Dumbest/Stupidest/Shittiest/All-around worst Nintendo console

[guyjin]

Hell yes!  Another lover of the Lynx.  I loved that hand held.  Atari actually did a good job hardware wise with it.

Except the size of the first model. It's the Atari 5200 of handhelds.

All of this bad mouthing of the Atari 5200 needs to come to an end.  The controller wasn't very good, I can admit that, but the console has a great variety of games and is one of the most under-appreciated systems of all-time. 

And virtually all of them were already/eventually released on Atari's XE computers, with better controls.

[majors]

Hell yes!  Another lover of the Lynx.  I loved that hand held.  Atari actually did a good job hardware wise with it.

Except the size of the first model. It's the Atari 5200 of handhelds.

All of this bad mouthing of the Atari 5200 needs to come to an end.

All the bad mouthing the model 1 Lynx needs to end. Screw the model 2, fat ugly POS...I have two original models and still think it's sexy. (sorry, was this a Nintendo thread?)

[DragonmasterDan]

All of this bad mouthing of the Atari 5200 needs to come to an end.  The controller wasn't very good, I can admit that, but the console has a great variety of games and is one of the most under-appreciated systems of all-time.  The Angry Video Game Nerd does a video saying something is bad, and all of a sudden a generation of brainwashed wanna-be retro gamers all "know" that the system sucks.  Maybe if more people actually played the system, they'd understand how great it was.  Pitfall 2 on the Atari 5200 is one of my favorite games ever, and I played it a hell of a lot more than I ever played Super Mario Brothers.  Additionally, there were some really good ports of classic arcade games that were not to be missed for the system.

Alright, let me be specific and state that the 5200 comparison was due to the size of it.

Anyway, here's why there's so much frequent bashing of the 5200. first off the controller is the worst controller ever. It broke very quickly, the analog joysticks don't center themselves (the boot just doesn't work), the buttons break, it's not very comfortable to hold. The list can go on and on.

Second off, the controller directly effected your ability to play games. In Frogger if I want to move forward I don't just move the joystick in the direct I want like any other port, because of the lousy non-centering controller I have to press a button to confirm I actually intended to move so I don't go running into traffic. The same situation exists with Q-Bert.

Oh and the system is hilariously gigantic. Also, Pitfall 2 is good for 5200 (I have it and the 2600 version), but I'd say by in large the Colecovision had better arcade ports from the same period. No, it didn't have Pac-Man but it had a much bigger library of quality games.

Yes, the 5200 had some great games, but it came with a huge price of using that awful controller and finding the space to put the damn system out since it's so massive.

Wasn't the 5200 version of Donkey Kong really good? I seem to remember that.

There was one for the 400/800 that got ported via repro carts to 5200, but there was no officially commercially released version for 5200. You're thinking of the colecovision port.

[SignOfZeta]

No, I'm thinking of the repro, evidently. I have weird friends who actually buy/play this crap.

I had a Coleco and DK. It was pretty good (obliterates the 2600 ver.) but it lacks the same level almost all the ports lack. IIRC the 5200 version I played had it.

[TheClash603]

Until I got my Gameboy, my 5200 was my most played system, I played the thing hours daily.  Oddly enough, I never once broke or had an issue with my controllers...  I only cited controller issues because most other people say they have them, so everyone can't be lying.