For us "old folks" (in other words, those who grew up with it from the "get-go") - YOUR thoughts on the 5200..... 40 YEARS AGO... and now!!!

[BIGHMW]

As a long-time Atarian (and former host of The Atari Report) and owner of several 5200s since I got my first one for my 17th Birthday (I will be turning 56 this coming Thursday) back in 1983, I was wondering what YOUR reflections were on Big Sexy when YOU went on your first date with her and your thoughts are on her now on her 40th Anniversary, in which she will be celebrating later on this fall.

 

The much-loved (and also much-maligned and often-criticized) system known BITD as the "Video System X" has come of age!!!

 

Big Sexy is one hell of a COUGAR!!!

 

....and just too think, from 1982-1987, only 69 titles were ever officially released, but nowadays, that number, thanks to all of us, has swollen to over 400 (and more coming soon)!!! ❤️  Luv Ya Big Sexy!!!

[Turbo-Torch]

Quote

I was wondering what YOUR reflections were on Big Sexy when YOU went on your first date with her and your thoughts are on her now on her 40th Anniversary

 

Tell us about the first time you took your 5200 to Make-Out Point. ?

Did you get to third base that night?

 

On second thought...don't! ?

Edited May 15, 2022 by Turbo-Torch

[BIGHMW]

22 minutes ago, Turbo-Torch said:

 

Tell us about the first time you took your 5200 to Make-Out Point. ?

Did you get to third base that night?

 

On second thought...don't! ?

No but I DID have one hell of a night with her playing Missile Command and Super Breakout (that night went 'til 1:00 am..... and on a school night at that!!!). Later that weekend, we added Pac-Man and Centipede to that list, along with Defender, and Star Raiders. The love affair only grew after that!!!

[MIKE5200]

On 5/15/2022 at 10:58 AM, BIGHMW said:

No but I DID have one hell of a night with her playing Missile Command and Super Breakout (that night went 'til 1:00 am..... and on a school night at that!!!). Later that weekend, we added Pac-Man and Centipede to that list, along with Defender, and Star Raiders. The love affair only grew after that!!!

Heck i beat you on playing but i played on my 2600 to 3am! It seems like the 5200 isn't fun as the 2600 was..Maybe it just me!

[TrekMD]

I didn't get a 5200 back then.  I was impressed whenever I saw games ported to it, though.  When I saw games like Kangaroo, Dig Dug, and Pac-Man on it, I really wanted one but my parents did not want to buy one as I had a ton of 2600 games already.  It wasn't until I was an adult that I got two 5200's (2 and 4-port systems).  I had never actually seen  one live until then.  I knew it was a big console but I didn't really appreciate  just how BIG it is!  I had the controllers gold-modded immediately.  The system has a lot of good games in its library, so I have been happy with it. 

[+Stephen]

I had a 48kB 400 with b-key keyboard in 1982.  Never knew about the 5200 at first, and the games I saw I knew were the same as what I had on my computer.  Since my computer also had a disk drive and a later a modem, I never gave the 5200 a second thought. Even though I have one (or two) for the sake of having a complete collection, I don't use it because there's simply no need.  The computer line has afforded me so many more upgrades too.  Stereo sound, 1MB of RAM, VBXE for expanded graphics, hell, I even have an S2 MIDI (wave blaster) in one of my machines.  I also do lots of coding on the computer so - sorry to be negative, but yeah.  5200 does zero point zero for me.

[RodLightning]

I pieced my first 5200 system (a 4 port) from thrift store parts back in the early 1990's.  Amazing times, as Atari cartridges could be found in Rubbermaid tubs for pennies each. Actually from around $1.49usd each to as low as .39 cents.  I wired a diode into the RF cable since I had to solder in a power jack on the board at first to use it.  I had collected a few 5200 controllers over time.  The first thing I noticed was that the buttons either didn't work, or barely did.  I had a few loose carts by that time and played a lot of PacMan.  It looked much better than the 400/800 version and didn't need a fire button to play.  The analog stick made it so aweful to steer PacMan that I was finally forced to do something about the fire buttons for other games.  After bodging a couple of controllers various ways, I played mostly Centipede and Pole Position after that.  Those two games are very well suited to the 5200 analog sticks.

 

I have two four ports today, one in storage and the other on a shelf with all parts including that weird switchbox/power thing.   I play with it infrequently and use emulation most often as that is the most convenient.  My main 5200 console is more of a display piece these days.

[Keatah]

6 hours ago, MIKE5200 said:

Heck i beat you on playing but i played on my 2600 to 3am! It seems like the 5200 isn't fun as the 2600 was..Maybe it just me!

