why does the atari 5200 get hated on?

[AtariLeaf]

For me, original controllers are part of the deal, for better or for worse. When we talk about experiencing the system firsthand, we usually talk about the console and cartridges, the visual appeal, the satisfying interaction with the two. But apart from inserting/removing cartridges and hitting the power switch, the only tangible interaction you can have with a video game system is with its controller, and the combination of that unique tactile sensation with the way the screen responds to your manipulations. It was that experience that defined a system as much as its games or hardware specifications.

 

I'd go so far as to say the controller is at least as important to the experience as the console and carts themselves, of not more. Think about it: how many people hate the Atari 5200 and Intellivision simply due to their controllers, who won't be swayed no matter how good their games are? Consoles and games can be emulated to a greater or lesser degree; the experience of original controllers--particularly funky nonstandard ones like Channel F, Astrocade, Intellivision, and Atari 5200--can't be duplicated on PC keyboards, and there aren't adapters for a lot of them.

 

With so many mods, hardware projects, emulators, homebrews, and other stuff available today, any system can be pretty much anything now. The original controller is one of the key pieces of its core identity. (Again, for better or for worse. )

 

I should add that I'm not saying anybody's wrong for using non-standard controllers or preferring emulation or any configuration other than a 100% authentic museum-exhibit setup. Play in whatever way that's enjoyable to you; that's the point, after all. These are just thoughts on original controllers as spoken by a purist.

 

I can understand what you're saying. If I were to truly experience the 7800 I'd use prolines to give me an idea of what it was like BITD but if I want to actually play and enjoy the games themselves, I'll still reach for a more modern solution ie modded nes pad.

[MIKE5200]

Think back then it was the controllers and the crash, the system didn't last long, I love it because of the arcades are gone out of all of the malls!

[+GoldenWheels]

Good grief. Unless your house is drenched floor to ceiling in gasoline and filled with fumes, the spark will not start a fire. The whole spark thing is quickly blowing up to "E.T. crashed the industry" proportions. It is not a legitimate complaint about the Atari 5200. Sorry.

 

Do people really THINK it will start a fire? Jeez I certainly don't, that's overkill for sure. But while the spark may not be a big deal, I think the setup itself for the four port certainly is a legit complaint. Because it's clunky, ill conceived, and just one more thing to break or lose. I'm glad they fixed it for the two port so I didn't have to deal with it.

[VectorGamer]

Do people really THINK it will start a fire?

 

Somebody should test dousing it in gasoline and then create the spark to see what happens

[+GoldenWheels]

 

Somebody should test dousing it in gasoline and then create the spark to see what happens

 

Hey even the four port doesn't deserve that.....I kid, I kid.

[BassGuitari]

I think the setup itself for the four port certainly is a legit complaint. Because it's clunky, ill conceived, and just one more thing to break or lose.

No more than a regular switchbox. And since the 2-port also requires a switchbox, it's "as many" things to break or lose, not "one more".

 

With the 4-port switchbox you didn't have to reach behind your TV to flick a switch to change between broadcast viewing and games. Hook it up and forget it. Plus the video quality is markedly better, and you only have one cord running from the system (not really a huge deal, but nice if you're concerned about clutter). And you don't need a 300-ohm / 75-ohm adapter to hook it up to TV with coax antenna input (aka virtually every television made in the last 35 years). Pretty well-conceived, actually, by any objective measure.

 

The *only* advantage a standard switchbox has is that it's more readily available today. And even that's a nonargument because those will be relegated to parts boxes or forgone altogether since we have RCA/coax adapters now.

 

The *only* disadvantage of the 4-port switchbox is that you HAVE to have it to run a 4-port.

 

 

[+Cafeman]

 

Somebody should test dousing it in gasoline and then create the spark to see what happens

I nominate "VectorGamer".

[+GoldenWheels]

No more than a regular switchbox. And since the 2-port also requires a switchbox, it's "as many" things to break or lose, not "one more".

 

With the 4-port switchbox you didn't have to reach behind your TV to flick a switch to change between broadcast viewing and games. Hook it up and forget it. Plus the video quality is markedly better, and you only have one cord running from the system (not really a huge deal, but nice if you're concerned about clutter). And you don't need a 300-ohm / 75-ohm adapter to hook it up to TV with coax antenna input (aka virtually every television made in the last 35 years). Pretty well-conceived, actually, by any objective measure.

 

The *only* advantage a standard switchbox has is that it's more readily available today. And even that's a nonargument because those will be relegated to parts boxes or forgone altogether since we have RCA/coax adapters now.

 

The *only* disadvantage of the 4-port switchbox is that you HAVE to have it to run a 4-port.

