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Have a 5200 game with no manual? Fear not! I have located a large collection of these manuals in PDF format from the Internet Archives, free. So if you are in need of a manual, click on the link. On the right, under DOWNLOAD OPTIONS, you will see a list of file types. Click on the PDF link and it will expand to show all the game manuals up for grabs on a per-game basis. To download the manuals simply click on the game title. https://archive.org/details/Atari5200Manuals_201812

3335- This game is quite difficult on this level! Photo creds to @Justin. I look like an alien! 😯🧐

👉 @GRay Defender has a wonderful review highly recommending Nukey Shay's 8K Pac-Man. He sums up my thoughts perfectly: Atari's version of 2600 Pac-Man was pathetic, but I still played it relentlessly and appreciate it today for what it is. If you want to play 2600 Pac-Man, swap it out for Nukey Shay's 8K Pac-Man hack and you won't be disappointed:

16,170 whoa, brutal I think I only ever played level 1 on "b"eginner difficulty BITD, mostly 'cause my game selector switch was broked (I did keep a butter knife on top of the TV) To get to level 16, I held both the game selector switch & the game start switch down and it cycled through the levels super quick ! (like Space Invaders)

Been playing the new Centipede: Recharged on the Atari VCS for the past few hours. It's actually a cool modern interpretation on the classic. It has an endless arcade mode, 30 unlockable challenges, achievements, and local Co-op. Also, the music is stunning. It's available on all major console platforms - Xbox, PS4/5, Switch, Steam (PC) - via digital tomorrow. Based on the VCS version, I'd say it's well worth the $9.99 if you have any of those platforms and are a fan of the original.

Just made some of these Balloon Girl / Sharkstorm dual carts for the CORGs expo. Balloon Girl is a one button side-scrolling action game. Kinda like Balloon Fight or Flappy Bird. Collect joysticks and pink squares for points while avoiding baddies. The FIRE button is used for everything and should be friendly to accessibility controllers. Sharkstorm is the developer version of Twist R Shark. This is a top down boss rush game with procedural content. The boss characteristics grow and change each wave.

A couple of weeks back I was at Too Many Games checking out an indie game for the Switch by Premium Edition Games. It was cool but I didn’t want to buy it because I didn’t have the console yet, even though I knew I’d get one, which I did. When it comes to these Amico boxes that include a coin and lenticular card for games that aren’t finished for a console that’s also not finished it’s simply something I’m not interested in.

A little late for this, but anyone have any fun plans this weekend?!

Heh, oh trust me I am old-school and experienced, I learned the hard way through much tinkering over the years. I know all about the effects on magnets on TUBE TV's, degaussing etc. I appreciate the concern but from what I can see, even with the BOSE speakers literally up against the side there is no ill affect, I suspect it is very well shielded. 😎😉

🧠 I hope everybody active on here feels like a valued part of a welcoming & active community

Thank you for mentioning Atari I/O @- Ω -

I've been giving my Atari 5200 a little 💖 lately. I got this S-Video to HDMI adapter so I can the UAV mod on the TV that does not have the appropriate connector. There is no lag.

Happy Atari Day! 🕹️

2,763,200

First and foremost...this is NOT a way to get games I am after. Please read before making an assumption. I've spent the past few days on my 5200 and its library of games in my collection. As I was playing I got to thinking back to all those ads that mentioned a few games I never could find and compared that to the games I have now. After seeing what I had to choose from I think I have most of what I had before along with those I heard about. I also have a few I never knew were ever made for the 5200. And so I started thinking about games I am still missing and came up with 5 games. They are: Gyruss Star Trek: SOS Star Wars: RotJ Death Star Battle (yea...I didn't know about this one) Dreadnaught Factor Wizard of Wor I consider my collection very satisfactory. I don't necessarily have to find those 5 games. If I never found another 5200 game in the wild or elsewhere it would be no big deal. So, to give this conversation a bit of interest, I'm curious. Not counting the AtariMax carts, if you have/wanted any 5200 game carts, which ones would they be? Is your current library of games missing that one title you wish you could find? I'd like to hear about it. Please tell.

