Atari 5200 vs. ColecoVision! 39 Classic Games Compared!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks for checking out the video! Here's my Instagram: instagram.com/gregsgameroom/ My Flashcarts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIaQdamjfMRnqKs 5 Minute History: The Atari 2600 kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmnZkouFgK-rgbM Why I HATE Atari! kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3W5gHuZo5lmorM

[@mattschehr163]

you actually love donkey kong more on coleco than atari 8 bit

[@kbrsretrogameroom327]

Enjoyed the video. The Atari 5200 was the system I had when the crash hit. I remember being very disappointed when I could no longer find games for it in the stores. I ended up selling mine and along with birthday money bought an Atari 800XL, which remains my favorite 8 bit system that I owned in the 80's.

[@allenfrisch]

It's kinda funny that the 5200 was a console converted FROM a computer system while the Colecovision was a console converted INTO a computer system (the ADAM)!

[@jorylucas9862]

I’ve got an Adam and a colecovision.

[@willweisgerber245]

More than 1 actually. The Japanese computer, which a lot of the Coleco homebrew games come from porting, was essentially just an upgraded Colecovision as well.

[@werpu12]

Actually the Ti994a used the same chipset as the coleco... so it was a computer became a console and then a computer again

[@BURRITO44]

Great video. Tapper did appear on the 5200. I have it. I have Tutkenham for the 5200.

[@Atarifan72]

Love these comparison vids, keep up the good work!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks!

[@JetScreamer_YT]

The 5200 is my favorite console of all time. Pretty much because it was the first time I really played Pac-Man at home. My family got one as a Christmas gift. I became pretty good with the 5200 controller, and up until a few years ago I had a small business repairing the controllers. I know I've done over a hundred of them. Parts for the joysticks are getting kind of rare. I use the one that had a circuit board and a 3D printed shell.

[@SinistarPro_Mike]

I'm always partial to the ol' ColecoVision, and that'll never change... but I'll admit, this video had me doing quite a few double-takes on some of those 5200 titles. Another one right out of the park, my friend! Good stuff. 👍

[@GregsGameRoom]

It’s like the Genesis (older hardware) vs. the SNES (newer.) Both have obvious winners and losers….

[@jamesanthony8438]

I absolutely hated how much my metacarpal joint of the index finger on my left hand ached after playing too long. Loved our Colecovision, hated the non-ergonomic controllers. ='(

[@F1JV]

I wanted to get an ATARI 5200 but didn’t have enough money…so I bought an Arcadia/Starpath Supercharger for my VCS-2600. It really extended the life of the system and I have fond memories of finishing DragonStomper…Escape From The Mindmaster…Phaser Patrol…and the mail-in purchase at its EOL Survival Island. Seriously…those were Big-League wins as a kid. Then when ATARI’s 7800 that I was reading about just didn’t happen/disappeared, I bought my first computer…an ATARI 800XL computer. It had near perfect arcade ports…like what you showed…Donkey Kong…Popeye…Dig Dug etc. I never knew about any video-game crash because us kids were basically all converting to computers and computer games. Arcades were closing but that was to be expected from too many opening(Arcade Wars in my area…20 tokens/$1) and home video-games becoming closer & closer versions to the arcade games. Oh…if that 7800 had released in 1984 or even 1985, I would probably not bought the 800XL and more than likely had an ATARI 16-bit computer as my first computer.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I did the same thing. I went from 2600 to Atari 400, 800XL, then the 7800 when it finally was released.

[@jhudso214]

I had no idea that the Arcadia/Starpath Supercharger existed until now!(I was just a little kid back in the early 80's, happy just playing "Space Invaders", "Pac-Man" & "Donkey Kong".) Anyway, I googled and watched a video about the device with "Metal Jesus"; dude that thing is pretty wild for it's time(the idea of playing a video game on tape). Thank you for that post!

[@JustMe99999]

The 5200 holds up surprisingly well in my opinion - I thought the Coleco would beat it handily; but man, the scrolling on that system is bad. Interestingly, the Coleco port of HERO looks just like the C64 version.

