Best 5200 games (1982-87 only please) you owned in your opinion?

[LANC3L0T]

7 hours ago, Flyindrew said:

While Pac Man, Dig Dug, Super Breakout, Berzerk, Popeye, Star Trek and Pole Position are awesome, the all time best arcade conversion to the 5200 has to go to Defender.

I do have Defender, and you are right, the graphics and sound are extremely close to the arcade.  It would have made my favorites list, but I struggled controlling the ship and rapid firing with my 5200 joystick.  Once I get my Atari 5200 Keypad/DB9 Adapter from RetroGameBoyz, I will be able to try some of my 9 pin joysticks.  That will most likely move Defender way up my list.

[phuzaxeman]

On 1/11/2023 at 6:08 PM, Keatah said:

Defender
Centipede
Pac-Man
Star Raiders
Countermeasure
Miner 2049'er
Missile Command
Qix
Galaxian
Pole Position

 

These were staples of our gaming sessions when were in the arcade mood. Always played them on the 400/800 for reliability reasons however. And the crisp responsive digital controllers which were cheaply available and easily fixed or replaced if we broke them. The 5200's controller's were impossible for a kid to fix - short of remaking and re-wiring everything into a new custom box.

 

Other than 2049, the 5200 controls and versions were better than the 8bit. Analog controls /keypad/extra buttons were such an advantage on games like Defender, Centipede, and Galaxian.

[BIGHMW]

On 2/8/2023 at 8:47 PM, LANC3L0T said:

I do have Defender, and you are right, the graphics and sound are extremely close to the arcade.  It would have made my favorites list, but I struggled controlling the ship and rapid firing with my 5200 joystick.  Once I get my Atari 5200 Keypad/DB9 Adapter from RetroGameBoyz, I will be able to try some of my 9 pin joysticks.  That will most likely move Defender way up my list.

You might also want to consider the Redemption 5200 adapter for the 7800 (CX24) joystick controller instead because it has dual fire buttons so you'll have the smart bombs available as opposed to having the DB9 adapter because it only takes either CX40 sticks (only 1 fire button) or Sega joypads (those have 2 fire buttons), some options to consider.

Edited February 15, 2023 by BIGHMW

[Keatah]

On 2/8/2023 at 10:47 PM, LANC3L0T said:

I do have Defender, and you are right, the graphics and sound are extremely close to the arcade.  It would have made my favorites list, but I struggled controlling the ship and rapid firing with my 5200 joystick.  Once I get my Atari 5200 Keypad/DB9 Adapter from RetroGameBoyz, I will be able to try some of my 9 pin joysticks.  That will most likely move Defender way up my list.

It will. I don't care how many times a 5200 controller is rebuilt with how many parts this and that from Bust'o'lectronics.. It still sucks.

 

I loved Atari 400/800 Defender. I liked the sharp fast response of the digital controls in a regular joystick. Never mind having to use the keyboard for SmartBomb and Hyperspace. It was never an issue. As the game got more intense and ramped up I would simply naturally start hovering over the keyboard ready to jam it!

 

I liked the crisp micro-switch and fast-acting switches of less sophisticated 2600 "digital" sticks. The shorter the throw the better. And the tactile keyboard was miles ahead. It told you you had engaged your special power in no uncertain terms. I could quickly get back to figuring out what to do next. Resting at peace knowing I was on my way and everything was taken care of. Knowing instantly the machine was going to do its thing rather than me waiting to actually see that response on screen.

 

The 5200 controllers were ill-defined elastomeric slushboxes with a rubbery response that slowed down my game significantly. Always had to worry about pressing rubber through an overlay. Or worry about wasting time by over-pressing a button for too long a time to ensure it was activated.

 

When you drill down into how to improve your high score things like that make a big difference.

[BIGHMW]

1 hour ago, Keatah said:

It will. I don't care how many times a 5200 controller is rebuilt with how many parts this and that from Bust'o'lectronics.. It still sucks.

 

I loved Atari 400/800 Defender. I liked the sharp fast response of the digital controls in a regular joystick. Never mind having to use the keyboard for SmartBomb and Hyperspace. It was never an issue. As the game got more intense and ramped up I would simply naturally start hovering over the keyboard ready to jam it!

