Atari 5200 Guy

Sorry guys...but I gotta play my tribute.

I've been working on mine for a decade. I have about 700 games now but that number includes digital games as well which makes up most of that number. Although trying to cram in an orderly fashion lots of games and systems in a room of a 1 bedroom apartment is impossible. I can only use one console at a time so I drag out a system to play for a while and then back it goes. Only the 360 and XBOne stay connected. I really dislike the juggling act I have to do and my wife nitpicks at me about it sometimes but I do enjoy what I have. Although thinning it down and concentrating on just Atari stuff has crossed my mind a time or two...but I'd miss my OG XBOX, NES, F-Zero...see what I mean?

RIP bro. My sympathy to his family and friends and thank you for being a huge part of what I grew up listening to. Although I never knew he did the guitar on Jackson's Beat It. I learned some thing new. You will be missed but your music will live on.

I'd grab all of those. Duplicates are good for trades 😉 I'd grab the colored one of Choplifter. It's what I have and I've not found a bug yet.

@HDN You do realize that the 7800 was the only Atari to get Galaga? And, for what it is worth, it is a fun game. I especially enjoy the sound effects personally. And don't let that slowness fool you...that game gets crazy fast I believe at Round 10. I am not a fan of Galaga but I enjoy the 7800 version. And I was just looking at that photo of the 7800 games at the store and noticed something...there's a silver label PPII there. I've never seen those. The upside-down Touchdown Football looks like it was taken apart at one point. There are also some titles on the far right I can't make out (long names) under Dig Dug and under Xevious. My Thoughts On... XEVIOUS Xevious is quite possibly one of my favorite shooters on the 7800. The sounds are almost 100% accurate to the arcade sounds which is amazing considering it is using TIA's two channels just for sounds. This is one of few 7800 games to be very impressive in the graphics AND sounds department. It also offers two ways to use the fire buttons by using the difficulty switches. One of my go-to games on the 7800. FOOD FIGHT Food Fight was one of the titles I got with my original 7800 many Christmas Eves ago. It was the last one I tried before "having" to go to bed. Yea, right, I stayed up all night playing that machine. Seriously...I didn't go to bed until about 5 or 6 in the morning. Once I put it in and watched the demo I thought it was going to be one of the dumbest games in the collection. Nope. Once I started playing it was hard to put down. Throwing food at chefs can be a LOT of fun. This game should be in anyone's collection who owns a 7800. Buying this game is no-brainer. GALAGA Galaga I already mentioned above but for completeness I'll add to that here. This was another one of the titles I got with my original 7800 and it was played a LOT. I am not a fan of this game as I prefer Galaxian over Galaga but once I started playing this one it was addictive. The 7800 has a decent Galaga port that has its own charm about it. The sounds are not entirely accurate but are effective. Out of all of the other ports of this game the 7800 is my favorite of them all. In otherwords I'd rather play Galaga on the 7800 than anything else. The 7800 as a whole did have a troubled shelf life and really never got the fan fare it really deserves. What arcade ports it got were done between almost perfect and perfect in my opinion. Ms Pac-Man, Joust, Centipede, Dig Dug, Food Fight, Xevious, Galaga, just to name a few, are a mixed bag. Some use the same sounds as their 2600 brothers but are still impressive ports. Asteroids, while based off the arcade, is actually a unique game that stands alone. Robotron really shows the 7800's strength. Personally, I would have loved to have seen more arcade ports brought to the 7800 as well as some 7800 versions of some of the red-boxed 2600 titles. It would not have hurt the 7800 to see Moon Patrol and also Solaris, Gravatar, Midnight Magic, and a few others. Unfortunately too little too late and those old arcade games no longer mattered. It's a shame really.

I'm not a sports fan...at least not when it comes to video games based on football, baseball, things like that. Although I love driving games ESPECIALLY Forza, Gran Turismo, and the three truck driving simulators I have on Steam. So for me to say I enjoy a sports a game on something is saying a LOT. VS Volleyball is probably one of my personal favorites. VS Tennis is not bad but also very tough, especially on the 2600 and even more so on the 5200. I don't have it now but I use to have Video Olympics many moons ago and loved it. Yea, I know...it's Pong but it was fun. One title I would consider a sports game, albeit not of the general sports games, would be Star Wars Jedi Arena. Why? Because it's like a fancy Pong style game. I mean, it's played with Paddles and it is like Pong just turned on its side. It's somewhat of a sports game. At least in my eyes it is.

This is one game I knew nothing about. I played the arcade game but never knew it existed for the 5200. I'm going to have to try to track it down.