[@GregsGameRoom]

The choppy scrolling really hurts it. Again, I wonder if it's because it's using all background tiles?

[@markbcrich]

The 5200 version of Choplifter is in hi-res graphics. On an Atari hi-res graphics was a three color mode due to artifacting on NTCS tvs. So, it looks much better if played in NTSC.

[@slaapliedje]

I was looking for this comment. You can tell it uses artifacting cilors by the strange lines in it. This looks like he was using S'Video output, which will kill the artifacting effect.

[@bjbell52]

His res mode on the Atari 800 should be the same as the 5200. It hi-res mode has 4 colors, not 3. Many of the earlier Atari 800/400 games were direct ports of Apple II games. Both had similar hi-res modes and if I remember correctly, the high-bit of a byte of screen memory is used to select the colors of the artifacting pixels on the Apple, giving it more colors. Sometimes the problem with ports is that they're trying to make the ports quickly and often don't use all the capacity of the computer's graphics. The Atari had ways to increase the number of colors in hi-res (and) other modes. They could have put 2 sprites together to make a 3 colored sprite. The could have used display list interrupts to change the colors of the hi-res screen. They could have used a slightly lower res mode that allowed you to pick the colors out of the palette of 128 colors. They could have mixed the hi-res with a 4 color text mode for displaying messages and statistics. Since they seemed to use a direct port without using the Atari hardware, I'm willing to bet they're not using the built-in hardware horizontal scrolling either.

[@markbcrich]

@@bjbell52 Medium res mode on the 5200 was 4 colors. 160x192 Hi res 320x192 is 3 colors and 1 background in NTSC. Or, 2 in PAL.

[@bjbell52]

@@markbcrich 320 x 192 IS hi-res on the Atari 800/400 and 4 colors. The next lower mode would be 160 x 192 and is a 4 color mode. It would seem that the 5200 uses the same modes. I tend to count the background color as one of the colors since it can be changed. The difference in the way Graphics 8 (hi-res on the 800/400) and Graphics 7 (160 x 192 on the 800/400) is the way they generate color. Graphics 8 uses artifacting, one can't control the colors except by changing what you call the background color. Graphics 7 uses indirection to get it's colors. I.E. bit pattern 01 does not mean red, it means get your color from the memory location that holds the color for pattern 01 (I think on the 800/400 that would be 708 decimal). Then during vertical blank interrupt that value in 708 get puts into the color register on the hardware chip.

[@braddahl2098]

Great video sir! I grew up with a 5200 as that weird system I hooked up when I got bored with the NES. I still have it and never heard about the CV till about a decade ago. The modern releases have now pushed me to favor the CV over the 5200, which is wild as usually nostalgia wins! Having the Phoenix is pretty awesome too! Even the CV of Centipede has won me over lately, mainly because that spider on 5200 is a real bastard.

[@TheDarkThunder]

Pitfall 2 on the 5200 has a second quest on it too, be ready to be frustrated lol

[@NOLADEEJ]

Yes indeed dude!!! Love this! I’ll pick the Coleco over the 5200. Atari for life though! Haha

[@GregsGameRoom]

Boooo….

[@esmerylan]

Funny you talk about Gorf having an identity crisis, since the wild variety of levels was one of the big selling points in Midway's marketing for the game. Of course they were kind of trying to obscure the fact that it was basically "Copyright Infringement: The Game", ripping off two of the big Japanese games Midway licensed for US release (Space Invaders and Galaxian) without the permission of Taito or Namco. The other big draw was the synthesized speech, which as far as I know never made its way to any of the home ports (I doubt most of the early 8-bit consoles and computers could've done that anyway).

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome video

[@BHGMediaGroup]

there are 8 bit conversions to the 5200 for sale on Atari Age or at least there used to be. I do have 5200 cartridges of Spy Hunter and Donkey Kong Jr. Oh and I'm one of the few people that actcually likes the controller, and if you have 2 of them and Robotron, you got the best version for home ever with faithful twin stick shooting. It's what I use to showcase the 5200 at the PGX Game Convention. EDIT: the 5200 conversion i have of Spy hunter does have the music, so I don't know what version your playing unless the person that ported it over added it maybe

[@fuzzywzhe]

The Colecovision was made to compete with the 2600, not the 5200.

