Five Atari 5200 Games Still Worth Playing Today!

[@adm712]

I own every Atari system ever made and the 5200 is my favorite. It's design is a time piece right out of 1982, and if you grew up in that era, and hung out in arcades, you can really appreciate how excellent the arcade ports to the 5200 were.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Great insight, thank you!

[@stratfender89]

I have the same feeling. For arcade games the 5200 was the Neo Geo of its era.

[@thedude5295]

Moon Patrol and Pac-Man, absolutely. Was Pac-Man the pack-in game with the 5200 or was it Super Breakout? I can't remember anymore. At one point my old man had bought an entire 2nd 5200 console just for the 2 controllers after ours had broke and they weren't selling controllers by themselves anymore so we had 2 copies of one of those games. If you haven't bought them yet and they don't cost a fortune you NEED to get Miner 2049'er and Space Invaders. Miner is the best game for the system, bar none, and the 5200 version of Space Invaders is the best version of that game I've ever played on any system ever. If you make it far enough on the 5200 version you get to fight a fleet of aliens that change color with a real cool effect that I'd never seen before. I remember the first time I got to that level and my brother and I were blown away by it. For some reason I always loved the grey color of one group of aliens in the early levels and I've painted rooms in my house that color. When my brother first saw it he said "Nice. Space Invader Grey" and we both had a good laugh.

[@thedude5295]

Of course they have a 5200 Space Invaders Video on KZbin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXy9lGmvjq6Ba6s "Space Invader Grey" is the middle row in the level starting at 3:05. It's what I've used for accent walls in my house against lighter colors. The cool colored aliens start at 4:28. Not a mind-blowing effect in 2023, but pretty cool when Back to the Future was in movie theaters.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I love this story. You're the second person to recommend Miner 2049er so I might have to track that down sooner than later. I'll check out space invaders too I think that one's pretty cheap.

[@Lightblue2222]

Just to answer I read Super Breakout was the 1st pack in title that came with the 4 port system, and later Pac-Man was the pack in with the 2 port system. So both answers are correct. I agree Space Invaders is awesome, and that version is unique to only the 5200. I'm proud to say I got to those enemies you mention, it's the morphing tie dye squad!

[@dinnerfor1540]

All great games! I have to admit I’m partial to that Pac-Man because when I was a kid, my parents and I used to play the Atari 400 version (essentially the same) for hours in the evenings and even made it a competition to see who could get the highest score. Sadly dad has passed many years ago but every time I see that Pac-Man I immediately remember those times we played together as a family and all the laughs we shared during that game time. I love all your choices but I must admit I also love Kangaroo. See I put many a quarter and Chuck E. Cheese token into that machine and in my opinion, the 5200 version is the closest to the arcade original.Much like Donkey Kong your only goal should be to save your little kangaroo but if you’re constantly going after the fruits and/or punching the monkeys, you’ll end up cornering yourself and making it harder to proceed further into the levels.

[@socrates0603]

Great recommendations, Jon. Those you featured are some of the best on the system and are fantastic ports of the 80s arcade classics. The SuperSystem really nailed the arcade ports in look and feel and did the home versions justice. Looking forward to more 5200 content from you. By the way, I collect the physical games but usually play on the AtariMax cartridge for convenience.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Yeah I'll end up grabbing a flashcart for the library video I think as I doubt I'll collect the whole library of carts anytime soon. I'm blown away by some of the 5200 games they really seem to be incredibly well done

[@blinddog44]

Thanks for the video. I grew up on the 5200 and definitely have nostalgia for it. It’s what I started collecting for and I’ve managed to pick up all the original 69 games most CIB. I think you have made a pretty good list here. 2 others I enjoyed were Miner 2049er and Star Raiders

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I wanted to kind of share the games I've enjoyed so far. I grew up with the 7800 but I'm just exploring the 5200 so this is coming from somebody who is new to the scene to help other new owners build their collection. I'll definitely have to check out Miner 2049er and Star Raiders. Star Raiders is really good on the 2600 so I imagine the 5200 version has to be incredible! Thanks for the recommendation!

