Atari 5200 Catalogs

Back in the heyday of the Atari 2600, most reasonably-sized game companies produced catalogs to promote their games. It seems this is a lost art, as companies rarely package in catalogs with console games these days. But back in the early 80s it was always a blast looking through the latest Atari catalog to see what new games you could convince (beg) your parents to buy for you. As the largest producer of games for their systems, Atari also produced the greatest number of catalogs. And, in our opinion, the greatest catalogs. Atari's catalogs were filled with wonderful art that made them a joy to leaf through. And their catalogs could take a while to browse since some of them were quite large. Activision also produced a good number of catalogs, from their early days as the first third-party publisher with only six titles, to their later times when they were also publishing Imagic titles. Most other third-party companies only produced a single catalog, such as Parker Brothers. It's interesting to note that several third-party catalogs depict games that were never released, whereas Atari and Activision were much better about not picturing vaporware.

We're someday hoping to build a complete library of catalogs. If you have any catalogs that we're missing and wouldn't mind scanning them in, please contact us as we'd love to hear from you!

Activision

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Model Number: AG-940-05
Year: 1983
Titles: 13

We're not quite sure how Activision derived their catalog numbers, as this particular number was also used for this catalog in 1981. This catalog, titled Winter/Spring 1984, only contains listings for thirteen Activision Atari-related titles, nine for the 2600 and four for the 5200.Contained within are descriptions for several ColecoVision and Intellivision games as well. Activison's five Intellivision titles are relegated to the back cover of this catalog.

Model Number: AG-940-05
Year: 1984
Titles: 11

This later Activision catalog covers a wide variety of systems Activision was producing games for at the time, including the Atari 2600, 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, Apple II, IBM PCjr, Commodore 64, and Colecovision. While many of the titles were produced for several systems, this catalog only contains four 2600 titles and six 5200 titles. Graphically this catalog bears little resemblence to Activision's 2600 catalogs, although it does share the same model number (AG-940-05) with two other catalogs (no we don't know why, but it is confusing!)

Atari

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Model Number: CO18270 Rev. 1
Year: 1982
Titles: 14

This appears to be Atari's first catalog for the 5200. It's a booklet style catalog, following in the tradition of Atari's 2600 catalogs. It features 14 titles and the line, "The Advanced Game System" on the cover. This catalog prominently featured Asteroids, which was never actually released on the 5200 most likely due to it being extremely difficult to control with the 5200's non-centering analog controllers. Not only did Asteroids get its own page in this catalog, but there is also an Asteroids box pictured on page 4 (second from the top). This catalog also features the Trak-Ball controller (with the red action buttons and "Start", "Pause", "Reset" buttons in positions that don't match the shipped unit) and mentions a game called Tank on page 14.

Model Number: CO18270 Rev. 2
Year: 1982
Titles: 13

This catalog is nearly identical to Atari's previous 5200 catalog, with one major change: The page dedicated to Asteroids in the previous catalog has been changed to Soccer, since we all know that Atari never did release Asteroids for the 5200 (due most likely to the 5200's analog, non-centering controllers not being quite up to the task). However, Atari didn't reshoot the picture on page 4 of the catalog, which depicts an Asteroids box (second from the top). This catalog also features the Trak-Ball controller (with the red action buttons and "Start", "Pause", "Reset" buttons in positions that don't match the shipped unit) and mentions a game called Tank on page 14.

Model Number: CO21880 Rev. A
Year: 1983
Titles: 20

This catalog is a departure from previous Atari 5200 catalogs in that it's presented as a small, fold-out poster, a trend that would continue in later years for Atari catalogs. It features 20 titles, including Realsports Basketball, which was never released (although the prototype is available here). This catalog features all the Realsports titles, though they don't yet bear the Realsports name (amusingly, three of the titles use the word REAL in all caps as part of the description, hinting at what was to come). An artist's rendering of the VCS Cartridge Adapter is shown, as well as a 5200 Trak-Ball controller that differs slightly from the one shown in the previous catalogs (the action and "Start", "Pause", "Reset" buttons were moved and reflect the actual shipping Trak-Ball controller). The phrase, "Atari 5200 SuperSystem" also appears for the first time in this catalog.

Model Number: CO21776-Rev. A
Year: 1983
Titles: 88

Titled, "Atari Stars", this poster catalog features titles from both the Atari 2600 and the 5200 SuperSystem. This catalog sports 88 titles, 61 for the 2600 and 27 for the 5200. This catalog was released at the height of Atari's silver-label period and contains many games that never saw the light of day, such as Realsports Basketball, Donald Duck's Speedboat, Dumbo's Flying Circus, Good Luck Charlie Brown, and Miss Piggy's Wedding for the 2600 and Realsports Basketball, Sport Goofy, and Tempest for the 5200. Additionally, the Atari 2600 Keyboard and Voice Commander peripherals make an appearance in this catalog but these two items would would never see the light of day.

Model Number: CO25618-001 Rev. A
Year: 1984
Titles: 75

This is an unusual catalog from Atari in that it features games and hardware for the 2600, 5200, and 7800. While there are several Atari catalogs that feature multiple systems, it's unusual to see three generations of Atari hardware depicted in the same catalog. There are over 70 titles pictured in this catalog, 32 for the 2600, 30 for the 5200, and 13 for the 7800. There are many titles shown that never saw the light of day, such as Dr. Salk's "Peek-A-Boo", Elevator Action, Garfield, The Last Starfighter for the 2600 and Rescue on Fractalus! for the 7800. Also, at this point Asteroids for the 7800 was still listed as 3D Asteroids. Some unreleased hardware is also described, such as the Computer Keyboard, High Score Cartridge and 7800 ProSystem Game Adapter that would allow you to play 2600 and 7800 games on the 5200. The last page of the catalog features a description and a picture of the unreleased MindLink accessory for the 2600 and 7800 that would allow you to control games by sending "electronic impulses from your brain to the game console".

Parker Brothers

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Model Number: [none]
Year: 1983
Titles: 21

Of the two Parker Brothers catalogs that feature Atari games, this one is by far the most common. It features games for the Atari 2600, 5200, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Vic-20, and IBM. It's a fairly large catalog as far as third-party catalogs go, showcasing 21 games. This catalog is quite interesting from a collector's point of view, because it contains several 2600 games that never saw the light of day. These include McDonalds, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Ework Adventure, and The Incredible Hulk. Of these games, only The Incredible Hulk has yet to been found in prototype form.