Funny what age does....

[RickHarrisMaine]

When I was about 12, and still riding my BMX bike around town to various small arcades, and playing my Atari 2600 during the rest of my waking hours, I always dreamed of having a Colecovision, and its been one of the things I've always wanted.

 

A few months ago, however, I picked up a 5200 on the cheap, and began playing it. I was struck by how good this system was, especially with a set of properly working controllers. The games are just great. I remember these back in the day as kind of an alternative to the CV, but I always wanted a CV.

 

I got a CV the other day, plugged it in, and began playing that system, and other than Zaxxon and Cosmic Avenger (a really cool combination of Scramble and Vanguard), I'd much rather play the 5200.

 

The CV is nice, but really, it doesn't hold my interest that long. I can play the 5200 for hours though!

 

Funny how things change....

[joeybastard]

I can play both for hours but like any system, it depends on what game you've got in there. For example, I like Squish 'Em Sam and Jumpman Jr. better than any of my 5200 games. Regardless, both have some great games so I say own them both. I can't understand when people say they only want to keep one or the other.

[Lord Helmet]

It's been said time and time again on this board, the 5200 and the CV compliment each other well. Taken together they are my favorite way to enjoy classic games, even more than my beloved 2600

[doctorclu]

It's been said time and time again on this board, the 5200 and the CV compliment each other well. Taken together they are my favorite way to enjoy classic games, even more than my beloved 2600

954136[/snapback]

 

Star Raiders and Archon for the Atari 800... been playing those for 20 years.

 

Well, as for the 5200, let's see, I played one in at Sears back when they were coming out. Thought they were cool, but barely had money for the Atari 400.

 

Actually, I had to sell my Atari 2600.. was going to get a Coleco Vision, saw my friend's Atari 800 and fell in love, got the closest thing I could afford, an Atari 400.

 

I picked up an Atari 5200 in like 1998 at Goodwill. Later I got a boxed Atari 5200 that was given to me. Very beautiful systems. Still prefer my Atari 800. Sorry, the 800 impressed me first.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Neither system was taken to the limit of its capabilities, except maybe for Bounty Bob Strikes Back being big enough to need bank switching. And zero Coleco games used bank switching. Admittedly, both systems had an enormous (for the day) 32K of space, but just look at what was done with the Game Boy. It was esentially a Z-80 system, little better inherently than the Colecovision, but with megabyte cartridges it could play Pokemon. Other than the size of the game data and the lack of portability, that's a game that could easily have been done on a home computer from the early '80s.

 

Personally, I favor the CV because I'd rather write Z-80 code than 6502 code, and because a bare Colecovision board (what I normally use) is a lot smaller than the cruise ship that is the 5200. And while neither system had good controllers, the Coleco sucks less in that department.

[darklord1977]

yep i know the feeling...the 5200 is a great system..ive had mine for 2 weeks and after i got a new rebuilt controller ive been haveing a great time with the system.. i got a colecovision last year(mint in box and it looks great) i only have zaxxon, donkey kong, and the elusive smurf...but i find myself playing the colecovision basically for zaxxon..that game is a all time favorite of mine..i remember after school running to this arcade in the mall and plunking tons of quarters into that one..ahh the memories....i recently got a neo geo cd system as well... great stuff !

[darklord1977]

It's been said time and time again on this board, the 5200 and the CV compliment each other well. Taken together they are my favorite way to enjoy classic games, even more than my beloved 2600

954136[/snapback]

 

Star Raiders and Archon for the Atari 800... been playing those for 20 years.

 

Well, as for the 5200, let's see, I played one in at Sears back when they were coming out. Thought they were cool, but barely had money for the Atari 400.

 

Actually, I had to sell my Atari 2600.. was going to get a Coleco Vision, saw my friend's Atari 800 and fell in love, got the closest thing I could afford, an Atari 400.

 

I picked up an Atari 5200 in like 1998 at Goodwill. Later I got a boxed Atari 5200 that was given to me. Very beautiful systems. Still prefer my Atari 800. Sorry, the 800 impressed me first.

pac man for the 5200 rules...its still addictive as ever

[else]

Neither system was taken to the limit of its capabilities, except maybe for Bounty Bob Strikes Back being big enough to need bank switching. And zero Coleco games used bank switching. Admittedly, both systems had an enormous (for the day) 32K of space, but just look at what was done with the Game Boy. It was esentially a Z-80 system, little better inherently than the Colecovision, but with megabyte cartridges it could play Pokemon. Other than the size of the game data and the lack of portability, that's a game that could easily have been done on a home computer from the early '80s.

 

Technically you are correct. However, the Coleco Adam (which is really the Coleco Super Game module with some other bells and whistles) has multi-load games. So while no Coleco games use bank switching Coleco did accomplish the same thing as bank switching using other means....

 

For some reason it seems like everyone forgets the Adam. Maybe I was one of the few who ever owned one

Edited April 1, 2006 by else

[darklord1977]

It's been said time and time again on this board, the 5200 and the CV compliment each other well. Taken together they are my favorite way to enjoy classic games, even more than my beloved 2600

954136[/snapback]

 

Star Raiders and Archon for the Atari 800... been playing those for 20 years.

 

Well, as for the 5200, let's see, I played one in at Sears back when they were coming out. Thought they were cool, but barely had money for the Atari 400.

 

Actually, I had to sell my Atari 2600.. was going to get a Coleco Vision, saw my friend's Atari 800 and fell in love, got the closest thing I could afford, an Atari 400.