 

 

Well it's a bigger (that's why I say clunky), and it's proprietary (which is why I say ill conceived)....I can (and did) use one whatever switchbox was handy for most of my systems, whereas the 5200 four port needs that special Atari one. Said normal switchboxes were also a dime a dozen and cheap at radio shack, even back in the day I think.

 

Is the video really markedly better than 2 port rf? If so I truly didn't know that, but I'd never heard that before.

 

I had forgotten about that damn switch vs autoswitching, it's been a while! But nowadays, thanks to those lovely RCA/Coax adapters, the 2 port doesn't need a box at all (I got caught up in "now" vs "then" when I said one more thing). But the four port still does and always will, short someone doing the power mod.

 

I'm not saying it is a BIG complaint Bass--it would never have stopped me back then, for instance. I am just saying it is a legit issue I considered when picking my 5200 out in the more recent past.

[VectorGamer]

I nominate "VectorGamer".

 

I sold my 4 port so I don't have that switch box anymore...maybe Internet detectives can track down BackIn89 - he'll do anything for money

[+Cafeman]

Some day I need to search thru the forums and learn more about backin89 and what he was trying to pull off.

[TwiliteZoner]

For me personally I would have kept my 5200 if the beast had a smaller footprint and was not the size of a piece of luggage.

 

For the record I never had an issue with the controllers. They worked flawlessly the entire time I owned the system. I did have to return the system not once, not twice but three times to toys r us before I got a unit that functioned correctly. The video was the issue with the 1st two units.

Edited March 22, 2016 by TwiliteZoner

[AtariLeaf]

For me personally I would have kept my 5200 if the beast had a smaller footprint and was not the size of a piece of luggage.

 

For the record I never had an issue with the controllers. They worked flawlessly the entire time I owned the system. I did have to return the system not once, not twice but three times to toys r us before I got a unit that functioned correctly. The video was the issue with the 1st two units.

 

I would be genuinely interested in how often that was the case. For those who've owned their original system from the beginning, how long, if ever, did it take for the controllers to break?

[+Cafeman]

 

I would be genuinely interested in how often that was the case. For those who've owned their original system from the beginning, how long, if ever, did it take for the controllers to break?

 

It took years and years before any real issues. I bought the 5200 in 1983, played it quite a bit until about 1986 when I graduated HS. It then pretty much sat in the closed until 1990 when I gave the 5200 to my cousins. I got it back in 2000 and only had to clean the connections with a pencil eraser and the sticks were back to near perfect functionality. The video always worked , but sometimes I'd have to play with the RF and Power cables to prevent static / interference.

[0078265317]

They were awefull when I was kid. I got one in the 80s and controllers broke few years later. In 83 I went to my cousins in kansas city missouri I think it was (they no longer live there) and I played a 2 port with controller issues. I never got missle command to work. Even on mine. The fire buttons stopped working. So it was impossible to play. I was so upset when jungle hunt no longer let me swing the vines.

[TheClassyGamer]

I like how the system has that little compartment in the back that you can put your snacks in for when you are playing games.

 

No but really, this thread has started me thinking I need to thin out my 5200 stuff and maybe get me a computer. I've been tempted for a long time to get like an 800 or something.

 

Where I grew up was a video game wasteland. During the arcade boom we had very few arcades, like one real one and two or three that popped up and vanished in a very short time. Mostly games were spread around town at different grocery stores, laundry places, and little gas station stores and restaurants. As for home gaming there was the 2600. I never once saw in stores a Colecovision, or Intellivision. The 5200 came out and I lusted over that after the fact because it was already out of production before I ever had seen one. No Atari computers either, Kmart had a display for the Aquarius. We had a lot of pong type systems around here though for some reason.

 

I didn't get a 2600 until like 1980 for Christmas. My parents got it at Woolco. I used to love going there because they had one of the big Atari kiosks set up. Also on a side note, that summer my cousin was staying with us and every time an Atari commercial would come on and would sing the jingle of "Have you played Atari today?" he would say, "No but I got one." just to piss me off because I didn't have one and he was not happy that he was staying with us for the summer while his parents were away and he couldn't play his.

 

We (Myself and other kids my age) had no lover or hate for the 5200 because we didn't know anything about it for the most part, other than having seen stuff on TV. The old "This is an arcade game. This is the new Atari Super system." commercial pretty much made me lust over it so I had pretty high hopes for the system. When I actually got a second hand one years later I had never heard anything about the controllers being awful or any other issue. Over all I liked the system, except the controllers died and that was the end or that.

 

Having a 5200 collection now I just have it because it is Atari stuff and I like it but don't really play it much. I would like to try more of the 8 bit games though so I think I'm going to have to look into the computers.

