In
a previous video I casually brought up the Atari
5200, a console which I described as being quote, One of the worst consoles of all time,
This sparked a whole lot of debate in the comments from people calling that an unfair
criticism, and those ranting about how much they hated their 5200s they had as kids. So I figured it was time to take a deep dive
into the 5200, to look at it’s history, find out why it was a failure and end the
debate on whether or not it was a bad system. So we picked up a rather expensive 5200 lot
from a collector in the Chicago area that came with a ton of games, let’s give this
thing the deep analysis is deserves. Atari was riding high in the 70s, the had
essentially invented the modern video game industry thanks the success of Pong and their
home video game system, the *Atari Video Computer System.* I’ve talked in depth about how great this
system is here: but you should know quite a bit already since it’s one of the most
iconic systems of all time. Atari was worried that the success of their
console would be short lived. That’s humorous today considering we know
just how long the lifespan of the VCS would stretch but Atari saw it as a fad product. Surely people would get bored of it by 1979
or 1980 just like they had gotten bored of pong systems. So Atari’s plan was to develop a brand new
game console, to release somewhere around 1980 that would be light years ahead of the
anything on the market. This prototype would lead to some strange
places. You see in the late 70s the home computer
market was just beginning to explode in popularity. Atari realized that this new console they
were designing could easily be transformed into a computer platform that would stand
above the rest in graphical capabilities. and being a computer instead of a console
helped justify the high costs of the new technology. So the prototype became the Atari 400 and
800 the first computers of what is now called the Atari 8 bit line of computers. They sold fairly well beginning with their
1979 release It was a pretty smart move, but then every
thing changed with the release of Mattel's Intellivision in test markets for Christmas
1979. All of a sudden
intellivision threat had Atari really worried. There was now a system on the market more
powerful than theirs, and it was selling well with a lot of buzz. and Atari had nothing to put up against it. Atari decided that the best move would be
to dust off their original console prototype, give it a modern look and some cool tech and
sell it as soon as possible, which turned out to be 3 years later with a 1982 release. So Atari ended up taking their next generation
home SUPER console and building it off of 6 year old specifications. That sounds like a bad idea on paper, but
with the Atari 8 bit platform being several years ahead of it’s competition it isn’t
really an issue. So here it is, their brand new system, given
the space age name: the Atari 5200 retroactively the Atari VCS would be renamed to the Atari
2600 to fall in line with the new branding, a choice that has n]never confused anyone
ever. You’ll see that the 5200 has a very striking
appearance. First off, it’s HUGE. it’s a massive console
but a lot of that footprint comes from the empty space of the controller holding shelf
in the back. It also looks quite modern with it’s black
design with silver accent. I really like that look. You’ll notice the 4 controller ports on
the front of our 5200, something pretty unique for the time. not all 5200s have them, some later 5200 models
only have 2 controller ports and some other minor changes. Now’s the point of the video where we need
to discuss the problems of the 5200 Issue 1 the controller This is probably the most well know issue
with the 5200, the infamously bad controller. Now the 5200 having a bad controller is nothing
special for the time, Both the Intellivision and Colecovision also launched with controllers
that many people consider awful. but none were criticized quite like the 5200. The concept of the 5200 controller is clearly
a part of that Intellivision paranoia Atari was filled with during the design process. it copies the Intellivisions basic layout
of having a number pad and a side firing buttons, (as was the style at the time) and what’s better than a spinning control
disk, A spinning control disk that’s also a joystick! and this is the main point of contention with
the 5200, the analog joystick. the analogue joystick might seem like something
mundane to us now that we are used to have two with every controller under the sun but
it was a new technology Atari had dumped wheelbarrows of research money into developing. It was a great marketing tool too, featuring
the unique tech of the controller helped to sell it as a high tech device of the future. I mean come on it had a pause button! There’s just one problem, it’s really
bad. The primary issue with the controller is that
it uses a non centering stick, which means if you push the control stick in a specific
direction it won’t snap back to a resting position in the center, instead it will just
sit where you left it. It’s also quite hard to find the deadzone
of the controller, sometimes you’ll think the controller is in the center not moving
anything then you’ll die because it was actually leaning slightly to the right. This control style works really well with
a few games like missile command, where it works like an onscreen cursor. but most games of the time were arcade games
that required quick snappy movement, something this controller just isn’t good at. like, it makes Pacman COMPLETLY GARBAGe The other issue with the controller is durability,
this wasn’t a major issue at release but in order to get all the new tech into the
5200 controller at a reasonable cost some corners were cut. Looking at the controller now I can tell you
you absolutely will not find one that is in working conditio0n without being completely