Not necessarily. I played my VCS right along with my Apple II back then. Many a night we'd have the two systems going simultaneously.

 

The most influential/fun systems I had back then were, VCS, Apple II, Atari 400/800, Colecovision, and Intellivision. Astrocade and Amiga are runners up. The 5200 is not among them for various reasons. 1st being it was too much like the 8-bit rigs. It was essentially an Atari 400 minus the keyboard.

 

I was non-plussed after purchasing 5 or 6 titles. I realized I had them already on the 400/800. And they were no different. As a gamer I was gaining nothing. Pissed pissed pissed. All that money could have went toward some more Apple II expansions or a box load of 2600 cartridges. Slap!

 

38 minutes ago, RodLightning said:

The first thing I noticed was that the buttons either didn't work, or barely did.

I had that problem on rather new controllers. Never lasted long enough and added to my disappointment of the system.

 

Nothing was more disappointing to get into a game and then fight against the controllers for no reason other than that they were improperly engineered. And used cheap materials that couldn't hold up.

 

38 minutes ago, RodLightning said:

After bodging a couple of controllers various ways, I played mostly Centipede and Pole Position after that.  Those two games are very well suited to the 5200 analog sticks.

Meh.. They might be suited. But ya' had to have working controllers in the first place. I already had 4 or 5 extras that weren't working in manner or another.

 

38 minutes ago, RodLightning said:

I have two four ports today, one in storage and the other on a shelf with all parts including that weird switchbox/power thing.   I play with it infrequently and use emulation most often as that is the most convenient.  My main 5200 console is more of a display piece these days.

Same. Emulation is also most practical and cost effective. Sure.. I had just discovered Planetary Defense the other day and it took me all of 10-minutes to set-up and map in a KoalaPad to PC mouse. And with SaveStates I can choose to start at higher levels - this important because most gamers have a 45min - 1hr time span where they game at their very best. So SS helps avoid fatigue and unnecessary burnout from playing the first "baby" levels.

 

Eventually someday I may get a 5200 and strip it down to make an emulator console. It's a great looking machine that's still futuristic today. In a Syd Mead kind of way.

[MrMaddog]

As a kid, I knew there was no way my working mom would ever be able to afford a 5200 or even an 800 computer.  I was lucky enough to get a 2600 during the Inflation part of the 80's...

 

First time I got a 5200 was from a retro gaming convention, it was dirt cheap but of course none of the controllers work.  So I just stuck with 8-bit emulation cause I got soured from the experience.

 

Right now, I've been playing more with 5200 emulation so now I've gotten more appriciation with the analog controlers (at least the way they're suppose to work).

 

If I were able to get a 5200 for my collection, I would definitely have a TrakBall controller and a Masterplay to use a digital joystick for games like Pac-Man.  For games that do benefit from an analog controller, there's repair kits from Best Electronic I could use.  So it's time for me to welcome the red headed stepchild back into the Atari 8-bit family...

 

[rayik]

Bought 5200 in 1982  It was an upgrade from an Intellivision.  I loved that system BITD and had a good game collection.  While I now have an RGB modded 4 port with an upscaler, I only use it once in a while.

 

I collected carts for it back before flash carts existed.  I have all the original carts exceprt for Bounty Bob Strikes Back  (which BITD  I bought for the 130XE instead).  i have all manuals and most boxes (including both for BBSB).  Have Sean Kelly's original multcart along with the different Atarimax carts released over the years.

[5200Fanatic]

At the time, it was about as close as you could get to the home games looking like the arcade games. Pac-Man was horrible on the 2600, so the 5200 was like wow. There have been folks here who have disagreed with me, but around 1985 or maybe a little before, the controllers were impossible to find. At least for me they were, so I had to buy a whole new system just to get replacement controllers. 

[ClausB]

Not quite 40 years for me, as I first encountered a 5200 in 1983, though not as a gamer. IIRC my friend @Knimrod had one in for repair, or just borrowed one, and we opened it up and traced the circuitry to discover the differences from the 400. I also dumped the 5200 ROM and Pac-Man game ROMs using a mod'd 800 cart:

 

I wrote a 6502 disassembler and documented the 5200 ROM routines and then patched the 5200 Pac-Man binary to run on my 800. The end result was an article for ANALOG:

http://atarihq.com/danb/files/52analog.txt

 

[Lostdragon]

Ahhh, we won't be getting it after all. 

 

 

? I'm from the UK, where it was annouced to be the 2600 successor, put into home shopping catalogues and then after the US crash, was cancelled for us. 

