A Salute To Atari, Part III: Atari 5200

The Atari 5200, released in 1982, was amazing for its time. The system had four controller ports, and also featured a new controller with a joystick, number buttons, two buttons on each side of the controller and buttons for Start, Pause, and Reset. The Atari 5200 was originally called the Atari Video System X and was codenamed Pam after a woman working at Atari. The Atari 5200 did poorly because of its inability to games for the Atari 2600, although an adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games.
Another problem was that Atari mostly focused on the Atari 2600. The 5200 had a lot of design mistakes, and the system is generally considered to have been poor.

Next Up, the Atari 7800!

A Satute to Atari: Part II: VCS/ 2600

Who couldn't like the Atari 2600? The joystick, lots of fun games....Although the 2600 isn't all glitz and glamor. One game, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, was so bad that it is blamed for the market crash and thousands of copies were buried in a New Mexico landfill. Although others, like Pitfall, have had sequels and became successful.

The joystick is simple, with one button only. It plugs into the back of the system.

The four switches next to the cartridge turn the power on, reset the game, choose between a black and white or color TV, and select the game. Complex!

Atari also made the 2600 Jr., which made the cartridges look huge.

Cool, huh? For a system from the '70's I mean. Would you rather have a 360 or PS3 or 2600?

It was one of Atari's best and most famous systems, and it still lives on, because people make homebrew for it and play it. I have an old one in my garage. Maybe I should play it?

Up next, A Salute to Atari: Part III: Atari 5200!