Personally, I'd love to see more 5200 squad challenges but it is hard to emulate, just like the Jaguar. Those controls are very unique to that system.

Whoops. That was suppose to reference question number 11. Opps. The last question, though, wouldn't matter to me because I have FB and Twitter accounts but I rarely get on them. I only use them now so YouTube can post for me when I upload new vids. I usually don't get time to hop on to the chats when the time comes any way and when I DO have time the chat is pretty much done. 😞 Oh...and I forgot. Favorite Genesis game question. Granada and Streets of Rage II but I don't have either. The original SONIC is also great but, again, I don't have it...I have Sonic II. I do, however, have Thunder Force II and Twin Cobra which are great shoot 'em ups. I especially love the music in TF II. Streets of Rage II is the bomb on the Genesis because everything about it just works very well together. Blaze is my favorite character LOL.

I'm going to elaborate because picking JUST ONE was very difficult on some of those questions. So here goes. NO. I don't feel any of the challenges have be tarnished by anything. I think it's cool to have contest that involve a "prize" at the end once in a while. It's like a motivation getter. No matter who wins the prize it would encourage skill improvements to some of the games. Mario Bros. on the 2600 was a learning experience for me and a history lesson on what NOT to do in video game designing. I have enjoyed all of them but this one particularly was fun to discover its secret. What I'd like to see more often in the scores is more attention to the Jaguar and ST line of Atari products. Unfortunately the Jaguar is like a modern day Neo*Geo. It's too expensive to obtain anything for and there is not a single emulator made that has ever been 100% accurate let alone run right at all. They are all buggy, slow, and impossible to use. But I think it would be interesting to see more MAME events because all of the Atari/Coleco/Intellivision arcade ports we all seem to enjoy the most were because of the arcade games in the first place. So, in hindsight, it would be interesting to include those in the mix. MAME is pretty easy to setup anyway and almost every Windows PC from XP and up, MacOS, Linux, Android can run it. The last question was difficult to answer. I have no problems with any of those being in the challenges. What makes it difficult for me is when I lack the game or hardware (or both) the challenge is about. I prefer the real thing over emulation, except with MAME stuff, because of the feel. Holding a 360 controller to play a Super NES or Genesis game is just too awkward for me. I get use to it in time but it just doesn't feel right.

On the PC side, RickR sent me his "old" computer motherboard with the CPU and fan still installed, and a power supply. I provided the graphics card and hard drives and I upgraded the RAM. What I ended up with is a low-end but decent gaming PC whose full potential has yet to be unlocked. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I could never thank him enough. No...it's not in a standard PC case. I simply used a poster board and hot glued "blocks" to outline what to put where. It works and doesn't overheat but dust is a pain. I use this computer everyday! My favorite non-Atari computer so far. Although the nVidia GT 210 struggles sometimes and I can't play Rocket League or some newer games on it...but I can Borderland all day long if I want to. I don't mean to brag, and I'm not trying to, but it is the most powerful IBM PC I've ever owned. As for Atari things...these got added this year so far: Krull on the 2600 is actually a fun game. Better than I expected it to be. This one was a gift and one I was not expecting at all. When I first seen it I was like, "oh dear" because most games I played that were based on movies (NES and up) I didn't like. And I've never seen the movie. But, once I read the manual and played the game it is quite fun. Other than that I've been concentrating as much as I can on Atari 400/800/XL/XE stuff. Mostly software on disks but, hey, if it's for an Atari computer and I don't have it then, yea, I'm all for it. I don't have many and most of what I have is by Microprose of Railroad Tycoon/Strike Eagle fame. I'm finding these to be of great interest and I'm getting to discover a part of Atari I missed long ago. Pit Stop is great fun but I have experienced a bug in the game after racing on one track that happens all the time. I'm not sure if it is from me playing on an XE or not but it always happens. Otherwise the game is fun. Sargon III has to be one of the most detailed computer chess games I have ever played. I'm not good at playing chess but I love the game because of the strategy and I can go at my own pace. I don't have to rush anything. But the things this game keeps track of and the manual alone are worth every penny spent on this game. It also has a section dedicated to a list of the best played games in chess history around the world. Do you wish to see those games in action? You can! Load them up and watch the screen, every move they made is recreated on the computer screen. Solar Star I discovered by accident through YouTube. I was looking through a list of games and trying to find YouTube videos on them to see what they were about. This one turned up and I found it of great interest. While not graphically too impressive it gave me that TRON feeling. This is one of my top favorite Atari computer games to play.