 

Then Atari annouced, showed priced the 7800 in London and that itself was delayed as Gleadow convinced his bosses to give us the XEGS first. 

[MrMaddog]

On 5/20/2022 at 1:53 PM, Lostdragon said:

Ahhh, we won't be getting it after all. 

 

 

? I'm from the UK, where it was annouced to be the 2600 successor, put into home shopping catalogues and then after the US crash, was cancelled for us. 

 

Then Atari annouced, showed priced the 7800 in London and that itself was delayed as Gleadow convinced his bosses to give us the XEGS first. 

Just wondering...from the UK perspective, especially the Atari ST owners, was the 7800 a better choice for an 8-bit system than the XEGS or any Atari 8-bit computer?

 

I know the 7800 had better graphics but what about it's popularity compaired to any 8-bit computer?

[Lostdragon]

On 5/29/2022 at 9:17 PM, MrMaddog said:

Just wondering...from the UK perspective, especially the Atari ST owners, was the 7800 a better choice for an 8-bit system than the XEGS or any Atari 8-bit computer?

 

I know the 7800 had better graphics but what about it's popularity compaired to any 8-bit computer?

The old C+VG scans i passed on and had put up years ago explain the situation best. 

 

 

The 7800 simply arrived far too late to have any real impact in the UK, it apparently sold well enough in less affluent areas, due to being in various home shopping catalogues, where you could pay it off in instalments and was attractive enough due to it's low price, according to Atari UK's Darryl Still, but we've never seen any actual sales figures to support that. 

 

 

The Mintel Report claim Atari gave Raze magazine  talking about market share with it, was shot down by Mean Machines Julian Rignall, who said the magazines own research had shown the machine had sold poorly and thus wasn't worth inclusion in the magazine. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Lostdragon

[zzip]

When 5200 arrived (and Colecovision), it was an exciting time because finally we had systems that had home ports that "looked and sounded just like the arcade!(tm)"  Well, not qutie, but it was much closer than anything the Atari 2600 and Intellivision could produce, that was for certain!     

 

I never owned one, but got a 600XL the next year, and kind of forgot the 5200 existed after that.

 

Nowadays,  I look at the 5200 as the bastard step-child of the 8-bit line.  Same tech, but physically incompatible carts, physically incompatible controllers and killed off before its time, so it never had a chance to really prove itself.

 

On 5/16/2022 at 9:58 PM, MrMaddog said:

As a kid, I knew there was no way my working mom would ever be able to afford a 5200 or even an 800 computer.  I was lucky enough to get a 2600 during the Inflation part of the 80's...

Same here, inflation + recession, my father was out of work for months.  We didn't get a 2600 until the 5200 came out,  I knew the 5200 or CV was too much of an ask.

 

[glazball]

When it was current, my only exposure to the 5200 was a family down the street that had one.  The son was my age and we were good-but-not-great friends, so I wasn't at his house often.  One visit I saw Pac-Man running on his tv, I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.  The 5200 (the console as well as Pac-Man) looked completely high-tech and inspired awe in me.  Of course, I was also stunned the first time I saw an Intellivision and later ColecoVision, but the mystery of the 5200 really hooked me.  No one else I knew had one.

 

Today it remains one of my favorite systems and I still get that giddy feeling even these days when I play it.  And the console design still looks badass.  Sleek and sexy indeed.

[Leonard Smith]

9 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Mean Machines Julian Rignall, who said the magazines...

Irrevelant question, but how does one go from Julian to Jaz?  Wouldn't it be Jools or Jules?  

Is it a UK thing?  

[Flojomojo]

5200 was a little bit mysterious to me when it was new and expensive. I only knew one person who had it and I didn't get to play it much, but when I saw Defender 5200 I was impressed with what I saw, even though I couldn't play it worth a darn. 

 

Around 1992 or so I traded some semi-uncommon 2600 cartridges and probably some cash to a collector for a 5200 of my own so I could try it out at my leisure. I had a stack of thrift store cartridges I had scored but no machine to play them on. I was shocked by the physical size of the thing, the flippity-floppity controllers, the brick-like power adapter, and the fact that the first game I tried (Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle) was EXACTLY THE SAME as the 2600 version I knew and loved owned. 

 

I wasn't impressed with 5200 just 10 years after it was new, which suggests to me it would be even less engaging after 40 years! That said, I have enjoyed having access to the handful of emulated 5200 on the Atari Flashback Collection, and I might someday bother to set up emulation of stuff like Rescue on Fractalus or The Dreadnaught Factor.

