Atarimax 5200 USB Multicart

[Paranoid]

I've been holding off on giving a full review of this product, because I was having some problems with the cart, and I didn't want to paint the cart in a negative fashion when I was actually fairly certain it was a problem peculiar to my two 2-port 5200 consoles with 4 port bios.

 

Steve/Classics was FANTASTIC about supporting the product, and I mean that with all sincerity. I can't think of any merchant I've ran into recently in ANY market that has been so willing and comitted to support his products. Early on, I had decided that it was just a peculiar problem with my consoles, but Classics was fairly insistent that I could either return the product for a full refund, or that he would continue to pursue the problem until he had at least exhausted all possibility that it was something in the cartridge. In short, if you want a USB multi-cart for the Atari 5200 (or the Coleco, or the Atari 8-Bits)... buy it from this guy. You won't be sorry.

 

So... I was super excited to get the USB multi-cart, and it arrived with SUPER-fast speed after I had made the purchase and paid for it via paypal. (I think Classics must have a sweetheart or inside connection at his local USPS office, because I've noticed other comments about how fast his packages arrive). Once it arrived, I opened it up like a greedy kid, and then cautiously read all the instructions and carefully installed everything in the correct order, just to avoid any unpleasant USB device surprises. I don't think I had to worry, it is an incredibly easy package to install and configure. Once I got the application up, it was a BREEZE to set up the ROM images into the slots I wanted them and synchronize. I created multiple workbooks, and was very impressed with the polished, intuitive, professional installation and operation of the drivers and synchronization application.

 

After getting everything installed, I went upstairs, and well... a few games acted erratic. ROMs being what they are, I looked for alternate copies and downloaded them, then reconfigured. Same problem... but, a lot of ROM sites have the same copies as all the others. So, I added some titles, moved things around, and played some more. This time, I noticed that games that had not been working were now working... but, stranger still, other games that had been working were not. Hmnnn...

 

On careful examination, I realized that the games that had NOT been working were in the same slots as the new games that were NOW not working after a resync. Ok.. so, something is up with those slots. Bad flash memory? I talked to Classics, and he was very helpful. We decided that the easiest way to check if it was the cart was to set up one of my other 5200 consoles and see if the problem showed up there. Of course, it did. So, he sent me out a replacement cart.

 

So, I loaded up all the ROM images, plugged in... and the EXACT same problem happened.

 

So, then we rolled up our sleeves. I sent him my ROM images and workbooks, and they worked fine on his end. He sent a special diagnostic version of the Atarimax 5200 program to wipe the cart clean, and I tried installing from a diffent PC, but the problem persisted. I tried different power supplies. Nothing would make the games work right, in these slots, on my systems. Finally, frustrated and perplexed, and knowing that he had never had another customer with this complaint, I realized that the problem was really unique to me, and that to show that I was cursed DOUBLE, both 5200 systems that I own were experiencing the same problem, even though they came from different, unrelated sources. I felt kind of bad making Classics go to all of this trouble when the problem seemed to clearly be something unique to my situation, and told him that I'd be happy to just call it even and not worry about having a couple of bad slots out of 128 (the games, from the same ROM images, would load and play fine in DIFFERENT slots, BTW). So, I had a 126-in-One cart... I could live with that. But Classics *insisted* that he had one more thing to try, which was a cart made off a different set of logic chips. He got a cart together, sent it out, and, I just tested it a short while ago, it resolved the problems completely.

 

Most merchants would have come to the conclusion that it was a problem with MY systems far before I would have come to this conclusion, and at best, told me, "Listen, I'll give you a refund if you want". I can count on one hand the number of merchants I've encountered that would go to this length to resolve a strange issue like this.

 

The cartridge is great, Steve's support of the Atari community is unparalleled, as is his support for the products he sells. I can't recommend him as a merchant highly enough. This *is* the ultimate 5200 accessory, and if you're serious about playing or collecting for the 5200, your system is not complete without this product.

[oesii]

Cool story. I don't think you can say enough good things about Classics/Steve around here. He replaced an Atari computer flashcart of mine about 3 years after I initially bought it

 

He had made an update to his chips that now allowed the flashcart to work better with my computer. Awesome Atari products and support

[yuppicide]

Great review. I'm glad to hear all this.

[tjlazer]

Yes have had nothing but positive experience with him here as well! I plan on ordering a 5200 multicart from him soon!

[+remowilliams]

Yup, Steve's commitment to his products and customers is unsurpassed. I can't say enough great things about his creations

[godzillajoe]

Nice to hear. I ordered one for myself a couple of days ago.

[Paranoid]

You're going to love it. The real advantage of the 128-in-1 is how professional and well executed it is. MyIDE may be more flexible and allow you virtually the same library as well as many additional titles, but it really can't hold a candle to the 128-in-1 for ease of use and hassle free operation.

 

It is a close match with the CC2 in this respect, but I think the 128-in-1 USB has a decided edge to it.