The Atari 5200 - How Does it Compare?

It's the Atari 5200! Well known as Atari's biggest console failure (maybe, they do have a lot of failed consoles) the Atari 5200 is infamous for it's "unique" hardware. You probably already know about it's awful, terrible, no good controller. The Atari 5200 controller is both innovative and infamous! Let's go over the what makes the Atari 5200 the Atari 5200 and determine whether it is a console worth adding to your retro video game collection!
In part two we have 3 rounds of comparison, The Atari 5200 vs Colecovision. Atari 5200 vs Atari 2600, and Atari 5200 vs Atari 400
Watch Part 1: • youtu.be/H6qyb...
0:00 Intro
1:13 Colecovision vs The Atari 5200
6:34 The Atari 2600 vs The Atari 5200
8:31 The Atari 400 vs The Atari 5200
10:38 Was The Atari 5200 that bad?
12:37 The Ratings
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#Atari #atari5200 #retrogaming

[@NewsmakersGames]

How do you feel about the 5200?

[@padistedor]

I loved it, especially when my parents bought it for only $99 and it came with pacman which is why i wanted it.

[@padistedor]

@Peter Kurten Nothing was as good as the C64 back then. I still have one.

[@kenwheeler3637]

I like it. Of course I wish the standard controllers had been designed better. On the other hand the 5200 trak-ball controller is awesome.

[@danielrjones]

@@kenwheeler3637 We really need to get our hands on one of the trackball controllers. We are also working on getting our standard controllers rebuilt.

[@kenwheeler3637]

@@danielrjones They Trak-ball controllers were made really well. Built like a tank. Sadly, none of my original controllers work perfectly. I've even done the gold dot replacement on two of them and still have issues with them.

[@XavierCasto]

I loved my 5200, out of all the game systems I’ve owned, it ranked highest for me when looking for games. At the time, I also owned a Colecovision, Atari 400, a 2600, a Fairchild Channel F, and a knock off pong system from either Sears or Kmart. Though I eventually migrated to newer and better systems, the 5200 is the system I reflect back on the most fondly.

[@discsandpins3508]

Great video! As a kid our family had an Atari 400 and I was blown away how fantastic it was, especially a game like Star Raiders, a pre 80’s masterpiece. Several years later the 5200 was released and I couldn’t understand the hype, I already had these games. Regarding the 5200, Atari had severe shortcomings when I came to understanding their consumers and it cost them in the end.

[@mikesdead365]

Ah yes Star Raiders.

[@BluePlanetMedia]

I always wanted a Cloak & Dagger cart just to see if there were secret government plans hidden in the game.

[@brianjl7477]

Play it and see if Dabney Coleman shows up!

[@derekcockrell376]

I thought the same thing as a kid! 🤣

[@Jarod_Schultz]

What's interesting about the 5200, is that when it was discontinued in 1984, Atari later released a redesign of the 2600 in 1986, known as Atari jr. They continued selling the previous console after ending the 5200. That's like if Nintendo discontinued SNES, and later released a redesign of the NES.

[@jbgtly4930]

By 1984 Atari was comprised almost exclusively of uppidy douchebag morons that thought it was beneath them to be known as a "Video Game Company". This was obviously detrimental to their success since "Video Games" was the only reason their company existed. Atari made shit tons of money on game consoles, and very rarely ever broke even on home computers. Which one do you think they chose to focus on??? You dont need hindsight to know that this was an absolutely stupid decision even then.

[@petewillson205]

Jack had a ton of old stock games in 2600 Inventory he made a ton off the 2609jr, more surprising was releasing the 7800, and not just a combined 5200/2600 hybrid unit. Essentially rereleased the technology in the xegm

[@teknocack]

I really enjoyed my 5200. I cannot tell you how many hours I put into the Robotron clone space dungeon. I just thought it was the coolest thing that it came with a holder for both controllers so you could do the Dual joystick thing. While my controllers didn't break I constantly had to open them and clean the contacts. At one point I was cutting little tiny squares of tin foil and super gluing them to the buttons. The button response was spectacular after that! Some favorite games were Pitfall 2, Defender, and Dreadnought.

[@johngreve2104]

I did the tin foil thing myself.

[@AnimationByDylan]

On the arrival of the 5200, the VCS/2600 was seeing a new generation of bank switched (but admittedly expensive) arcade ports. I wouldn’t say that these games rivaled the 5200, but they extended the 2600’s viability, and made transitioning to the 5200 more difficult to swallow financially. IMO it was the 2600’s elongated success that doomed the 5200. Unlike today, people hadn’t accepted the idea of constant technology upgrades like we take for granted today.

[@speculative]

That's the most important thing that's forgotten about the 5200: It invented the console upgrade!

[@user-tb5ns7hc5i]

If we didn’t get an 800xl, would have had a 5200 for sure. It was cool at the time, and played the most accurate arcade hit adaptions at the time also, just like the 8bit Atari computers. 5200 is definitely the best looking console and controllers ever designed despite the horrible controller functionality and breakage.

[@NewsmakersGames]

Thanks for watching! We have some big videos coming soon that you won't want to miss!

[@conman2k1]

Love your videos! Perfectly voiced, edited and thought-out. Very talented. Keep 'em coming!

[@c.l.7525]

I liked my two controller port 5200. I liked the games and even the number pad for games like Star Raider, just too bad they weren't built well. My pack-in game was Pac-Man.

[@flounder31]

numpad was the ONLY way to play Frogger

[@c.l.7525]

@@flounder31 as a 10 year old I didn't realize you could do that.

[@flounder31]

@@c.l.7525 Can't remember how I discovered that one. I think the included (usually useless) numpad templates had directionals shown or something.

[@redanime38]

The 5200 is everywhere on long island. You can get 1 at every thrift store, swap meet , yardsale or game store. They range from 40$ to pristine at 150+ at times . Grated you are right its hard to get one unscratched! Even ones w/boxes. Usually are scratched or dusty on the inside . Games are a dime a dozen from 5$ to 25$ and the obscure 40 to 50 in some retro stores.

