Atari 5200
Released 5 years after the Atari 2600 (VCS), in 1982. The Atari 5200 is based on Atari’s 8-bit computer technology (The 400 & 800 systems).
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About The Atari 5200
Being touted as having superior graphics to its competitors and Atari’s previous system. The system got off to a bad start when consumers discovered it was not backward compatible with Atari 2600 games. In addition to this, initial impressions of the Atari 5200 were not great.
Games were often slightly enhanced versions of their 2600 counterparts, the joysticks received great criticism too. The design of the joysticks was poor, primarily due to the stick being non-centering, meaning control was cumbersome.
In 1984, the Atari 7800 was announced, meaning that the Atari 5200 was redundant after just 2 years. Although the 7800 was not released until 1986, this was Atari basically admitting defeat with the system. Atari was also sold in 1984, which further contributed to the delay of the forthcoming 7800.
Sales figures for the 5200 are estimated at around 1 million units. This is dire when compared with the sales figures for the Atari 2600, which stand at 30 million.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).