Atari 5200 Historical Notes:
 
 

    The Atari 5200 was a brilliantly conceived system with a look and design that was as ominous as it was sexy.   The Atari 5200 case design was conceived by Regan Cheng of Atari's in-house design group.    After speaking wth Regan he explained that what he had in mind for the 5200 from the start to what it came out looking like in the end was almost identical.   With a node towards the high tech, low profile line of stereo equipment from the famed Bang & Olufsen, Regan crafted the Atari 5200 into what had become one of the most attractive gaming consoles to date.   Regan also designed a 5200 T-shirt logo for Dan Kramer who designed the Atari 5200 trakball electronics.   Dan was also the man responsible for the famous "We're Just High Strung Premadonna's" T-shirts that many Atari programmers wore after Ray Kasser called them "Towel Boys".

    An interesting bit of history on the Atari 5200.   The Atari 5200 was originally conceived and designed back in 1978 as an all new advanced high-end video game system.   However the chipset for the advanced system was "frozen" for use in only the Atari 400/800 computer systems.   If it wasn't for Atari being caught with its pants down so to speak when Coleco introduced the Colecovision, the Atari 5200 may have never have come out since Atari's primary focus was on the "Stella" Atari 2600 VCS system.

    Another interesting history note.   The Atari 5200 was nicknamed "PAM" and almost became named P.A.M. or Personal Arcade Machine.    However at one point the Atari 5200 was almost nicknamed TAMMY after the Atari production line manager, Brad Saville's wifes name.
 


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