[@adm712]

Do you know of any 5200s that are on sale on Long Island?

[@steveharvey2102]

I'm in Montreal and I've been garage sailing for around 10 years. In all that time, I found 1 console and 1 game for the 5200. Maybe it's a language thing, but we never had problems finding Atari 2600s, Colecos or NES items. I guess some places just land up having more than others. Good lufk with your huntin' :)

[@derekcockrell376]

I always felt the 5200 controller (and console) received alot of criticism, not all unjustified by any means, but there were some pretty groundbreaking features for the time. The pause button was invented by the 5200, at least on consoles (not sure if home computers had a pause feature at that time) and was something my best friend Chad, who owned a Colecovision, was always envious of. Also, the analog controller was truly revolutionary as a concept at the time, with full 360° control. It was a bummer that it didn't auto center but I got used to self centering the stick and it became an automatic thing for me after awhile. I wish Atari had made it auto center though, so that was definitely a miss, and like all the controllers (2600, Intellivision, Colecovision) of the day, my hands would cramp after an hour or so of gameplay on the 5200 (so thankful for modern controller design!). That all said, the games really were great on the system, and I still remember when my great friend Brian saw the between stage cut scene in Pack Man the first time--we were grinning ear to ear when that happened! That's no biggie today but at the time home arcade games didn't have cut scenes, so it was pretty awesome at the time. Missile Command, Frogger, Pac Man, Star Wars, Popeye, Pole Position, Q-Bert, Qix, Joust, all great games from the day that were (mostly) faithful home versions of the arcade games. I loved my 5200 and my buddies were all over playing games at my place back then--great times and memories!

[@jacobjones9071]

Just shows you how good the Atari 8bit computers were!

[@joshuasharrock466]

Never touched one but I'm starting to see the importance

[@jacobjones9071]

@@joshuasharrock466 The short version is that it's basically the C64 but arrived 3 years earlier... in some ways the 8bit line is actually superior to the 64.

[@joshuasharrock466]

@@jacobjones9071 I started with Windows 3.1 and a lot of Dos 6.22. I was born in 82. 94 was when I became a computer nerd but lately I've been fascinated by the history of the earlier computers. I also like to hypothesize what I would have chose to do back then with the mindset I have today

[@buffalodebill7986]

@@jacobjones9071 The C64 had a better CPU (the 6510, an upgrade to the legendary 6502), while the Atari computer had the standard one (if I'm not mistaken, it was the 6502B). The 5200 and 7800 had the 6502C. In terms of architecture, it could be felt that the C64 was a more recent product. But when considering programming for either (in high-level languages, not in the assembly one), I would (have) anytime prefer(-red) the Atari computers.

[@buffalodebill7986]

​@Neb6 Indeed, but frankly, the increased CPU speed wasn't really felt, due to the differences in CPUs & respective architectures - it definitely wasn't a difference-maker on assembly language level, trust me on that. What I meant was, that high level languages (like the mine-owned 800XL built-in Atari BASIC - or mine-preferred Turbo BASIC XL 1.6 and Kyan PASCAL) were much more flexible in comparison to what was available for C64 - and they allowed for much more of direct access to controlling HW as such, making programming easier, faster, more efficient and IMHO, more fun.

[@jvanb231]

I really liked the Colecovision controller. I mean, I had the Adam version of them but besides color I think they were the same. My 5200 pack in cart was pac-man. The 5200 was great for about two weeks until the controllers quit working.

[@Trialwolf]

Really nice video, always enjoy comparisons and a look at how the market was in a certain time period.

[@QunMang]

My biggest memory of the Atari 5200 was actually of a movie in which it had a significant product placement. What movie? 1984's Cloak & Dagger starring Henry Thomas of E.T. fame, and Dabney Coleman. Though I originally believed otherwise, unfortunately the game presented on a 5200 cartridge was not in fact a 5200 game, but rather the arcade game of the same title as the movie, Cloak & Dagger (apparently there *was* a port being developed for Atari 8-bit and 5200 but was never completed).

[@QunMang]

To be clear, I never owned a 5200, but my family did have a Colecovision.

[@sandal_thong8631]

That movie is in my top 10 favorites! The kids are good actors, though I didn't know he was Elliot in E.T. until recently since I didn't see E.T. when it came out. Also, C&D is one of the few movies where a kid uses a gun (though he doesn't want to). Too bad Lucas didn't hire a kid like that for Phantom Menace, though it had other problems and that kid delivered the performance that was asked of him. Looking at the behind-the-scenes, his casting crew didn't want to contradict him and say the dark-haired kid was better and could dye his hair if needed.

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

A friend down the road from me had an Atari 5200. Before I had a Nintendo I played the 5200 a lot! It was a 4 controller port I believe. I remember playing Joust & especially loved it

[@BigDaddyBooger]

My uncle had the 5200, and the intellivision, we played the 5200 more because it was newer, and had better graphics. To be fair we played the intellivision over the 2600 for exactly the same reason. One feature not mentioned was an adapter for the 5200 that locked both joysticks together into a single unit. There was one in particular game that this worked very well with as one joystick was used for driving and the other for firing. We would often play each function separately Turing a single player game into a two player cooperative game. But if you played it by yourself the adapter really game in handy. A couple of points I’d like to touch on with regards to Atari in general, they had customer loyalty and brand recognition long before branding and marketing became the way of establishing a customer base. I was sold on anything Atari until PlayStation. Ironically, I only ever owned the 2600 myself, I got a second hand one from my cousin who had to sell the 2600 before his folks would buy an Atari computer. But I personally felt an affinity for anything Atari as I saw it, it was the standard to which everything else was measured. This being said, I had no interest in any form of a home computer, for my own uses, my grandmother, (mother of the uncle with the 5200) had an apple 2E and we did spend a considerable amount of time zorking and playing other games. But other than gaming I had no use for computers, they represented tedious mind numbing work typing code which held no interest for anyone already used to plug n play games. I would assert that if Atari were to reintroduce a modern gaming system that was backwards compatible with their entire gaming library while simultaneously supporting new titles that are state of the art that it would have a humongous loyal fan base who are now fiscally able to satisfy their gaming desires without having to wait for Christmases and birthdays.