 

I liked the crisp micro-switch and fast-acting switches of less sophisticated 2600 "digital" sticks. The shorter the throw the better. And the tactile keyboard was miles ahead. It told you you had engaged your special power in no uncertain terms. I could quickly get back to figuring out what to do next. Resting at peace knowing I was on my way and everything was taken care of. Knowing instantly the machine was going to do its thing rather than me waiting to actually see that response on screen.

 

The 5200 controllers were ill-defined elastomeric slushboxes with a rubbery response that slowed down my game significantly. Always had to worry about pressing rubber through an overlay. Or worry about wasting time by over-pressing a button for too long a time to ensure it was activated.

 

When you drill down into how to improve your high score things like that make a big difference.

Well, since I now reacquired an XEGS I will maybe take up your challenge and play some of the 8-bit versions of some of my 5200 favorites and let you know how I feel on them. Who knows, maybe I'll like the XEGS versions better, but then again who knows, until I actually try them out myself.

 

I DO have to admit that I always considered the XEGS to be more of a natural than any other of my consoles at least in form factor, to be sitting next to my Sony SLV-N51 VHS VCR on the bottom shelf of the home theater side of my home entertainment system setup, in which is on the left side while the home stereo side is on the right side of it, with a CD/MiniDisc combo player and a cassette player on the middle shelf and a vintage Realistic TR-169 8-Track tape player and a turntable on the bottom shelf.

 

The middle shelf (on the left, the home theater side) has a Sony Blu-Ray player on it (I currently use the Flashback 9 on that input), alongside my HDMI 8-way switcher in the center which hosts my cable box (for local TV stations INCLUDING CBC for Hockey Night In Canada only and ONLY AVAILABLE ON CABLE) and my MP4 Media player, and also my Lonpoo LP-099 worldwide region-free PAL/NTSC DVD player with my Roku Ultra (for all of my other TV including Hulu, ESPN+, and Peacock) on top of it.

 

The top shelf is for each my Sony STR-DH590 home theater receiver with my HD Capture Pro digital recorder (hooked up from an output of my powered 2-way HDMI splitter I use to get rid of any anti-copy encryption with the other output hooked up the receiver input) and an ActionTec HD wireless receiver hooked up from my PC so I can view pirated streams (or porn or other things you can't view on a Roku) from my PC, and my Sony STR-DH190 home stereo receiver.

 

INPUTS 1 through 8 (currently) :

 

1. Actiontec HD Wireless Receiver

2. Cable Box

3. Roku Ultra

4. MP4 HD Media Player

5. Atari Flashback 9

6. Lonpoo LP-099 DVD Player

 

(currently all gaming consoles are hooked up to my home arcade setup in the gaming corner of my apartment)

 

If everything goes smoothly:

 

1. ActionTec HD Wireless Receiver

2. Sony Blu-Ray Player

3. Cable Box

4. MP4 HD Media Player

5. Roku Ultra

6. Lonpoo LP-099 DVD Player

7. Atari XEGS (or if we add another shelf and reconfigure it, all 4 consoles, hooked up to my now-famous RF-to-HDMI analog TV converter)

8. Sony SLV-N51 VHS VCR

Edited February 16, 2023 by BIGHMW

[+Stephen]

2 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

INPUTS 1 through 8 (currently) :

[SNIP]

Sweet setup!  I've always liked all my gear interconnected and playing through an amp.  Back when I had my original 400, I added a headphone jack to my TV and connected that to my receiver.  Star Raiders on the stereo was so cool.

[BIGHMW]

18 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Sweet setup!  I've always liked all my gear interconnected and playing through an amp.  Back when I had my original 400, I added a headphone jack to my TV and connected that to my receiver.  Star Raiders on the stereo was so cool.

Well being in an apartment and having to conserve space, during the pandemic 3 years ago, I discovered the sweet, compact-but-yet powerful sound of my 2 pairs of (since-discontinued) Edifier R1010-BT powered multimedia speakers and I intend to get 2 more pairs of them (they're up on eBay right now for cheap) to go with the ones i have for my home theater and also my home studio, they'll be of one set for my home arcade and one for my home office (both the home office and home arcade setups are in former closets that I took out the sliding doors and tracks off of, as almost everybody here at Bishop Park also does) for 4 sets total, and all of my speaker systems are hooked up via the headphone jacks of my receivers/TVs each.

