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- Lazybones, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43Not to mention their ad contains game play footage, not empty rooms with floating consoles.
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -7/+34While it's power was equivalent to be that of the PS3 over it's rivals (blowing the Atari VCS and Intellivision out of the water in addition to besting the Atari 5200), the ColecoVision IIRC was actually available, and it sure as hell didn't cost $700. The major problem they had was with the ADAM released in 1983. I still actually have the ColecoVision in the basement, but I haven't had it hooked up since High School more than 15 years ago. I think it still works, I don't really know. ColecoVision RULED.
The ADAM was the unit that had both the availability and survivability problems. I actually HAD an ADAM, but it died less than 30 days after I got it, and we had to take it back to Sears. I was heartbroken. That I guess was technically my first PC. We took it back and got an Amstrad with a GIGANTIC 256k of memory! Now I wasn't heartbroken anymore! Remember, we are talking '84 here. 256k of memory in a PC was pretty smokin'! - Easty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Hehe... Back in the old days console ads were all about as subtle as a fart in a lift. Now it's all minimalist, and crows exploding out of eggs.
Craaaazy, man. - JDoggqx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18No way. The Smurfs was the best Coleco game ever. Ah to hear the random fart noises when you jumped too much with the smurfs. To dodge the evil flying bats. To jump over the fences and skulls to save the beloved Smurfette.
Though now I'm remembering all my favorite Coleco games:
Donkey Kong
Avenger
Zaxxon
Destructor - ArchieAndrews, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14With the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong, I remember thinking that this was the first time that a home game equaled the arcade. I loved my ColecoVision.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Wow that was a low-blow on the PS3 heh.
- darthsnoopy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Yah, no kidding. My first reaction to this was to be insulted...to put my beloved colecovision console in the same boat as the hated PS3...
Coleco made a gaming console...they didnt try to push some proprietary media format down everyone's throats at the same time.
All gaming consoles at the time were luxury items, and often cost quite a bit.
Coleco and intellivision had some of the most innovated remote controls of thier time. They had number pad overlays so you could use the bottom of the controller to input plays on football games, or to enter various codes. The controllers were made to fit into the console when you were done, making for a relatively slick looking unit when it was put back together.
It also contained an expansion port to plug in the 'ADAM', an ambitious move which ultimately was overpriced and failed..but it was an addon system trying to bridge PC's and consoles.
It would eventually have an addon to let it play 2600 carts. If you want to say that the COnneticut LEather COmpany should've stuck with leather and kiddy pools, fine...but don't piss on my childhood by relating it to Sony's farce - felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I know that the reason I was crazy for Colecovision was the amazing games they had. While Intellivision, Odyssey, etc., had some ok titles, Colecovision had the actual arcade games like the real Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Jungle Hunt, Defender, etc., and they actually looked like the arcade games.
Man, I loved that system. - anitab83, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11This may sound lame, but the best ColecoVision game of all time was The Cabbage Patch Kids. My brother and I used to play that all the time, I have no idea why we liked it so much (I think I was 10 at the time).
- Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@Lazybones
Thats because today games come out for every console, and its pretty hard to tell Call Of Duty 18 on the PS3 from Call of Duty 18 on the XBox 360. That and Sony eats babies. - Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6
Coleco reverse engineered their 2600 adapter. Had that happened today, the DMCA would have put the kabosh to that. - Drunkenfool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Smurfs, yes. that game was dope. Also popeye.
- SkippyDoorknob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Wii's Virtual Console needs Colecovision games!
- crcurran, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I liked my Colecovision. I had atari 2600 before that and pong before that.
I luv'd them all. I got into computers more and more after that so I missed the whole mid-80s console market crash. - FrankieB078, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah I'd rather see two extremely creepy looking Japanese men approach a family minding their business, coax an elderly woman to get out of her wheelchair and play a video game.
- icedman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Donkey Kong Cheat
First screen - up and down the first broken ladder
back to the left
run and jump at the foot of broken ladder
jumps into the next screen with full points!!
played Coleco Donkey Kong for hours - once played for 8 straight hours without dying
best...game...ever - mancat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So I take it you've missed all the other commercials they have where game footage is shown? Or instead you choose to remember the only one that you hate?
- frankinla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yeah, Smurfs where hot then... every kid wanted it pretty much just for Smurfs....
- SanTe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It was the early 1980s. Video games did not end, EVER. :)
- jbravo29, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What about Space Fury? Cool Alien taunting you to kick his a$$.
- ryland2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Great Post but submit in the "gaming videos" section next time
- Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2
It had better graphics than the Atari 2600 because the 2600 hit the market in 1977.
The 5200 was a souped up Atari 400 computer with the funky joysticks and purposefully made incompatible with the Atari computer line (400/800/XL) in order not to cannibalize computer sales. Its arguable over whether the ColecoVision was more powerful.
The 7800 was a sprite pushing monster. However, it was delayed by the takeover of Atari and was not released until 1986 instead of 1984 as was initially planned before Warner Communications (TimeWarner since) mistakenly sold off Atari to the Tramiel family. Remember how the NES could not have two characters in *Double Dragon* play at the same time? The 7800 didn't suffer from that problem. I doubt *Ball Blazer* could have run on the NES (although it definitely could have on the Sega Master System)...
I really liked the specialized controllers for the ColecoVision. The sports controllers (a similar controller - but with less buttons - did become available for the 2600, known as the "Space Age Joystick"); the steering wheel for Sega's *Turbo*; the Roller Controller (aka Trackball controller) for use with Coleco's answer to Atari's *Centipede* (*Slither*); and of course, the standard joysticks with the numeric keypads which were all the rage on the ColecoVision, Intellivision 2, and the 5200. - vhold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Colecovision had the pimp steering wheel with pedals, the nearly arcade quality roller controller (trackball), the insane big "glove" controller for secretly choosing pitches and a roller to run between bases...