[@PorkMarshmallow]

After the 2600, I had an 800XL, which was such a great computer! So many awesome games.

[@davidmacphee8348]

Way more fun making your own games and much cheaper. Most carts suck.

[@kevinmach730]

I had that it as well, and had a lot of fun on it, but when the Commodore 64 came out, a year or so later I definitely realized I made mistake. In the PC world, that thing just bowled over all it's competition for the next 3 years.

[@xenxander]

The 800XL my dad had in his office and I loved playing games on it. Far superior games than the 2600.. but let's just say, not very accessible to most people and while the games were EASILY copied via disks, you couldn't port them to any console very easily.. so they remain on the compute themselves.

[@buffalodebill7986]

@@xenxander I think that home computer games could have been easily ported to the 5200, as the only big difference was in memory addresses used for each 'platform', respectively. But the HW was +/- the same. BTW I never had a game-console, but I started with the 800 XL - which was a beast of a machine, both right out of the box, but especially after memory upgrade & QMeg OS and getting a build-in TT-DOS (available at boot). Paired with the trusty old 1050, I used it fine (and it served me reliably & comfortably) well into the mid-1990's.

[@michaelbasal9600]

Hi Jacob, Nice meeting you in person yesterday, 3-12-22! This is a good and very fair Atari 5200 review. For me, this system will always have a place in my collection. But, I am also a devoted Atari collector. The 5200 trackball has less issues than the pack-in and infamous 5200 controllers I have found. While it cannot be used on all the 5200 games, the 5200 trackball really makes some games, especially and obviously, ones, like Missile Command and Centipede. They will play pretty much exactly like their arcade big brothers in game play control. The 5200 pack-in controllers can be seriously improved, at a cost, like rebuilding them with the gold flex circuit and buttons. Granted this is not an option for all but, like I said, I am a Atari collector. Again, great video! All the Best, Mike

[@jacobjones9071]

It's kind of funny just how clearly the 5200 was a direct response to the Intellivision, when that battle never really happened

[@sandal_thong8631]

It was over before it started because an exec at Warner told the Atari leadership to license Space Invaders, while they were asleep at the switch. If they hadn't and Mattel did, then Intellivision would have been the must-have system. Atari would still have been around because they made their own arcade games but it would have been like a 45% -45% -10% market (Atari - Intellivision - Odyssey²). Intellivision missed the 2nd boat not getting Pac-Man. If they or ColecoVision had it, then it would have been anyone's game.

[@shadowsayer1516]

I'm enjoying your videos. If I may make one suggestion, change "rarity" to "availability" for your 1 - 5 scale. In every other category (library, etc) the lower number is "bad", and the higher number is "good", but rarity kind of flips that on its head (the more rare it is, the "worse" it is to find, thus a higher number in your scale). "Availability" keeps the 1 - 5 scale in line with the others (low = bad, high = good).

[@GregsGameRoom]

I had a 400 and it was awesome. The XEGS is what the 5200 should have been.

[@GregsGameRoom]

Also, one reason we haven't seen a "5200 Classic" is because most of the games are arcade ports that would have to be re-licensed. Defender, Berzerk, Ballblazer, Beamrider, Blueprint, Buck Rogers, Choplifter, Congo Bongo, Gyruss, Gremlins, Pac-Man, etc. etc. etc. I'd love an Atari 800XL classic, but it just wouldn't sell very well. So for such great hardware, it's a shame we'll never see a mini version.

[@ChristianHansard]

I still have my 5200 even though it doesn't work anymore (don't know what happened to it) and all my games and 2 controllers. I hear all the time how this one was bad but until I got a Nintendo it was all we had and I loved it. I wish I knew how to repair it to get it going again.

[@mustaffaleak9247]

Just found this channel and loving it! Anybody know the name of the main music used throughout most of these videos?

[@mentalhealthnetwork]

Space Dungeon and Robotron 2084 are the killer apps on the system. Ms. PacMan is queen of the roost though.

[@glennshoemake4200]

After the 2600 i had an Atari 600xl and I used to buy those small metal cartridges to play games on as they had a nice feel to them over the plastic 2600/5200 cartridges and the games were as close to the arcade that you could get at that time. Later on I bought Atari 800xl and 1050 disk drive and enjoyed the It through high school.

[@buffalodebill7986]

I got my 1st computer in 1985 and it was the Atari 800 XL with the XC12 cassette recorder (from the XE line of products). Later, I got the ProLine joystick (bundled with the 7800) and the 1050 disk drive. Around 1990, my memory / OS was enlarged to a whopping 320 kB (64 kB base + 256 kB CompyShop RAM enhancement) with QMeg OS being a bootable optional (all on a built-in chip), thanks to a 3-way switch (standard Atari OS / Atari OS with 320 kB RAM / QMeg with 320 kB RAM). I also got a custom version of TT-DOS installed as a chip (I could trigger it during boot), which vastly sped up and eased up all the I/O work. It was so good, that I kept it and used it until the late 90's. Up to this day I regret giving it away - I blame the stupid younger me, of course :-) I need to add, that I switched from Atari BASIC to Turbo-BASIC-XL v1.6, as it made programming a very comfortable & pleasant experience (though I couldn't get it on a chip to simply replace the original Atari BASIC one, so I had to load it from a floppy disk every time), and also learned (and used) KYAN PASCAL - thanks to its great & vast libraries it was a real treat using it. Not to mention the 6502 assembly language, which really enabled me to create powerful, fast-running apps, quite often beating their sluggish PC counterparts to the punch. In terms of gaming, I am able to appreciate the charm of the 2600 even today (using the Stella emulator), but (maybe not) surprisingly, the 5200 as well as the 7800 are not really such interesting options to me.. The 8-bit line of computers had a vast library of games, which, with a few exceptions, overlapped with / were identical to the respective ones of both of these consoles. The 5200 games are almost the same as their home-computer counterparts and the 7800 (despite some advanced processing power & improved graphics) didn't really bring anything superbly new to the table to make me consider investing into it. Nor do they have that special something to run them in an emulator. In other words, I set the Atari800Win emulator to behave like the computer I once had and not the 5200 console I (maybe) may have once wanted, a tiny little bit :-)

