Best Atari 5200 Emulation?

[Paranoid]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

[jetset]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

1005733[/snapback]

 

Nope. Front end wise MESS is the best and easiest to use. Give it a try and see if you can get ADV2 to work. MESS has its shortcomings though, many games do not run at all, but it's much easier to use (if like me you're not a computer programmer/expert).

For some reason...the 5200 is the most difficult to emulate system out there. Even on my modded xbox...all the emulator programs work like a charm, except for the 5200 em. Works, but you reallyhave to know what you're doing.

[Goochman]

Atari800win 4.0 is the best - You can play ATari 8bit computer games in emu and also 5200 - most everything 5200 wise works fine and it has a pretty good win frontend built into it

[Lord Helmet]

I use Atari800Win for dreamcast, works great. Obviously you need a dreamcast for it to work

[Paranoid]

I'm going to give Atari800Win a shot.

 

Wow. Gave it a shot. Seems to be working pretty good already. Thanks for the help.

[Paranoid]

I'm going to give Atari800Win a shot.

 

Wow. Gave it a shot. Seems to be working pretty good already. Thanks for the help.

[Paranoid]

And Jetset... I've noticed that. It was really the thing that led me to finally cave in and buy an old Atari 5200. MAME will almost flawlessly emulate just about anything, including the dual Motorola 68000 arcade machines... Stella is fantastic... the Coleco emulator works great... etc...

 

But the 5200 emulator's just don't cut it.

[JB]

For some reason...the 5200 is the most difficult to emulate system out there. Even on my modded xbox...all the emulator programs work like a charm, except for the 5200 em. Works, but you reallyhave to know what you're doing.

It's because there's very few true 5200 emulators out there.

 

Most of them(but not all) are A800 emulators with 5200 suppport kludged in, and often rather poorly.

[Paranoid]

On that topic... Does Atari 800 Win Plus 4.0 have support for mapping multiple buttons/keys from the Atari 5200 controller to a PC keypad/joystick... or does it only support a 1 button joystick, even for the Atari 5200?

 

I've got a Thrustmaster Dual Force PC/PS2 USB joypad... and it has about two dozen different buttons... but I can't see any way to map functions to the joypad in the emulator.

[NE146]

Xbox emulation of the 5200 is pretty darn good too. It's just a pain in the butt to configure right. For example it defaults to "pokey - new" which makes all the games sound way off. That's but a small sampling. But aside from that, side by side they seem pretty much the same. You also can't play dual stick games though unless you want to suffer controlling 2 xbox pads simultaneously.

 

But aside from that, it's good

Edited January 24, 2006 by NE146

[JB]

On that topic... Does Atari 800 Win Plus 4.0 have support for mapping multiple buttons/keys from the Atari 5200 controller to a PC keypad/joystick... or does it only support a 1 button joystick, even for the Atari 5200?

 

I've got a Thrustmaster Dual Force PC/PS2 USB joypad... and it has about two dozen different buttons... but I can't see any way to map functions to the joypad in the emulator.

1006100[/snapback]

Last time I used it(which was admittedly some time ago. I can only hope the situation has improved drastically since then.) it only supported mapping a 1-button digital joystick, and all other 5200 controls had to be done through a pre-programmed, un-alterable keyboard template, with analog motion hard-wired to the mouse.

On top of that, the template was shared across all 4 controllers, so it was impossible to have, say, a multiplayer game that used the second fire button.

 

And this was recommended as the BEST 5200 emulator at the time.

Makes it pretty clear why I gave up on emulating it.

[Paranoid]

On that topic... Does Atari 800 Win Plus 4.0 have support for mapping multiple buttons/keys from the Atari 5200 controller to a PC keypad/joystick... or does it only support a 1 button joystick, even for the Atari 5200?

 

I've got a Thrustmaster Dual Force PC/PS2 USB joypad... and it has about two dozen different buttons... but I can't see any way to map functions to the joypad in the emulator.

1006100[/snapback]

Last time I used it(which was admittedly some time ago. I can only hope the situation has improved drastically since then.) it only supported mapping a 1-button digital joystick, and all other 5200 controls had to be done through a pre-programmed, un-alterable keyboard template, with analog motion hard-wired to the mouse.

On top of that, the template was shared across all 4 controllers, so it was impossible to have, say, a multiplayer game that used the second fire button.

 

And this was recommended as the BEST 5200 emulator at the time.

Makes it pretty clear why I gave up on emulating it.

1006139[/snapback]

 

 

Seems that not much has changed, I'm afraid... which is really why I bought the Atari 5200, too... otherwise, the emulation is pretty good. I've been having fun with the Adventure II demo. But, I was impressed enough with the emulator in full screen mode that I started wondering if I could effectively substitute it for my Atari 5200... saving wear and tear and all that on the actual unit...

 

Hmnnn... although that fancy $120 X-Arcade control panel I have for MAME would probably do the trick for the Atari 5200 emulator too, now that I think about it. It *is* just mapped to keyboard presses, and programmable, after all...

