Why would I want to buy an Atari 5200?

[7800]

Agreed, The 5200 controller needs to be used every so often or it will fail, but that's only because of the way it was designed. Pots can get flaky if not used for years and the button contacts get oxidized. Although a revolutionary design in it's day, I think the 5200 controller could have been designed better if more time was given to the designers during production. There isn't much that could be improved upon with the analog controls but the flex circuit, harness, and rubbery buttons are IMO the worst part of the design. The buttons should have been hard plastic with some sort of spring action mechanism that made contact with a board instead of a ribbon. The Trak-ball has some ofl these improvements which is one of the reasons why it is considered a solid, reliable controller. I'm glad Atari had the intention of making the stick self centering but can also understand why it never happened. In the end, I think of the CX-52 as a controller that should have evolved and improved, but stayed in prototype mode throughout it's production.

[Keatah]

You don't. You want to use Altirra & emulation.

[7800]

Or JUM52 for mac.