[@alexxbaudwhyn7572]

Excellent overview, hit all the right notes of the pre 1985/NES era. Had a generic Pong console circa 1976, then bought a second hand 2600 1980. Pre ordered and received a Colecovision the first month of release in na. As the Crash began, we picked up a 5200 at Circus World or JCPenney at clearance price. I liked the CV better than the 5200 in general, more unique games that hadn't been done before on the 2600. The overlap and redundancy in Atari's lineup was ridiculous and a big contributor to Atari's crash and firesale to Tramiel. 5209, 8bit 400/800/xl/xe series, 7800, just too many similar lines. The 5200 should have been a repackaged 400/800, or even better, the xegs. If the xegs had been released in 1982 in place of the 5200, with upgrades to keep it current for 5+ years, things may have been different. Or simply focus on the 800xl, dropping the 5200 and 400/800 sooner

[@WizardOfAtlantis]

Man, I didn't even know about the Atari 800 pc! If Atari would have stuck to that and not worked out of fear-based decision ("quick! let's make an Atarintellivision 2600X2") they might have been able to slot themselves into the burgeoning home pc boom like Commodore did. Great video as always. I watch all of your videos with relish.

[@NewsmakersGames]

Yeah, the 5200 does seem like a rush job to try and beat the Intellivision, which is funny since they theorically could have released it well before in 1979. We've covered nearly all of Atari's computer line on our other channel, Newsmakers Tech

[@WizardOfAtlantis]

@@NewsmakersGames Ah, great news, then. I will head over and watch it! Thanks for the heads-up.

[@mervynstent1578]

Atari 400/800 & Atari 5200 were designed by legendary designer Jay Miner! Also the father of the Amiga

[@richardhdent]

When I was a kid I exchanged my Colecovision for an Atari 5200 because with the Colecovision you could control the other person's characters with your controller. Sucked. The 5200 controllers back then were amazing. They lasted longer than most kids kept video games. The complaints about the controllers come from present day collectors. At the time they were cutting edge. As far as the spark with the connection, that was very real. I would say the sounds put it above the Coleco but the Coleco had cleaner lines. I have a Coleco too. As far as collecting the Atari 5200 there are new controllers you can buy that are great. Get the two port. Get the Atari-max and you're good to go. It fixes all the "collecting" problems. FYI if I had know you could get the same games on a computer back then, I would have gotten the 400. This makes me sad. I badgered my mother for this 5200 so bad and didn't do great in school. A computer would have saved her money and made me smarter!

[@charlene2400]

I wanted one, but the salesman advised against it, in favor of anything else. We took home a c64, which I still love. I did get a 5200 few years later, abandoned at flea market. In time, I made it work, and it's my most played Atari today. Internally, I've replaced port 1 multiplexer, and the voltage regulators, also the transistor and voltage comparator IC inside the switchbox. My old Rev 7 flexi's worked great if cleaned every couple months. The rev 9 ones I have now, suck.

[@joshuasharrock466]

It wouldn't have been as good a deal as the Commodore 64... Maybe too different of systems to contrast but If I was alive then and had ability to compare systems, I'd make that choice. Especially if I already had an Atari 2600 However I have never touched a Commodore before. Even today. I started with DOS and WIN 3.1 (for old schoolers)

[@NewsmakersGames]

The Commodore 64 is an excellent computer. It wasn't included in this comparison due to not really fitting the timescale of 1982-3. It took a few years for the C64 to take off with software development and for costs to fall. In 1982 a just released C64 cost the equivalent of $1600 today, and there were very few games available till 84 or 85.

[@joshuasharrock466]

@@NewsmakersGames I know you didn't have that comparison in here for those reasons you even said that in the video. Just after watching I thought of your first question which was what would I have done back then. The 64 wasn't out yet because it wasn't out till later that year but I probably would have waited Keep rocking the content bro. The big names like 8-bit guy are starting to get a bit off topic

[@DTM-Books]

My understanding of the Atari 5200 in the 1980s was that it was just a 400 computer without the keyboard, and that it played all the same games. So I never really paid much attention to it, and never knew any kids who owned one. Indeed, it sounds crazy, but it's only this month that I realized that the 5200 not only had unique versions of several arcade games (Centipede, Qix, Pac-Man, Super Breakout) but that its analog joystick actually took advantage of analog controls. Add in the trackball controller, and you truly have the "arcade experience" in the home. For its time, that's a pretty impressive feat, and it's a testament to Atari's hubris, as well as their cluelessness, that they failed so badly to sell this product to the masses. Naturally, the lack of 2600 compatibility was a huge error, but like the Super NES, the consoles were just too different, and selling the 5200 for $200 (or more) already priced it out of range of most consumers. There was no way that parents were about to throw away that expensive Atari toy they bought for their kids, only to replace it with a larger, more expensive version of the exact same thing. And this problem wasn't limited to Atari, but seemed to curse the entire industry, as Mattel and Coleco struggled to expand with newer machines. This only added to the over-saturated market, which, as we all know, led to the complete disintegration of the US videogame industry in 1983-84. I grew up with the Atari 8-bits, so I never felt that I missed anything. Indeed, most of the 5200 games were ripped and ported to floppy disk, so we got to enjoy Space Dungeon and Berzerk on our computers. Pity we never got to play more of the trackball games, as Missile Command was the only title designed for that peripheral on the 400/800 (for all other games, the trackball works digitally, like a joystick). Today, all these years later, I can see the unique strengths of the 5200, and in a "midlife crisis" sort of way, I find myself really wishing I owned one. Heck, add in one of a number of new indie-built joysticks, add that trackball controller, and you have a strong contender for 1980s Golden Age bliss. Add in later releases like Tempest (completed by the original programmer himself) and Castle Crisis (a terrific translation of the Warlords arcade), and you have a great games console. Yes, you're going to be spending the same amount of money as you would for a Playstation 5, which is why the Atari 5200 is really only meant for diehard gamers. You know what modern console is the perfect analogy to the Atari 5200? Nintendo Wii U. Those two are cut from the same cloth.

