I love the Colecovision. It was very impressive with arcade ports for its time. Games like Ladybug, Venture, Frenzy, Mousetrap, Zaxxon, Time Pilot, Gorf, Qbert, and more were incredible arcade ports.
I'm with the judge. Providing the expansion module was not unethical. Just like Apple II and PC clones that later followed, that hardware is not copywritable like a creative product is.
Little 3rd party support? The Coleco had tons of it. Parker Bros, Interphase, Atarisoft, Activision, Imagic, Epyx, Spectravideo, Xonox, Sierra, Sunrise, Spinnaker...even Telegames supported the Coleco through the late '80s, mostly producing reprints of older games bought/licensed from some of the aforementioned companies (and even the Coleco-compatible DINA system made by Bit Corp.), until they ceased support for all classic systems in the early '00s.
Was thrilled to receive my Colecovision with pack-in Donkey Kong cart @ 10 yrs old.. Fun fact- it's the only non-Nintendo console ever to ship w/ a Nintendo pack-in game
your review is just cold man , i had my colecovision back in the 80's and i loved it. i kept thinking about the good times i had playing with my friends after school . i love it so much that i just bought one today! if it wasn't for the colecovision, alot of gaming systems today would not be the same ....
Probably the most significant legacy of the ColecoVision is that it served as the technological reference point for Masayuki Uemura and his team at Nintendo when they were designing the Famicom. Apparently, it was the ColecoVision that technologically spurred him and the ColecoVision he had in mind when considering the image of the Famicom during development. Not surprising really, as it was certainly a cut above the other 2nd gen systems and a well engineered product.
The Colecovision had five 'expansions'. The Adam deserved a mention. I may be biased but I feel the Colecovision was/is better than your video suggests. The Intellivision also had an Atari 2600 adapter. Not sure which came first. Thanks for the videos.
Mark from CGR absolutely loves his Colecovision, definitely the best console from this generation, probably more on par hardware-wise with the Famicom/NES. Hands down has the best port of Donkey Kong, except the first level is mirrored, for unknown reasons.
@@Metal-Possum It's like the Atari 8-bit version: the first level deals with the horizontal aspect ratio of the screen by omitting one story--there are five long stages instead of six, as in the arcade. But with an odd number of stages, if Mario starts in the lower left, that means the big guy has to be in the upper right instead of the upper left. In this one detail the Atari 2600 port is actually truer to the arcade, since it has a narrower playfield with six stages.
@@MattMcIrvin Atari's 8-bit version of Donkey Kong has that layout most likely because the programmer, Landon Dyer, preferred it that way. So it's an adaptation. Most of the programmers at Atari hated Donkey Kong and had supposedly passed up on the non-Japanese worldwide rights to the arcade version, although it might've mainly been due to them hating Nintendo's arrogance and them demanding beyond top dollar for those rights. Coleco paid stupid money for the console rights to Donkey Kong while Atari did end up licensing the home computer rights which caused a big fight between Atari-Nintendo-Coleco when Coleco showed Donkey Kong on the Coleco ADAM computer at CES.
AdamKoralik You bet Adam. As far as their claim to "arcade perfect" is concerned, with the exception of Star Wars arcade, the arcade experience wasn't much beyond its capabilities. It's a great system that really didn't get it's just dues, because (you said something like) parents said all game systems are the same. I remember myself and another Atari owning friend poking fun at our other friend that ONLY had a Coleco AND a Commodore 64. How wrong we were! I didn't have ANY computer until the 90s! Kids can be jerks...
@@AlienExorcist I've been watching Gaming History Source's "Let's Compare" videos that collect a zillion ports of some arcade game and show the gameplay for all of them, with the arcade version at the beginning. The ColecoVision version is very often one of the best ports, beating most of the personal computer ports. The frame rates could be butter-smooth. I think it was just doomed because it was the ultimate expression of a trend that was about to crash: the arcade-centric home console. When the industry came back with the NES, of course the NES had plenty of fine arcade ports, but that wasn't primarily what it was known for. The flagship NES games were things that had arcade versions ported FROM them.
I found it very different. I understand it's always nice to change up the style of presentation. And I thought it was decent. It had its funny moments, and looked pretty good. But I do kinda still prefer his usual methods of displaying retro video games and accessories. Your thoughts Adam?