[@romanseano]

You're mistaken. The Intellivision was made to compete with the 2600. Colecovision and the 5200 were direct rivals. I got all but the 5200 over a few Christmas seasons; my friend got the 5200 the same day I got the Colecovision - we were both anticipating them.

[@fuzzywzhe]

@@romanseano Engh, you're probably right. I had moved to C=64 by this point which wasn't rivaled on consoles until the NES came out. I don't miss these days at all. Can't even imagine playing one of these games now and enjoying it.

[@patsfan4life]

ColecoVision was made to decimate the puny 2600

[@Apothekari]

Great video! I do have a nit to pick though ... I feel it's kind of unfair to use the Atari 800 version of Donkey Kong since the 5200 never got it and then NOT compare it to the Coleco Adam version of Donkey Kong which is the more fair comparison. IMO. Otherwise great video. Subbed!

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

The Atari 5200 is the one console I always wanted to love so much more than I ever I did.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I was able to appreciate the games more because of the 8-bit computer.

[@G8RDuc]

I think for zaxxon, DK, DK Jr and Buck Rogers, Coleco might have been holding off on some better graphics and levels for their SGM versions and/or ADAM version. Probably would have been a better comparison since you used the Atari computer version in some instances. Love the video tho.

[@patsfan4life]

Nobody held anything back-they just didn’t want to spend any additional time or money

[@johnrussell8086]

Thank you for such lovely videos. I've never seen the 5200 here in the UK (Scotland) but I do love the look of the games. I should figure out how to emulate them along with the 8bit range.

[@jamesmccormick4430]

Pitfall II for the 5200 is easily the hands down winner especially since it has a hidden level.

[@bazdaniels7420]

I enjoyed this video but I feel disappointed that you didn't give a score at the end. I would have to go back and tally them myself to see which one wins. :(

[@sdamon]

Really excellent and fair-minded comparisons for two of my favorite consoles. And thanks for pointing out the existence of King Tut’s Tomb… didn’t know that existed!

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

These are always great to watch, Greg! Nice work.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Much appreciated!

[@Nummer6]

Love the video, great comparisons! And I have to agree with nearly all of your choices (except for Zaxxon, the CV "scrolling" kills it for me), even though I am an Atari only guy. I have two 2600s, a 5200 and a 600XL with 64 KByte RAM extension. You earned a subscription!

[@GregsGameRoom]

I almost went with the 5200 version of Zaxxon, but the graphics look too different from the arcade.

[@EdsterIII]

My 2600 experience was great. But when I saw the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong? I was instantly amazed and impressed! I wanted one! And when the Adam Home Computer came out, I thought, OOOH a possible educational solution? A way in perhaps? Nope. LOL. Especially since we had already got the Atari 5200, which I loved BTW. I've always loved Sports Games and the "Real-Sports" series were awesome! Tempest another unique game. It was a decent system that gets a lot of hate. Which I don't quite understand.

[@Lutrian]

I had Spy Hunter on Atari 8 bit, and it had all the Peter Gunn theme music.

[@gaminggoliath8603]

Always enjoy watching these comparison videos of retro consoles! thanks for sharing such fun to watch content Greg.

[@brianhenson4128]

The 5200 was a fun system until the controllers wore out!!! So fragile!!!

[@vinnykster]

Same here. It was a blast to play until the controls stopped working.

[@The_Real_DCT]

They weren't really fragile, what happens is the contacts oxidize easy so you either have to take them apart and clean them once a week or so or replace the contacts with gold ones.

[@ThePbrook1967]

Frogger 5200 you MUST have the music off cause yes it has all the correct music

[@TrashfordKent]

Thanks for this really interesting, the 800xl was my second computer after the Vic20. The 800xl is probably my favourite computer from back in the day, the coleco is awesome as well although i never had one, it's quite close to early Sega consoles right?