[@zork2001]

i had the 5200 as a kid I remember it coming with pac-man. No one ever mentions it but I believe the famous game of Joust is superior on the 5200 compared to the arcade version, I think Wizzards of War and Pengo are more fun than the arcade versions as well.

[@JasonJones-br3or]

You made some very interesting points; thank you for the presentation! I have one of these; I will say that even though it has a small library, nearly every title is excellent. The arcade ports were very impressive, Space Dungeon, Robotron 2084, and Defender really shined. But that's what made this system so frustrating: incredible titles, lousy controllers. The Trak-ball, however, is actually excellent quality for the time. Once the keypad-controllers are refitted with good metal contacts over those goofy carbon-dots, you're good to go... replacing the flex-circuit is not always necessary. Third party software support, which made the 2600 so incredibly popular, was sorely lacking, and most third-party titles were sloppy ports. The Activision cartridges are highly problematic and poor quality, as the cartridge PCBs are too thin to interface properly with the contacts on the system-board. And you're absolutely on point, what hurt the system more than anything was the pack-in game Breakout; I'm sure there were contemporary reviews blasting Atari for this. Breakout is an excellent title, but it was an arcade-classic of the 70s, and the 2600 was already very capable of rendering 70s arcade-ports very nicely... Space invaders, Pong, Night Driver, Astroids, etc. And if you compare the 2600/5200 versions of Breakout side-by-side, the disparity seems negligible. However, weaknesses of the 5200 controller would not manifest themselves with Breakout: the non-centering stick was not a problem, and the fire/keyboard buttons were seldom used. Imagine... you stayed up late Christmas Eve playing Demon Attack or H.E.R.O on your old heavy-sixer; you get a 5200 Christmas day... and it's... Breakout.

[@steveharvey2102]

Or, you could ger a Coleco and play "Frenzy". I love that game :) Cheers from Canada

[@Skorpio420]

You missed the part of the power supply running through the TV switch on the 4-player models.

[@nearvanaman]

I just got an s-video modded Atari 5200 with two controllers for $120. It does look great on my 14" CRT. Although honestly I'm afraid to use it too much Incase the controller stops working.

[@buffalodebill7986]

The controllers are easy to fix; the repair & replacement parts kit are quite cheap, some 20 EUR, if I recall correctly. BTW there are some great (almost tutorial) videos on WHAT TO's and HOW TO's, so almost anyone can do it themselves. So be easy and game hard :-)

[@MrNightshade2010]

if i remeber right a lot of companies wrote their atari games 2600 on the atari 4/800 hence the explosion of games from about 80 to 83

[@10MARC]

I tend to agree. I never wanted a 5200 back in the day, and I don't want one now. But you could not pry my 7800 out of my cold, dead hands... I started collecting for that just this year, and already have built up a library of 30+ games. Looking forward to your Atari 7800 retrospective.

[@AngryCalvin]

I really like the 7800. There are some really good arcade ports even a few that are superior to the NES versions. I wish it would have done much better as a console.

[@Lightblue2222]

Great videos! Lots to say :) I believe the advantage to 5200 over the home computers and rivals was its analog control. That was probably the sell point. Arcade accuracy. 2600 has the paddle but that only goes 2 directions.. There really hasn't been anything like the 5200 joystick since.. It wasn't like today's self centering analog thumbsticks. For Star Wars Arcade, Super Breakout etc... you have to hold and keep it in the direction you want. So you don't want it pulling to the center.. A centering stick is only good for the games that don't need analog in the first place. Which reminds me.. Most of its library doesn't even benefit from analog! Yet it seems to be a full on analog system!? Modern controllers that people have made for it in recent times don't even include a dpad. If there were a simple easy affordable controller for 5200 its accessibility and fun factor would skyrocket. That's why I enjoy 2600/7800, Genesis controllers are good and cheap. Perhaps that's why we never see a mini plug n' play version. If games won't work with a standard controller, it'd be more expensive.. plus u got that number pad and 4 fire buttons... its basically NASA technology. Back to some 5200 greatness! Because of its design it had the best Trak Ball controller. I bet people with the money that really wanted the feel of the arcade would have enjoyed it. Centipede for 2600/7800 was designed for digital controls, so even with their Trak Ball controller it wouldn't be as accurate as 5200. Infact I just learned of Centipede TB, 2600 and 7800 have now been Trak Ball modified! 5200 was a beast and ahead of time. The controller was the selling point but also the problem. Mostly just because they break. Other thoughts.. Pack in Super Breakout? It's an analog game to demonstrate the new controller capability, cool but that one really needed the 2600 paddle. I wonder how many people were disappointed on the spot and went back to 2600 for that game. I still think 5200 is appealing. It just needs simple, cheap, and reliable controllers for all those non analog games like Pacman, DigDug etc... etc... maybe that way we wont keep burning out its controller. Keep the miles off, save it for the few games that use it. Thx

[@jackofallgamesTV]

I found 3 or 4 5200s between 1996 and 1999 in thrift shop runs. I got a rare Coin Competition Digital Controller for the 5200 in one of them. If you were tgrifting in the 90s, you had some #KenAwesome trips I've also found Astrocades, Odyssey 2s, and even a Supercharger and Arcadia 2001. Only pre-crash one I couldn't find was a Vectrex.