 

....and you're goddamn right @Stephen, gaming DOES sound better on multimedia speakers than it ever will on the built-in speaker (s) on a TV!!!

 

https://edifier-online.com/us/en/speakers/r1010bt-simple-bluetooth-bookshelf-speakers?cmp_id=19543750472&adg_id=&kwd=&device=c&gclid=Cj0KCQiAorKfBhC0ARIsAHDzsltbnFZJpqlEobK0Coh3vn440PyBaP04eTt9lOYOHAzMw8fZ4aX_4bYaAl8zEALw_wcB

Edited February 16, 2023 by BIGHMW

[phuzaxeman]

14 hours ago, Keatah said:

It will. I don't care how many times a 5200 controller is rebuilt with how many parts this and that from Bust'o'lectronics.. It still sucks.

 

I loved Atari 400/800 Defender. I liked the sharp fast response of the digital controls in a regular joystick. Never mind having to use the keyboard for SmartBomb and Hyperspace. It was never an issue. As the game got more intense and ramped up I would simply naturally start hovering over the keyboard ready to jam it!

 

I liked the crisp micro-switch and fast-acting switches of less sophisticated 2600 "digital" sticks. The shorter the throw the better. And the tactile keyboard was miles ahead. It told you you had engaged your special power in no uncertain terms. I could quickly get back to figuring out what to do next. Resting at peace knowing I was on my way and everything was taken care of. Knowing instantly the machine was going to do its thing rather than me waiting to actually see that response on screen.

 

The 5200 controllers were ill-defined elastomeric slushboxes with a rubbery response that slowed down my game significantly. Always had to worry about pressing rubber through an overlay. Or worry about wasting time by over-pressing a button for too long a time to ensure it was activated.

 

When you drill down into how to improve your high score things like that make a big difference.

Sucks for you. If the sticks were bad for everyone then I wouldn't be holding Atari age records on Super Breakout, Galaxian, and Centipede. Defender was always a spilt second late ony XL which the 5200 sticks soleves.

[Keatah]

18 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

....and you're goddamn right @Stephen, gaming DOES sound better on multimedia speakers than it ever will on the built-in speaker (s) on a TV!!!

Even makes the screeching banshee Apple II speaker sound good.

[LANC3L0T]

I am fairly new to the Atari 5200, and the more I read about it, the more I feel that Atari really dropped the ball on this system.

It had a lot in common with the 8-bit computers, so I would think there were many games that could have been easily ported to the 5200 (like Lucasarts did with Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus).

Plus, it had the same pokey chip that many arcade games used.  Which gave most of the 5200 arcade ports amazing music and sound effects.  They should have worked on porting more arcade games.

 

Oh, I just picked up Blueprint and RealSports Baseball for my 5200, and they are both really good.  Blueprint was one of those odd duck arcade games that I liked as a kid, and this version is really faithful to the arcade.  RealSports Baseball makes use of every button on the 5200 controller.  It has good graphics, but I was shocked at the amazing speech they added!!!  Plus, the game play is spot on.  I had a blast playing through my first 2 games!!

Both Blueprint and RealSports Baseball will be in my top 10 (with Baseball also making my top 3).

[BIGHMW]

On 2/16/2023 at 9:41 PM, LANC3L0T said:

I am fairly new to the Atari 5200, and the more I read about it, the more I feel that Atari really dropped the ball on this system.

It had a lot in common with the 8-bit computers, so I would think there were many games that could have been easily ported to the 5200 (like Lucasarts did with Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus).

Plus, it had the same pokey chip that many arcade games used.  Which gave most of the 5200 arcade ports amazing music and sound effects.  They should have worked on porting more arcade games.

 

Oh, I just picked up Blueprint and RealSports Baseball for my 5200, and they are both really good.  Blueprint was one of those odd duck arcade games that I liked as a kid, and this version is really faithful to the arcade.  RealSports Baseball makes use of every button on the 5200 controller.  It has good graphics, but I was shocked at the amazing speech they added!!!  Plus, the game play is spot on.  I had a blast playing through my first 2 games!!

Both Blueprint and RealSports Baseball will be in my top 10 (with Baseball also making my top 3).

