Atari 5200 Guy

You found an unopened box of Pac-Man cereal and ate all the power pellets out of it, didn't you?

Are you drinking or eating something "special" to give you those playing abilities? 😄

In my honest opinion Atari should have released the 5200 games they had completed even when they stopped 5200 production. The games they had could have been the grand finale because Atari had some fabulous games they had worked hard on finished, or appeared finished, and would have given the 5200 games no other console had. Super Pac-Man Jr. Pac-Man Millipede Sinistar All of those games I remember playing in emulation during the early 2000s when I first discovered emulators. What I played blew my mind. The sounds on all games were spot on with the arcades and all of them played very well. These four should have been released. It definitely wouldn't have hurt Atari to try because these games were very well done. No other console received Super Pac-Man or Sinistar so those could have been seen as 5200 exclusives. It's a shame they couldn't milk the 5200 for what they could. Any new Atari 8-bit games could have been easily converted to the 5200 and, BOOM!, you have two releases, side by side, to make money from. That's what I would have done.

No where near RickR's score. 4,120 😛

You know, I didn't like the controllers on the first model INTV units. I wonder if they are any better on the smaller unit? The INTV did have some games I enjoyed playing on it...I just had issues comfortably using the controllers. They should have done something a bit different with those fire buttons.

A sealed game leads a boring life. Let it out to play!! Oh thank goodness you let that poor cart out for some air! Nice score, too. What happens when you just hold down the fire button?

Dig Dug? In an Arcade1UP? $99? That's not bad.

OK. Quick question. I did a run using Stella and even with both diffs set to B all I had to do was hold down the fire button. I'll post a video in a few to show what I mean...but only for that reason. It's not a score submission. But did I miss a setting somewhere?

The only Mattel game i have for the 2600 is Dark Caverns. I have tons of Intellivision games...just no Intellivision. I'll have to play with 2600 emulation.

Let's see. My 386 maxed out at 16 Megs of RAM in 1991 standards. An ST with 64 Meg abilities in 1985 would have been very impressive, ahead for its time. If he was trying to pinch pennies that bad he could have made the ST line user upgradable from the start. Put the RAM slots in there, give some starting RAM, let the user take care of the rest when they wanted to. I believe that's where the PC and Apple excelled at. A computer business could give you a starter setup but anything above and beyond that was up to the end user. So if Jack would have added those two lines on the motherboard (I wonder which two?) those ST computers could have possibly been the computer of the late 1980s to early 1990s.

I do have to express that I was completely clueless to the XE line of computers. The only reason why I knew anything about the XE stuff was because of that XEGS setup I found, used, at a consignment shop for $40. An Atari machine I had never seen before, with two disk drives, a few games disk and cart, a printer, joystick, light gun, I mean everything was there with a few bonuses. How could I pass that up? That machine came along not long after my Mother passed away. I got lost in discovering it. Because of the paperwork with that machine is how I also discovered Video 61. Imagine my surprise when I called every number of past Atari dealers that was in that box thinking that none of them were around anymore only for one of them to still answer the phone. I was shocked but did order a few disk based games based on that printed material. Lance has really left me with a positive experience...even when Zaxxon for the Atari computers refused to work on my XEGS...he sent me a copy that worked. I owe that XEGS a lot of gratitude.

The stuff I did see on a C64 (friends and then later my own machine) was not too bad. It looked and sounded like an NES with a keyboard when it came to video games. At least it did to me. I felt like I wasn't missing much and, so, I favored the Atari 800 line instead.

That game looks like a lot of fun. I'd have bought it. Looks good, too.

It does need to be said, after reading that, the value difference between the Warner and Jack Atari brands. Warner machines are more abundant, cheaper to obtain, easier to find while Jack's machines are more rare, more valuable, not as easy to find or obtain. I love my STe and I have very fond memories of the Jaguar. As a matter of fact when I received the Jaguar I got now I shed a few tears. I was happy to see one again and I also went into that trance of remembering how I got my first one. That and I always did think that the Jaguar was a sexy beast. It just looked bada** no matter how you looked at it unless you put the CD-ROM on top...then it lost some of its flare. The Jaguar was my #1 favorite modern console until Dreamcast came along. I liked PlayStation, I liked Saturn, but they didn't have Tempest 2000 like the Jaguar had (yes, I know, but it wasn't the same to me). So, for what it's worth, Jack's machines seem to be more valuable. Whether it is because of what they are or because of the lack of quality keeping many from making it generation after generation, the difference can be seen if one looks hard enough. Even with a faulty machine like the 5200 there are probably more 5200's left working than any one of Jack's machines yet his machines seem to be worth more.

LOL. Good answer. Here's another question: In an episode of Computer Chronicles where Jack talks about the ST computers he mentions how he tries to keep the Asians out of the US computer market. If you are so hell bent on not letting those people bring their computers to our stores then why would you give them money to build your products? Either way you are giving them money. I'm not saying that I hate him...I just don't understand the way he ran a business. I appreciate him keeping Atari alive a while longer or we might have lost it sooner. The ST is a remarkable computer but could have been a bit more if they would have just thought that some of their buyers are going to want to play games on that beast. On a plus side those are the only computers made with MIDI being supported natively. No other computer has done that. And some ST computers are still being used in the professional music business to this day. That says something. I just wish they would have done something a bit different with the graphics chip from the beginning...that and that keyboard is mushy.