The system docked it's own controllers ( I guess that was common ), you could get an Atari compatibility add-on.. Really a shame the whole home video game market collapsed. - Sazime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I still have mine...
- 32bitwonder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My neighbour had a ColecoVision when I was a kid and I spent a great many hours over there playing it one summer. Great memories.
The ColecoVision had better graphics than the Atari 2600 or the Intellivsion but its controllers were murder after a few hours playing. Of the few games my neighbour had, Looping had to be my favourite. It even had Bach background music if I recall correctly. - foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4OMG! DONKEY KONG GRAPHICS!!!
*faints* - phlavor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I loved my Adam computer. Tape drive. Daisy wheel printer! Man I thought I was the 1337 h4x0r when I got it. Then I figured out that I actually needed a modem before could be Matthew Broderick in Wargames. So then I used to sit there in my sleeveless shirts listening to the Flock of Seagulls and tear up some Smurfs.
Oh *****, I'm old! - gavdana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Man, I miss ColecoVision. My dad saved my console, but threw away the power supply. Sad.
- abiding99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2all time favorite montezuma's revenge, repeating level 9 over and over. My mom loved Q bert. She would go through the whole game and then repeat the last level. My mom is legally blind but she is the best Qbert player. My eyes would always weird out on the cube grid, where you would see the images inverted.
Spy hunter
baseball
smurfs
cabbage patch kids
looping
venture
frantic freddy
burger time
choplifter
so many great games. And Rocky using the large controller with the multicolored buttons. - AdobeBrick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The big glove controllers were sweet. It had those four buttons on the handle (which I think were only all used for boxing) as well as the numeric keypad, a joystick and that left/right rolly thing. I always used that controller instead of those ergonomic horrors that came with the system. Baseball was a great 2 player game but the best single player I can remember off hand was Mr Do's Castle.
- LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dark JC - Sure it does. You buy one game (just one) to play on your premium version PS3, that bumps the price up to $649, then add tax and it's over $700.
- FyberOptic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17800 failed because Atari had shelved the idea, until the NES was released, then they released the somewhat inferior technology of the 7800 to compete, but it was too late. But at the time, having no idea what an NES was, I drooled over the 7800's graphics nonetheless! By the time I was ever able to get anything better than the 2600 though, it ended up being an NES after all.
- kms007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I still have my Colecovision. As of 2 years ago, it still worked fine. No way I'm ever selling it. It was my first console - and still a lot of fun to play. "Spy Hunter" was the BOMB on the Colecovision. And I've wasted many an hour playing Donkey Kong - flipped the score 8 times over during a marathon session.
- Rockarollr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did that include Lurch's Lotus 1-2-3?
- MackPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i owe my RSI to the N.E.S- I'm too young to fully remember the Atari (or was it a commodore, I'm no retro expert) we had, tape drive and all.
- xyphur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As much as I hated the controllers of the system, I could always, ALWAYS make due - as long as I was playing Zaxxon.
...well, at least now I know what the next 2 things I download will be! :) - Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
What arcade? They don't exist anymore!
Say what you will, but the Street Fighter craze killed the arcades. There was no longer room for interesting yet fun games like *Paperboy* or even something like *Gauntlet*.
The collapse of the arcade industry in the 90s parallels the collapse of the home videogame industry between 1982-1984. In both cases, sucky "me too" games which copied one another killed off all originality.
RIP Atari Games Corp., RIP. - RobotKing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The coleco is awesome. Does anyone remember actually using the keypad for anything?
- PhoenixCE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I used to own a ColecoVision. But my mom sold it for $20 with like 30 games that we had about 16 years ago. Damn her :'(
- newevilmind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there were also games that required the use of that four button controller. If you didn't have that special controller you could push 5 and 9 for the extra 2 buttons.
- Leopards, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The whole problem with the Adam could have been solved with a warning sticker! there was a surge when the unit was turned on and off that would wipe part of the tape that was left in the drive, all you had to do to preserve the programs was put the tape in the drive after powering on the unit!! Simple oversight destroyed one of the best of the early computer systems!!
- jbravo29, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For those of you craving a Colecovision fix after reading this article, check out the recently posted story under the title "Colecovision Emulator - Includes Zaxxon, Donkey Kong, Popeye and others".
- Koushiro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ahhh, I had both a Coleco and the expansion to play Atari games. It broke when I was younger and my folks got me an Atari 7200 instead of a Ninendo or a Master System. Woe.... :-(
- abiding99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1poker, casino games
- jmaynardg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1colecovision was a great console. I owned one as a kid and loved it!
- N1XUK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1hmmm time to fire up donkey kong on my coleco.... :)
wanderif it will still work - ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The ColecoVision was Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console, released in August, 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, the ability to play other home consoles' video games (notably the Atari 2600), and the means to expand the system's hardware."
"Coleco was infamous for not releasing the games it advertised. In most cases, it isn't certain if games that never came out were advertised using actual screenshots of a game or artist renditions designed to look like a completed game."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colecovision
If the Colecovision really was the PS3 of its time, that'd be interesting. It was the best-performing system of its generation.... - sachmul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The PS3 should change its motto to "PS3: Bring the arcade experience home"
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yup. Only problem was they left off the Pie Shell stage. But other than that, ColecoVision games were almost perfect ports of the arcade.
- versionke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The ColecoVision was so sweet. My best friend had the Atari 2600 and I had the Atari 2600 adaptor for the ColecoVision. I borrowed all of his games and they worked great.
Donkey Kong Jr, Mr Do, Ladybug, Smurfs... If they could get those games on the Wii's virtual console, I'd be one happy guy. -
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