The Atari 5200 SuperSystem (1982) uses a 36-pin edge connector — 18 contacts per side — as its cartridge interface. ROM cartridges are mapped directly onto the 6502 CPU address bus: the system asserts chip-enable signals for the $4000–$7FFF and $8000–$BFFF address windows, and the cartridge returns data on an 8-bit bus (D0–D7) using 14 address lines (A0–A13). Unlike the concurrent Atari 8-bit home computers, the 5200 cartridge connector also supplies +12 VDC directly from the console’s power adapter and uses interlock pins (18 and 36) to enable power to the cartridge when it is fully seated. The connector is electrically incompatible with both the 8-bit computer cartridge slot and the later Atari 7800 format despite sharing the same custom chip set (ANTIC, GTIA, POKEY).
| Pin | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | D0 |
| 2 | D1 |
| 3 | D2 |
| 4 | D3 |
| 5 | D4 |
| 6 | D5 |
| 7 | D6 |
| 8 | D7 |
| 9 | Enable 80-8F |
| 10 | Enable 40-7F |
| 11 | Not Connected |
| 12 | Ground |
| 13 | Ground |
| 14 | Ground (System Clock 02 on 2 port) |
| 15 | A6 |
| 16 | A5 |
| 17 | A2 |
| 18 | Interlock |
| 19 | A0 |
| 20 | A1 |
| 21 | A3 |
| 22 | A4 |
| 23 | Ground |
| 24 | Ground (Video In on 2 port) |
| 25 | Ground |
| 26 | +5 VDC |
| 27 | A7 |
| 28 | Not Connected |
| 29 | A8 |
| 30 | Audio In (2 port) |
| 31 | A9 |
| 32 | A13 |
| 33 | A10 |
| 34 | A12 |
| 35 | A11 |
| 36 | Interlock |
Notes
The connector is a 36-pin PCB edge type (18 contacts per side, top pins 1–18, bottom pins 19–36), confirmed as “Cartridge PCB Mount: 18/36 Contacts” in the CX5200 Field Service Manual parts list. Pins 18 and 36 are interlock contacts: shorting them (achieved when the cartridge is fully inserted) enables power delivery to the cartridge. Pin 26 carries +12 VDC sourced directly from the console’s external power adapter — cartridge circuitry requiring a higher supply voltage draws from this rail. The two-port model variant adds Audio In on pin 30 for composite audio mixing; the equivalent pin is ground on four-port units. The address bus is 14 bits wide (A0–A13), giving a maximum directly addressable cartridge space of 16 KB per enable window (32 KB total across both windows).
Signals
- D0–D7 — 8-bit bidirectional data bus (pins 1–8)
- Enable 80-BF — chip-enable for cartridge ROM mapped to $8000–$BFFF (pin 9)
- Enable 40-7F — chip-enable for cartridge ROM mapped to $4000–$7FFF (pin 10)
- A0–A13 — 14-bit address bus distributed across pins 15–17, 19–22, 27, 29, 31–35
- Interlock — power-enable contacts; both must be shorted by the inserted cartridge before the console supplies power to the cartridge (pins 18 and 36)
- Audio In — cartridge audio input for composite mixing on two-port units; ground on four-port units (pin 30)
- +12 VDC — supply voltage derived directly from the external power adapter (pin 26)
- Ground — multiple ground returns (pins 12, 13, 23, 25 and additional ground pins)
- Not Connected — pins 11 and 28 carry no signal