 

I picked up an Atari 5200 in like 1998 at Goodwill. Later I got a boxed Atari 5200 that was given to me. Very beautiful systems. Still prefer my Atari 800. Sorry, the 800 impressed me first.

pac man for the 5200 rules...its still addictive as ever

its amazing where u can find the 5200 etc my friend once worked for the salvation army during christmastime last year and she found one in the old electronics section talk about a hidden treasure ! she gave it to her boyfriend it was in great shape except the chrome stripe which was cracked but he still has it to this day and loves it not too bad for a free 5200

Edited March 31, 2006 by darklord1977

[supercat]

Personally, I favor the CV because I'd rather write Z-80 code than 6502 code, and because a bare Colecovision board (what I normally use) is a lot smaller than the cruise ship that is the 5200. And while neither system had good controllers, the Coleco sucks less in that department.

 

I've done a lot with both systems. Hard to say which I favor. The Z80 has 16-bit indexed registers with 8-bit offsets; the 6502 has 8-bit index registers and 16-bit offsets, plus the ability to pair zero-page RAM locations as a 16-bit address registers with 8 bit index.

 

The Z80's instruction set was an evolution of the 8080; its goofiness in spots is a direct consequence of that. My biggest wish for some extra instructions (with minimal compatibility impact): make the opcodes for "LD B,B", "LD C,C", etc. act as prefixes for the following instruction, so that it would use the specified register in place of the accumulator (for a penalty of 1 byte/4 cycles). I doubt much code uses those instructions at all, so it wouldn't break much if anything. And if a special flag were used to enable or disable the feature, it wouldn't break anything at all.

 

The 6502's instruction set I find puzzling. I think there are 23 instructions that can use an absolute addressing mode memory operand (I'm not counting JMP or JSR, etc. here because they don't fetch the specified address as part of the instruction, but rather as part of processing the next instruction). The other instructions have less than 64 opcodes combined. I wonder why they didn't design things so that bits 2-4 of the opcode specify the addressing mode for all instructions where bits 0-1 are not "00". There'd be room to accommodate 24 such instructions, so it would have been possible implement instructions like CPX and BIT the same as all the other instructions instead of having special-case logic for them. True, there probably wouldn't have been "DCP" or "LAX" if they'd done that, but I would think the design would have been simpler and more programmer-friendly.

 

My biggest wish-list item for the 6502, however, would not be an instruction but a flag (well, along with two opcodes to set or clear it). I would have liked an "X" flag which would enable or disable the carry into the ADC/SBC instructions (same principle as the "D" flag). While not having carry input would be a real pain in some cases, in most cases having to use "CLC" instructions all over the place is a bigger pain.

[Zonie]

I recently picked up a CV, and Yeah, not quite as captivating as I remember. I may sell it. Takes up a lot of space, and I have to use a PC power supply for it as it's own supply is dead. Puts out too-low voltlage. I got it for DK, but IMO, the 400 and NES DK are much better, and I have those both, including for the 7800.

 

I more recently picked up my 5200, and Like it a lot better. I really like the controllers. Atari was on to something then, If they had been self centering, or digital, and had better flex circuits... I'd be nice to retrofit one with the innards of a Dreamcast controller. I really like the hall-effect type pots in those.

 

My 400 is still tops though, but Qix is better on the 5200. I use atari800win on my laptop the most. Nothing like playing on a long flight.

 

Anyone know if the stelladapter works with that emu? If not, suggest one that does? Thanks a bunch.

Edited April 2, 2006 by Zonie

[JB]

Doesn't the Stelladapter appear as a standard USB controller?

I can't imagine any emu worth using doesn't support gamepads and joysticks.

 

Ah.

Joysticks do, but paddle/driving controllers require emu-side support.

Edited April 2, 2006 by JB

[yuppicide]

I wanted a computer back in the day. I had a Commodore Vic-20 and later a Commodore 64, but I wanted something more powerful. My Dad wanted to buy me a Coleco Adam. There was this show on cable tv that did live auctions. There was a conveyor belt of stuff rolling buy and he'd be spitting out auctioneer type numbers to people in the crowd and you could also call in.

 

They had a crapload of Coleco Adam packages going for like $199 I believe because Coleco was looking to get rid of them.

 

I am so glad I didn't get one. I talked my dad into a 286 PC. We were going to get an 8086, but they were just going out and the 286 was just coming on the market. I think we paid $1500 from a local company for a 13" color monitor, 640k RAM, and a very small hard drive.

[82atari5200]

I've been thinking about getting a Coleco. I already have about 20 games and a super controller for it. But I feel like I'd be cheating on my beloved 5200. I know it's just a 400 without a keyboard, but for me it will always be a link to my childhood. Ephemeral controllers and all.

[tillenterprises]

I've been thinking about getting a Coleco. I already have about 20 games and a super controller for it. But I feel like I'd be cheating on my beloved 5200. I know it's just a 400 without a keyboard, but for me it will always be a link to my childhood. Ephemeral controllers and all.

 

You know- I kind of felt that way when I finally got an Intellivision in the late 90's at a Goodwill. I remember all the heated arguments I used to get into in high school with a buddy of mine about which system was better- my 2600 or his Intellivision. Secretly, I liked INTV, too- not as much as my Atari 2600, but I still thought many of the games were cool- especially Demon Attack on the Intellivision. Then, when Colecovision and Atari 5200 came out in '82, I wished I could've had both of them for Christmas that year. Today, I have all the systems, and love all of them- they are all a great memory of my childhood, whether I had them at the time or not.