[@TrockeyTrockey]

Thank you - very interesting comparision. I was Atari owner, now, I want to know competition after years.

[@lazarushernandez5827]

I think Moon Patrol was available for both of these consoles back in the day. I didn't have the 5200 back then but one of the neighbors did and they had Moon Patrol, Pacman and Mario Bros on it.

[@Savagemister]

I never got a 5200. Just the 2600.

[@GregsGameRoom]

30 million 2600’s sold and maybe 2-3 million 5200’s so I’m not surprised…

[@JustMe99999]

Same here... my console journey was VCS -> NES -> SMS -> Genesis -> SNES -> Nintendo 64 -> Gamecube... then I just stopped buying consoles.

[@johneygd]

Donkeykong and dk jr are both my favorites on the colecovision,now if only somebody could emulate the atari 400/800 on the atari 5200 by simply lining up those memory locations with each other,that should do the trick right? Because both systems are exactly the same hardwarewise except for the memory location differences between the two.

[@GregsGameRoom]

There’s a hack that’s even better. DK on the 5200 just seems like it was meant to happen…

[@kenwheeler3637]

That has been done for both games a while ago. They for them can be found on AtariAge Forums. The AtariAge store even sold carts of them at one point.

[@ripvanwinkle9648]

This video brings back so many memories. Still have my ColecoVision from childhood, with a ton of games, and even the roller controller & Atari 2600 adapter (system & roller controller still in original boxes). I played the hell out of that thing. Tried to play it several years ago, but the controllers & cartridge slot need serious contact cleaning for that to happen.

[@Hidyman]

I can assure you that Frogger is made by SEGA. I have a cocktail unit sitting 10 feet away from me and it is clearly branded as SEGA.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Licensed by Sega. Actually programmed and copyrighted by Konami.

[@kenwheeler3637]

I agree with most of your choices. Mountain King can be fun, if not terrible frustrating at times, but the instructions are necessary. Same goes with ET for the 2600 since you mentioned it.

[@GregsGameRoom]

My per-emptive strike when people tell me to read the manual. ;-)

[@KILRtv]

Great video! I had a few of these on the 5200, and i was always curious on how they compared with Colecovision. The C64 would've been a great one to compare on some of these. Beamrider was amazingly close to the 5200. I hated the 5200 controllers due to them breaking, but they were great for Star Raiders and Countermeasure.

[@vinnykster]

Aside from the controls not being too good on either system the 5200 and Colecovision were both badass at the time. It was a fun time for video games in the early 80's. I bought the 5200 with paper route money and very much enjoyed it

[@Denverdude7]

I remember the smell of those newspapers. That was the best part of that job.

[@ULTIMATEPATCHES]

This is a fantastic comparison video.

[@jamesanthony8438]

My favorite version of "Choplifter" was the port for the Sega Master System. If you've never played that one, you really need to check it out. =)

[@blikketty77]

Great video. I had not seen a lot of these on ColecoVision, or at least seen them in decades. Wild the differences in hardware that causes the Coleco to be capable of more colorful backgrounds, but less colorful sprites, and then seeing how bad it's scrolling and sprite movement were in a lot of the games. I remember being jealous of it's versions of Donkey Kong and DK JR, but seeing them here, I'm like yeah I'd rather go back and play my Atari 8 Bit ver. What's strange is, some of the ColecoVision games didn't have the monochrome sprites and jumpy movement frames? Like, watching those versions of Defender and the movement and shooting and ships broke my brain. Ditto for the movement in Miner 2049er. So I really wonder what the technical limitation was, versus it being some kind of skill issue or maybe they got better at programming certain things later on? Like, some games simply can't scroll or sprite frames are clunky, but they got nice scrolling on Jungle Hunt which almost seems harder, and the sprite movement and animations were fine on some of the games as well. I will say, you really undersell how the 5200 joystick impacts some of these games. It's super hard to jump to the top in Mountain King, or stop on the right part of the alligator heads in Pitfall using that stick, or to do some of the finer jumps and stops in Miner 2049er.

[@Supreme2k]

If you're going to compare games that aren't on 5200, the 400/800 versions should be compared to the Adam versions.

