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Atari 5200

 




The Atari 5200 SuperSystem premiered in 1982, and was the successor to the Atari 2600 which dominated the first wave of cartridge-based home videogame systems. The 5200 offered improved graphics and several features not found on any other system during its time. The System was basically a 16K computer.  The fastest computer at the time.  Despite its relative small library of games and being a lukewarm seller in the early 1980s, the Atari 5200 has a significant following of die-hard enthusiasts and collectors who recognize its excellence as a gaming machine.  The first thing that comes to mind about the 5200 is its enormous size.  The cartridges were also fairly large.  Like all of the other systems, this one also hooked up through the RF port of a TV.  Many of the games that were on the old 2600 came out for the 5200 and as gamers may already know, the graphics were a step up.  That's right, there were 10 blocks instead of three.  Actually, some titles on this one were literally arcade-perfect, rivaling some of the retro titles that have come out for newer systems.  The controller for the 5200 was like the Coleco, the Intellivision and the Atari Jaguar in that it had a numerical pad.  Imagine a standard Atari 2600 controller  somehow combined with the Coleco controller.


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Atari 5200 Accessories (2) Atari 5200 Games (24)

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Atari 5200 System Atari 5200 System Info $49.99 Notify Me When Stock Is Available
 
[ 1 ]

The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. The 5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the ColecoVision shortly after its release. A number of design flaws had a serious impact on usability, and the system is generally considered to have performed poorly on the market.

The 5200 was heavily based on Atari Inc.'s existing 400/800 computers and the internal hardware was almost identical. However, a number of issues (aside from the lack of a keyboard) meant that software was not directly compatible between the two systems.

The system's Atari 400-based origins made for a powerful, proven design which Atari Inc. could quickly bring to market.

In its prototype stage, the Atari 5200 was originally called the "Atari Video System X - Advanced Video Computer System", and was codenamed "Pam" after a female employee at Atari Inc. It is also rumored that PAM actually stood for "Personal Arcade Machine", as the majority of games for the system ended up being arcade conversions. Actual working Atari Video System X machines, whose hardware is 100% identical to the Atari 5200 do exist, but they are extremely rare.

The initial 1982 release of the system featured four controller ports, where nearly all other systems of the day had only two ports. The 5200 also featured a revolutionary new controller with an analog joystick, numeric keypad, two fire buttons on both sides of the controller and game function keys for Start, Pause, and Reset. The 5200 also featured the innovation of the first automatic TV switchbox, allowing it to automatically switch from regular TV viewing to the game system signal when the system was activated. Previous RF adapters required the user to slide a switch on the adapter by hand. This unique RF box was also where the power supply connected in a unique dual power/television signal setup similar to the RCA Studio II's. A single cable coming out of the 5200 plugged into the switch box and was used for both electricity and the television signal.

The 1983 revision of the Atari 5200 has two controller ports instead of four, and a change back to the more conventional separate power supply and standard non-autoswitching RF switch. It also has changes in the cartridge port address lines to allow for the Atari 2600 adapter released that year. While the adapter was only made to work on the two-port version, modifications can be made to the four-port to make it line-compatible. In fact, towards the end of the four-port model's production run, there were a limited number of consoles produced which included these modifications. These consoles can be identified by an asterisk in their serial number.

The Atari 5200 suffered from its software incompatibility with the Atari 2600, though an adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games, using the more reliable controllers native to that system.

Another problem was the lack of attention that Atari Inc. gave to the console; most of its resources went to the already oversaturated Atari 2600. It faced an uphill battle competing with the ColecoVision's head start and a faltering video game market.

At one point during the 5200's lifespan, Atari Inc. planned on developing a smaller cost-reduced version of the Atari 5200, which would have gotten rid of the controller storage bin. Code-named the "Atari 5100" (a.k.a. "Atari 5200 Jr."), only a few fully-working prototype Atari 5100s were made before the project was canceled.