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.
Werner Domroese werner5@hotmail.com on Sunday, July 8, 2001 at 16:25:52 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apart from the quickly breaking down aspect of the controllers, didn't these controllers have some form of analog control or touch sensitive stuff? I don't have a 5200 nor its controllers but I remember reading about it somewhere.
Ralph Tribl rst3@hotmail.com on Sunday, June 18, 2000 at 22:04:11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This system was released with the worst controllers ever made. They became very faulty and the controllers are still going through design revisions-mainly in the fire/start/reset/pause buttons. The contact buttons were easily coroded. One thing about this system is that there are more floating prototypes and demos out than released games. So those demo and protos are REAL collectibles. You can order a multi-cart that has all games on it-released and demo/prototypes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