 

Guess I'm going to have to play around with this a little more.

[frogstar_robot]

Last time I used it(which was admittedly some time ago. I can only hope the situation has improved drastically since then.) it only supported mapping a 1-button digital joystick, and all other 5200 controls had to be done through a pre-programmed, un-alterable keyboard template, with analog motion hard-wired to the mouse.

On top of that, the template was shared across all 4 controllers, so it was impossible to have, say, a multiplayer game that used the second fire button.

 

And this was recommended as the BEST 5200 emulator at the time.

Makes it pretty clear why I gave up on emulating it.

1006139[/snapback]

 

Atari++ has a few more options for mapping the joystick. Not reading the manual will bite you here. The 5200 "joystick" in Atari++ is the paddle inputs. You have to assign the device of your choice (be it mouse or axes from a joypad/stick) to paddle 0 and paddle 1. If you have additional players, you can define axes on more paddles. Like Atari800, there is effectively one keypad punched through the four controllers.

 

Two or more player games that don't use the keypad will work well. Each player can have his own axes primary buttons (paddle buttons).

 

I was able to load the Adventure II demo and wander about.

[jerry32]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

1005733[/snapback]

 

Nope. Front end wise MESS is the best and easiest to use. Give it a try and see if you can get ADV2 to work. MESS has its shortcomings though, many games do not run at all, but it's much easier to use (if like me you're not a computer programmer/expert).

For some reason...the 5200 is the most difficult to emulate system out there. Even on my modded xbox...all the emulator programs work like a charm, except for the 5200 em. Works, but you reallyhave to know what you're doing.

1005810[/snapback]

 

Well i am currently using the MESS program it is working very well it's just that i cannot configure my pc keyboard to play any of the a5200 roms (the controls respond to slow) but my pc keyboard wokrs well with the other systems on the MESS program any pointers on configuring the a5200 emu controls to respond faster with my pc keyboard

[jerry32]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

1005733[/snapback]

 

Nope. Front end wise MESS is the best and easiest to use. Give it a try and see if you can get ADV2 to work. MESS has its shortcomings though, many games do not run at all, but it's much easier to use (if like me you're not a computer programmer/expert).

For some reason...the 5200 is the most difficult to emulate system out there. Even on my modded xbox...all the emulator programs work like a charm, except for the 5200 em. Works, but you reallyhave to know what you're doing.

1005810[/snapback]

no i beg to differ don't get me wrong the mess is okay for the a5200 emu but on the pac-man you do not see the score and choplifter is so f****d up it a shame i need good roms for the a5200

[jerry32]

I use Atari800Win for dreamcast, works great. Obviously you need a dreamcast for it to work

1005843[/snapback]

 

how is it done i have a dreamcast collecting dust

[Lord Helmet]

I use Atari800Win for dreamcast, works great. Obviously you need a dreamcast for it to work

1005843[/snapback]

 

how is it done i have a dreamcast collecting dust

1011750[/snapback]

 

Everything you need right here:

 

http://consolevision.com/members/sbiffy/

[walter_J64bit]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

1005733[/snapback]

 

Best Atari 5200 Emulation? Hmmm the real 5200. It runs about 99% of the ROM Carts(5200 2 port) and at 100% speed and no mod need to use real 5200 joysticks.

[Paranoid]

I've played around with quite a few Atari 5200 emulators and I've been fairly disappointed with all of them.

 

Is there a really good Win32 emulator with a nice front-end and good ROM management ala MAME32... or is that just too much to hope for?

 

I'm interested in trying out Adventure II before I buy the cart for my 5200. It seems like a no-brainer that I'll buy it... but I'd like to get a taste of it first.

1005733[/snapback]

 

Best Atari 5200 Emulation? Hmmm the real 5200. It runs about 99% of the ROM Carts(5200 2 port) and at 100% speed and no mod need to use real 5200 joysticks.

1016803[/snapback]

 

Heh. Yeah... I've got one of those... I'm just... wanting a good emulator, too. For a rainy day.

[NE146]

Best Atari 5200 Emulation? Hmmm the real 5200. It runs about 99% of the ROM Carts(5200 2 port) and at 100% speed and no mod need to use real 5200 joysticks. 

Gee how enlightening to this message board consisting of 5200 owners.

 

But what you're saying is not really emulation is it?

[+MrFish]

Best Atari 5200 Emulation? Hmmm the real 5200. It runs about 99% of the ROM Carts(5200 2 port) and at 100% speed and no mod need to use real 5200 joysticks. 

Gee how enlightening to this message board consisting of 5200 owners.

 

But what you're saying is not really emulation is it?

1018179[/snapback]

 

You look like you're too busy with your wanker to have time for emulation or 5200 game play, or is that just what you do to keep your hands busy in between games?

Edited February 15, 2006 by MrFish