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Atari 5200 Label Variations| The 2600, by far, has the market cornered when it comes to label variations.
Not only were a great deal of games released for the 2600, but due to the 2600's
long lifespan, many games were sold for several years and were produced with
several different labels. Most label collectors only seek out the major
label variations for any given cartridge, while some go after every minor
variation, of which there are quite a few. This list only contains major variations
by each company, along with pictures so you can get a feel for what the differences
are.
Atari
produced more label variations than any other company, which isn't terribly
surprising given that they produced more games for the 2600 than any other company.
Quite a few carts produced by Atari are available on at least two major label
variations, one being a Text
label and the other being a Picture
label. Other common label variations include the Blue
label carts produced by Activision
in their later years, the White
label INTV
versions of M
Network carts, and the Sears
Text/Picture
variations (similar to Atari). |
| Activision | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | Activision cartridges for the 5200 follow the style of Activision carts for other
non-2600 systems (Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64), except naturally they're quite a
bit larger on the 5200. The top of the cartridge is sloped slightly, and this
is typically where the name of the game is printed. There are also indentations
near the top to make the cartridge easier to grip when removing it from the system.
The labels don't follow any convention, each with unique stylized text and graphics.
Zone
Ranger can also be found with a silver Telegames style label. The back of
Activision's cartridges contain a space to store overlays. The Activision logo
is embossed on the cartridge underneath the logo. |  |
| Atari | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Silver 1 | For the Atari 5200, Atari must have decided that everything needed to be larger,
and naturally this must have extended to the cartridges as well. These cartridges
also have lots of grooves along the edges, which dirt finds its way into quite
easily. The front of the cartridge has a large label, which ironically is the
exact same label size as that used on the 2600, just rotated 90 degrees. The back
of the cartridge contains a space to store overlays. Atari produced two label
styles for the 5200, which we call "Silver 1" and "Silver 2"
to denote the order in which they arrived. The Atari logo is embossed on the cartridge
underneath the label.
The "Silver 1" label style is that used by the original batch of
cartridges Atari released for the 5200. The label background is silver, and
the text "Atari 5200" is featured prominently at the top, with 5200
rotated 90 degrees, adjacent to the "I" in Atari. Under that is the
name of the game in white text against a blue horizontal bar the width of the
label. Under the title is a graphic unique to the game and then copyright text
in black under the image. |  | | Silver 2 | For the Atari 5200, Atari must have decided that everything needed to be larger,
and naturally this must have extended to the cartridges as well. These cartridges
also have lots of grooves along the edges, which dirt finds its way into quite
easily. The front of the cartridge has a large label, which ironically is the
exact same label size as that used on the 2600, just rotated 90 degrees. The back
of the cartridge contains a space to store overlays. Atari produced two label
styles for the 5200, which we call "Silver 1" and "Silver 2"
to denote the order in which they arrived. The Atari logo is embossed on the cartridge
underneath the label.
The "Silver 2" label style also features a silver (or less-reflective
gray) background but differs from the original style on several points. First,
the "Atari 5200" text is much smaller and displayed right-justified
along the top of the image. To the left of the Atari 5200 logo is the text "VIDEO
GAME CARTRIDGE" and "ATARI 5200 SUPERSYSTEM" on two lines, left
justified with the image. The image itself is larger than on "Silver 1"
carts and has the name of the game embedded in the graphic, in stylized form.
Some games, such as Rescue
on Fractalus and Ballblazer,
don't have the name of the game anywhere on the cartridge! To the left of the
image is copyright information, rotated 90 degrees. |  |
| Big Five Software | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | Big Five only produced two games for the Atari 5200, Miner
2049er and a sequel, Bounty
Bob Strikes Back. Miner 2049er is encased in a bright red cartridge and can
be found with two different label styles. One is a gold foil label with red printing
while the other is a more colorful label reminiscent of the Atari 8-bit Miner
2049er label (but much larger!) Neither is particularly rare, but the gold label
is a little harder to come across. Bounty Bob Strikes Back also has a color label,
but is enclosed in a green cartridge instead of red. |  | | Gold | Big Five only produced two games for the Atari 5200, Miner
2049er and a sequel, Bounty
Bob Strikes Back. Miner 2049er is encased in a bright red cartridge and can
be found with two different label styles. One is a gold foil label with red printing
while the other is a more colorful label reminiscent of the Atari 8-bit Miner
2049er label (but much larger!) Neither is particularly rare, but the gold label
is a little harder to come across. Bounty Bob Strikes Back also has a color label,
but is enclosed in a green cartridge instead of red. |  |
| CBS Electronics | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | CBS Games for the Atari 5200 are rather unique in their appearance for two reasons. First, their cartridges are made from a light-brown plastic instead of your typical black and second they have a tapered grip at the end to allow easier removal. The labels for CBS games are black with the name of the game printed, not once, but twice in yellow (don't ask us why!). Copyright information is displayed below the name, printed in white. The end of the cartridge contains the CBS Electronics logo (bright orange with white text) instead of the game's name, making it impossible to tell stacked CBS carts apart without looking at the main label. Of CBS' five titles for the 5200, four came with overlays but for some reason there's no place to store them with the cart (which probably makes these overlays harder to find!) |  |
| Electra Concepts | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | Electra Concepts only released one game on the Atari 5200 -- Meteorites.
This also happens to be one of the rarest games for the 5200. Meteorites is encased
in a Sega
cartridge shell and has a label that only covers the front of the cartridge. The
game title is displayed in orange at the bottom of the label on a white background.
Above that is a graphic taking up most of the label, along with some copyright
information in a small, yellow font. |  |
| Parker Brothers | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | Of all the manufacturers, Parker Brothers seems to have been the most consistent
with their cartridges across platforms. Their 5200 cartridges are similar in style
to carts they made for every other system, although they're a bit larger and have
storage space for overlays on the back (the only Parker Brothers game to actually
include overlays, and cheap paper ones at that, was Frogger).
Parker Brothers carts are angled at the end, displaying the game title (in a similar
manner to Activision
carts on the 5200). It's not uncommon to find the end of the label peeled off
from the plastic. Labels for the 5200 were a blue-green color and usually just
have the name of the title in stylized form (there are a few with graphics, like
Popeye
and Q*bert). |  |
| Sega | | Label Name | Description | Image | | Standard | Sega only produced four games for the 5200 and each of them is contained in a
rather plain, black cartridge shell. However, the labels for these games are unique
and fairly colorful. Each game contains the game's title in stylized text along
with artwork that takes up a large portion of the label. The game title is also
repeated on the end of the label. Copyright text is displayed in a small font
at the bottom of the front label along with a small Sega logo. The labels also
have a horizontal orange bar, at either the top or bottom of the cart, with the
text "ATARI 5200" in white lettering. |  |
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