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

5200 was a little bit mysterious to me when it was new and expensive.

Yes. I learned about it through the advertising spreads. Likely EGM or another pulp publication.

 

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

I only knew one person who had it and I didn't get to play it much, but when I saw Defender 5200 I was impressed with what I saw, even though I couldn't play it worth a darn. 

I didn't know anyone with the system. Seems the onus was on me to "supply the neighborhood" with videogames.. The flunky guy, you know!

 

I was totally unimpressed with the 5200. It didn't bring anything new to the table. I had seen and played the games all before on the 400/800. And that actually kinda miffed me.

 

I didn't care about any bullshit like "the way it's supposed to be played" regarding analog or TrakBall controllers. We had encountered enough unreliability anyways.. The funky switch box, the failed flex circuitry, worn graphite/carbon conductors actually.

 

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

Around 1992 or so I traded some semi-uncommon 2600 cartridges and probably some cash to a collector for a 5200 of my own so I could try it out at my leisure. I had a stack of thrift store cartridges I had scored but no machine to play them on. I was shocked by the physical size of the thing, the flippity-floppity controllers, the brick-like power adapter, and the fact that the first game I tried (Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle) was EXACTLY THE SAME as the 2600 version I knew and loved owned.

Yes. The unit was big because of the circuitry and controller storage. Remember the 400/800 had vertically mounted memory and CPU modules. And even a stepped/overlapping power board. The 5200 had to spread everything out. And there was no revisional integration. Think Apple II+ to Apple IIe, with the MMU, IOU, and denser memory chips.

 

We were too young to understand the industry's politics and motivations behind what was being done. Or in Atari's case, not done. We didn't understand software development in the slightest. All we knew is that games magically appeared in the store. MOM!!!! DAD!!!! Get me this game!!!! And more often than not it would show up in the grocery bags just as magically.

 

We didn't understand ports. Reusing code or parts of it. Or anything. And we didn't know whether to be disappointed or not that a port was identical to another machine and didn't make use of special capabilities of new hardware, or, thrilled that a port was identical across all machines.

 

1 hour ago, Flojomojo said:

I wasn't impressed with 5200 just 10 years after it was new, which suggests to me it would be even less engaging after 40 years! That said, I have enjoyed having access to the handful of emulated 5200 on the Atari Flashback Collection, and I might someday bother to set up emulation of stuff like Rescue on Fractalus or The Dreadnaught Factor.

It all comes back to Atari duping ME by selling me the same shit as the 1979 400/800. It was the beginning of the fluff in my budding collection. Didn't need two cartridges of Centipede and Pac-Man or even the great StarRaiders. Nor did I need to be spending money for that.

[ledzep]

Back in the day I had the 2600 and, later, an 800 computer.  My best friend had the 5200 and an Intellivision.  Another friend had the Vectrex.  So I had almost the best of everything available.  I liked the 2600 for all its game variety though the graphics were egh.  I really liked my Atari 800 computer but the first time I played my friend's 5200, even with the same games, I was hooked.  The games (some) were tweaked for that console (compared to the computer versions) and I loved the controllers, analog control was always a favorite of mine (trak-ball, paddle, spinner) so the 5200 was the best (though missing paddles) in my view.  My little brother and I would go to my friend's house and spend hours late at night playing 5200 and Intellivision games (Intellivision had great sports and strategy games, but thee worst controllers).

 

I always wanted a 5200 but we couldn't afford it and so we became the 2600 house and my friend the 5200/Intellivision house.  The 2600 was great with Space Invaders and Adventure and other games but the 5200 was amazing with the better version of Star Raiders and the (finally!) true trak-ball version of games like Missile Command and Centipede.  Loved the keyboard on the controller, too, similar to the Intellivision's version.  I grew up with the arcade originals of all the ports so as important as faithful reproduction of the game action was, correct controls were required, especially with controller ports, just make the correct controls, dammit.  Only the 5200 could (usually) deliver there compared to other systems.  As much of a fan of the 800 computer as I was, it always irked me to have to reach forward to hit the keyboard for certain options that the miserable 1-button joystick couldn't deliver.  Loved the paddles (and driving controllers for the 2600) but many arcade games took advantage of analog controls.  Anyone who would play Missile Command or Centipede with a joystick, when a more accurate version was available, was a fool.  I did like the 800 for button controller games (Asteroids, for example), something the 5200 never got (the Vectrex did).

 

8 minutes ago, Keatah said:

We didn't understand ports. Reusing code or parts of it. Or anything. And we didn't know whether to be disappointed or not that a port was identical to another machine and didn't make use of special capabilities of new hardware, or, thrilled that a port was identical across all machines.