[S.BAZ]

answer to the original question:

because it is an absolute frustrating pain in the ass!!

 

if it's all you had it must have been awesome and I admit I do like it quite a bit. but there is no question whatsoever in my mind why so many people don't like it. huge, heavy, cumbersome, controllers periodically needing serviced and re-serviced (aside from wacky control system causing tons of frustration during gameplay).

[Gabriel]

 

I would be genuinely interested in how often that was the case. For those who've owned their original system from the beginning, how long, if ever, did it take for the controllers to break?

 

I didn't really keep track, but I seem to remember my first controllers for the system failing after the first year of use. Buttons would just stop working, and once the fire button on the controller started flaking out, the start button usually followed closely behind.

 

Outside of the controllers that came with the system, I think I went through 3 others, all purchased from 1984 to maybe 85 when the last store which stocked them closed down. One of those three failed in a year just like the ones that came with the system. The other two lasted for some time.

 

My last controller died after a particularly long game of Defender sometime around 1990. It worked fine all through the game, but when I picked it up to play again the next day the fire button was dead and the stick permanently went hard left. A couple of weeks after that the start button died.

 

I always thought it was weird how there were two sets of fire buttons, but if one side went out the other side always went with it. Plus, it seemed odd how the start button would fail soon thereafter, but the top fire buttons and reset usually worked fine.

 

After that, I'd sometimes forlornly pop games in to look at their attract modes and wish I could play. I'd press really hard on the start button, hoping that maybe it would work. No luck.

[atari2800man]

Jesus christ,controllers suck!blah blah blah.if thats really the only complaint,then this system is still very great!I dont think its that big of a issue.

[AtariLeaf]

Jesus christ,controllers suck!blah blah blah.if thats really the only complaint,then this system is still very great!I dont think its that big of a issue.

 

No you're right, broken joysticks that keep you from playing your system, no biggie. I love massive paper weights.

 

As a side note, the steering wheel broke on my F-150. No biggie, who the hell needs to steer their vehicle anyway?

[joystickjedi]

 

+1 on the Masterplay Clone. I have two clones, just so I can hook them up to my Edladdin Super Twin 78 and enjoy Space Dungeon and Robotron.

 

Masterplay Cone with Edladdin Twin Stick.JPG

Does the masterplay clone recognize both 7800 buttons?

[atari2800man]

Atarileaf its called shit happens to electronics,not every controller is going to work the way it truley can.you clearly just dont care to grow a set and learn to spend cash on gold contact controllers for the 5200 or on 3rd party controllers that actually work flawlessly.im sick of cheap asses,and people who flaw a console for simple fixes.

[AtariLeaf]

Your eloquent colloquialisms aside, and assuming all things being equal and I own a 5200 with controllers that work flawlessly, I'm still stuck with joysticks that aren't self centering leaving them less than adequate for many games and a general design that I PERSONALLY find to be ergonomically uncomfortable to hold and use. Since this is the case why would I spend money upgrading controllers that I don't enjoy using to begin with?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Atarileaf its called shit happens to electronics,not every controller is going to work the way it truley can.you clearly just dont care to grow a set and learn to spend cash on gold contact controllers for the 5200 or on 3rd party controllers that actually work flawlessly.im sick of cheap asses,and people who flaw a console for simple fixes.

 

Flaw a console for simple fixes...man you are hilarious! I have and love my original 4 port but man give it a rest

You are so defensive of it, the controllers did and do suck and that is a fair and legitimate complaint. It is not about being a "cheap ass" or otherwise. This is a forum of many Atari lovers but you are simply delusional if you consider everyone's complaint about the 5200 annoying, it is YOUR problem if you are going to be so sensitive about it Now I received an excellent condition 4 port from a member here and bought separately a Gold refurbished controller from BEST ELECTRONICS in anticipation and am pretty damn happy overall with what I have since I knew what I was getting into from the start but that said had I bought the system at launch I would have been pretty pissed with the controllers right off the bat and even more so once they broke down later on and legitimately so. I am sure you are one of those who will defend it to death regardless of anyone else's view or opinion but that says more about you than anyone else here.

[atari2800man]

My main point here is,flawing a console for just one flaw is ridiculious.I know the atari 5200s release controllers are faulty.yeah they suck.my point was just that theres other options to fix that simple flaw and create ataris greatest atari arcade heaven.I mean the games and graphics are great for its time.I of course never had this at launch,so I dont know if there were third party controllers at that time period.nobodys cheap.im sorry I even said that.I just wish this system got more respect.

[+GoldLeader]

If I could afford one, And it were A/V Modded (Ideally with S-Video if possible), And if I had a solution for the controllers, well I wouldn't mind having one TBH