[@fuzzywzhe]

Colecovision was a pretty impressive console for the time, I think it's a pity it didn't do better in the market. It was generally a pretty good system, but there was little adoption of it.

[@patsfan4life]

Sold well in its first year but the downturn in 83 convinced ColecoVision to double-down on the Adam

[@JGKingCrusher]

I actually loved the 5200 controller. They broke a lot, but when they worked, they were fantastic. I agreed with all your picks as I was watching. Oh man, these bring back memories! I was lucky enough to have both these systems as a kid.

[@itsjustagamechannel]

Two consoles I still don’t own in my collection. This video will help me hone in on the one I will hunt down first. 😁

[@GregsGameRoom]

Glad to help

[@elone3997]

Interesting dual, thanks. The Atari seemed to be able to pull off way better scrolling/frame rates than the Colleco or maybe it was just a matter of better developers..? Who knows..cheers anyways ☺️

[@GregsGameRoom]

And on 2+ year older (amazing) hardware!

[@bruceleggett568]

Anyone notice when the Coleco went super detail, the frame rate went to hell?

[@Prime-1111X]

For the Donkey Kong comparison, it would had been better to compare the Atari 8 Bit to the Coleco Adam version. The home consoles didn't have enough memory for the Cement Factory stage.

[@patsfan4life]

Fair

[@RobsRetroGaming]

Great comparison!!!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks!

[@PnC_GameZnThingZ]

5200 was my first console. I remember finding a table of really cheap games for it at Toys R Us. The term "Dead System" wasn't common yet. I just thought I was lucky finding cheap games 😂 I still have all of it too

[@GregsGameRoom]

Wish I had the foresight to buy that stuff on clearance back then!

[@brianhenson4128]

Star wars the arcade game for the 5200 was really good.

[@ThePbrook1967]

They have an updated rom for Donkey Kong for the 5200/8-bit and other than the right side on the first screen it looks almost exact! It's really good!

[@jasonkoestner4630]

I have that cartridge it’s awesome

[@mikebell2112]

I used to spin the Gyruss ship around arriving to planets like you did. Sort of a toilet flush.

[@GregsGameRoom]

I figured everyone did that!

[@KrooTon]

My first console was a hand-me-down 5200 (with the 2600 adapter too)… I loved that damn system, far more than it deserved

[@GregsGameRoom]

That 2600 adapter is pretty valuable now.

[@KrooTon]

@@GregsGameRoom I got it from my older cousins. About 15 years ago, I had the controllers professionally refinished with the upgraded components and sent all of it to them as a surprise. It never made it (porch pirate probably, they were having issues with them at the time).

[@Sergiovsousa]

The Activision games on the Colevision were exactely like the MSX convertions due to both having same processor.

[@Sinn0100]

This was just before my time so I don't really have a dog in this fight. I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System. Having said that I believe the Colecovision was the better console overall. I'm curious as to which machine is the most powerful? Also had the video game crash not happened could the Atari 5200 or Colecovision held their own against the Japanese onslaught that was about to take place? How much stronger was an Nes/Master System to the 5200/Colecovision?

[@winstedwildmanresearch]

Coleccovison Defender looks so much better!! Surprised by your opinion there.

[@patsfan4life]

The overall speed or pace wasn’t as good tho

[@AgentM79]

Regarding Gorf, I’d opine that the Atari 400/800 version (Roklan) was the best version. The 5200 version, while graphically identical, was unplayable due to the 5200 controller and the way the movement of the ship was programmed. Colecovision Gorf looked AWFUL - almost nothing like the arcade. Control was improved significantly over the 5200. For the record, Champ Games recently released a STELLAR version of Gorf for the Atari 2600. It beats the 400/800/5200 and Colecovision hands-down. I concur on Donkey Kong and DK Jr. The Atari 8-bit versions were superior, but the 5200 never saw an official release of either game. Colecovision Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator was FAR SUPERIOR on the Colecovision. Better graphics and gameplay much closer to the arcade machine. You are spot-on about 5200 Defender and Centipede. Both superior to the Colecovision, but the Coleco versions were still excellent.

