30 replies to this topic

[lushgirl_80]

Finally scored some boxed systems and ones with actual working controllers!!!!!


I'm excited as they've already received my payment and have already sent both out today. I should be getting these within the next week or two.


4-port system with box, 4 good working stock controllers(finally!!) and boxed games....




2-port with box and more boxed games (these controllers need some cleaning up but they come with the protective plastic intact. System also comes with the original protective plastic!)







Never played Zaxxon before!! lol Now I've got 3 5200's in my collection plus a bunch of other games. I've decided to go all out and collect every 5200 game and accessory ever made from now on. Yea 5200's my favorite game system of all time by far.

[Sonic R]

great purchases!

5200 is my favorite Atari console and one of my favorites overall!

after getting several lots of consoles and games, I too, have pledged to get pretty much everything that had been released for the 5200! I'm closing in on having every officially released game! I should probably have a full set by spring - except Bounty Bob Strikes Back… I'll probably try to get that later, hopefully at a decent price!

Cheers! …to the Atari 5200!!

[Ransom]

Nice score! I hope the controllers really do work well.

[jetset]

Yep! Awesome! Zaxxon will blow you away, it's by far the best version of any classic console. Congrats!

[lushgirl_80]

Thanks I looked up the tracking #'s on the USPS site and it says the packages should be here day after tomorrow yayyy!


I'm also getting a new coffee table for my room so I can set one of my new Atari's on it. Can't wait to play Zaxxon.

[atari5200dude82]

Nice score. Congrats to you. Glad to hear the 5200 is yor favorite system. Join the Atari 5200 Brotherhood, for the love of the 5200.

[lushgirl_80]

Are girls allowed in the Brotherhood of the 5200? lol I think I should start a sisterhood for Atari


I got one of the packages today and about to open it now and hook it up. Post back after I'm done.

[lushgirl_80]

Alright so I finally got to test everything and here's my report....


I hooked up the 2-port with the protective plastic and at first I thought it was broken cos it wouldn't turn on. When I moved the wire to the electrical plug a certain way I finally got it to turn on. Plugged in all 7 controllers I have ,and none of the start/pause/reset buttons worked , but the fire buttons were good. Then I thought that's kinda weird how all the fire buttons worked , but all the start ones didn't so then I unplugged my new 2-port ,and hooked up the old 2-port I've had for years and that's when I finally got into an awesome session of gameplaying. Funny but all the controllers work great with my old 2-port!! Why is that???? Is there a way to fix my new 2-port so the start buttons work? I was thinking maybe the connectors for the controllers are dirty or something.

The start/pause/reset buttons work flawlessly on the old one. So for 2 hours this morning I went through almost every game I have.....really awesome as most of the games I have now are boxed and in great condition. Some 5200 games I haven't even played in decades like Missle Command and Frogger. I forgot how great that version of Frogger is,just like the arcade! Even went through some old games I already have like Gremlins and finally played a good session of Joust finally with good controls. Only games I couldn't really get to work are Popeye and Gyruss....in Gyruss the ship wouldn't do a full 360,it would get stuck half way through the screen and I kept blowing up lol. Drats, Popeye wouldn't even go down the stairs and that's weird cos all the other games I could move down. Gave up on Popeye really quick. Vanguard is really harder than it looks. Astrochase is a really weird game I don't really get yet but has a really nice opening title screen.Games I really love so far are Gremlins, Joust,Kangaroo and Dig Dug. Dig Dug on 5200 is probably the best port I've played of that game. The game I'm really not impressed with tho is Pole Position. Only 5200 game I kinda feel isn't like the arcade at all. Ms Pacman on 5200 is really good. Not the best home version of that I've played but it's decent.

Haven't plugged in the 4-port and don't think I can yet cos I noticed the RF switch box is broken. Oh well it looks shiny tho.

Edited by lushgirl_80, Sun Jan 8, 2012 6:00 PM.

[CRTGAMER]

lushgirl_80, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 5:43 PM, said:

Alright so I finally got to test everything and here's my report....


Haven't plugged in the 4-port and don't think I can yet cos I noticed the RF switch box is broken. Oh well it looks shiny tho.

Very nice, especially getting the boxes. Be careful with the RF Switch box, the power going to the wall socket should be plugged in last. Maybe the connectors in the switchbox might be disconnected from the PCB inside? I had this problem on mine, the RCA terminal came loose, a simple remelt of the solder.