855500 Round 2 - let’s get it! How does this 8bit game look like a Neo Geo game?

I've purchased a lot of things off of Ebay (over 400 items) and only had problems with 2 items. The first PARTIAL fail was a Wico Joystick... the guy showed a stock image, what arrived was a joystick with rust on the shaft, no rubber feet and dirty. He offered a full refund, but since I was able to restore it, I countered with a partial refund and was accepted. Now my biggest FAIL was a DVD set. I should have paid attention to the country of origin, anyway after being a month late, showing it was never even sent, I filed a claim and was awarded a full refund. Then the guy sends it, and asks me to pay, I decided to wait for it to arrive and then pay. I'm glad I waited, because what arrived were DVD-R's with hand scribbled text of a bootlegged home recorded copy... and even missing one DVD with that should have contained 4 episodes. I didn't pay him squat! I figured the delay in shipping was because he had to use a screen grabber to steal all the episodes and that took a long time.

Let me just say all the recent 5200 threads definitely reminded me about my own collection packed away like so much of it but also, if you’ve seen my other thread about setting up my own little retro gaming corner well, I think I definitely need to make some time and add some 5200 playtime and appreciation. Been meaning to post in the other related threads but since I just now located the system and games I had stored away I figured I would just make he one big post here. First, apologies for the lazy way I have laid everything out, My wife is currently attempting to sleep at 1am while just a few feet away in our laundry room with the door closed I shuffled through these boxes to set up these pictures all while trying to be quit and likely failing miserably. Since my buying and collecting is at a halt for some years now I cannot say, we’ll I better not 😆as far as games I still want or are missing. I had gotten a huge lot of the console and games probably 10 years or so ago. Later, one of the first things of course was getting an early Atarimax USB flash cart as I figured that would cover me for other games I might want to play. HOWEVER, looking through it just now I got to say overall it’s not to bad a collection of original carts? Definitely some titles like Vanguard I would have wanted anyways and I think even a couple the op mentioned. Really, as far as original cart collections I forgot that this is one of my better ones until I pulled it all out of storage 👍 Also shown a variety of manuals, some catalogs and such, also controller overlays, many are doubles and I thought that was all of them but as I was sorting through I noticed many carts already have an original overlay tucked in the back of them. I am quite pleased with the overall condition especially of the 5200 still having the plastic on the silver label and specially the back storage cover is intact. It’s an original 4 port with the odd power passthrough from box as well I have two original power supplies but see one has heat shrink wrap near the end of the connector so I will stick with the other one. I do know it is compatible with the 2600 add on as well as all 5200 games because it had the fix applied. At some point since it never came with a controller I got one of the original 5200 controllers from BEST ELECTRONICS with the gold contacts inside and a member on atariage, was creating his own db9 pc controller adapter that allows me to plug in both an original controller and PC CONTROLLER SIMULTANEOUSLY, it’s not pretty but I recall it working back when I originally tested it. Pretty sure I picked up the Gravis pc joystick back during my thrift shop days and though we’ll, this is the one to go with my 5200 🧐 So there is my massive post on it, sorry for the novel but I been building up to it and had to find time to put everything together take the pictures as well as have the motivation which comes and goes so easily these days. 🤷🤟

I remember one guy I sold an Atari 800 to complained about the packing peanuts I used being "dirty". Ridiculous. I asked for a picture and he showed what looked like a tiny bit of grass clippings on a few peanuts. I was at a loss, and asked how that could possibly impact the 800. He then proceeded to call me incompetent, blah blah blah. "If you don't give me a <$XXX> refund, I'll leave a negative feedback". I thought about it overnight, and decided to give the guy his partial refund so long as he promised not leave that negative feedback. After it was done, I blocked him. He then proceeded to contact me using a different account and this time, he told me "no hard feelings, that 800 is only worth (whatever it was he ended up paying)." I blocked that account too. This was a long time ago, and I just decided to keep selling and doing my best. Haven't had many problems since. Sadly, there are too many human wrecking balls out there that cheat the system to get what they want. Block them, and move on. That's what I do.