[@GregsGameRoom]

It’s not really about which game is better but which game I preferred.

[@Koexistence13]

Using the Atari computer ports? Compare them to the Adam computer ports and not just the Colecovision

[@coppermutant]

Gateway to Apshai was a spin off of the Dunjonquest series of computer games. People know this one and the "Trilogy" but they came later than Sorceror of Siva, Datestones of Ryn, and other Dunjonquest titles including the titular Temple of Apshai.

[@Heather-Br]

Although I generally agree with your assessments as far as sounds go, Greg, I will say that the ColicoVision has more trebble in its sounds, and I prefer the more bass Atari 5200 sounds.

[@fionagibson3314]

Star wars is great when using the trackball.

[@josephpatton8869]

My mom picked up the ColecoVision Adam on clearance probably 2 years after the great video game crash(1985???). I’m just realizing that I have never owned an Atari console or computer. My brother and I started picking up the “cassette tape” versions of some of the Adam games when they were dirt cheap at our local Kay-Bee toy & hobby store at the local mall. I think the Adam tape drive eventually ate all of them 🤣

[@SammyRenard]

iunno, I personally thought the colecovision gamepad was fine especially when you compare it to the atari 5200 and the matel intellivision's controllers

[@patsfan4life]

Relatively better than 2 of the worst controllers of all time

[@Alpha5119]

Both systems were awesome. I think my favorite game on the 5200 was the dreadnaught factor. I randomly bought it around 1985 . Never heard of it before. And it was amazing. Another title that was amazing was the space shuttle a journey into space. You have to read the manual but was amazing after you learn to play it. If you are into space Sims.

[@chetmartin8930]

Half of these comparisons aren’t done with actual 5200 games. This makes for a bad comparison in general. The Colecovision is easily the better of the 2 systems

[@lurkerrekrul]

Mountain King - This is a pretty good game, but it's more than just a high score chaser. There are several steps you need to take to clear each level. First, you need to collect 1,000 diamonds. You can do this by walking over the visible diamonds, but there are also treasure chests that MAY give you even more in one shot. You can only see them when you press the button to shine your flashlight, but that also makes the normal diamonds disappear, so it's a trade off. Also, the chest may contain nothing but bats. Once you've collected 1,000, music will start playing. You follow the music to the flame spirit. The music will get louder, the closer you get. You'll see it flash briefly, but it will be visible in the beam of the flashlight. Once you have it, go to the bottom of the mountain and you'll find a temple Position yourself directly under it and kneel to offer the flame spirit to the guardian, then you can climb up into the temple and stake the crown. At this point, up-tempo music will start playing and you have a limited amount of time to take the crown to the highest peak of the mountain, which has a small fire on it. However, this is made much more difficult by the fact that you will lose the crown if you get hit by a bat. Oh, and if you go to the very bottom level, you'll get webbed up by a giant spider. Waggle the stick to escape before it comes back and eats you. Ironically, the Atari 2600 version has the best fade in/out of the flame spirit music of all the versions I've tried. On the 2600, it's a very smooth increase/decrease in volume. On all the other versions, it just seems to go in steps, and will go from low to silent like someone flipped a switch. Zaxxon - I agree that the Colecovision version looks the best, but that constant, high-pitched droning sound in the background drives me nuts.

[@blikketty77]

Was gonna explain mountain king but I see you already did it. I can't imagine how miserable this would be with the 5200 joystick. I remember playing it on atari 8 bit and just one missed jump would often doom you from making it before the song ended.

[@lurkerrekrul]

@@blikketty77 I've never played it with a 5200 controller, but I did play it on the Atari 2600. While the joystick itself was OK, the jumps in that game were VERY finicky. Often, there was just enough room to make a jump and if you were one step too close, you'd hit the platform and fall back down. Then again, if you were just a little bit too far away, the jump would fall short. The jumping on the more advanced system was much more forgiving.

[@GerardPinzone]

What hardware limitations did the Coleco have when it came to multiple color sprites and scrolling?