As for the sticks, track down some 5200 Wico Joysticks and the Wico keypad and never have to clean the button pads again. These work great as two joystick Twinstick game play of Robotron and Space Dungeon. There is also the 5200 Trakball, beautiful in Centipede and Missile Command.

Edited by CRTGAMER, Sun Jan 8, 2012 6:03 PM.

[jetset]

Missle Command definitely is awesome. Even better with the trakball.
Frogger IS pretty spot on from the arcade. Bar none best conversion or the era...The controls aren't superb, but not nearly as unplayable as some would have you believe.
Gremlins is truly a gem, one of the (many) reasons it isn't necessarily better to have a 400/800.
Gyruss *is* tricky control wise. It may take some time and practice, but you'll come to love it.
Joust is a pretty grat port, although I confess I never cared for it in any version.
Popeye is also a little less than perfect with the controls. Cool game though.
Vanguard....yep. They should have made vanguard for use with the joystick coupler. THAT would be awesome.
Astrochase...intro screen is pretty, but the game is only fun for about 2 minutes. Sucks after that!!!

AWESOME gaming system! Enjoy!

[lushgirl_80]

CRTGAMER, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 6:03 PM, said:

lushgirl_80, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 5:43 PM, said:

Alright so I finally got to test everything and here's my report....


Haven't plugged in the 4-port and don't think I can yet cos I noticed the RF switch box is broken. Oh well it looks shiny tho.

Very nice, especially getting the boxes. Be careful with the RF Switch box, the power going to the wall socket should be plugged in last. Maybe the connectors in the switchbox might be disconnected from the PCB inside? I had this problem on mine, the RCA terminal came loose, a simple remelt of the solder.

As for the sticks, track down some 5200 Wico Joysticks and the Wico keypad and never have to clean the button pads again. These work great as two joystick Twinstick game play of Robotron and Space Dungeon. There is also the 5200 Trakball, beautiful in Centipede and Missile Command.

Yea love how most of my 5200 game boxes are near mint . So awesome going through all those games in that condition. Yea I'm totally gonna get the Trakball next. I played Centipede too,and although it is still fun with the regular controllers, I could imagine it's even better with the trakball. Centipede is also just like the arcade almost.

The 4-port switchbox I noticed the connection for the back of the tv is broken. I kinda don't want to bother disconnecting my good working regular RF switchbox anyways cos it works good for my other systems,but I'd like to hook up my 4-port just to play River Raid. Sucks how you can't play River Raid or Pitfall on a 2-port.

Also noticed the colors and reception is much sharper on the 2-port with the protective plastic than my old one,except the start buttons wouldn't work on that.

[Ransom]

lushgirl_80, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 5:43 PM, said:

Drats, Popeye wouldn't even go down the stairs and that's weird cos all the other games I could move down. Gave up on Popeye really quick.

The value the games are looking for from the pots in the controllers can vary from game to game. Some are more lenient than others. May just require a run at calibration to get them to work with all your games.

[lushgirl_80]

jetset, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 6:04 PM, said:

Missle Command definitely is awesome. Even better with the trakball.
Frogger IS pretty spot on from the arcade. Bar none best conversion or the era...The controls aren't superb, but not nearly as unplayable as some would have you believe.
Gremlins is truly a gem, one of the (many) reasons it isn't necessarily better to have a 400/800.
Gyruss *is* tricky control wise. It may take some time and practice, but you'll come to love it.
Joust is a pretty grat port, although I confess I never cared for it in any version.
Popeye is also a little less than perfect with the controls. Cool game though.
Vanguard....yep. They should have made vanguard for use with the joystick coupler. THAT would be awesome.
Astrochase...intro screen is pretty, but the game is only fun for about 2 minutes. Sucks after that!!!

AWESOME gaming system! Enjoy!

yea Astrochase does suck LOL. Love the intro but the gameplay is really meh. The spaceship they give you looks lame lol and why when you run into planet Earth your ship just bumps into it? dumb and why so many Saturns on the screen!? Plus I don't really get what you're supposed to do. So your just flying around just shooting stuff? Boring. I've played better version of that game called Bosconian.


Anyways yea, Gremlins on 5200 I love alot. I get hooked playing that and glad I bought that game when I had the chance cos those are hard to find. I paid only $20 for it too a few years ago. I still would like to get a sealed copy of that just to have a sealed one,but they're expensive. I'm really interested in getting a Roadrunner proto cart too. Just hope that's a good game.


