Is it worth getting into the 5200 if you already have a good A8 collection?

[jerseystyle]

4 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Oh dude, give it a rest would ya? I know I have a thing with Cindy but that comment was a little distasteful, my thing for her is strictly for business. If I wanted a woman, I'd go for someone else. .....and currently I don't date (either gay or straight) after being unceremoniously dumped in 2018 by my ex of 29 years (Alice Yantz) because her legal guardian father (Gene) tried to pull some bullshit claim that I "hit her" in order to get out paying her half of our bills/rent, but, i smartly had compiled photographic forensic evidence proving i didn't,  plus they knew that had nothing on me anyways about otherwise i would've been arrested so they knew they lied, i haven't dated anyone else since because I just don't trust anybody,  that and all of that "me too" bullshit.

Greasy. So greasy. Plus why are you sharing other’s personal info here? Why do I need to know the name of your ex’s dad?

[+warerat]

On 1/8/2023 at 12:22 PM, BIGHMW said:

Oh dude, give it a rest would ya? I know I have a thing with Cindy but that comment was a little distasteful, my thing for her is strictly for business.

 

The Cindy comment was several orders of magnitude less distasteful than you trying to parade a parody video where you fantasize Hitler is pissed at Cindy for letting your career go no where.  The irony here is that you thought that was tasteful when in fact under the policies of the regime at the time you would have been considered untermensch and summarily executed simply for having a mental disability.

[CommodoreDecker]

On 1/4/2023 at 6:23 PM, Stephen said:

BUT - every game you mention is available on the A8.  Pitfall 2 certainly had the bonus level.  I don't believe any of those above games made use of analog control either.  Shame the A8 never got a good analog joystick, because it obviously had the ability to use such controllers.

 

Thanks  for the clartification re: Pitfall 2. 

 

Many 5200 games didn't need the extra responsiveness, and some are hampered by the design. Or code porting didn't do a good enough job at sensitivity of the joystick position change to react.  (DK Jr on the 5200 is one of  the worst ports since it's too easy to release the stick but Jr still  waddles into the water and dies...   That Competition Pro joystick was a nice workaround, but should that have been needed at the time?  (Not the best example, DKJr wasn't released on the 5200, but some games still  suffer from the same problem.  Indeed, some games like Frogger mandate holding down a button along with the joystick direction - this is as clever a solution as it is a concept alien to the game since no other conversion or arcade original demands holding down a button, rendering the game more tedious in the end anyway. Albeit not as bad as some others...)

 

But I might have misread the post I'd responded to...   True, the same games are on the A8... But they don't play as well, sometimes very poorly in  terms of the gaming experience - to the point one has to wonder why. Was Atari trying to put out better versions on the 5200 to get people to buy that console instead? I recall reading there was contention between the console and computer divisions...

 

Especially Qix. I hadn't had the 5200 at the time, but playing the A8 version of Qix, the newly formed enclosed area being filled seemed unusually slow., almost unplayable...

 

 

  

On 1/5/2023 at 9:33 AM, zzip said:

Every 5200 game has been ported to A8.   These days the choice of system pretty much comes down to what controller you prefer to use

 

I definitely misread the previous post - sorry about that.

Edited January 21 by CommodoreDecker

[zzip]

On 1/21/2023 at 12:17 PM, CommodoreDecker said:

But I might have misread the post I'd responded to...   True, the same games are on the A8... But they don't play as well, sometimes very poorly in  terms of the gaming experience - to the point one has to wonder why. Was Atari trying to put out better versions on the 5200 to get people to buy that console instead? I recall reading there was contention between the console and computer divisions...

 

Especially Qix. I hadn't had the 5200 at the time, but playing the A8 version of Qix, the newly formed enclosed area being filled seemed unusually slow., almost unplayable...

It may have been due to internal squabbles,  but my assumption was that the 5200 was going head-to-head with the Colecovision, a system that was all about how "arcade-like" its games were.    Atari may have looked at the existing home computer ports and found them lackluster and decided to give them some polish

 

Also I think Atari wanted to fight the perception that the 5200 was just a 400 in a sleek black case, so having different games helped.   But third parties were still putting out virtually identical games on both systems, so anyone who paid attention wasn't fooled.

 

[Flyindrew]

I have a 5200 and an 8 bit (130 XE since 1985), and have multiple ports of games on both systems. While we all know the knocks on the 5200 controller, there are several games (Defender, Pole Position, Realsports Baseball, Star Raiders) where the 5200 controller actually enhances the game play experience as opposed to the 8 bit. Then there are subtleties like the Pac Man intermissions that appear on 5200 and not on 8 bit.

 

The one positive the 8 bit has over the 5200 is its durability, the system and controllers.  

[patroclus99]

If I had a nice A-8 computer and collection, I would be content with that.  Plus, the A-8s seem less... problematic.

 

My experience with the 5200 is that it needs constant TLC; it was a lousyly put-together product from the get-go.  There is always something wrong with this thing.  I just got done soldering sockets for the controller chips, they are very failure prone, now i can just swap them out . And, although I haven't done a comprehensive trace, I feel like the voltage is erratic across the board.  It lacks the solid performance and reliability of its predecessor.  It also has crappy 'fit and finish'; the form-factor is cool, but it's flimsy and brittle.  No need to discuss the controllers, that's a dead horse.  Once you've rebuilt them with the quality components, they're great.  But, the potentiometers will need to be refurbished at some point, as the carbon-coating deteriorates.  It's all very... off-the-shelf, but that's what kind of makes it interesting.