[@patsfan4life]

It just had a bit of a ‘cartoony’ color pallette

[@Geostrophic]

Looks like your emulation of Colecovision's Kong isn't working quite right. Seems a good deal slower than my console and when I emulate it (Retroarch and Openemu).

[@duckfield2520]

The coleco lacked hardware scrolling capabilities.

[@jessragan6714]

It's just not Galaxian if the aliens don't squeal "Galax-seein!" when they die. Same deal with the Space Invaders marching to "SPACE IN-VA-DERS, SPACE IN-VA-DERS" as they drop down and reverse direction.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Exactly! The sound effects are a must!

[@bruceleggett568]

I think it’s interesting how lazy Activision ports to the Coleco were. Either they didn’t take the time to learn it or they outsourced to a lazy dev. I assume they only half hearted them.

[@patsfan4life]

Pitfall was good tho

[@teddym2808]

Oh man this is going to be retro porn. Just going to grab some pop corn and sit back and watch this. I had a Coleco as a kid but I also bought 5200 games when they were blowing them out but never had the console. Still got a bunch of them mint in box. Looking forward to this!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Would have been awesome to have both back then...

[@teddym2808]

@@GregsGameRoom Great vid. Yeah I didn't even KNOW about the 5200 till I went to a shop one day and saw a bunch of games for $5 a piece. I bought almost all of them (what they had I mean, I have 17 games) yet never had the console as I just though "why not" and just never got round to buying one. I have only played the ones I own through emulator (Altirra). I think it's an underrated system and am a bit bummed there is no adapter for 5200 carts in the upcoming Atari console. In fact I think not doing it on FPGA and not having a 5200 cart adapter is a huge miss. If there was at least the latter, I'd be getting that for sure to finally be able to play my official carts (small town house, no room for CRT etc, rely on new tech only). BTW there's not a single 5200 console on sale on ebay in OZ anyway. I can only find 7800 and 2600. I do have some 7800 carts, same scenario, uber cheap, but I sold all my 2600 games eons back. Kind of regret that now too.

[@EmberwolfXR]

The funny thing is is in my life. I didn’t know pretty much anything about the 5200 or the Coleco vision because I grew up in the Sega age though my uncle did give me two Ataris A 52o0 @ 2800 , With a trash bag full of games (thanks to the game crash )but none of his games actually fit the 5200 they only worked with a 2800 and I thought the controllers were absolutely horrible….. But that was for the folks a couple years ahead of me that were born in the late 70s and early 80s

[@allenfrisch]

Why is the first stage of Donkey Kong backwards in both versions compared to the arcade?? I never played the Atari version, but I DEFINITELY remember playing the Colecovision version in the original orientation!

[@dad7275]

I had alot of fun with Qbert and Frogger both om 5200 once I get used to the controls. Defender was phenomenal on 5200.

[@RedRanger2001]

I'd rather be buying the Atari 8-bit computer than the 5200, especially the XEGS... Or better yet -- The 400 Mini, complete with the SD card slot to load up more games...

[@makeamericaprotestagain3361]

No Greg, ET for the 2600 sucks to you BECAUSE you refused to read the manual.

[@patsfan4life]

To be fair, who wants to do that?

[@Jolt7800]

I never owned either console but have always been intrigued by both. So seeing them face off is kind of like watching Mechagodzilla vs King Ghidora

[@GregsGameRoom]

That’s a good description. Both are huge in their own way (check out the CV power brick.)

[@geasterly]

Keep in mind that some of the CV versions were made by Atari via their Atarisoft division. I can only guess they tried not to make the CV version better than those for Atari consoles/computers. Honestly I'm surprised how well they did for their non-atari platform ports.

