Atari 5200 Guy

The thumbstick gets in my way on some games, works well with others. On PPII that thumb stick is my worst enemy. The Control Pad as a whole, however, is a much needed upgrade to what we originally got. The fire buttons I wish were a bit more repositioned but work great otherwise.

Of course they did. But not just those. They also had to worry about Castlevania, Mega Man, Blaster Master, all of which are top-notch games on the NES. I'm surprised to see Atari made any games for the NES considering the games being made.

My original 5200 lasted from 1982 until 1987. After that it got replaced with an NES Deluxe Set.

What was going on was Atari was losing their best game developers. That's it. HSW was a hell of a programmer but he probably had more seniority at Atari than other developers by that time. Truth be told he was probably the ONLY true 2600 developer left. Some of my favorite 5200 games are from the 1983 era of releases. They are solid titles and capture the arcade originals faithfully. The 2600 versions, too. Those guys went very far to see that the 7800 had what it needed to be an outstanding console. I love my 5200 but I stand behind that 7800. That MARIA chip is impressive as hell from a developer's point of view. Easily an ancestor to the nVidia and ATi style GPUs we have today. And that was the first chip GCC ever designed? That's far out!

The 7800 was treated very poorly by Jack. The XEGS already had previous support so, in Jack's eyes, it "looked" like Jack was supporting it. I don't understand why you would release something to compete against your own products. Then again nothing Jack did made sense to me. I know he treated V61 decently but everyone else he seemed to pull the rug out from under them when they were not looking. And sometimes even when they were it seems. The 7800 was actually slated to be released in 1984 in time for the holidays. I believe it was @nosweargamer who has some original 7800 game boxes that were to be used in a 1984 7800 release. The box art the 7800 was going to get was absolutely stunning. But, yea, the 7800 was ready for a 1984 release before Jack bought Atari. Jack is the reason why the 7800 didn't get released in 1984. That PGRE video posted about the 7800's development by GCC done a LOT of explaining. Documents to back everything up. I'm sold. Jack screwed the 7800 in more ways than one.

I can't say too much. I like 2600s Pac-Man but I feel Todd should have at least played the arcade game before attempting to create the 2600 version. From what I understand he never played the game. Not accurate to say the least but it is fun and I have family members that swear by that Pac-Man. So while you defend it I will continue to defend my 5200. We have the starts of an Atari Army...who else is jumping on board? 😄

I used it but not for that reason. I thought the flicker was a cool effect.

They look like fun games but looks can be deceiving.

Tunnel Runner is one of my favorite 2600 games. Very unique concept. I first discovered this game at a friend's house when I was 11 years old. The sounds the monsters in the mazes made when they were getting close to you sort of frightened me. If the mazes had dots Tunnel Runner could have easily been a neat 3D Pac-Man.

I have to admit my first experience with E.T. on the 2600 did not go well at all. It was included with a used 2600 and a bunch of carts and controllers. No manuals. I had no clue what I was suppose to do and no information to help guide me. A few years ago I watched a YouTube video on how to actually play E.T. and finally understood how to play the game. I got another used copy followed with a brand new copy. I wanted those instructions! I wanted to study them to see if I was missing anything. Low and behold I got that same poster @HDN posted. I read that thing at least three times. I still read it every now and then. My final thoughts on E.T. on the 2600 are that it is a well thought out game. What was done in 5 - 6 weeks time is impressive to say the least. Could it have used a bit more time to clean up certain spots? Most definitely...but would it have really mattered? E.T. on the 2600 was a unique adventure game that is fun to play. It can be very harsh on the number 1 or 2 skill level settings but it's still a unique challenge. E.T. was far better than Pac-Man on the 2600 IMO. My first impressions would have agreed with you but I find E.T. delightfully fun. Defender? That game is marked as being poorly done? I thought it was a fun game on the 2600. Not as good as my 5200 version but still fun to play. I have Raiders and I've not figured it out yet. I still have fun with it. I'm not too good at it and I do find areas overly difficult but still fun.

Didn't finish, ran out of time. But I'm on the board at least. 43,150. Using real hardware with my favorite 7800 controller.

I have DK JR on the 7800 and it's not a bad game. Come to think of it my 7800 collection is all loose carts. I think I have two 7800 games with their instructions.

It is a shame Froggo didn't buy a standard 7800 and try to make controller options for it. He could have made decent money from doing so. I never seen any of Froggo's 7800 games. Has any one here ever seen one?

By the 1980s it was more about getting the public to invest in machines so they could by the other portions that make it work over time. RCA's CED system, VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, and every video game device on the market sold machines in hopes you would by the medium that went in them on a regular basis. But those did not sell, or sell well, until the public found things on them they simply had to have. The only reason I made the jump to DVD in the early 2000s was because buying the RCA player I liked came with five free movies from WB of my choice. I spent $320 on that DVD player and after a month I had double that invested in a small DVD collection. To be fair, though, those first DVDs were $25 - $40 per movie. I think I gave $20 just for Godzilla. Now you can get players for $25 and movies for under $4. But that is a perfect example of what @Video 61 and @nosweargamerwere pointing out. In the home entertainment market the entertainment to be enjoyed is what sells hardware, it won't sell if it doesn't make sense or doesn't have anything on it no one wants or is of interest. There's no point in buying a player if there is nothing of interest to play on it. Its nothing more than an expensive paper weight.

Wait. Lynx were that tiny? HA! Take THAT Nintendo!!

Yep...I own one with the thumb stick as well. Very comfortable controller. Too bad these didn't get included with the NA systems. It would have made a huge difference over the original joysticks. Then again I play Ms. Pac-Man best with a joystick. I've tried playing with the Europad and I sometimes can't get the direction I want.

As long as you are having fun, AC, that's all that matters. It's why we play video games in the first place, right? To have fun? Get a break from reality? And these old Atari machines are hanging around with us. How cool is that? It's all about having fun and making the best out of life, right? Eat a few dots and ghosts, run around a race track, dig in the dirt, blast missiles out of the sky. At the end of it all we live to do it all again another day. Kind of sounds therapeutic. OMG! No wonder Mom bought that 5200. She was giving me nasty medicine! I knew there was a conspiracy going on.

China

Hey @RickR and @HDN Have you guys thought about having a 2-player battle with Dragster?

Congrats!!

I have a revision that had the expansion port removed. Not sure which revision I have but I have Food Fight, played it to death, have had no crashing issues with it.

Welcome to Atari I/O from the home of the Arch.

Good luck! I was listening to Pac-Man Fever when I made my score. And while not a bad game it is fun. I owned the 5200 Pac-Man before I even seen the 2600's Pac-Man. So, yea, when I seen it for the first time I was shocked. Over time, though, the 2600 and its games, including Pac-Man, have won me over and I now consider them part of my Atari family and I enjoy everything about them. I will always be partial to the 5200 because that was my starts as a kid. And the 2600 at the time only fueled that feeling because all I seen was the visual differences in the games. But the 2600 has proved it can rock it with the best of them. I play the 2600 a bit more than I do the 5200 only because of games I like to play that are not on the 5200.

GameXChange was my go to store for games. I visited the chain's main headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas when I would visit my mother back then. I loved that place. The one my hometown got started off good but then ownership changed and they started charging tax on trades and I lost interest. Springfield is where I found a Vintage Stock in the early 2000's and was like WOW! It is where I found a game I had been looking for pretty cheap for Dreamcast. I haven't been back though because I moved since and live too far away.

I'd trust that before I would this: