Elsewhere: Atari 5200 TV Commercial

The Atari 5200 was a pretty impressive piece of hardware in its day, its notoriously less-than-durable joysticks aside.  This vintage TV ad came out at a time when the system was (purportedly) in short supply, and prominently features the system's innovative PAUSE button, a feature we now take for granted.

My favorite part:  When Mom yells from offscreen and the young man pauses his Atari 5200 to run to the telephone, apparently managing to down a few shots of vodka for courage before slurring, "Helloooo, Judy?"






I also have to give Atari credit for the A/B comparisons of Centipede and Defender -- the 5200 versions are clearly not arcade-perfect, and noticeably less smooth.  But facing strong competition from the fairly accurate Colecovision port of Donkey Kong, Atari made an effort to step up to the plate here.