And oh I need to get some of these homebrews, they look really neat!

http://www.gooddealg...Atari 5200.html

Edited by lushgirl_80, Sun Jan 8, 2012 8:55 PM.

[AtariBrian]

my favorite game for it is ...
Miner 2049er !!!
h.e.r.o was always good to. qix rocks. and for homebrews get koffi ... great game

[Sonic R]

glad to see the appreciation of 5200 Frogger

just a shame it gets some hate... the 5200 port is my favorite! I like the option to play using the keypad, and prefer it that way!

I don't care for Astrochase myself… but then I have no idea what to even do! I just bounce around the planets like a pinball game!

River Raid doesn't work in a two-port?
I haven't had mine hooked up for a while as I've spent some time playing Mountain King and K-Razy Shoot-Out…

so as I am understanding, these are the games that will NOT operate in a two-port:
Mountain King
K-Razy Shoot-Out
Pitfall!
River Raid

[toptenmaterial]

Three 5200s? Damn girl, you gangsta!

You especially lucked out with finding a working controller in the wild. Does that ever happen?

[Mitch]

Sonic R, on Sun Jan 8, 2012 11:01 PM, said:

glad to see the appreciation of 5200 Frogger

just a shame it gets some hate... the 5200 port is my favorite! I like the option to play using the keypad, and prefer it that way!

I don't care for Astrochase myself… but then I have no idea what to even do! I just bounce around the planets like a pinball game!

River Raid doesn't work in a two-port?
I haven't had mine hooked up for a while as I've spent some time playing Mountain King and K-Razy Shoot-Out…

so as I am understanding, these are the games that will NOT operate in a two-port:
Mountain King
K-Razy Shoot-Out
Pitfall!
River Raid

River Raid does not have a compatibility issue with the revised BIOS. It should work fine in all 5200 models.

Mitch

[lushgirl_80]

Maybe I should try making River Raid work again,but when I tried all I got was a blank screen. Could be just the game?? I tried out the RealSports Baseball too and it didn't work at first. It seemed really glitchy,but then I finally got it to work after several tries. I just wanted to hear the voices in that game lol. Other than that the Baseball game looks kinda boring.


Yes I have three 5200's now lol. I also have three 2600's and three original Nintendo's....one 2600 Vader that doesn't work as good as my old 4-switch and just recently got another 4-switch. As for the NES, I've had the one I regularly use since '98. Then a neighbor of mine who moved out a few years ago gave me a complete Action Set in the box as a gift and got another extra NES through an N64 lot I won a year ago.I would have like five Nintendo's if I still kept the ones I had from the 80's. My cousin even had one of those tv sets that came with the Nintendo built into it. I might sell one of my NES and one of my 5200's soon,but not sure yet.

[Cafeman]

lushgirl_80, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 6:10 PM, said:

Maybe I should try making River Raid work again,but when I tried all I got was a blank screen. Could be just the game??

Some of the 5200 Activision carts just don't fit well in the 5200. Clean the contacts on the cart of course. Try putting in the cart more toward the rear of the seat, if that doesn't work , put it in and pull it gently towards the front of the console, see if that works. I had a River Raid that took like 10 tries to get it to boot up.

[Official Ninja]

If your really getting into the 5200 I recommend searching out a programmable multi-cart. In the long run it is worth getting.

[jetset]

lushgirl_80, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 6:10 PM, said:

tried out the RealSports Baseball too and it didn't work at first. It seemed really glitchy,but then I finally got it to work after several tries. I just wanted to hear the voices in that game lol. Other than that the Baseball game looks kinda boring.

Oh no you've GOT to give that one another try!!! It is a GREAT game and takes real advantage of the 5200 controller.
EVEN the videogame critic liked it, and he CLEARLY does not like the 5200 (he's one of those that bashes the system at every opportunity because he can't handle the controller)

http://videogamecrit...sports_Baseball

Give it a chance, it's (another) one of those games that is a real gem on the 5200 and (IIRC) only available on that system.

[yaniotis13]

I have a question about pacman for the 5200 maybe you can answer. I was wondering if you can make pacman change direction in the game by a slight movement in any direction of the analog stick or do you have to push it all the way to the end of the direction you choose to move him in.

[lushgirl_80]

jetset, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:06 AM, said:

lushgirl_80, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 6:10 PM, said:

tried out the RealSports Baseball too and it didn't work at first. It seemed really glitchy,but then I finally got it to work after several tries. I just wanted to hear the voices in that game lol. Other than that the Baseball game looks kinda boring.

