Atari 5200- 1982

The 5200 was Atari's attempt to regain the popularity lost with the release of more sophisticated competitors. It was basically the same processor as the Atari 400 home computer, with 16K of RAM. Its retail price was $330USD- quite alot.

The Atari 5200 cartridges were nearly twice the size of those for the 2600,and were basically designed in this fashion to make the consumer think they were getting a “bigger and better” g@me.In addition, the fact that the 5200 was not compatible with the 2600 put off many 2600 owners who had accumulated a substantial library of g@mes for the system. A VCS adaptor which allowed 2600 g@mes to be played on the 5200 was later released.

Over the next few years, the PC market was born and home computers from Apple & IBM became widely available. This caused poor sales to video consoles and is often referred to as 'great video g@me crash of 84.'