Here's a legendary eBay FAIL I came across today from @kingmonkey25 on Twitter. I've had almost the exact same thing happen to me at least once a year since the late 1990s: Sends game in padded envelope rather than a box that would've protected it (and costs the same to mail!) Uses the cheapest possible mailing service (probably saving about $2) Customer service skills? About as awful as you'd expect given the above

😎Yay! Finally my little “retro gaming” corner is pretty much complete! The first image displaying Dragon Spirit on my TG-16 is the final setup after cleaning, rewiring and organizing. Middle image with SuperNES Lemmings displayed was starting to come together, added the little BOSE SPEAKER which packs more punch then the tinny sounding TV speakers, I compared and it provides the rich deep arcade cabinet sound which compliments this sharp little Toshiba crt. Also, added a nice AV SWITCHER with blue LED display, I’ve had it for years doing very little with it, I like it as it match’s the TV and even my Retrobit RetroTrio which are all silver for that classic electronics aesthetic. The last image is what I started with, a mess, cluttered, dusty, unorganized but I spent the day with the goal of getting this long overdue project completed. Finally satisfied overall, it’s not much but at least it’s something! I have literally no room for my hobby stuff but this tiny little retro gaming corner is at least something and I got SNES/Genesis/NES covered with the RetroTrio with a Tg-16 underneath and Everdrives carts for all of them. With this setup I can easily add in my Dreamcast or Ps1/Ps2/GameCube etc when needed. I look forward to actually playing and enjoying my systems.

I wonder if that is something we will start to see no longer? Shielded speakers? Today's modern LCD and OLED based display tech isn't affected by this. Similar to how I see people not using magnets within their computer cases to attach their RGB light strips and controller boxes because HDD are mostly flash based SSDs these days? That would present a whole new issue in the future when you have an old CRT display and want to use it but the only speakers you can find are non-shielded? In fact it is one of the reasons I don't have a CRT in my game room now is because my Roland passives I use for my front channel speakers, are from the 90s and not magnetically shielded. Guess everyone needs to start stocking up on mag shielded speakers?! I also own a degaussing coil for use with my arcade cabs because just how they are sitting and aligned can cause natural magnetic distortion on their screens. Cocktail cabinet versions are some of the worst about this.

It's not very good.

I don't post things like this too often as I kinda like keeping what I have in my collection private sometimes. But sometimes I get like Doc Brown and figure... 'What the hell?' These didn't come all at once but are fairly recent within the past month. As I finally installed the UAV into my 130xe it renewed my interest in the Atari 8-bit line so I picked up some stuff there. Also got my Collector vision order in for 2 of the new Intellivision games and 1 colecovision game that are all Halloween theme games I figured. Last in the center of the pic was a game I totally forgot I even ordered from Castlemania games. Retrobit released an official translated version of the previous JPN only SNES game Undercover Cops. It is a side scrolling beat em up and that is one of my favorite genre of games!

Me, when my wife goes to pick me up some Guinness but instead returns with this assortment. 😮😜🧐🍺🤟

Here's an alternative that's bigger than the OEM trackball:

My latest High Score: 26,120 PS - That's @Gianna in the background admiring my swag

The UAV really is a wonder and I say one of the best upgrades a person can make on their classic Atari systems. I also agree that the LHE is no where near the quality of what the UAV can provide, but there are those that believe the LHE is good enough or in some cases still a better option. The LHE is still made but sold under Winzmod on ebay. The UAV does a great job with s-video on the 5200. But it makes sense as the UAV was originally designed for the Atari 8-bit computer line. The 2600 and 7800 were added later with the rC and rD versions of the UAV. The 5200 has the same video as the 8-bits so it makes sense it would work so well with it.

