Atari 5200 Emulator

[mytymaus007]

Im currenty running MESS emu for Atari 5200 but the problem is I cannot configure my spinner. has anyone else have this problem. Does anyone know another emulator that allows spinner configuration

[JODY]

I can't say for sure but I would give the Atari800 Win emulator a try.  The Atari 5200 was basically an Atari 800 computer with a joystick that supported more positions.  There are other emulators noted here too:

http://www.atariage.com/5200/emulation/index.html?SystemID=5200

According to the instruction setup here:  http://www.atariage.com/5200/emulation/atari800_tutorial/ it supports the Atari track-ball, Paddles, and even a mouse.

[JODY]

I'm not aware of there being a real spinner controller for the 5200.  There was a paddle controller and the track ball. 

[bobotech]

agreed, I don't think that the paddle controller used within the 5200 would be configurable via a spinner.  The spinner is at its heart a digital controller whereas the 5200 paddles and joysticks were analog only.  Not sure how the 5200 trackball worked though.

[JODY]

Fairly certain the trackball was analog.  The ones I have for the Atari 8 bit computers had two modes.  One digital which worked like a digital joystick in that you roll the ball a direction and it registered that direction and one analog which allowed for variable speeds.  The analog mode only worked in games that supported it while the digital worked for all games that supported the joystick.  The 5200's may have supported both but fairly certain it minimally supported analog as that was the preferred mode and the 5200 came out later.  If the spinner was setup as one of the analog trackball directions and the game supported the analog trackball, it should work fine.

[fallacy]

I don’t remember the 5200 having joysticks that worked for longer then a week. You had to play with you mind.