Let 'em hate. That just leaves more 5200 stuff for me 😁 I love everything about the system...including the pack-in game. That was the best first hours I spent on the 5200 that Christmas morning. Specifically any third party games from Activision, CBS, I magic (if any), Sega, or PB. Looking for Gyruss, Mountain King, and I have no Activision games for my 5200.

Yea...what RickR said.

That's alright. I was just curious. And what other button thing does Omega Race need? Also...I wonder if in those loose 5200 games if something is there I don't have? Curious. See...the area I live has nothing like this. So...when I see these pics I'm like a kid in a candy store. LOL. Don't mind me.

How much do they want for an Omega Race and do they have Tunnel Runner?

I'd go broke in that place! And that 2600, 5200 selection I would hit and hit hard!

I remember having a sound blaster pro and a diamond monster graphics accelerator in a 500 MHz machine and it ran awesome!! It was nice. I had FF VII on it that ran really well with no issues. But...I agree...I miss hearing about those brands.

I had traded a AMD K6-2 500 MHz PC, loaded, to a computer store in exchange for Jaguar items they had in stock. This was 1997 I believe and the store in question picked up a bunch of Jaguar stuff. They seen my machine, went through it, said take whatever you want. I walked away with a Jaguar, Jag CD, a dozen cart games and about three CD games. Everything NIB. I didn't care about the computer too much as it was from a trade for a car I owned that needed a new tranny so...I wheeled and dealed. This was a time when Jaguar stuff was a dime a dozen and not really worth much any more. Machines might have been about $50, games between $10 - $20. I had games then that are now hard to find or worth more than I would have ever expected or seen coming. Tempest 2000, Highlander, I*War...all good games. Sold it all when my grandmother needed money for meds. I don't regret doing it for that reason but I do regret not hanging on to at least one or two of my favorite games for the machine. Nope...I had to sell of the entire collection. I still hope to find Tempest someday in the wild for a cheap price. That game alone is a jaguar no brainer.

*Deep inhale* My beloved 5200 TrakBall controller!!! I miss that thing. 😞 I'd love to have another one. That thing was rock solid.

Hat Trick is fun as long as you don't jump in expecting a full blown hockey game. Its pong dressed up to look like hockey. It is fun if you don't expect a lot from it. And the only game there I need is Desert Falcon 😉

I liked Super Metroid but prefer Metroid Prime and the original Metroid. Those are my favorites of the series.

I own an XEGS and actually love it. In my hometown after the 2600/5200 stuff Atari showing up seemed random. The 7800 was found in another town at a toy store that sold liquidated merchandise and the 2600 junior I found at a local discount store that didn't last long. Nothing after that until I got Jaguar flyers in the mail but by that time Atari was already sold off. I did not discover the XEGS until 1998 and that I found used.

Why bother??? Its an Atari for crying out loud! 'Nuff said. Period. Besides...what other console has Space Dungeon? None. That one is a 5200-only exclusive. No other Atari console got it. The 5200 is fun but time has not been kind to it.

5200 Centipede and the arcade Centipede both used POKEY for sounds so ... This is one of a few 5200 games where the arcade sounds were exact copies. What was heard in the arcade is present in the 5200. Also this is one of only two games that takes advantage of the trackball controller which, if used, really brings that arcade experience home. And Spidey needs less caffeine!

The 5200 version is really unique compared to the 2600 version. The 2600 version is what I discovered Atari with but the 5200 and its Space Invaders is what I ended up with. While not exactly accurate the game is fun. Enemies come marching out a row at a time instead of all enemies being on the screen already. If done right the player can wipe out most of the enemies as they come marching on the screen. After every other wave the enemies change to a new set of enemies. Up to four sets are in the game with the last set being most likely some of the best animation I have seen on the 5200, ever, as this set morphs between different designs. When a wave with the fourth set of invaders starts, all rows are of the same invaders. After a few seconds they morph, or shift, into another shape which makes for a really cool effect. The first six waves of this Space Invaders follows the same mechanics of the arcade; the more enemies you destroy the faster they move. Once they start moving faster, however, their marching sound gets a bit louder. The last two waves with the shape shifting enemies doesn't use the marching sound like the other waves. Instead the sound is only heard when the shape shifts. Missing is the sound the player makes when shooting. Successfully defeat the first eight waves and the player is greeted with being rescued by a gold flying saucer. After this the game starts over using only the last set of invaders. During all waves there is a mother ship that comes out randomly whose point worth also seems to be random. As for controls ... They work good in this game, at least for me they do. And I love that 5200 box art! Some may say it is from the 400/800 version of Space Invaders but to me the 5200 version seems more advanced while using some of the same features and, yes, I played the cassette version of that Space Invaders as well but favor the 5200 version more. Its just not the same to me.