[@Cafeman_2D]

Thanks for the episode and 5200 game coverage. I spent many many hours playing those 5 you focused on here. Qix is really addictive to me. I also enjoy 5200 Joust, Ms Pac-Man, Berzerk, Megamania, and Space Dungeon. Personally I agree about Galaxian, I don't like how it feels or sounds, it just didn't feel authentic to the coin-op like many other ports did back then. I also don't like 5200 Pitfall - the scorpions are much harder to jump over than on 2600 Pitfall. You have to be pre-cise!

[@Lightblue2222]

Solid titles! My Moon Patrol record is 61100. The music keeps me going!

[@Lightblue2222]

Also a fun mention. Is half way through the game you get a new paint job from purple to red.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Yeah I noticed that but wasn't sure why it happened. That's a cool little change. That's a damn good score and the music is awesome. I have to say it's one of my favorites on the console so far!

[@Lightblue2222]

@@TheAtariNetwork thanks!

[@themidcentrist]

This makes me want to dust off my 5200 and give it some love. I was fortunate to find one at a flea market with a bunch of games for $20 but of course no working controllers, so $100 later and a few controllers from Ebay and I was up and running. If someone asked if I recommend the 5200, I'd point them to an 800XL or XEGS as an alternative unless they were hard core and knew what they are getting into. The 5200 has quite a few good games but it's not the cheapest and easiest console to get into. I think the best bang for the $$$$ pre-NES console / computers are the 2600, Odyssey 2, TI-99/4A, Colecovision, C64, and Atari 8-Bit

[@retrojoe85]

For me also Gremlins is a lot of fun, but my heart beats for Vanguard: those graphics are so Cyberpunk, damn!

[@TheAtariNetwork]

The graphics are great!

[@pierregareau6590]

Atari was not a console that I owned, my first console was intellivision, after Colecovision, sega genesis and I ended with the NES, I think these are 5 great choices, and I really like your channel, keep up the good work ! For now I play the atari games on an emulator, I mostly like the 7800 and 5200 games

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thanks for the kind words. I've played some colecovision and obviously as most gamers have, I've played a lot of Genesis and NES, but I'm not very familiar with intellivision. I'd love to learn more about that console. Emulation is totally fine in my book. I'd rather people play these games anyway they can. But some games don't translate well to emulation for whatever reason. Hopefully these ones work well in emulators!

[@pierregareau5812]

Because anyway the atari gamestation pro and the 2600 + are working with emulators but I might buy a device that connect on your pc that enable you to plug any atari controllers device like the paddle controllers and any others atari joysticks, playing with an atari joystick would make me feel more like an Atari experience, this year I bought the intellivision , colecovision and genesis, my intellivision and colecovision are modded, so everybody have a budget and for now I can't own every console that I like but I really enjoy that you have all the atari console, the 7800, 5200 and the jaguar deserve love also and for my taste because I don't have the nostalgia factor, they are far superior than the 2600 , but I have admiration for a 3rd party company like champ games what they are doing with their Atari 2600 games , especially for games like Turbo arcade and elevator agent

[@Monhamd1000]

Qix is still an absolute classic on the 5200.

[@robbiereisman8954]

Vanguard is one of my favorites too. My top games l...might be Montezuma's Revenge, Defender, Centipede, Rezcue on Fractulus, Pitfall 2, Space Dungeon...actually it's difficult to narrow it down

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Right there's so many good ones! And I haven't even explored them all yet! I can't wait to try and recommend some more games and eventually look at the whole library.

[@stratfender89]

This isn't a bad list but there were a couple of games that shouldn't be forgotten. Dig Dug and Pole Position play really nicely on the 5200, and Centipede is great with the 5200 joystick. Space Dungeon is pretty good if you have a second controller, and Star Raiders are really solid as well. Ms. Pacman has great sound, nice boards and ramps up in speed and difficulty leaving a pretty impressive game. Pengo is also really good too!

[@Jolt7800]

I do not own a 5200, but I love the channel and found it very interesting.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thank you

[@TheAtariNetwork]

A 7800 version is coming in about 2 weeks and I plan on doing some "deep cuts" or "hidden gems" in that video so maybe you'll like that one better!