repaired, replacing the flex circuit board fixing buttons and removing the now deteriorating
foam from the inside. very very few 5200 controllers out there in
the wild still work, so if you pick up a bundle expect to spend some extra money on repair
parts from one of many eBay sellers or directly from Best Electronics, if you are willing
to sift through a website nearly as old as the 5200 itself. Not all controllers will have the same issues
since Atari spent a lot of time after launch quietly releasing new revisions of the controller
trying to fix it’s issues Unfortunately the biggest issue here is that
you can’t just plug in a better controller, the 5200’s controller was so advanced that
Atari couldn’t use the 9 pin game port that they themselves popularized. which locks the
5200 out of most third party controller offerings.... most (wilco) Issue 2 brittle plastic Another issue with the 5200 that really is
only an issue for us modern collectors with aging systems is brittle plastic, particularly
the translucent Smokey parts. it’s quite hard to find a 5200 without some
scratches at the least or more likely some broken bits. This especially is something you want to pay
attention to while cleaning the system, which is quite the task Issue 3 Disassembly And this is really a personal gripe but seriously
the 5200 is the worst system Ever when it cones to cleaning. our system arrived in pretty good condition
so when I went to clean it to get some nice shots of it for this video it would look great. I figured it would take like an hour.... try
3 days. The primary reason it is so difficult to clean
lies with the grills all over the system, they like to collect dust like nothing else
I’ve ever seen. these things get so dusty on the inside. it’s ridiculous. So you have to deal with cleaning out dozens
upon dozens of hard to access slots all over the console but also trying to not break the
thing. then there’s the second challenge inside
the system, the rf shield. this thing uses bent pins to keep it secured
on the mother board, you’re going to hate the process of removing it, it’s nearly
impossible to get off without damaging it, and even that takes some time, it can also
be really sharp in places so make sure you are caught up with your tetanus shots. many 5200 owners chose to permanently remove
this shield from the console. Oh and, be careful, it’s sharp It’s annoying enough said, rant over Issue 4 price The 5200 lunched at a price of $269 a price
that, as we’ll see a bit later in the video might have been a mistake. Issue 4 8bit Incompatibility The Atari 5200 and the Atari computer line
share the same origins being based on the same prototype. Both platforms are physically nearly identical;
using the same chip designs. You would expect them to be fully compatible,
You should be able to just insert an Atari 8 bit game in the 5200 cartridge port and
play it but no they are completely incompatible. Was this for some vital function of the 5200
that just couldn’t be done on the computers? Was this to prevent a Commodore 64GS “press
any key” situation? No The primary reason is really stupid. Cooperate politics. You see, the 5200 was strong competition,
for Atari itself. There was a large internal rivalry between
the video game division of Atari and the Home computer division of Atari. Each was worried the other would be so successful
that they themselves would absorbed. as such the two divisions did everything they
could to steer clear of each other including intentionally making their devices incompatible
with each other. While games were not directly compatible between
the 2 porting from one to the other was really easy, making it relatively easy for Atari
and the major third party supporters of the 8bit line to have a presence on the 5200,
but it was less easy for smaller publishers That’s the main reason the 5200’s game
library is what it is. the 5200 was overall a riskier system to release
games on than most of the other devices on the market, especially the 2600 itself which
had a massive install base still hungry for games. This means only the big publishers who could
afford the gamble published on 5200, This makes the 5200 library one of the smallest
of it’s generation with only 69 official game releases, NoT NiCe with over half of
those tittles being released by Atari themselves (32) A consequence of this is that well, with titles
being filtered down like that to only the major releases from major publishers, You
know, the stuff that will actually turn a profit. we have a library that is small yes, but also
extremely high quality. There are so many good arcade ports on the
5200. My personal favorite 5200 games are the decent
port of Mario Bros, the surprisingly faithful Ms. pac-man and the graphically impressive
ballblazer With a library that small you would think
Atari would prioritize letting people play the hundreds of 2600 games on their new console,
but no, which brings us to.. Issue 5 2600 compatibility Another compatibility issue experienced by
5200 owners was that it didn’t play 2600 games. Atari overlooked the value of letting consumers
play their old games on their new console. The concept of backwards compatibility didn’t
really exist yet. This was particularly embarrassing since both
the Colecovision and Intellivision had expansion devices that allowed them to play 2600 games
allowing to capitalize on consumers looking to upgrade systems when Atari couldn’t Atari would rectify the situation by releasing
their own expansion device in 1983 alongside the new 2 port 5200 model but by then the
damage was already done. The device itself is quite odd, with a wedge
shape design, it slots directly into the 5200’s cartridge slot, it kind of of reminds me of
the Sega 32X. It overall didn’t sell very well making
it quite a rare expensive item today, and since it’s my least favorite of the 3 2600
expansion devices from the time I can’t really recommend you pick one up