I spent some time on the 5200 today and then seen this post. I still say the 5200 holds its own in the mix of things...and it survived the famous game crash along with other consoles. I brought out games I had but never spent any quality time on. Playing these games I was able to discover a side of the 5200 I had never seen before. Games I played were Pengo, Zone Ranger, Blue Print, Realsports Baseball (finally found one), RS Tennis, Soccer, and Football, Popeye (although I had this one many moons ago), Zaxxon, and Jungle Hunt. Zone Ranger was a bit difficult for me but I had fun with it and enjoyed the graphics. It looked like an arcade game. Very nice. I liked the voice in RS Baseball. Nicely done game. I enjoy sports games when it's about the sports instead of the team rosters. Soccer was a bit sluggish but playable. Tennis was hard even on the novice setting. you have to use the keypad buttons to direct the ball which became cumbersome. As much as I love the 5200 I have to say that the controllers were easier to use with my 8 year old hands than they are with my 47 year old hands. I can't spend as much time on the system as I would love to these days. Those controllers just cause hand cramps after a while. Not as bad as the 7800 controllers do, though. Still, the 5200 remains my go-to for some classic arcade fun. And while others will suggest controller alternatives I like to keep things original so I will continue to deal with the originals. That image is my 5200 using just RF on a 17" LCD TV. Doesn't look half bad actually. The 5200 does have a lot offer to those willing to take the time to actually learn the system...by its rules...not everyone else's rules. Harness the system's controls, then learn the games it has. If one can sit and give it and themselves quality time to learn the curve one might be impressed with the 5200's offerings. It's what I did when I received one when they came out and that way of approaching a 5200 for the first time still holds true to this day. It's a very misunderstood console. The controllers, as much as I hate to admit to it, are the system's short comings, but as long as they are working then by all means give them a long overdue exercise and play some 5200 games! Yea...but they look pretty good all lined up on a shelf 😉

Nice loot you got there, @socrates63! This is what I got this week...

This morning, I drove three hours to pick up my Vectrex from a member of the local gaming group member who cleaned up, recapped, added the no buzz kit, and provided some overall TLC. He even cleaned up the case with car detailing product for that liquidity black finish. My Vectrex is now looking factory fresh inside and out. Afterwards, I drove about 20 minutes to Portland to visit a store called Final Form. I went there for the first time in August (during the trip when I was dropping off my Vectrex for service). It's a very small store but has a good collection of games, music, and movies that I don't often see in other stores. Of the several stores in Portland I visited back in August, this was my favorite, so I went back today and picked up some games and a movie. Love the no sales tax in Oregon 👍 Coraline came with the lenticular slip cover which is pretty cool. The Worms game had the Pink Gorilla price sticker on it. I guess someone bought it in Seattle and traded it in Portland? In any case, it's back in the Seattle area again 🙂 I don't know anything about Coded Gun. It was a cheap game and the Korean version. I asked the store owner if it was related to Coded Arm which I bought from him the last time I visited. He didn't know and just gave it to me for free. Thank you kindly 🙂 I didn't have a lot time today, so I didn't reach out to you this time @RickR. I need to visit your garage 😄

New PB: 39180

👆 Also a special "THANK YOU" from Team Atari I/O goes out to one of our most vocal champions @RickR for really going above and beyond in getting the word out and inviting new friends to play in High Score Squad recently. And also to @Sabertooth, @Marco1019, @Atari Creep and many others for sharing High Score Squad and Atari I/O in their videos and livestreams. It makes a HUGE difference!! ☺️ 🔥 🔥

Congratulations Sabertooth! Congratulations to @Sabertooth on another incredible win! Not only has Sabertooth created a new YouTube channel of his own and a stellar social media presence to bring something refreshing and new to the classic gaming sphere, but he absolutely knocked it out of the park with his Gates of Zendocon score! What a tremendous score! Sabertooth secured the top spot on in our Gates of Zendocon Squad Challenge with his score of 6,145,500 points! I took 2nd Place in our Final Standings with a score of 5,102,100. @AtariSphinx was right on my tail and brought his A-game with a hard-fought score of 4,872,000 points! @TrekMD scored 3,003,800 to take 4th, @Gianna takes 5th Place with 2,753,200 points, and @RickR rounds things out with 1,482,800 points. * @Atari Creep posted a score of 41,932 which may have been accidentally played on Game A instead of Game B. At the 1:25 mark in his most recent video submitted for his high score he correctly states "So all right, I'm going to hit "B", because that is the option in which we are using" and presses a key on his keyboard to begin - although the game appears to play at a slow pace and score points consistent with being played on Game A. In order for scores to be admissible in High Score Squad they must be played on the correct difficulty settings, as easier settings almost always result in an unfair points advantage. Although the game may have been mistakenly played on the easier difficulty settings, I believe it's clear to everyone that @Atari Creep was playing in good faith, just trying to have a good time with the group and participate in the Squad Challenge. There was certainly nothing in the video which appeared to give him an unfair advantage, Gates of Zendocon scores significantly lower on Game A, and no other player's score has been impacted by this as @Atari Creep came in last place, far from having an impact on @RickR 's 6th Place score. Although I have placed an asterisk on @Atari Creep's score, we want to acknowledge his score in our Final Standings for being so enthusiastic in High Score Squad, live-streaming the event and for joining us on this most recent journey through the Gates of Zendocon. Maybe @Atari Creep can give it another go and challenge @Sabertooth's score in the Scoreboard! Congratulations to @Sabertooth on his epic win, and a huge THANK YOU to everyone whose been getting the word out about our community and inviting others to join us in High Score Squad! As always I'd like to encourage @Sabertooth to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! And a big "Thank You" goes out to @Gianna for helping me keep High Score Squad going! Congratulations to everybody here for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope you had a great time venturing into the beautiful pixelated chip tune world of Atari Lynx! COMING UP: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is for the Atari 2600! Be there!

