19 replies to this topic

[PitfallHarry2600]

I 'm searching for a PAL 5200, and I can't find one
Did they even made a PAL 5200?

[GroovyBee]

There are no PAL 5200s. You'll have to AV mod it or use a dual NTSC/PAL compatible TV.

[carmel_andrews]

According to one of CV (curt's) 5200 sales he did some time back, included a design for the PAL 5200 schematics (from the warners period), if you pm curt, he might still have the link somewhere

And it was also mentioned here as well

Unfortunately i guess it never got much passed either designs or prototyping (since, i guess warners priorities lied elsewhere)

[PitfallHarry2600]

GroovyBee, on Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:25 AM, said:

There are no PAL 5200s. You'll have to AV mod it or use a dual NTSC/PAL compatible TV.

Awww!
this sucks
They should have made a PAL 5200

[ApolloBoy]

Atari did have a PAL 5200 in the works but it never got past the planning stages, IIRC.

[Mitch]

The 2port 5200 has the spots for making it into the PAL version and the BIOS was also modified for PAL support. So technically it should be fairly easy to modify into a PAL 5200. The bigger problem is that there are not any PAL 5200 games other than a couple of protos.

Mitch

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[high voltage]

In the early 90s Ed and me visted Atari Slough (UK), where Daryl Still showed me a PAL Atari 5200. Of course, he would not part with it :-(
I often wondered what happened to the Atari Slough warehouse, as it was huge and packed full of Atari good stuff

[carmel_andrews]

high voltage, on Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:01 PM, said:

In the early 90s Ed and me visted Atari Slough (UK), where Daryl Still showed me a PAL Atari 5200. Of course, he would not part with it :-(
I often wondered what happened to the Atari Slough warehouse, as it was huge and packed full of Atari good stuff

from what i remember, Atari UK did some sort of deal with Derek Fern (Microdisscout of birmingham) and offloaded all their warehouse of A8 stuff (computer, components etal)

Edited by carmel_andrews, Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:26 PM.

[high voltage]

Ah ok that sounds about right. I ordered from Derek quite a lot during the 90s.

[carmel_andrews]

Weird thing is, I recall going into Sillica's First London shop (Next door to what used to be Barclays Bank, now a pub/wine bar), before they moved to Lion house (TCR), anyway, apart from exhibiting their A8 range (mostly the XL series), at the back of the shop they exhibited the Atari consoles, interesting thing is, they didn't have a 5200 system but they showed several boxes of 5200 games on their shelves...Don't ask me if they were PAL or NTSC versions, all i remember is that there were 5200 games being shown at that shop

This was about the 1984/1985 period


I know about Mr Still having a Pal 5200, he also owns the Shop display kiosk it comes with (Karl Morris, mentioned it here previously)

Edited by carmel_andrews, Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:39 AM.

[kamakazi]

There is a way to adjust the color inside the 5200. If the system can connect to your TV without too much of an issue, you might be able to adjust the color to meet PAL standards. I'm not sure about the difference in hertz though.

[svenski]

kamakazi, on Fri Nov 19, 2010 10:50 PM, said:

There is a way to adjust the color inside the 5200. If the system can connect to your TV without too much of an issue, you might be able to adjust the color to meet PAL standards. I'm not sure about the difference in hertz though.

My flat screen LG displays the 5200 colour output fine but as it is only connected via RF I get a bit of flicker (noticeable if flying about at full speed in Star Raiders) and fuzz for sound.

[Cebus Capucinis]

The PAL 5200 schematics exist....

The original is framed on my wall right now...

CPUWIZ also has one of them!

[Mitch]

Cebus Capucinis, on Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:50 PM, said:

The PAL 5200 schematics exist....

The original is framed on my wall right now...

CPUWIZ also has one of them!

Since you have the schematic can you check what the values are for the missing components in the picture I posted earlier in this thread?

Mitch

[WERY]

PitfallHarry2600, on Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:29 AM, said:

Awww!
this sucks
They should have made a PAL 5200

The TV's today are capable of taking NTSC so you could just simply plug it in and play if the system has been modified for AV-signals

[Allan]

It would be cool to see someone get a 5200 to play one of the PAL games. I think there are two, Missile Command and Star Raiders if I remember right.

Allan

[Cebus Capucinis]

Mitch, on Sat Nov 20, 2010 6:28 PM, said:

Cebus Capucinis, on Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:50 PM, said:

The PAL 5200 schematics exist....

The original is framed on my wall right now...

CPUWIZ also has one of them!

Since you have the schematic can you check what the values are for the missing components in the picture I posted earlier in this thread?

Mitch

D'oh! I forgot to do this. Hopefully I will be capable of doing it sometime in the near future....

[Tickled_Pink]

I know this is a year old thread but thought I'd drop this in ...

I'm pretty sure there would have been PAL Atari 5200s beyond the one shown by Daryl Still. I remember at the time drooling over pics of the 5200 in a mail order catalogue (it was the only thing sexy enough to stop me drooling over the lingerie models ). I heard later that it was another piece of Atari UK marketing cocking up as they pulled the plug on the UK release after announcing it to everyone because they thought the gaming market was dying. Of course, the true successor to the 5200, the XEGS, was released over here a few years later.

[Rybags]

It was fairly common for overseas marketing to pre-empt release of stuff and run pics and the like.

I'd say if PAL 5200 went anywhere beyond prototype then there'd be units out there.

The way I see it, many modern TVs under 15 years old will happily run NTSC, so the only thing to worry about really is a power supply.

As for PAL/NTSC versions of games, that's a non-issue. If you had a PALified 5200 you'd just experience slightly slower gameplay like the other million or so PAL 8-bit computer users do. I doubt any games released would have had region locking either.

[Gaztee]

What everyone forgets about this is that if you don't mod the 5200, it won't run on a PAL tv as the Rf connection is completely incompatible. I ended up getting a small LCD from Frys electronics in Vegas! Fitted in the suitcase perfectly :0)
I do know that Nick Harlow of 16/32 emptied what was left of the Atari offices in Slough. He did find some interesting Jag Betas, but nothing else really! That was back in 2006 !
So what happened to Daryl Still?? He's got something I want :0D