 

Activision cartridges are problematic; the cartridge-board and contacts do not align with the console cartridge-port; I had to solder some light beads on the cartridge-pins to get them to work reliability.

[phuzaxeman]

On 1/26/2023 at 1:04 AM, patroclus99 said:

If I had a nice A-8 computer and collection, I would be content with that.  Plus, the A-8s seem less... problematic.

 

My experience with the 5200 is that it needs constant TLC; it was a lousyly put-together product from the get-go.  There is always something wrong with this thing.  I just got done soldering sockets for the controller chips, they are very failure prone, now i can just swap them out . And, although I haven't done a comprehensive trace, I feel like the voltage is erratic across the board.  It lacks the solid performance and reliability of its predecessor.  It also has crappy 'fit and finish'; the form-factor is cool, but it's flimsy and brittle.  No need to discuss the controllers, that's a dead horse.  Once you've rebuilt them with the quality components, they're great.  But, the potentiometers will need to be refurbished at some point, as the carbon-coating deteriorates.  It's all very... off-the-shelf, but that's what kind of makes it interesting.

 

Activision cartridges are problematic; the cartridge-board and contacts do not align with the console cartridge-port; I had to solder some light beads on the cartridge-pins to get them to work reliability.

I'm over 10 yrs with my gold dot and flex upgrade. I've broken a few 2600 sticks in that time. 

 

I also don't own carts except for homebrews or special games like Tempest. Literally have not had to do anything for over a decade in terms of fixing something.

[Illtiger1]

Ah, the age old question appears again.  I have both a XEGS and 5200 that I purchased much later in my gaming days as I never had either (or an Atari 8 bit computer) growing up.  In my opinion, the 5200 is a unique experience that can't really be duplicated.  If you're willing to spend some extra money to get a good working 5200 controller from best electronics for example, I highly recommend getting a 5200.  If you just want to play the 8 bit/5200 library and don't really care too much about the experience of the 5200 analog controller, then an 8 bit is the way to go since all of the 5200 games have been ported and homebrewed.  You could then get a flashcart from Atarimax and basically get the entire library for it.

[BIGHMW]

12 hours ago, Illtiger1 said:

Ah, the age old question appears again.  I have both a XEGS and 5200 that I purchased much later in my gaming days as I never had either (or an Atari 8 bit computer) growing up.  In my opinion, the 5200 is a unique experience that can't really be duplicated.  If you're willing to spend some extra money to get a good working 5200 controller from best electronics for example, I highly recommend getting a 5200.  If you just want to play the 8 bit/5200 library and don't really care too much about the experience of the 5200 analog controller, then an 8 bit is the way to go since all of the 5200 games have been ported and homebrewed.  You could then get a flashcart from Atarimax and basically get the entire library for it.

Yes but there are about a dozen 5200 titles that have still not been ported over to the A8, one of them, is a heavy hitter, that one, is Tempest.

[Illtiger1]

3 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Yes but there are about a dozen 5200 titles that have still not been ported over to the A8, one of them, is a heavy hitter, that one, is Tempest.

Sorry, meant original run 5200 games.

[BIGHMW]

3 hours ago, Illtiger1 said:

Sorry, meant original run 5200 games.

Yes all 69 original titles put out between 1982-1987 have indeed been converted since or were already available for the A8.

[+Stephen]

6 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

69

LOL - you said 69.

[+x=usr(1536)]

 

[Mr Hudson]

@BIGHMW is THE authority on all things Atari, so I would take his advice l.

[christo930]

On 12/16/2022 at 2:17 PM, T.A.P. said:

I've been thinking of playing around with the 5200. At this point it is the only Atari console that I've never really bothered with, since the whole thing about the controllers always kept me away.

 

But, I grew up playing with A8 stuff (which I hear is basically the same, hardwarewise) and I still have a nice assortment of that. 

 

Is it worth getting into 5200? Or is it just redundant for someone like me?

 

 

I would say it ain't worth it, with one exception and that's the joysticks.  You have a lot of buttons on the joystick and there is only 1 button on a standard 8-bit controller.  Of course, this comes with a downside in that the 5200 joysticks suck. But you can get one of the modern ones with multiple buttons and it won't suck.

 

A lot of 5200 games are just straight ports of 8-bit games.

 

OTOH, if this is what you want, then do it. It's your money. It's your space. It's your hobby. So you might as well enjoy it if that is what you want.

[BIGHMW]

On 3/17/2023 at 7:37 PM, Stephen said:

LOL - you said 69.

Yup I sure did alright!!! 

[BIGHMW]

On 3/18/2023 at 2:46 PM, Mr Hudson said:

@BIGHMW is THE authority on all things Atari, so I would take his advice l.

Well, not really but thank you! I take that as a compliment.  

 

At least I am THE ONLY AA member who has an entire YouTube channel dedicated exclusively to 1980s Atari and have the branding to prove it, as nobody else on YT owns the name "The Atari Report", and nobody, has a better opening piece of opening music than I do on The Atari Report with Edd Kalehoff's various renditions (from 1996-present) of the ABC "World News Tonight" theme music blaring on the background with myself doing my Jim Cutler "impression" doing voiceover work on every video I compile on all three of my YouTube channels.