 

My friends and I understood them fine (as a player, not a coder).  Since none of the home consoles could accurately replicate any of the arcade versions of the arcade games (some closer, some horrible), it was pointless to care if a port on one console was identical to a port on another since both consoles were lacking to begin with.  So if a console had some special capabilities it would be expected that at least that version could be made closer to the correct arcade version.  The Vectrex handled that well for many games (vector graphics, buttons, analog stick), so did the 5200 (analog stick, trak-ball) and 2600 (paddles), the Intellivison had that miserable 8-direction disk.  Nobody cared about identical ports across all machines, only good ports on each machine.  If all the ports had sucked (2600 Pac-Man) equally, nobody would have cheered.

[Lostdragon]

16 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:

Irrevelant question, but how does one go from Julian to Jaz?  Wouldn't it be Jools or Jules?  

Is it a UK thing?  

I'm honestly not sure. 

 

I've always gone with the assumption it was a nickname he was awarded before he started appearing in Zzap64 etc. 

[zzip]

14 hours ago, Keatah said:

I was totally unimpressed with the 5200. It didn't bring anything new to the table. I had seen and played the games all before on the 400/800. And that actually kinda miffed me.

I had no issue with them reusing the 400/800 tech in a console,  that tech was developed to be a successor to the 2600 in the first place and it ended up in computers first.  I would imagine it made sense to target different market segments that way.   If you had a 400/800 already, then you wouldn't really need a 5200.   But if you didn't the 5200 was impressive compared to 2600/Intellivision

 

14 hours ago, Keatah said:

We didn't understand ports. Reusing code or parts of it. Or anything. And we didn't know whether to be disappointed or not that a port was identical to another machine and didn't make use of special capabilities of new hardware, or, thrilled that a port was identical across all machines.

 

14 hours ago, Keatah said:

It all comes back to Atari duping ME by selling me the same shit as the 1979 400/800. It was the beginning of the fluff in my budding collection. Didn't need two cartridges of Centipede and Pac-Man or even the great StarRaiders. Nor did I need to be spending money for that.

 

I think we did understand ports,  in a lot of the bickering about which system was better, we'd talk about how game ports were better on this system or that system, and advertising fed into that with comparisions of games on different platforms.

 

IDK before I even had an Atari 8bit, I had a strong suspicion the tech was the same,  based on in-store demos of both 5200 and 400,  and screenshots in magazines that looked 100% identical.    So when Atari released the 600XL a few months later for half the price of a 5200, we went with that instead and I no longer had a desire to get a 5200

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, zzip said:

I think we did understand ports,  in a lot of the bickering about which system was better, we'd talk about how game ports were better on this system or that system, and advertising fed into that with comparisions of games on different platforms.

I wouldn't develop a proper understanding of ports till around 1985. And we did arcade<->home comparisons all the time. But for whatever reason, not much between home systems exclusively. We may have discussed it, but it wasn't overarchingly important.

 

Still fuming about being duped! If you get out your telescope and look this way you can still see the smoke rising from my head. Cost me getting some cool Apple II hardware like a faster-than-2400 baud modem and the official Apple-branded RF-based graphics tablet. OTH I had a ton of Apple II material crammed into a tiny space. It is possible that that huge tablet/slate would have pushed my "collection" over the top and into the dump. A tipping of the bucket that wouldn't right itself till all was purged with cold hard mechanical thoroughicity.

 

So maybe in that way the 5200 was important? Woot!

[Flyindrew]

From 1982-1986 I owned both a 5200 and Colecovision. Today I own a totally like new refurbished 5200 and Collectorvision Phoenix (which is essentially a Colecovision). You have to have 2 perspectives to compare these machines, the 1982 perspective compared to today.
1982-The Colecovision was the system every kid wanted. Coleco ran circles around Atari with marketing, not only throwing in a top notch pack in game (Donkey Kong),  but also having pictures of arcade machines on the boxes. To the gaming fans of the day, Coleco games were fresh, new arcade ports, while Atari 5200 games were games we had on the 2600.
Today's perspective - Now that you can find replacement and refurbished 5200 controllers on eBay, I actually think the 5200 is a slightly better system with actual game play and sound. 

And for all the bad talk about the 5200 controller,  I much prefer (a working refurbished) the original 5200 controller over the Colecovision one. While I have great love for both systems, if I'm forced to pick only one to play, today, I'd go with the 5200. However the 10 year old me back in 1982 would have picked the Colecovision.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Flyindrew