[@baroncalamityplus]

I wonder how easy it is to get Atari 8 bit computer games running on the 5200? I know its trivial to get 5200 games running on the Atari 8 bit but I don't know if the reverse is true. Side note, the ColecoVision version of Zaxon was one of the most expensive games I've ever bought. It was $45 which in todays money is $143.17

[@adm712]

Great video. While I have respect for the Colecovision and its fan base, I am an Atari man for life. That being said, I admit In super biased in favor of the 5200. I own both and the 5200 just has more of an arcade like feel to me. The only genre I give Coleco the edge is with the racing game Turbo and the driving wheel expansion module. Ill admit, that blew me away at the time

[@Lightblue2222]

Frogger 5200 can also have a simple control. Set it to keypad mode. Then you press button to hop instead of holding button and moving stick. Galaxian 5200 has 1 advantage, with an analog controller the ship can move slow or fast, which also makes it better than Atari 800 which is stuck on fast.

[@platinumuschannel]

To me it seems that Atari 5200 versions tended to have higher detail levels, sometimes more colors, albeit slightly washed. Colecovision shined with bright and vibrant colors, a harbinger of the true 8-bit era it was leading into.

[@brotherblue3340]

I think your video is unfair. You used an 8-bit computer to judge some Atari conversions, Why didn't you use the ADAM version of some games for Colecovision? For example, Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr. has all 4 screens in the ADAM version.

[@pinebarrenpatriot8289]

I have to say the Atari 5200 games look very impressive for its time. I have a Coleco but was always apprehensive buying a 5200 because of the faulty controllers. I know they have 3rd party controllers but I'm a purest when it comes to retro game collecting and always have to use the original accessories 🙂

[@The_Real_DCT]

You can always just replace the contacts in the 5200 controller with gold ones. It seems that the reason why they fail so much is because the contacts oxidize easy so you either have to clean them constantly or replace the contacts. Which is one of the reasons why most don't bother with the 5200. You have to often do so much replacing of things just to have a good experience.

[@MiloDC]

5200 versions of Donkey Kong Jr. and Jungle Hunt look WAY closer to the arcade versions than the ColecoVision versions. I don't know what this guy is smoking.

[@k9feces]

As a kid I only played 2600, Coleco would have blown me away.

[@janwilt6974]

I have to disagree with you on keystone kapers, the graphics on the ColecoVision are awful, washed out flat colors with very little details! I can’t believe you picked the ColecoVision over the Atari 5200 on graphics?

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

It seems to me the Atari 8 bit computer versions shouldn't be in these comparisons. This is a comparison between the Atari 5200 vs the Colecovision. Although the 5200 borrows from the 8 bit Atari computers, it's a different system with different cartridges and offerings. The Colecovision beat the 5200 to market. Especially in a wide release. Packing in Donkey Kong, the biggest hit game at the time was brilliant and was the main reason we bought one when we loved our Atari 2600. I wasn't a fan of the NES however or most of Nintendo's games after Donkey Kong. I really liked the Atari 8 bit computers, but they were expensive when they came out and in the early 80s when these consoles came out. I got a 1200XL on closeout but already had several computers by then. I don't know how long the 5200 was in development for, but at the time it felt like it was too little too late with the Colecovision on the market. I only knew one person that bought a 5200.

[@grimlochvolek666]

Guys can someone tell which system I had... Each game had its own slide that you would put into the controller to play it's before the commodore 64 era.. I'm afraid I can't remember much more

[@lordinnit4535]

Sounds like the Intellivision

[@paulmodjeski8958]

I am sorry but you should not put homebrew game in your list. become colecovision had some great homebrew like mario brothers game and pacman and ms pacman. also Atarisoft unreleased Pacman for colecovision and Moon Patrol. Also colecovision adam Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr had all the screens.

[@pinebarrenpatriot8289]

As a retro collector I'm not a fan of home-brews either

[@SupremeNerd]

Funny thing is if you played the Adam version of Donkey Kong and Junior, all 4 stages are there

[@timecapsule5604]

Best version was for the Coleco Adam

[@Boswd]

I rememberr begging my parents for a 5200 but I got the big NO, you have your other Atari and we aren't buyiing you the same games again. If only the 5200 was backwards compatible out of the gate.

[@scottstallings5029]

Love ❤your ❤channel 😊

[@GregsGameRoom]

Thanks!

[@Supreme2k]

Why do people call it a pie/cement/sand level, when it is clearly a steel smelting mill? Why would you dump a pie or sand into a flame?