[@Jolt7800]

The 5200 definitely intrigues me and I like hearing about it. I remember seeing a demo model in one of the stores I shopped at back in the day and I was amazed with the graphics.

[@jayschulz8060]

Pitfall

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I don't think pitfall will work with my 2 port but I do intend to get a modded 4 port eventually

[@dad7275]

All you mentioned are great but I guess my favorite would be Beef Drop. If you haven't tried it its highly recommended at least by me. I know its a aftermarket game and a clone but its great.

[@serqetry]

Great video, and I mostly agree with your choices... although I disagree strongly with your opinion of Galaxian. But, 5200 Galaxian plays best with the trackball! Yes, weird, but it really is fun that way. Speaking of the trackball, I would have recommended Centipede in the top 5... but again you must have the trackball controller. Qix and Vanguard though are definitely in my own top 5 though. Qix is notable for being so much better on the 5200 than the Atari 8-bit computers even though the hardware is the same. One small criticism of the video is that I cannot stand that pixel-melting filter used in the recording... it just makes everything look like trash. It's better to use scanlines to break up overly blocky upscaling, or nothing at all. Those filters are just awful.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thanks for the compliments and opinions. Once I get a track ball I'll try Galaxian with it. I'll take a look at what options the upscaler has, everything is recorded from a 5200 going into a VCR and then ran into a cheap Amazon upscaler and clearclick capture card. So RF to RCA to HDMI. I'm shocked any of it works at all lol

[@serqetry]

@@TheAtariNetwork Ah, yeah it would be the Amazon upscaler that is doing that. It probably has a way to turn that off... and then your captures will look much better.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@serqetry I'll look into it. Thanks for the advice

[@samchan1005]

Agree with Galaxian, the sound effect really turn me off 😅

[@johneygd]

Heeey i got my atari 5200 since 2022 wich diid come with pacman,breakout ,star raiders among some other games along with two fixed controllers,but i also bought moon patrol for it,but since i always was a huge nintendo fan,i also bought mariobros and popeye for it,i also got sega’s buck roggers for it and let me tell ya am absolutely proud owning the 5200, BUT did you know there’re rumors that say that atari first did had plans to bring mariobros to both the atari 400 and atari 5200 but then decided to cancle the atari 400 version of mariobros and instead decided on purpose to only release mariobros on the 5200 in order to boost up more sales of the 5200,i think it was a good move,otherwise the 5200 would,ve sold waaay more worse.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

That would make sense if they wanted to give people a reason to pick up the 5200. I did recently grab Mario Bros for the 5200 but haven't given it a fair shake yet. I'm thinking of doing a video looking at the 2600, 5200 and 7800 versions of Mario Bros and comparing them...

[@johneygd]

@@TheAtariNetwork 👍

[@Maridiaaa]

Stopping the kids from saying first

[@TheAtariNetwork]

You're doing God's work my friend

[@SHUPIRATE1991]

I own a boxed 5200 and love the games and graphics more than the 7800 , but the controller is god awful and makes it so I don’t even want to play

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Yeah that controller has some serious issues. Which is a shame because the games I've been getting for it are really good. I'm honestly impressed by the software!

[@serqetry]

I think the controllers were wonderful when they were brand new. For some games the non-auto-centering can make things more difficult but for most it wasn't a huge deal. The problem is it's 40 years later and most of these joysticks are worn out and don't function properly. This is a problem with most analog sticks though, just look at N64 controllers, they are much worse.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@serqetry the non-centering joysticks mess me up in some games, but since getting the rebuild kit I haven't had any real issues with the controller working. Overall it's not my least favorite or my favorite. Its usable but less than ideal sometimes

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@serqetry the non-centering joysticks mess me up in some games, but since getting the rebuild kit I haven't had any real issues with the controller working. Overall it's not my least favorite or my favorite. Its usable but less than ideal sometimes

[@serqetry]

@@TheAtariNetwork The thing about them is when they came out they felt super luxurious compared to the stiff 2600 joysticks or Colecovision door knob controllers. They might not have been the most accurate for games that weren't designed for analog sticks, but they were extremely comfortable to use for long periods.