I agree there should've been more A8 titles ported over to the 5200, yes indeed! Thanks for someone finally agreeing with me, but, now with all the fine programmers and developers we have even here on AA you would think that many if you might join myself in requesting (even though we might have to wait a while to get them done and hope they will eventually get done) more titles be ported over. You realize there are already tons of conversions that some of our great very own programmers like Paul Lay @playsoft, @Wrathchild, @glurk, Steven Tucker @classics and some others have graced us with over the years. But, there always could be more, in fact I myself lobbied to get a working port of Asteroids, in which was numbered CX5201, and was supposed to have been the ORIGINAL pack-in game with the 5200, before Atari scrapped it and left it unfinished and decided to include Super Breakout (CX5203) instead.

 

Paul Lay @playsoft did the honors, and graced us with not only a working hack that stabilized the control problems on the original unfinished prototype, but also, because it was still, you know, unfinished, he even (and without me knowing this and I was very pleased that he did this) ported over the original A8 version and mapped its features to the 5200 keypad, and even added improvements such as a faster response in the defensive systems (from a 500ms, a half-a-second delay, to a mere 30ms delay), as well as the usual rest of the bells and whistles the A8 version had like slow or fast moving asteroids, multi-player modes, and even a "bounce" mode as well.

 

The ONLY noted difference between this conversion and the unfinished 5200 version, was the copyright notice on the A8 port (it read on the screen "(C)1981 ATARI"), the 5200 version, did not (and never would've) have one, as it was going to be left out on the 5200 port. Other than that it's everything the final 5200 release should've been.

 

My first requested conversion (well before I knew who Paul Lay was) was Yar's Strike, in which was a 4K project for a 2009 A8 minigame comp contest that AA was putting on then that limited entrants to 4K or less. Yar's Strike, developed in 2009 by Lennart Bown @Thelen, was his take on the Howard Scott Warshaw 2600 classic, Yars' Revenge. I was SO impressed with it and since 5200 owners didn't ever get a port of Yars' Revenge, I had posted a thread in 2016 in hopes that someone would do a homemade version for us. 

 

 

 

Paul Lay even did Star Island for me also after being tipped of its existence by a fellow AA user so we can have a 5200 version of Star Castle too.

 

Now I know that not all of us can do every single conversion out there or get every A8 game out there converted but there are still a few games I'd like to see ported over that do fit within the limitations of the 5200's 16K or RAM, such as 1982's Bug Attack from Cavalier Software, and also ANALOG's Planetary Defense from 1984, in which would be awesome with a trak-ball (just convert the koala pad mode to a trak-ball mode), and there are others too, but I won't get into it, but anyways, I also though, do now also (once again and for the first time since last year) own an XEGS so I no longer have to worry too much about not having more games ported over, that was when I didn't own one.

Edited February 18, 2023 by BIGHMW

[Keatah]

I love Planetary Defense. Works awesome with a mouse. Precision and speed.

 

And while we're back on the topic of conversions.. and I may have asked this before.. Why wasn't Liberator or Assault ever made for any of the Atari home consoles? I can maybe possibly understand Assault as it has complex levels and wouldn't translate to the 8-bit rigs unless distro'd on diskette I guess..? But it would be eminently feasible on the Jaguar. And well-suited to it with the large bitmaps and some 3D rotation effects. Right at home on it. Or on the Saturn. The arcade cab is 68000 based to begin with.

 

But.. Liberator? Never made it home AFAIK. It's seems a simple enough game in both play and technicals/programming. The Commander Champion stuff is kinda campy however. And its comic book tie-in seems forced. Wanting. And for whatever reason arcade operators gave the game a lot of dislikes. I only saw it one arcade near me back in the day. Could it have never been made for home rigs because it came at a time when the industry was reorganizing itself and Atari was picking up speed in a race to the bottom?

 

No matter I guess. There's MAME. And that's the ultimate arcade system for home.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Keatah

[+x=usr(1536)]

4 hours ago, Keatah said:

Why wasn't Liberator or Assault ever made for any of the Atari home consoles?

Not sure if this is my memory playing tricks on me or not, but I want to say that there was an Assault-alike for the ST.  Don't think it replicated the original game's twin-stick control setup, though.

[NamcoPlayer]

Miner 2049er

Berzerk

Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man

Defender

Joust

Dig Dug
Pitfall II