[@briancarsen6315]

I still have an Atari 5200 at my parents place and we bought it brand new. Mine is the 4 port version and it did NOT ship with breakout. Mine came with Pac man. Still have the original box kit came in...both in very nice condition. I think it's a great system. I will concur that the controllers were bogus with having no centering spring for the joysticks which makes playing Pac man difficult. The rubber chiclklet buttons for fire were also known to go to bad after a a few years of use. I love the 5200, the 2600 had such poor graphic and sound. All my buddies came over to play on the 5200 supersystem!

[@dogeymon83]

My 5200 controllers work great. Yeah they needed to be fitted with new Mylar pads by they work great and are actually much more useable than coleco. Coleco controllers are reknown for being broken. What’re you talking about? I have had a hard time finding ones with working fire buttons. The forums told me it’s common to find them not working and they often need to be fixed.

[@harvey66616]

Uh...link for "Part 1" in description is wrong. It has the link to this video, not to the one before it. Please fix.

[@bitcortex1991]

I know nothing about marketing, but I find it interesting that a legendary product (the 400/800) and a weak one (the 5200) can be essentially identical on the inside. In any case, I'm such a devoted Atari 8-bit fan that I can't help having a fondness for the 5200. I never had one, but I played all its games on my 400 computer. Many 5200 games were officially available for the computer line, and there was a very clever pirate who provided the rest. The hardware was identical, so porting wasn't required; it was just a matter of patching in support for standard joysticks and dumping the result onto a floppy.

[@jcchaconjr]

And to think - they could have just released what would later become the XEGS way back in 1982. Sure, there would have still been that lack of 2600 support, but at that time, computer gaming took a bite out of the console market, especially in Europe. This is one of the reasons why the NES didn’t fare as well over there.

[@billmadison2032]

I felt sorry for the kids that had the intellevision

[@randybradley4151]

You could also use the Sega Master System controllers as well on the Colecovision.

[@mikesdead365]

My 5200 cost 35 dollars more than my 2600, so why not provide actual prices than MSRP? They were purchased two years apart from each other in the 80s. I had to wait for the 5200 to ship. An error like that colors your perspective out of the gate, which brings everything you posit into question. Though packaging the 5200 with Breakout when my Colecovision came with Donkey Kong and Zaxxon was a disaster, even when the breakout starting screen looked better than the Colecovision screens.

[@xenxander]

5200 had four years? Not bad. the N64 only had that many years, honestly. So I don't see the issue in a four year lineup. Many consoles only have four to six years before 'the next gen' is out. So yeah just follow the console line from the last ten years.. how many 'generations' did we go through?

[@luthiervandros]

We had one when I was a kid. Was fun

[@joeg4707]

The VSCS was my first console, never had a 5200. I switched to PC gaming and programming on an IBM PCjr by 1984. I picked up a 7800 a couple years ago. It has a solid library but was held back by the TIA sound for 2600 backward compatibility. The few games that had an on-board POKEY chip have solid sound (e.g Ballblazer). Despite my nostalgia for Atari, I have no plans to get a 5200--too many problems. Atari is iconic in video game lore, but I wonder if their mostly first-move status, dumb luck and quality Activision games propelled them to early success with the 2600. Maybe it was great marketing, too; but everything beyond that first console really was a mess.

[@jimcrall]

The 5200 was my first console. Since I had nothing else to compare it to at the time, I thought it was great. I'd buy controllers anytime I saw them at the flea market because mine were always broken. I think I have about 20 controllers, and of course none of them work. I thought the games were great, but the artwork on some of the cartridges was super confusing. For instance - Galaxian. What's with that artwork? I still have my 5200, to the best of my knowledge it still works, but I haven't had a working controller in 30 years.

[@AngryCalvin]

That’s too bad how bad the controllers were. I used a 7800 controller for my Texas Instruments Home Computer and it worked really well. At least it was more user friendly than the sticks made for the system.

[@joeminpa6705]

You know, come to think of it, I got my 5200 with some graduation money in 1985 and ....... it was a 4 port model.

[@AngryCalvin]

Crazy I didn’t know a single person who had a 5200. So I have always been curious about the console. I have played a few 5200 games but not on the console and with arcade controllers. The lack of titles and not having backwards compatibility scared me away from the console. Despite having a few really good looking games it looks like it suffered from serious issues. If the controller was worse than Colecovision that is really sad.

[@Akira625]

The 5200’s graphics and sound abilities were virtually identical to the 400/800, making it an even less compelling reason to buy it.

[@G18999]

Atari 5200 was an unmitigated disaster. If only Bushnell was still there.

[@larryroyovitz7829]

These companies back then never really understood the power of the first party killer app. Nintendo did with Super Mario Bros.

[@obsoleteobsession]

"Which would you want - a cheap system with hundreds of games, or a system that costs 3x more with less games?" PS5 owners: *mad*

[@Puckanm]

The Car analogy had me laughing... So many Experts that have never even used/played The Hardware lol 😀

[@bubbles581]

i had a 2600 and my friend had a 7800, i always assumed the 5200 would be more powerful than the 7800 because the 7800 was a souped up 2600 - but i was surprised when I saw the 7800 was wayyyyy more powerful than the 5200. Now I'm surprised the 2600 gets so many flashbacks and emulators and the 7800 gets left behind. It was really such a massive improvement the 7800 games need to be better available.

