Atari 5200
Unreleased Prototypes and Vaporware

This page is graphics intensive.  It may take a few minutes to load.

You know, I have never figured out why Atari had so many unreleased products.  It boggles the mind to think about all of the great ideas that never made it out the door.  Some say that Atari was ahead of it's time with some of these devices.  Many people feel that management was incompetent.   Whatever the reason, many products never made it off the drawing board.  Here are a few.......

Atari 5100 Prototype - One of the complaints about the Atari 5200 (aside from the horrible joysticks) was it's immense size.  The 5200 was probably the largest video game system ever designed.  Part of that was due to the controller storage bin that was located in the back of the unit, but the motherboard was quite large as well.

Atari attempted to design a smaller unit that would be cheaper to manufacture.  The result was a prototype for the 5200jr., which later became the 5100 prototype.

The Atari 5100 unit was much smaller than a stock 5200 system.  It shared most of the same features as the 5200, although the expansion port & the joystick storage bin had been removed.  It also used a traditional RF switchbox (like the 2600) instead of the automatic switchbox that had been used in the 5200.

The motherboard was also significantly smaller.  

The 5100 was never released.

"Puffer Project" Prototype -  In 1982, Atari was looking for innovative uses for its products.  The "Puffer Project was started to combine a home exercise bike with two hand grip controllers, a timing device, and some attachments to interface everything to an Atari computer or 5200 SuperSystem. By interfacing Atari systems to an exercise bicycle, Atari planned to make exercising fun.

The Puffer had hand controllers that attached to existing exercise bikes, and replaced the hand grips.  They provided multi-directional control much like a conventional joystick.  Peddling the bike would generate motion in the games, as well as providing exercise.   There were plans for a a pulse rate unit that could be added to monitor your heart rate

The Puffer mechanisms were generic enough that they could be added to most of the excersise bikes of the era.  The Puffer hardware attached to the Atari computer/game console via the joystick ports.  

Three models were planned:

• Pro Model -- This was the top-of-the-line unit for use in gyms, and health clubs.  It included a heart rate monitor.

• Arcade Model -- This would have been used in video arcades.  It was planned to be a one-piece device, with a coin slot.  Supposedly, a game similar to Atari's arcade game "Paperboy" was under consideration for this unit.

• Home Model -- This would hook up to an Atari home computer or Atari 5200.  It also come with the necessary hardware to hook your existing exercise bike up to the Atari computer/game console.  The price was estimated between $140-$170.

Supposedly, the Puffer was completed around the time of the video game crash.  the Puffer was given a second chance before the 1984 Olympics.  Atari was a major sponsor of the Olympics that year.  Atari was the official computer of the Olympics.  It was hoped that Atari could do a marketing campaign utilizing Puffer and the Olympics.  It never happened.

The "Puffer" devices were never released.

Atari 5200 Children's Controller -This is an unreleased prototype for a Children's Controller.  The Atari 2600 console had a similar controller for use with kids game cartridges and educational cartridges.  Most of those cartridges were the Sesame Street series of games.

There were plans to bring similar games to the 5200.  There were two titles on the drawing board (Sport Goofy aand Looney Tunes Hotel)  that are believed to have supported this device, but they were never published.

Thanks to the World of Atari '98 web site for the use of the photo.

Atari 5200 Trackball Prototype - One of the best add-on devices for the 5200 was the 5200 Trackball.  5200 Games such as Centipede and Missile Command just didn't seem the same without a Trackball, and this device "brought the arcade home."

The picture above is a developmental version of the 5200 Trackball.  What is interesting about this photo is that the design seems to be more of a "hack" than an actual prototype built from the ground up.

The trackball mechanism itself looks almost identical to the trackball mechanism used in the Centipede coin-op arcade game, and a few other Atari coin-ops that use this style of controller.  On top of that, the 5200 keypad buttons seem to be simulated by a keyboard controller from the Atari 2600 console.