I agree with everything you said there. And this might just be me, but it felt like it had too much in that area. If he made it a little more modern day like his collection game room, it would appeal better. The way it was setup and done to me felt kinda forced. All in all was still funny, and that's what AVGN is supposed to be. Funny with Retrospective humor and "taking you back to the past".
They never shipped out bad labels "Cuz that's just how they did it back then" . The label tore off and someone just made up a crappy replacement. And there are plenty of 3rd party games for it.
As in this video, I've heard other people mention the huge power brick on this console and I would just like to point out the obvious . . . you don't have to plug it into the wall--you can plug the brick into a small extension cord and it would be pretty much like the X-Box or whatever.
Colecovision had more third party support than odyssey 2. I owned both. Colecovision was and still is a great console to own if you like the early to mid 80's arcade period. Collectorvision is making a new colecovision system that plays atari 2600 games as well.
What makes that absurdly large power brick even funnier is that there is a TON of empty space inside the ColecoVision. Certainly enough to put the power supply inside the shell and just have a normal plug.
You mention something around 7:30 regarding not being able to just enjoy a game because you've matured a little and it kind of reminded me of something. I feel that when I was little, I could enjoy any game not because of my innocence, but because games were an expensive luxury my parents only bought around once or twice a year. So any game I picked I was pretty much FORCED to enjoy it lol. I remember really enjoying games like Stuart Little for the GBC and Power Rangers for the SNES. As I grew older and could afford my own games, I am very picky and even then I don't enjoy the games I buy 100% of the time haha
Well, this one I find kinda disappointed with. When Colecovision came out, it was head and shoulders above anything else... It's games aren't just "near" arcade perfect (at it's time), most of them we're. Fantastic console and I'm happy, that I bought one at the end of it's life cycle. Sad, that it came out a little too late, for it's own good...
Adam, I don’t think you adequately covered the Colecovision in your video. You had too few games, and it appears that you have not played the console much. That is understandable when trying to cover all second generation machines, which were before your time. In my opinion, The Coleco vision was the superior second generation machine. 🙂
Not sure if you are aware, but there was also the Colecovision Adam Computer, which had the Colecovision cartridge port to play games, along with a pair of direct spindle servo driven "high speed" (ha) tape drives, an expansion bay cover with three expansion slots, a detached QWERTY keyboard, those same awful "telephone" controllers, and a daisy wheel typeset quality printer. The power supply for the whole thing was in the printer, so even if you didn't use the computer functionality, you still HAD to have the printer attached... Cause IT was the power brick! It was featured in a flashback segment on the old TV show "VR 5", from the mid 1990s.
There were two versions of the Adam computer...the one that plugged into the Colecovision via the same expansion port as the 2600 adapter, and the stand-alone version. Curiously enough, both versions contained the expansion port, so you could have a Colecovision console with an Adam computer plugged into it at the front, and the 2600 adapter plugged into the side of the Adam. And it all worked. The tape drives were high-speed compared to ordinary cassette drives of the day. The Adam drives would read and write at 20 inches per second, and fast-forward/rewind at 80 IPS. Typical cassette drives like those available for the Atari and Commodore computers only ran at 1 7/8 inches per second. 5.25" Floppy disk drives of 160K capacity were made for the Adam computer late in its life. Up to two could be connected to it, and with an aftermarket EEPROM hack, you could add two more (which I did, adding a pair of 3.5" 720K drives to my system). Other aftermarket add-ons were a serial port (for a faster modem), parallel port (for a dot-matrix printer) and a hard drive interface.
Here's a thought. If you have a collection of Colecovision and Atari 2600 games, which would be more convenient? Having both systems set up, or just the Colecovision with its expansion module?
The display chip on a Atari 2600 is called the "TIA" or Television interface adapter it is a "custom" purpose designed Atari Chip .,. so the Atari 2600 does not use all off the shelf parts ... Coleco' must have reverse engineered the "Atari custom TIA" chip (Which handles both the systems graphics and sound ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Interface_Adaptor
Correct, this part was most definitely proprietary to Atari, which was why they actually won the lawsuit. The judge allowed Coleco to keep producing Atari clones, but they had to pay a royalty (licensing fee) to Atari for each unit produced. It was actually the ColecoVision that used all generic, off-the-shelf parts that anyone could buy.
Started collecting for this system during the pandemic, such an impressive console for the time. The games here look and play much better than Atari or Intellivision. What's really cool too is despite its obscurity, the homebrew scene is still alive and kicking!