[@johndutton7915]

Loved my 5200. We had a bunchof games. But we always played vangaurd

[@richarnold5323]

Your analysis suffers somewhat from being voiced by a guy who wasn't THERE at the time deciding what to buy. People were excited for the 5200 and absolutely knew it had knock-out graphics. But as you did mention, the price was terribly high, so people who had 2600/VCS systems did not upgrade, and others bought the ColecoVision with it's decent graphics at a reasonable price. Games had a high price, too, and I will admit this is something that shaped my buying decisions for decades. I rarely buy new games, because they cost too damn much. I buy used when they drop below a certain level. Yeah, I'm a cheapskate - but this is just idle fun for me, not my job.

[@joefell5311]

That Wico Command Control joystick is looking very questionable. And let us not forget about how the power supply and RF adapter need to be connected.

[@jasonkoestner4630]

Games for this especially the home brews really show what the 5200 could do and there is a copy of donkey Kong for the 5200 that was retro fitted from the Atari 800 looks and sounds better than Comecon and Nintendo and has the pie factory

[@DarthSideous63]

Most of the original Atari team such as Nolan Bushnell was gone by the 5200 game out.

[@baroncalamityplus]

If they ever do a mini console, they should just do a Mini 8bit computer line and if there was a 5200 game they wanted to feature, include it in that.

[@Nestalgba92023]

With an actual keyboard, right?

[@baroncalamityplus]

@@Nestalgba92023 Well that would be nice but realistically, it would be like the C64 mini with a fake keyboard but with U SB to plug in your own.

[@jasonhinman6173]

Thanks!

[@jasonz7788]

Thanks you Jacob

[@gregjarvis1232]

I have played Breakout on the Arcade Machine looks played nothing like that in the video I have never seen a good console port of it...I wonder if The Acarade Machine had a different name? I can't remember

[@flounder31]

How in the hell did I get caught in the 8-bit crossfire? Had (still have) both a 5200 and a TI-99/4A. Games were great, relatively faithful arcade ports (as good as the Colecovision & TI-99's ports. Thanks TMS9918 VDP!) but man those controllers were absolute shit... honestly the reason I stopped using mine. I still have it, and the several games I had for it, all in box. Who knew, I was sitting on a goldmine, if I can get the sticks rehabbed? (Like others, my pack-in was Pac-Man, the true 80s king until that Italian plumber came along.)

[@marklechman2225]

At the time, having the computer game rights was not the same thing as having the console cart rights. Coleco got in trouble with Atari for this by porting their console version of Donkey Kong to their home computer, the Adam, when Atari actually held the rights to all computer versions of that game. So I suspect legal issues like this may have kept Atari's computer division and console divisions from being "out-of-the-box-compatible" in terms of software.

[@thedrummerboycr]

The Real Sport Baseball was the best Baseball video Game until appear Hardball on 8 bit computers (Atari, C64, PC, Amiga (16bit). The 5200 i don`t know if was the worst Game Console, maybe not the best, but had a lot of 80s computers and electronics magic wanted.

[@wallacelang1374]

I own a working Atari 5200 Super System and I want to point out things that you seem to have chosen to ignore in this video. #1 - The original Atari 5200 joystick controllers have flex circuits inside with a tendency to oxidize, so you might have to replace the flex circuits on occasion. #2 - There are independent inventors who have created keypad controllers so that you can hook up Atari (2600) joystick controllers to it and it to the Atari 5200 console itself. #3 - There are homebrew publishers that sell new Atari 5200 games for this console. #4 - The reason why Atari sold its Atari 5200 with Super Breakout as the packed in game was because Atari was not satisfied with the original planned packed in game of Asteroids. #5 - A friend of mine owned a ColecoVision and I would choose not to tell him, but the original ColecoVision controllers are the controllers from Hell !!! For the knob instead of a stick pinched my fingers and the fire buttons have such strong metal springs inside as well as the odd protruding ridge of plastic that it left nearly permanent indentation scars on the thumbs.

[@rna151]

"The reason why Atari sold its Atari 5200 with Super Breakout as the packed in game was because Atari was not satisfied with the original planned packed in game of Asteroids." I mean... I'm not saying that wouldn't have been worse but it still doesn't make Super Breakout a good choice. A pack-in game is meant to be something that shows off what your new system is capable of.

[@charlesjmouse]

Very good, thank you. A monstrosity of a console as a direct result of a series of bonkers decisions. A 5200 that was no more than an Atari 8 bit computer with the keyboard cut off (a timely XEGS) would have at very worst cost no more than the tooling for a new case, would have been able to compete with 'proper' consoles of the day, and have a ready-to-go catalogue. Instead... A money pit that resulted in a pile of crud with terrible controllers made artificially incompatible.

[@shawn6306]

I think the super breakout atari 5200 game looks great to me or it's time in my difference honest opinion

[@hamthe3rd]

So... Montazuma's Revenge (using a good stick) was the best version of the lot on the 5200. Activision has some solid titles on the 5200 that was far superior to their 2600 counterpart or even the improved versions on the 7800. (Pitfall II and H.E.R.O. being the standouts) My overall experience with the 5200 was great when it was in the market, with Zone Ranger and other third party games showing off the capabilities that rarely was used in the arcade adaptions. My disappointment was that Imagic never made anything for the system, and that the system was not around for long before the 7800 (alternative in my mind) came out. It is the same disappointment I share with the ill fated Jaguar.

[@dr.awkward9075]

I mean, my controllers broke pretty quick back in the day, but i used the controller storage space to hide my weed from my Mom. Worked great. 👍👍

[@rickjames2.0]

I loved the games on here I just wish the system was better

[@MegaDeth859]

I just can't keep this bottled in any longer, I love your videos but that background little song drowns out your voice and makes it diificult to watch the whole video. Please don't take it the wrong way, thanks for your hard work and great content!

[@johneysupergd7796]

You almost edited the nes classic mini palage perfectly,almost because if only you removed the nintendo logo and it’s games and replaced those games with pac man,moon patrol,mario bros and popeye,that would,ve been perfect,BUT the million dollar question remains,what if atari released their atari xe back in 1982 instead,rather then releasing the atari 5200 at that time,would the atari xe had sold much much better??? Or was atari still incidently compeating against their selfs???, we may probably never know but i think the atari xe could,ve be a great real success.

