Page 15 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #1

by Patrick Wong

"Pause" button on the controllers were almost pixel perfect transla-
tari's motto was "Power which was unheard of unless you tions of the arcades.
without the Price." It owned an Intellivision. Atari also brought us a special
should have read "Power The moment you turned it on feature which made the 5200
at a Price." and were greeted by a giant, multi- "State of the Art" - voice synthe-
When Atari took their colored Atari Fuji, you knew it was sization without an add-on acces-
low-end computer, the Atari 400, something special. sory. The voice synthesizer in
gave her a facelift, a model number The games were equally spe- Atari's RealSports Baseball helped
twice the value of the 2600 and cial. The "Super System" brought make America's favorite pastime
called her their "Super System," the arcade games home to you. that much more enjoyable. To ac-
they also gave her an enormous Even though the Colecovision may tually hear the balls and strikes be-
pricetag - $299.95 (I guess it also have had slightly better graphics, ing called out was like hearing
had to cost twice as much as the the Atari 5200 had the big name words in the early motion picture
2600). Atari promised she would titles and something the Coleco reels. It was a small step towards
be worth every penny and of the games didn't feature (and which no bringing us something we would
millions of promises Atari made, arcade experience would be with- later call "Multimedia." This was
this was probably one of the few out in the 80s): the intermissions. significant because it provided a
they kept to their loyal supporters. Who could ever forget how glimpse into the future as to what
The 5200 was Atari's answer to awesome it was to beat the Straw- sports games were going to offer -
the Colecovision. From the mo- berry Board in Pac-Man and be not just hearing balls and strikes
ment you picked it up you knew awarded by the animated intermis- but hearing commentary and line-
you had (as Atari put it) a "Super sion featured in the arcades? Who ups as well.
System" in could ever There were also many little
your hands. forget the things that may have gone unno-
It came “The Atari 5200 awe of play- ticed by gamers. How many re-
packaged had the big ing a Pac- member the controller attachment
in a huge Man game that allowed two controllers to be
box. When arcade games that actually held together to play Atari's Space
you opened that resembled Dungeon? One to move, one to
the box and the arcade shoot. It may not sound like much
picked up Colecovision version? but there was something about it
the system, didn't. “ Everyone that made the arcade experience
you could remembers that much more enjoyable. Anyone
feel the power in your hands. how awful looking, yet fun to play, who played that game would agree
Size? This system was BIG - twice the 2600 version was. If the 5200 how great it was just to play a
the size of the 2600. She had a would be remembered for anything, game like Space Dungeon at
sleek, black design with a silver it would be that it was the first sys- home.
strip running across the middle of tem to bring faithful translations of Of course, not every arcade
her, four controller ports (the later the arcade home to you. conversion was perfect. These
models were made with two) and a From Defender to Dig Dug to ‘imperfect’ games were mainly cre-
storage place at the top of the sys- Galaxian to Joust to Mario Bros. to ated by third party developers. Dis-
tem where you would store your Ms. Pac-Man to Moon Patrol to asters such as Parker Brothers’
controllers, hidden from sight, Pac-Man to Pengo to Pole Position Popeye, Q*Bert, Star Wars: The
when they weren't in use. If you and Vanguard, the Atari 5200 had Arcade Game and Fox's Wizard of
put the 5200 next to the old style the big arcade games that Cole- Wor made the 5200 look more like
Sega Genesis and asked someone covision didn't. Add Atari's enor- a "Stupid-System" than anything
which one looked "State of the Art", mous trakball along with Centi- super. What happened to Brutus'
chances are they would choose the pede, Millipede or Missile Com- head in Popeye? Did the fight start
Atari. mand and you'd swear you brought before the game was turned on?
The controllers looked futuristic the arcade experience home. Where were the intermissions in
as well but ironically ended up be- Sure, the Atari 2600 had the same Q*Bert? No intermission equals no
ing some of the worst controllers titles as well, but it didn't stand up arcade experience. Star Wars: The
ever made. Atari made sure every- to the 5200's graphics and sound. Arcade Game was just plain awful.
one was aware this system had a Games like Pengo and Vanguard
(Continued on page 50)

Classic Gamer Magazine Fall 1999 15