DCEmu Asks - Atari 5200 a History & Whats the greatest Atari 5200 Game Ever ?

[wraggster]

Continuing our network wide feature for just about every console thats emulated and that we own, in time it can be used as a reference point for people to look at what games are the very best on each system

Firstly heres a look at each system and a description to remind you of the history of the console.

http://console-history.dcemu.co.uk/atari5200.JPG


Atari 5200

Atari 5200 was established in 1982 to compete with Intellivision, and to become the successor of the Atari 2600. The Atari 5200 was a modified version of the Atari 400/800 which was the most powerful 8-bit home computer system of its era. The graphics were a step above the older competition, and went toe to toe with their newest competitor the Colecovision.

The 5200 enjoyed moderate success, but never reached the overall success of it's predecessor the Atari 2600. Resources which should have been allocated for 5200 game development went instead to the 2600 (a system which was on its last legs and already saturated with software from Atari and its third party publishers). In addition, the fact that the 5200 was not compatible with the 2600 put off many 2600 owners who had accumulated a substantial library of games for the system. A VCS adapter which allowed 2600 games to be played on the 5200 was later released, but he "Great Videogame Crash of 1984" prevented any hopes of it being making further sales. The Atari 5200 would soon become history with the rest of the home videogame consoles of that time.

FACT: The Atari 5200 cartridges were nearly twice the size of those for the 2600,and were basically designed in this fashion to make the consumer think they were getting a “bigger and better” game.

The Atari 5200 was also the first videogame console to utilize a "Pause" button.

Whats the Best Atari 5200 Game ?

More DCEmu Console History Can Be Found Here (http://console-history.dcemu.co.uk/)

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[andrewgabriel77]

IMO Space Dungeon was the best Atari 5200 game...I used to play it for hours on end.

Came with a special holster that held both controllers side by side allowing for a Dual-Analog feel to the game.

[GibsonSGKing]

there was no greatest game, becuase atari is horrible =D

[paul3100]

there was no greatest game, becuase atari is horrible =D

I have to almost agree, didn't like the old atari 2600 /520 /7?? but loved the atari st . The sound and graphics were just horrible but i suppose if you were playing these machines in the 70's/80's then you wouldn't have seen better so would have been good then,

paul

[andrewgabriel77]

The Atari 5200 actually came out in 1982...since I was born in 1977 I was 5 at the time. Though I believe we actually got it 2 years later when I was 7 as our first family gaming console.

However I guess if you can still remember getting your diapers changed then it wouldn't seem like a very good system.

[bagmouse7]

Star Raiders, Ms Pacman or Missile command are all great.

[Gentelman]

.since I was born in 1977 I was 5 at the time. Though I believe we actually got it 2 years later when I was 7 as our first family gaming console.

[technoshock11]

Pac-Man. What a huge improvement over the bad 2600 version.

The 5200 was not a bad system, apart from the controller. Still I like the ColecoVision more.

[Eviltaco64]

The 5200 was a beast. Unfortunately, I never had one as we had the 7800. :/

[JDvorak]

The 5200 as mentioned had horrible controllers. We must have went through a dozen of them that broke. Opening them up and you couldn't get them back together either.

[jenni09]

Seems to be very nice

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[Darryl1970]

Join Date: Jul 2006

Posts: 4

Default Greatest5200 game
I am going to just throw one out there --

Mario Bros. Coleco had Donkey Kong, and Atari had Mario Bros. Due to the mismanagement of Atari, people were more focused on the blocky 2600 version. However, the 5200 version had a detail that was unusual for that time period. I was disappointed that it was missing the intermissions and the falling icicles (which didn't appear until much later in the game). HOWEVER, it has small details that are not even present in the NES version: The turtles jump out of their shells to kick them back over, Mario catches fire when hit by a fireball, etc. The control was a little off from the arcade, as one could be running full speed one direction and jump instantly in the opposite. However, the two-player head-to-head match lent itself to hours of competitive over-nighters. It was fun to play together, but it was a lot of fun to try to sabotage the other player!

The joysticks were unreliable, but as far as the non-centering issue -- IT'S CALLED CO-ORDINATION. People were just winers, because it wasn't what they were USED to, and people don't like to leave their comfort zone. Get over it already. I could play Pac-Man, Ms. Pac, Pengo, River Raid (with analog control!), Montezuma's Revenge, Popeye, Space Dungeon, and countless others for hours. Games like RealSports Baseball ROCKED with the controllers. My friends and I could play for hours.

Oh yeah... And the 5200 was capable of much more. The re-released version of Mario Bros for the 8-bit computers blows away most home conversions I can think of. And, if Atari could have released their version of Donkey Kong, game would have been over. Coleco had higher resolution graphics, but Atari had more attention to detail.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1815/mariobros5200.jpg (http://img101.imageshack.us/i/mariobros5200.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[hanktzar]

It has to be Donkey Kong for me! CLASS A game!