Is a 5200 worth it to a 7800 owner?

[Lemmi]

From the feedback here, I think I'll just get an 8-bit. I want an old timey computer in my collection anyway, and it seems like it handles most of the good 5200 games anyway. Thus, 2 birds, 1 stone. I might get a 5200 at some point for collection sake. Thanks for the help guys.

 

good choice, and if you can find them you gan get the multicarts for the atari computer

 

i had 2 atari 5200 systems in my collection and i played them maybe 4 times total since 1992, and i wasnt going to pay more then i paid for both systems combined just to get 2 working controllers for it, even the adaptors for other controllers a few years ago were more then i paid for both systems

 

i sold both for double what i paid originally

[Paranoid]

Yeah... well...

 

Skip those 30 game in 1 multicarts and just get yourself a MyIDE cart (can you say, 1 bazillion in 1 cart? I knew you could).

 

As for the costs of maitainence of a 5200... yup, it is a labor of love best left to the purist. Those of you who don't have that passion, please feel free to pass on the 5200, making things easier to find and cheaper to buy for those of us who do.

[shadow460]

Keeping the console working is the labor of love, and I owe a big thanks to the person who sold me my 5200 for that. I've still got some work left to do, though, and I'll enjoy every minute of it. Gluing up the controller compartment door or punching holes into the mainboard for the new power jack--doesn't matter to me. Restoring a classic system is fun to me.

 

Until I get the parts to mod my 5200, I guess I'm stuck with Asteroids and Crossbow. oops, did I say that? I meant to say Pac-Man and ET.

[Lemmi]

Yeah... well...

 

Skip those 30 game in 1 multicarts and just get yourself a MyIDE cart (can you say, 1 bazillion in 1 cart? I knew you could).

 

As for the costs of maitainence of a 5200... yup, it is a labor of love best left to the purist. Those of you who don't have that passion, please feel free to pass on the 5200, making things easier to find and cheaper to buy for those of us who do.

 

true but i like to keep my video game stuff as far away from a modern computer as i can, which is why i like dedicated multicarts that have nothing to do with hooking them up to a modern computer for anything

 

 

The MyIDE Cartridge is a device that allows you to hook up your 64k Atari 8 Bit computer to a modern IDE device, including hard drives, or, with an adaptor, a Compact Flash Card.

[BJWanlund]

I'm looking at an 800 myself, but the options for 800s are vast.

 

My main reason is to play most, if not all, of the games I truly missed out on for the Atari 800. Especially the Superman III cartridge that only came out a couple of years ago, as I heard it on a Dave Comstock interview.

 

BJ

[Paranoid]

Yeah... well...

 

Skip those 30 game in 1 multicarts and just get yourself a MyIDE cart (can you say, 1 bazillion in 1 cart? I knew you could).

 

As for the costs of maitainence of a 5200... yup, it is a labor of love best left to the purist. Those of you who don't have that passion, please feel free to pass on the 5200, making things easier to find and cheaper to buy for those of us who do.

 

true but i like to keep my video game stuff as far away from a modern computer as i can, which is why i like dedicated multicarts that have nothing to do with hooking them up to a modern computer for anything

 

 

The MyIDE Cartridge is a device that allows you to hook up your 64k Atari 8 Bit computer to a modern IDE device, including hard drives, or, with an adaptor, a Compact Flash Card.

 

Oh, once you properly set up the MyIDE cart, it is basically more or less functionally the same as a Cuttle Cart 2, but for an 8 bit computer instead of for a 7800. Really. The only other difference, is that instead of using ever rarer MMC cards, this uses fairly standard Compact Flash cards.

 

Literally, once you get it all set up right, it is pretty much a matter of copying files onto the CF card from your PC, and plugging the CF card into the MyIDE cart, and the MyIDE into your Atari 8 bit, and off you go. Not very much different than any of the other programable multicarts, anyhow. With SIO2PC and APE, you end up hooked up to a "Slave PC"... but this solution really frees you from that limitation.