[@SwainyAtRetroAsylum]

No mention that the 5200 didn’t make it across to Europe & the UK.

[@kevinmach730]

The 5200 didn't fail in design as much as Atari failed in understanding it's market and customer based- and my I add, had done so continuously. As iconic as they are in the early days of video games and consoles, they had the world by the tail and just blew it. Most of their failures and downfall, as I recall from picking up pieces of it over the years, were mostly due to short-sighted profit instead of long-term viability (the Pacman folly you mentioned in your first video is a great example, but unfortunately only one of many). Anyway, great video and some fantastic observations!

[@jbgtly4930]

I love how the NES came out in the US and people couldn't buy them fast enough. Even though Atari had been screaming from the rooftops to retailers that nobody in the US wanted home consoles anymore. The NES was proof that Atari was 100% full of shi** about the "Video Game Crash of the 80s". It was just propaganda and engineered obsolescence to try and force people to buy their home computers instead. Saying that their response with the 7800 was half a$$ed is insulting the term "half a$$ed". Atari deserved everything that happened to them for putting pride and image above profit and success.

[@user-tb5ns7hc5i]

Totally agree. Atari did not fail at design, engineering, quality, marketing, and art - They failed at the business end completely though and did not understand their buyers and markets. Complete disconnect between the suits and the customers.

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

Donkey Kong 2600 vs Coleco? NO COMPARISON.

[@mowowie]

Probably the most exciting game console i ever bought. Beautiful Great quality machine and awesome games. Yea the controllers sucked....they were designed very nice and modern but the button contacts really were bad..

[@davidmacphee8348]

Wait. Did you say that my exciting Atari VCS controllers would have worked on my Colecovision? (sort of)

[@NewsmakersGames]

Yup. Works great!

[@davidmacphee8348]

@@NewsmakersGames "Beam me back, Scotty"

[@davidmacphee8348]

those exact Atari controllers? I wrote so many games around them! Colecovision games were amazing but somewhat of a novelty compared to that big original controller!

[@davidmacphee8348]

Girl learn. Size is better

[@davidmacphee8348]

Cum to think of it, those big Atari sticks were pretty sexy or like powerful gear shifts or something. I guess they created something all by themselves or something?

[@kethdredd]

REally enjoy your videos. I'd recommend that you stop using stock footage. Especially repeatedly.

[@waltciii3]

Seriously the 400 should have simply been re-released / reskinned as a game system in 1980. Just give it a more Livingroom friendly aesthetic and sell an optional keyboard... Oh yeah cheapskate Tramiel did that years later in 1987 with the XEGS.

[@LorKen17021991]

The Atari 5200 is maybe today one of the worst of the major consoles. But there is way bigger crap.

[@Ocea8i53]

Just imagine playing atari 2600 Solaris

[@Viprz]

In hindsight, if the 5200 was skipped and the 7800 was released in 83/84 with a better sound chip, NES and Sega would have had a much harder time entering North American market. Too many bad moves over the long road of dysfunction... The 5200 was too much money for bad quality, the 7800 was too late, the Lynx did have some success but when the final make or break came down to the Jaguar, the system had some hits but too many misses due to the hardware challenges faced by third party developers. Atari defeated itself at the end of the day.

[@dallase1]

The Colecovision had way better graphics than the 5200. Donkey Kong look more like the arcade Donkey Kong on the Colecovision. The 5200 was just a Atari 8-Bit computer with less memory, a crappy controller and no keyboard.

[@mowowie]

nope

[@ks-bg5uk]

Biggest failure? How so? 5200 sold 1 million consoles in 2 years. The 7800 sold only 3 million in an 8 years span for some cities. The Jaguar sold a measly

[@RawrX32009]

I think he means the biggest failure so far

[@christianrivera9515]

I'm just glad I was born when games had better controllers i.e PSone

[@1or2there]

KISS inspired silver on blak . . .

[@moedark4390]

set play back speed to 1.25x

[@cbmeeks]

BTW, a trick I discovered on the Colecovision version of Donkey Kong is that when Mario is climbing up the ladder, stop for a second and then quickly press up again. He will speed up pretty drastically and climb the ladder faster. Not sure how well known this was, but was excited that I discovered it when I was a kid.

[@NewsmakersGames]

That's pretty neat!

[@datacipher]

It was a well known trick even in the 80s.

[@cbmeeks]

@@datacipher Perhaps. But I've never seen a video of anyone doing it or anyone mentioning it. But like I said, I'm sure I wasn't the first to discover.

[@smartasianfriend9940]

​@@cbmeeks lol. You definitely were not the first. I heard the tip the first time I played CV DK at my cousins, about 30 seconds into playing. He had one of the first CVs. I would guess everyone knew it. Most reviewers are millenials who actually know very very little about the time or the consoles. You'd be shocked how many mistakes they make, and how they just parrot narratives they hear from other millenials. Well actually you can see it - most of them are TERRIBLE at actual gameplay - many don't even fully know the rules of the games they're trying to play! CREATIVE COMPUTING VIDEO & ARCADE GAMES VOL. 1, NO. 1 / SPRING 1983 / PAGE 54 You must learn how to climb ladders quickly. If you simply walk over to the base of a ladder and point the joystick in the up direction, you slowly plod up the ladder. To shoot up a ladder, jiggle the joystick between up and the center "off" position. For a reason we have yet to determine, Mario seems to slide up ladders like lightning when you use this technique.

[@datacipher]

@@smartasianfriend9940 exactly. How many reviewers do you see even using double-fire on invaders? Years ago youtube kept trying to push the classic games room on me. That guy is the worst. He claims he was there back in the day, but has no idea what he’s talking about.

[@cootmaster]

you forgot that stupid box for the 4 port