Distributor: Atari

Manufacturer: Atari

Released: 1982

Units Sold: Not known

RS: 6/4

Expect to pay: 70 GBP.

List of games available at:

http://www.ozyr.com/a5200/a5200.html

Best Fan Site:

www.atariage.com

General Info:

The console that Atari designed to replace the 2600. Although the 5200 featured better graphics the games were mostly polished 2600 titles. The machine was not backwards compatible either. Production ceased in 1984.

It is not easy to find a 5200 in the UK. It is sought after because of its rarity.

There were a few stand out titles on the machine(see below).

Top 10 Must have games:

Star Wars The Arcade Game, Zaxxon, Pac-man, Moon Patrol, Montezumas Revenge, Defender, Rescue on Fractalus, James Bond 007, Galaxian.

Key Accessories:

Atari 5200 Controller

The infamous analog controller. This controller has a non-centering joystick and a keypad built-in. Unfortunately, these are notorious for breaking, and are not the most effective controllers even when they work. Try to find a set of third party controllers, or a Masterplay Interface instead.

Atari 5200 Trak-Ball

A heavy-duty trak-ball with a keypad and buttons on both sides of the ball. This is compatible with many 5200 games and makes a good alternative if you can't find a third party joystick.

Technical Specs:

• CPU: Custom 6502C @ 1.79 MHz (not a 65c02).

• Support Hardware: 2 custom VLSI chips

• Maximum Screen Resolution: 320×192 resolution, 16 (out of 256) on-screen colors per scan line.ANTIC display list interrupts, allowing all 256 colors to be displayed at once.

• Graphics: ANTIC and GTIA

• Sound: 4-channel sound via the POKEY chip which also handles keyboard scanning, serial I/O, high resolution interrupt capable timers (single cycle accurate), and random number generation

• RAM: 16 KB

• ROM: 32 KB ROM window for standard game cartridges, expandable using bank switching techniques. *2 KB on-board BIOS for system startup and interrupt routing