Years ago Robert Wise did a Director's Cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture that was released circa 2001 on DVD. I always preferred II and VI until this version came out. For me, it's the best Star Trek movie and I think perfectly bridges the tone of TOS and TNG. It's a thinker. I also prefer the uniforms here vs. those from Wrath of Khan onward. It might be sacrilege to say so, but these days my favorite Trek is honestly Discovery and Picard. 🖖

Going up on ebay now....

I replied in your AA thread on this as well. That appears to be a later made 4-port that hovers just between the Atari Inc and Atari Corp timeframe. Many of the Atari Corp made 4-port units I've seen have a newer revision of the 4-port board that has a standard power port on it and works just like the 2-port does without the need for the special switchbox. My guess is that you have one that was made at the tail end of the Atari Inc era or right at the beginning of the Atari Corp era when they putting together whatever they had on hand. Also interesting to see the plastic on your silver strip on the console is clear? I have a mint 5200 4-port in the box that has the piano finish plastic on it and the plastic protection over the strip is pink like it is on your controller. It being a later made 4-port would also explain why it has the VCS adapter fix built into it. I assume it has an " * " on the serial number label on the bottom? BTW the power supply with the shrink wrap I would likely trust more than the non shrinked one. Why? Because that cord obviously frayed and had to be repaired. The shrink if done properly, would isolate the repair properly to prevent shorts and would provide additional strength to that end of the plug to prevent fraying in the future. BTW the 5200 PSUs have a slow blow fuse in them so in most cases, a short in the system or the power in general will cause the fuse to go and it can be replaced out. Not always easily though as some of the newer PSUs were sonically welded while earlier 5200 PSUs (Those that came with 4 port units) have screws to open them up.

For DS, I highly recommend: The "Professor Layton" series - they are brain puzzles set inside a story. Warning: Some of the puzzles are really hard. Use a walk-through if you get stuck. The "Phoenix Wright" series - it's very Japanese "solve the crime" type of game. Very funny and not too difficult. When I'm in Reno this weekend, I have a goal of finishing up the second Phoenix Wright game while relaxing.

I have 62 of the 69 officially released games and over the years I found that for me, these games are best played with analog control. Blue Print, Centipede (best with CX22 Trak-Ball), Choplifter!, Defender (also plays well the Sega Sports Pad in Sports mode), Dreadnaught Factor, Galaxian, Gorf, Gremlins, Gyruss (best with CX22 Trak-Ball), Kaboom! (best with trimmer/paddle control), Missle Command (best with CX22 Trak-Ball), Pole Position, RealSports Baseball, RealSports Football, RealSports Soccer, Rescue on Fractalus!, Robotron 2084, Space Dungeon, Space Invaders, Star Raiders, Star Wars: The Arcade Game, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle, Super Breakout (best with trimmer/paddle control), Tempest (best with CX22 Trak-Ball)

I believe that is it (unless someone says otherwise?) sadly, there was supposedly an unreleased prototype of Track 'n Field. https://www.gamesdatabase.org/game/atari-5200/track-and-field love my 5200, I have an excellent conditioned one still, 4 port but with those modifications that give it compatibility for those titles that originally did not work with it. I also have a Atarimax Falshcart but actually have several original carts, I really need to play with it more.

