I finally did it, a complete collection of Atari Consoles, unfortunatally the last console I needed to complete my set was the infamous 5200. Ugh, where do I begin on this one, almost everyone knows about this console, how a design flaw in the controller rendered them all but useless after a few hours of gameplay, how the library was only about 90 games and more the half of those were simply 2600 remakes, with better graphics or ports of Colecovision games.

However, that 90 game library, complete with its flood of remakes actually is the 5200's strong suit, since many of those remakes are actually the definitive versons of numerous classic arcade ports including Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Galaga, and believe me, the 5200 verson of Pac man is a vast improvement over it's 2600 counter part, complete with better sounds and non-flickering ghosts. However, the bad thing is that it wasn't backwards compatable with it's predicessor, eventhough Atari's two biggest competitors: Mattel's Intellivision, and Coleco's Colecovison, had attachements that made them compatible with the 2600's library.

Overall the 5200 actually is quite a sturdy system, despite the fact it's the size of the TV itself, and doesn't feel like it would break easily. However the biggest blunder Atari made lies in the console's RF Adaptor, which ironically is the first RF adaptor to automatically switch between the regular TV Progams and the game system, most RF adaptors at the time required gamers to flip a switch manually. So how could this be a problem? the problem lay in the fact that not only did the game system connect to it, but the power supply did as well, the result of this may have reduced the amount of wires you had getting tangled up on your floor, however if the power supply and console weren't connected in the proper order (console first, followed by the power supply) it could easily blow out the box, damage the console, or worse cause a short that could easily set your house on fire.

However, the biggest flaw the Atari 5200 has, and the one aspect that has gone on to feature prediminatally in my Fantasies, usually along side a vice, a frying pan, and a shotgun is the piece of junk controller Atari sent with the system. Many think the Joysticks were the problem, but this was not the case, since they still function without the dust boot , the problem is in the cheap circitry Atari used to make the controller, and as a result carbon build up occurs on the contact points inside the controller, rendering it useless over time. Even the third party controllers had their downsides (the 5200 required the keypad for game play, and also had a special plug for the controller, which makes the WICO Control Stick useless, without an adaptor and the far more rare and expensive WICO Keypad) In terms of the controller the best bet you'll have for a working controller is to buy one that has been rebuilt from the ground up, with gold contact points and a more reliable circit board, which hold up far better then the original, or a refurb kit and repair the controller yourself.

All in all the 5200 is an average system, that didn't take advantage of it's more powerful hardware, and had Atari delayed the release long enough to fix the controller, and redesign the powersupply/console RF Switch, and had they put more time and effort into developing a unique library, with new and original games, instead of remakes, the 5200 could have given Colecovison and Intellivision a run for their money.