I still never understood why, if you hate video games, you would "buy" a company that made video games. I'd have loved to have bought Atari. It had the best engineers the world had ever seen. They did things that were ahead of their time. It also made video games which I am very passionate about. I often wonder if someone else would have bought Atari if things would be different. Hard to say. I know one thing. If I could I would design an Atari machine a lot different than the current missing Ataribox.

It wasn't just Nintendo. Sega did, too. The SMS might have struggled against the NES but it still had impressive games, and most were ports of Sega's own arcade games. Those games sold the SMS. And the Genesis didn't really take off until Sega brought Sonic into the eyes of the public. By then it was way too late for Atari...they no longer mattered.

The 7800 has this game too but I have yet to play either one. To see Accolade and Micrprose on Atari sort of shocked me because I didn't discover their games until I got a 386 and that was 90 or 91. Those two made some of my favorite IBM games. Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action, Light speed, Test Drive...those were good games. I wish they were still around.

It doesn't bother me at all. I'm rather enjoying it. My first xegs had two xf551 drives but I never could get it to format double sided...only single sided. I thought the issue might have been dirty heads so I took them apart and cleaned the heads. The insides were an engineer's nightmare. One board was warped slightly...still working but warped. When I worked at Walmart one of my co workers gave me his old C64 that had issues. It was the latter designed model...all white colored with matching drive. The drive had issues as well but I fixed that. That c64 just felt cheap comparing. Hell, the xegs was a far better quality system...and they were both Jack's. Go figure. I really would like to explore the software side of the Atari 8-bit computers because I missed it. That's why I try to get from lance what I can when I can. I want the whole experience, holding that package, ripping the shrinkwrap off, finding catalogues...you can't do that with digital/archived copies. And Jack never understood that feeling. I hope to replace the Racing Destruction Set I had. I loved that game. You could design tracks and race on them.

I have never heard that before...that's funny. How can a business person be that dumb? Hardware doesn't sell itself...it never has. Software is what pushes the sale of hardware. People spend hundreds of dollars on just computer graphics cards alone these days just to get the best out of their games. Video games sell hardware. Always have. I've never seen anyone walk up to a machine going, "Look at that cool spreadsheet program! I gotta have that!" Blah. Everyone of us who owned a game machine or computer in the past when all of this started seen the hardware but it was the games that sealed the deal. That MIDI Maze should have been released. That would have been a cool way to play multiplayer.

Yea. Unfortunately I have no clue what ever happened to my 7800 game collection back then. I managed to hold on to the machine for a while but the games came up missing. I have a theory but I won't touch on that subject. Mom was not at her best for a few months after I turned 18.

Yes...I still remember how I first got Ballblazer. That was one 7800 cart I did not get new. It was complete but not new. Close to Mountain Home, Arkansas was a small store called J&S Variety. The store would get returned items by the truckloads from Sears, Penny's, and similar places. What wasn't completely damaged was put up for sale on the shelves...others would sit to try to repair with another one like them...especially electronics. That's where my stereo setup when I was in high school came from...most of it anyway. All but two pieces was Garrard equipment. Anywho I found Ballblazer by accident sitting on a shelf looking through stereo equipment. It was sitting on top of a 10-band graphic EQ, box all mangled, but otherwise complete. $1 price tag was on the box. The nice thing about places like that was seeing the word "Atari" on products in my area automatically devalued a video game or any video game related merchandise. When I got home and put the cart in I wasn't really expecting much. What I got was probably one of the best games on the 7800, period. Playing that game on a high skill level proved to be a fun challenge. On the 7800 Ballblazer is my #2 favorite game, Asteroids is my #1. I never knew the NES had it...I know the SNES had something similar called Space Football that I had fun with but never could find it to buy I also never owned a C64 when it mattered so I have no knowledge of that side of computers. The C64 I had was in 2005.

Never played Rescue on Fractalus before but I am a fan of Ballblazer on the 7800. That's where I first discovered that one. Thunderfox is one XE game I've been trying to hunt down but it's soo expensive. Maybe someday. Star Raiders is my top favorite on the 5200 and it was my first pick when I picked up an 800 back in 2005. Instant classic and my #1 favorite game of all-time. MULE I played on a C64 first with a setup that was given to me. Every game was pirated LOL. I parted with it. It didn't interest me as much as the Atari 8-bits did. So hopefully I can find it on the Atari 8-bits someday.

Hehe...found one for me. One of my favorite 5200 games...Vanguard! I've never seen the arcade game, though. https://www.coinoppartsetc.com/product/parts-sale-pcb-boards/vanguard-arcade-machine-game-pcb-printed-circuit-jamma-board-2146-sale

Here you go guys. There's a couple of NEO GEO models here. https://www.coinoppartsetc.com/shop/pcb-boards