Very nice setup! Just be careful with sitting speakers that close to your TV. I'm not trying to burst your bubble but I don't want to see your stuff get ruined from a slight oversight. Some speakers have a magnet in them and can distort the beam in the tube. So many things come with magnets these days that are harmful to old computer, TV, and console gear that it gets overlooked, missed, and then some wonder why those things don't work or are acting weird. And I just don't want you to experience that as it would not be pleasant. 😉 Again, very nice setup. I like seeing these as it can give ideas to those running out of room or just starting.

Yes, 16A. The game plan is to protect one city only. I do try to save a few cities on the first wave in order to score a few more bonus points, but it's one city after that. Plus. you can only spray three missiles at a time (unlike the arcade version) so it's best to be judicious.

I should have mentioned in the video that the price of the Atarimax is considerably less than the shipping alone would be on a dozen or so separate cartridge purchases. Oh yeah and all those cartridges take up a lot of space. Yes, the Homebrews and Conversions add quite a few titles into the mix. With those two items, three if you need the HDMI converter, one will have everything necessary to bring it up-to-date for maximum enjoyment.

I watched Firefox as a kid when it was first released in theaters back in 1983. When I saw the trailer, I remember thinking that the fighter jet looked very cool, and a story about stealing a super secret futuristic fighter jet from commie scum sounded like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the movie did not meet the expectations of a 14 year old (and many adults as well who panned the movie). There simply wasn't enough action and explosions that the story seemed to deserve. I filed it away in my memory as a disappointment from childhood. Fast forward nearly forty years into the future to 2021. In my 50s, I often find myself looking back and now enjoying the things from my childhood and adolescence even more than I did back then. During the last year or two, I've become an Eastwood fan and have watched several of his movies. I even saw the first Dirty Harry movie for the very first time earlier this year. Being a recent Eastwood fan, I wondered how I'd react to watching Firefox again. A couple of months ago, I bought the blu-ray and DVD releases of Firefox. Today, I loaded up the blu-ray and gave it a spin. I very much enjoyed Firefox. It's definitely not the kind of action flick that my 14 year old self craved. Firefox is very much a suspense thriller with a little sci-fi thrown in (although the technology on display in the jet fighter don't seem to far fetched anymore). However, it's definitely an 80s movie with some campy acting by some of the cast. I also read the one-liners quoted from movie critics cited in Wikipedia entry for the movie, and I'd have to agree with much of the criticism. But why did I still enjoy the movie? I think it's because of Clint Eastwood. He knows what he's good at and the type of characters that he suit him well. Major Mitchell Gant, the protagonist of Firefox, is a loner, a broken Vietnam vet with skills second to none (jet fighter pilot in this case). It sounds a lot like many of his Western movie characters, a man of few words but who's actions are loud. The man has made an entire career, a very lengthy career, playing such characters, and he does it well. If you want to revisit the 80s movie scene, give Firefox a try. As for me, my next 80s movie on deck is Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Director's Edition). I was bored to death watching it in the theater as a kid. I'm hoping I will have a better appreciation for it now.

I have an Atari 8-bit cartridge of the game "M.U.L.E." It's very old, I think I got it 15-20 years ago. I know making limited runs of carts is easier these days, but back then, this was a big deal. It's one of my favorite items in the collection. I can take a picture later if anyone is interested. It's upstairs in a box with all my other 8-bit carts.

I have always said that had Atari released something like that hack Nukey created, people would have been more forgiving. Even with its different maze, the game feels more like the arcade Pac-Man because of all the elements it includes from the arcade that remain pretty much intact. When I want to play Atari's Pac-Man, this 8K hack is what I play.

That Director's Cut is currently being upgraded to 4K for a Blu-Ray release. That, I will be getting. Nothing wrong with liking Discovery or Picard. I like both shows myself. B5 is on HBO+, I understand.

6,145,500 on the Evercade.