phuzaxeman

Big sexy hasn't grown on you yet? ?

There are games like Real Sports Baseball and Centipede where the graphics are not better. Donkey Kong too. What's cool about the 5200 is the strategic games likes Adventure 2 or Star Raiders that utilizes the keypad. Intellidics Tron is also really cool.

Could be. Maybe Checkered Flag or Night Driver.

Wade, if you're reading this, bring back a sports game. Even a Pole Position Recharged would be amazing.

I grew up with the 7800 and 5200. The 5200 is much better for me. There are so many great games using analog sticks with better sound. You mentioned the controllers...the original sticks is what makes the 5200 experience. Unlike the 7800, you have analog control. The problem with the sticks was reliability and that has been taken cared of with modern upgrades. There are also other joystick options.

When I was a kid, we used to have our hamster play in that salsa tray. lol.

The storage compartment not only holds the two sticks, but it holds all your 5200 overlays.

I also store my upgrade 5200 joysticks in the compartment. The compartment works great because it protects the sticks from sunlight and dust. The 5200 is large like the cartridges. I love everything about the 5200. It's one my favorite consoles of all time.

I have all the Recharged games except Black Widow. Just bought it for $5. That's an awesome deal. To think in this day and age a cool game for 5 bucks. Thanks Atari!

Thank you, Ryan! Your work is incredible. I really like how you share your development process. I wish I knew how to program music on an Atari so you could use it.

Bro, we just got a bowling game and you didn't even say thanks and just asked for a Space Cavern game? Ignore the rude behavior @glurk.

Thank you sir. This is one my favorite 2600 titles. You rock!

As a 7800 owner since 87, I've never liked the sticks. And I'd never use 7800 sticks on a 5200.

The joystick looks really good. My only concern with the design from the pics is the fire button size. It looks really big from the pics and extend more than the original. Do you feel the buttons are large as well?

When do you think you'll have these available? I would be interested.

Really great idea. The joystick looks really nice. I'm a 5200 purist and use only the original sticks but this project might change my mind. I hope the buttons have different functions because there are games where you need both the top and bottom buttons. Do you have any plans to add pause, reset, and start buttons? Any future plans so you can adjust analog settings? Thanks

Pole Position Recharged!

I saw Atari 8bit carts after the release of the 5200. There were none in Kmart in 1982 when we shopped for our 5200.

It's not exactly the same though even though they share the same internals. As a kid, you couldn't go to Kmart or Toys R US to buy cartridges for the 400 like you could a 5200. I didn't know anyone with both an Atari computer and 5200 in 1982.

My neighbor also had a 1200xl late in 1983. But she didn't know how to work it. I had 3 friends that owned 5200's back in 1982-1983. We actually had a lot of fun playing vs each other on Realsports games. My friends and I borrowed each other's games. When my family got the 800xl in 1984, I was introduced to pirated games around 86. lol. So I had so many games. I also attended some user Atari 8bit user groups in the late 80s. Part of the reason I still used the 8bit in the early 90s was because I moved from Ohio to Houston and was part of HACE (Houston Atari Computer Enthusiasts). I was heavily invested in the 8bit community. It's just today, the 5200 appeals to me more. Being able to upgrade my own analog sticks and using the keypad plus the trackball just seems more fun. The 5200 is a gem. People talk about how the 5200 is just a 400 computer. Most people that say that had never owned a 5200 back in the day. When people use their 8bit computers, they have it setup like a monitor and they type. A 5200 hooks up to your "big" TV in your family room. That alone changes the experience. Back in 1982, there was nothing like Atari's Centipede. It was almost arcade perfect to a kids eye minus the screen length. And Pac Man had intermissions (8bit not). Star Wars and Star Raiders utilized the analog sticks like the Star Wars arcade. Those were big things in 1983. The issue with the 5200 comes down to games. The 5200 had excellent games and I enjoyed them most. The problem was that most of the games were the same titles as other consoles. 2600 owners didn't feel the need to spend extra for better graphics and sound. Part of the success of Coleco was their 3rd party support. It was different. Intellivision did the same thing. Their games were different. In the end, they all crashed and the NES took over though. Atari never learned from their mistake and the lack of 3rd party support killed their last console, Jaguar.

Most of my friends had computers by 1984 including our family. Apple, c64, and Atari was really starting to take over. We bought the 800xl from Sears 1984. Prior to 84, I had never seen an 8bit in person. My trusty 800xl got me through college in the early 90s. But my 5200 gets more love in 2022. The 5200 is so much fun with the analog sticks and fast loading times.

None of my friends had Atari computers in 82. Kids at school had Colecovison, Intellivision, 2600, or the 5200. And if you had a computer in that time, it wasn't strictly for gaming like a 2600 or 5200. I had never seen an Atari computer in person at a main stream store until the XL series was out.

Kids in 1982 didn't have Atari computers, a majority of them had consoles when it came to gaming. If you were strictly gaming on an 8bit, you were probably older. A lot of that changed when the C64 and the XL came out later. There were no atari 400's at Toy R US, Sears, Kmart, and Kay B Toy stores. Atari 5200 was cooler and the better for kids because it was a console that competed with Colecovision.

I've bought every recharged game and a handful of other games from the store. It would be great to see a Recharged sports game like the classic XO football or even Night Driver. What Atari Sports titles would you be interested?

You can't be competitive if you only release 59 7800 titles. The sound was 2600 quality. I liked it back in 87 but it was no match for NES and Sega. XE game system released most games that were already on disc.