

I wanted a 5200 in the worst way, but I'm sure my folks considered the fact that I had just gotten a 2600 a couple of years earlier. They weren't going to drop another $200-250 on another Atari machine that really didn't do anything but provide a slightly better versions of the games I already had. And the 2600 library I already had would be useless without another costly peripheral on top of the base system price.

 

Additionally, it got caught at the leading edge of the home computer blitz. "Santa" might not have seen the value in yet another video game console, but an honest-to-goodness computer? That's a whole other kettle of fish.

[BassGuitari]

I'm sure we'll all agree on the god awful controller.

You might be surprised.

 

Sadly, I think the Atari 5200's most enduring popular legacy, ironically and perhaps unconsidered to many, is actually the Atari 2600. Prior to the arrival of the 5200, the 2600 was known as the Video Computer System (a superior and more sophisticated, if somewhat generic name IMO, but I digress) before Atari gave the system a facelift--the Vader!--and a new name to keep in line with the stylish, futuristic aesthetic the 5200 had put forth. Since then, just the name "2600" was (still is?) a cultural phenomenon while the Atari 5200 quickly faded to obscurity.

[+DamonicFury]

You can't talk 5200 legacy without mentioning Space Dungeon. A true 5200 exclusive. I wish I could find an actual arcade cabinet to play and compare.

 

As you're unlikely to run into an actual arcade cabinet (they were rare back in the day, let alone now) might I suggest setting up MAME to give it a try? As awesome as the 5200 game is, the arcade version is even better, thanks to it's higher resolution (giving you more room to maneuver) and faster gameplay.

 

It's a shame Taito didn't include it on most of their compilations (yeah, the freakin' PSP got it, but come on!)

[atarian63]

We sold may more 5200 vs colecovision, but as time went on this evened out, they they crash made it all a moot point, started selling closeouts by the semi load, distributors would let us have truckloads and pay later, pretty much based on what we could sell it all for.

Edited March 29, 2017 by atarian63