Thanks to the World of Atari '98 web site for the use of the photo.

Atari 5200 "Type 2" Joysticks - One of the main complaints about the 5200 were the controllers.  To be blunt, they were horrible.  It is rumored that the engineer who designed them never played video games, which explains how these sticks could be so crappy.  The joystick featured a new 360 degree potentiometer control mechanism, which was outstanding for games like Centipede.

However, this new design had a downside.   Since the joystick wasn't self-centering, games like Pac-Man (that required precise 4-direction control) were totally unplayable.

As if that weren't enough, the 5200 joysticks were infamous for breaking.  Back in the mid-late 80's when I worked for an Atari dealer.   I could not believe how much of our business was based around 5200 joystick repair.   We must have fixed a dozen of them a week.  On my own 5200, I had 4 joysticks.   Now, I'm down to my last one that works.

Several companies did attempt to capitalize on the problems with the 5200 joysticks.  Wico, Mastertronic, and others offered alternatives to the 5200 controllers.  Many of the alternatives had problems of their own, as none of them were able to recreate the 5200 keypad, which was used in many games.   The Wico joystick, for example, interfaced with the 5200 stick so you would have a good self centering joystick, and the 5200 controller keypad.  Unfortunately, this meant holding two joysticks in your lap, which was not always convinient.

One company even offered a plastic housing that snapped on top of the 5200 joystick that forced the stick to only move in four directions.   This helped Pac-Man slightly, but it was still very hard to play.

Atari did recognize the problem, and set out to develop new joysticks.  The two pictures on the right are of one of the prototypes for the new design.

The prototype looked just like a standard 5200 controller, although it was slightly smaller, so it would fit in your hand a little better.    The old potentiometer joystick assembly was replaced with a spring loaded mechanism.  This gave the joystick a much "tighter" feel, and improved gameplay on titles like Pac-Man.  The new design was also self-centering.

Despite the fact that the design for these joysticks was nearly complete, the Type 2 joysticks were never released.

Thanks to the Atari Historical Society for the use of their photos.

Atari 7800/2600 Compatibility Module for the 5200 - Another complaint about the 5200 was that there was no backwards compatibility with the existing 2600.  Atari later released a 2600 module, which had compatibility problems of it's own.

Atari did (supposedly) learn their lesson when the 7800 came out.  There was a module on the drawing board for a new add-on module that would add both 7800 and 2600 compatibility to the 5200.  Although a prototype does exist, and it seems fairly complete, the device was never released.

RealSports Basketball Prototype - This game was in the early stages of development. The game is playable, but the odd part of this game is the hidden easter eggs. The programmer was Patrick Bass.

The first thing you should know is that the keys on the keypad correspond to actual telephone frequencies when you're at the Game Select screen. Basically, what this means is if you hold your phone up to the TV speaker and "dial" the number using the 5200 keypad, your call will go through just like normal.

The other egg involves starting a demo game where the computer plays against itself. At the bottom of the screen, there is a scrolling message that says "5200 RealSports Basketball Copyright 1983 Atari". Press the 5 key on the keypad and the message changes to "When Running Into The Tropical Entropy Nightly, By Yourself, Project And Try Reaching Into Circles Killed Because All Seems Strange".  Weird message, huh?  Now take the first letter of each word and you have "Written By Patrick Bass".

This game was never released.

Jr. Pac-Man Prototype - The graphics in this game look identical to those on Ms. Pac-Man.  It may be a conversion of that game.  The prototype for this game, apparently, was complete.   Supposedly, this was a phenomenal conversion of the coin-op game. It is too bad that one of the better games for the 5200 is only a prototype.

This game was never released.

Battlezone Prototype - This game would have supported two controllers for movement, just like the arcade game.   The 5200 couldn't quite handle the vector graphics of the arcade game, so Atari used colorful backgrounds and graphics, similar to the 2600 version of the game.