Atari 5200
Clones and 3rd Party Add-On Equipment

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The 5200 system had a lot of problems, most notably were the joysticks.  Here is a look at some of the add-on equipment produced by Atari, and a few 3rd party devices that were released.....

Spectravideo Hotel System Console - Anyone who ever spent any time in a hotel room during the early 80's probably recognizes the name Spectradyne.  It was a closed-circuit broadcasting system that was popular in the hospitality industry before cable TV caught on.  The early devices from Spectradyne would show movies, and other programming on TV's, which were generally located in hotel rooms.

Spectradyne worked with Atari on the Spectravideo console.   Like their earlier system, this device was designed for use in hotel rooms.  It is a derivative of their broadcasting system with an Atari 5200 built in.

I don't recall seeing one back in the 80's, but I had an opportunity to view one last summer.  Inside the unit is most of the "guts" to a 5200 along with a cable TV selector.  Now I say "most of the guts" because the traditional cartridge slot isn't present.  In it's place is a special daughterboard with ROM's for 4 5200 games.

There are two joysticks that are hard wired into the system.  The joysticks themselves were the standard 5200 joysticks with extra-long cables.  A rotary switch on the front of the unit is used to select between the different games and TV channels.

Wico Command Controller - Most classic gamers should be familiar with Wico.  They made a number of joysticks for the game consoles and computers of the era, and are responsible for creating the controllers used in many popular arcade games.

Wico was one of the companies that recognized the need for a high quality replacement controller for the 5200.  The result was the Wico Command Controller.

The Command Controller was a self centering joystick with two firing buttons.  However, it lacked the keypad and option buttons of the standard Atari 5200 joystick.  Since many games require the keypad, and all games need the option buttons, Wico come up with a unusual cable with a "Y" adapter.  This allowed you to "daisy-chain" your existing 5200 controller into this stick.  Then, you could play games with the Wico joystick, and still have the keypad available for the games that required it.

It wasn't the most elegant solution in the world, since you needed to hold two joysticks in your lap to play a game, but the Wico joystick was the best alternative controller for the Atari 5200.

Masterplay 5200 Interface - This was a brilliant device that solved the joystick problems for many people.

The box shown in the photo would plug into the 5200 joystick port.  On the front of this device is a port for a 2600 joystick (left) and a 5200 joystick (right).

With this device, you could play games with the 2600 joystick, and still have the keypad available for the games that required it.

Atari 2600 Adapter - One of the advantages to the Intellivision and Colecovision consoles was the ability to add Atari 2600 computability to the units.  This allowed existing 2600 owners to keep their games while upgrading to a more powerful gaming system.  This also tapped a huge library of great games that could be played on these systems.

Atari was slow to catch on to this trend, but eventually they released this adapter, which would allow you to play 2600 games on the 5200 system.

The adapter would plug into the cartridge slot of the 5200, and 2600 cartridges would fit into a slot on the top of the adapter.  Inputs for Atari 2600 joysticks were included as well.  Essentially, the adapter was a complete (yet smaller) 2600 that would override the 5200 operating system.

Like many 5200 devices, this one had a few problems.   For one, it wouldn't work properly on some 5200's (the 4 port models), unless they have been slightly modified.

Another problem was its size.  The 5200 was a huge system, and this adapter added to the bulk of the system.  Once you plugged the adapter into the 5200, and put a cartridge on top of that, the 5200 would look more like a high-rise building than a video game console.

The 5200 had an expansion bus that (to my knowledge) was never used.  I've always been curious why this device didn't make use of that expansion bus as opposed to the cartridge slot.

Atari 5200 Carry Case - This was used for video stores that rented 5200 systems.  All of the 5200 components, including multiple cartridges, could be stored in this case. 

Atari 5200 Dual Controller Adapter - This device was a really good idea.  The 5200 had some great translations of arcade games.  However, there were a number of arcade games that required two joysticks.

Atari came up with this device as a way to recreate the arcade experience as faithfully as possible.  It was used for video games such as Robotron: 2084, Space Dungeon, and others that required two joysticks for one player.  It was a small plastic housing that would hold 2 of the 5200 controllers together on a table, or in your lap.

It was a slick little solution to a controller problem for Robotron: 2084.  Since the 5200 had the only port of Robotron that supported dual controllers, may consider it to be the best home version of the game.