Oh no you've GOT to give that one another try!!! It is a GREAT game and takes real advantage of the 5200 controller.
EVEN the videogame critic liked it, and he CLEARLY does not like the 5200 (he's one of those that bashes the system at every opportunity because he can't handle the controller)

http://videogamecrit...sports_Baseball

Give it a chance, it's (another) one of those games that is a real gem on the 5200 and (IIRC) only available on that system.

Okay Looks cooler than the Nintendo Baseball game for sure anyways. I'll try it out again tonight.

I'm gonna have another session on the 5200 in a few. Planning to buy Sinistar, Donkey Kong, Spy Hunter, and Adventure II very soon.

Looks like the most expensive game for 5200 I've noticed so far is Krazy Shoot Out. Is that one worth getting? Noticed it's like over a 100 bucks...so is Meteorites. I looked at a video for the Asteroids 5200 version and gotta say I'm not too impressed. 2600 Asteroids looks way better and Mine Storm on my Vectrex is just about as close to the arcade imo.

[AtariBrian]

lushgirl_80, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:53 PM, said:

jetset, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:06 AM, said:

lushgirl_80, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 6:10 PM, said:

tried out the RealSports Baseball too and it didn't work at first. It seemed really glitchy,but then I finally got it to work after several tries. I just wanted to hear the voices in that game lol. Other than that the Baseball game looks kinda boring.

Oh no you've GOT to give that one another try!!! It is a GREAT game and takes real advantage of the 5200 controller.
EVEN the videogame critic liked it, and he CLEARLY does not like the 5200 (he's one of those that bashes the system at every opportunity because he can't handle the controller)

http://videogamecrit...sports_Baseball

Give it a chance, it's (another) one of those games that is a real gem on the 5200 and (IIRC) only available on that system.

Okay Looks cooler than the Nintendo Baseball game for sure anyways. I'll try it out again tonight.

I'm gonna have another session on the 5200 in a few. Planning to buy Sinistar, Donkey Kong, Spy Hunter, and Adventure II very soon.

Looks like the most expensive game for 5200 I've noticed so far is Krazy Shoot Out. Is that one worth getting? Noticed it's like over a 100 bucks...so is Meteorites. I looked at a video for the Asteroids 5200 version and gotta say I'm not too impressed. 2600 Asteroids looks way better and Mine Storm on my Vectrex is just about as close to the arcade imo.

bounty bob is the most expensive, usually in 300-400 dollar range

[jetset]

lushgirl_80, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:53 PM, said:

jetset, on Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:06 AM, said:

lushgirl_80, on Mon Jan 9, 2012 6:10 PM, said:

tried out the RealSports Baseball too and it didn't work at first. It seemed really glitchy,but then I finally got it to work after several tries. I just wanted to hear the voices in that game lol. Other than that the Baseball game looks kinda boring.

Oh no you've GOT to give that one another try!!! It is a GREAT game and takes real advantage of the 5200 controller.
EVEN the videogame critic liked it, and he CLEARLY does not like the 5200 (he's one of those that bashes the system at every opportunity because he can't handle the controller)

http://videogamecrit...sports_Baseball

Give it a chance, it's (another) one of those games that is a real gem on the 5200 and (IIRC) only available on that system.

Okay Looks cooler than the Nintendo Baseball game for sure anyways. I'll try it out again tonight.

I'm gonna have another session on the 5200 in a few. Planning to buy Sinistar, Donkey Kong, Spy Hunter, and Adventure II very soon.

Looks like the most expensive game for 5200 I've noticed so far is Krazy Shoot Out. Is that one worth getting? Noticed it's like over a 100 bucks...so is Meteorites. I looked at a video for the Asteroids 5200 version and gotta say I'm not too impressed. 2600 Asteroids looks way better and Mine Storm on my Vectrex is just about as close to the arcade imo.

K-Razy Shoot out should only cost $20-$30 loose. If you're going for boxed I can't speak to the price. It's a straight-up clone of Berzerk, just with a few minor tweaks. From a collectors perspective it's worth getting, from a gaming standpoint...nah. Asteroids is terrible. You can get someone to make a repro if you want it, it was never released. Meteorites is also pretty bad and will set you back a decent amount.
You should also check out Atarimax.com and get an sd cart. that way you can play just about every game without having to drop money on buying every single cart.