RickR

I think so too, and that was my exact point. The 2600 had catalogs in every single game box, and they constantly updated and refreshed them. Think about the game box art on 2600 games. Those were full blown paintings! Did they have to do this? No! Most game companies didn't. But Atari did, and it made the whole experience more special. At some point in the Warner era, they lost this idea of doing more for no other reason than expanding the customer experience.

I do remember these, thanks for posting. But it's not quite the same as the 2600 catalogs. First of all, the 2600 catalogs were 50+ pages. Many games got a full page, with some getting two. 5200 catalogs seemed more style over substance. There should have been huge screen shots, the cartoon presentation, and more info given. For a system that seemed to be designed with "Big is better" mentality, they sure did skimp out on catalogs!

I always wondered why some of the XE style carts had that little lip on the back. Great info, thanks.

We absolutely deserved a 5200 catalog in this style. I can't tell you how many times I read every single page of these things and dreamed of playing every single game.

Sad. Atari got so much right, either by luck or good design, with the 2600 -- given how everything was new and undefined at the time. Yet with the 5200, they kind of tripped over their own feet in ignoring some of those ideas. Like simple controls (the 2600 had a huge advantage over the Intellivision in this department), sweet catalogs, and cartridge end labels. They reversed course and went back to the ideals with the 7800. For my own 5200 carts, I just used a basic label maker. It doesn't look as good as the ones shown above, but it works for me. 5200 is a beauty. Great design. It looks like it belongs in one of those audio cabinets with stereo equipment. It's too bad they skipped the end labels. It is interesting to note that the Colecovision did not make this same mistake.

From post #1 in this tread: The console is $129.99 with a CX-40+joystick and 10-in-1 cart. Additional joysticks are $29.99. The CX-30+ Paddles are $39.99 and comes bundled with a 4-in-1 cart. If I recall, shipping adds $12. It is possible the 2600+ will be available at retail locations, maybe even for less (or more).

Makes me wish I didn't already have a 5200 collection 😞 Great deal. I'll spread the word. Someone needs to grab this.

Uh oh! Thanks for bringing this up. Hopefully, it's easy to get a fix or replacement.

Good idea. I'm interested to see what you come up with!

The $80 Vectrex at the end took my breath away.

Last night, my wife and I went to a local pasta restaurant for my BD and had a really nice time. Dinner was great, and it was a calm and relaxing time for sure. I'm sorry, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Today for lunch, I went for my annual tradition of salad, personal pizza, and soda at a long-time Portland establishment called "Pietro's". Delish as always. I *did* get a picture of that.

GREAT write up and advice. You are a true asset and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

The firmware update was simple. As you said, I just placed the file on the USB stick and followed the instructions. After that, the image files show up and load quickly. The system allows flags in the filenames to automatically set up port 1 joystick control. In fact, there are complete downloadable libraries that have this all set up already. This is to solve the annoyance of how some games use port 1 and others use port 2. That fix and the quick loading are a big improvements over a real C64.

No. It is USB only. No DB9 ports. Plus, the joystick included has special buttons to activate the virtual keyboard and reset, etc. I like the joystick included, and also got a couple of generic USB SNES pads that also perform all those functions. Another option to consider is a real C64 with something like a KungFu cart to load images.

I think those Amico games (even with just paper in the box) are going to be collectors items. For a system that never came out, it sure is a topic that never dies. Anyway, TrekMD, your collection is an inspiration. We have a lot of good ones here. Nice stuff!

Buy an Atari VCS 🙂 My advice would be to find a used tiny Dell desktop and use that. I've seen them sell for about $40...small form factor, Intel series 4 i3/5, and DDR3.

Get a C64 mini and relive the fun! You can put whatever games you like on a USB memory stick. I think it works really well.

Oh! Sorry for all the separate replies, but I also have this picture of the identical unit that I found on Facebook marketplace a few years ago. I wasn't looking to buy or anything, but it came up in my feed and I immediately knew it was the identical unit. I wondered if they had bought it at our estate sale, so I contacted the seller, but they didn't. Identical!

Here it is! This is it, sitting in the garage covered in stuff, after my dad died.

YES! We had one in my family too. Ours was a Zenith, and it had a turntable and AM/FM radio only. Also a built in bin to hold records. The speakers had little shutter doors that I remember playing with a lot as kid. I'll try to find a picture of it later. When I had to sell off my parents' estate, I thought very long and hard about keeping that unit. Maybe taking the old broken guts out and putting in a modern bluetooth setup. But in the end, I decided no. We just don't have room for something like that.