I had an Atari 2600 but I visited my cousins who had a ColecoVision with the Atari 2000 adapter. I played Zaxxon on it...and was blown away. Then they put a 2600 game into the adapter...and I was blown away even more!
Some of this was probably mentioned, but I'd actually say that 3rd party support was pretty good for CV. Activision and Imagic released their top games, and they were superior to VCS of course. The Mattel games are garbage. The Coleco developed games featured a ton of arcade titles that were not licensed by competitors, which was kind of their aim. So they got the Exidy, Stern, Bally games that Atari or Mattel did not. The console actually sold well for several years, but Coleco got slammed by the failure of the Adam computer. As for the power supply, for whatever the reason they decided to run different voltages to different parts of the system, and so the Adapter had to be big enough to supply +5V, -5V, and +12V voltages at once. Normally the adapter would supply ONE voltage, and you'd put regulators on the motherboard to step it down where needed. It was quite backwards to do it their way.
That strategy to get the licenses to over-looked arcade games was all due to the genius of Michael Katz at Coleco. When Coleco went under, he jumped over to Jack Tramiel's Atari Corp and tried to get overlooked computer titles licensed for the 2600, 7800, and XE Game System since Nintendo had illegally locked up almost all of the 3rd Party Developers into exclusive non-compete contracts in order to make games for the NES. That and Tramiel's Atari Corp did own Atari Inc's former arcade division [arguably the "Real Atari"] known as the Atari Games Corp and Tengen, so they didn't have the rights to any "Atari" arcade games beyond July 1984. That was rough. He still beat Sega in North America also thanks to Tonka's stupidity, and thus Sega of Japan offered Atari Corp the North American rights to the Sega Mega Drive. But Jack Tramiel also wanted the European rights and SoJ wouldn't budge so Atari Corp lost out on the "Genesis". Katz retired from Atari Corp for one month, then became the President of Sega of America, and successfully launched the Sega Genesis while also coining the "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" slogan.
I definitely owned the Coleco. I loved the T.V. commercial. It sure captured my attention. I played zaxxon but my fave was track n field. I owned it for 6 or 7 years that I remember. I sold it off. It was still working.
Donkey Kong was the only game that came with the console. You have good reviews of systems but you should do a little more research on this system. It was the best at the time and great games.
Of the three major systems of that generation, the Colecovison was king because I could leverage my 2600 cart collection with the Colecovison 2600 add-on. Plus, thanks to Coleco's devious nature, on the Colecovison, I could play almost pixel perfect Donkey Kong. 😉
you can also use a genesis controller with this as well which is nice. i have A LOT of love for this console and im glad you did a retrospective on this.
Coleco had actually been a huge player in the FIRST generation--their Telstar was one of the most popular Pong clones, I think because they were among the first ones to use a low-cost system-on-chip design that allowed them to price it to move. That was what got them into video games, and they had a long series of dedicated consoles that followed--one was a tank game, some had light guns. Their last pong was a freaky-looking triangular console that had paddle dials on one side, a big steering wheel on the second and a disturbingly realistic light gun holstered in the third.
wow, I just looked up some more about that last Coleco Telstar, and it was actually a programmable system of sorts that took game cartridges! They were more than just ROMs; they actually contained the microcontroller that ran the game. A really odd architecture, by later standards, and there were only ever a few cartridges, though each one had multiple games. Programmable but at the same time clearly first-gen.
The lack of an LED makes it tricky to know if the unit is getting power. Mine wont play and I'm not sure if its the unit or the power supply as both can tend to go bad.
The game crash didn't kill the Colecovision, Coleco killed the Colecovision. Coleco put all of their profits (including that lucrative Cabbage Patch money) into the Adam computer. The Adam was a complete failure, in many cases not working right out of the box. If Coleco had stayed the course with the Colecovision and invested in a next gen console for 1985 they could have survived the crash and beat Nintendo. Hell they had a relationship with Nintendo. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros. on a Coleco machine.
Yep, I had three Adam computers, all purchased from Toys R us.The first one did not work and was returned. The second one seemed to work, but was obviously a return, as the printer did not have its styrofoam packaging (the whole system was in one large rectangular box), as well as the pack-in Buck Rogers game had names in the scoreboard, and so and was also returned. We then went to another TrU one state over and this one worked flawlessly. I could probably fire it up today with one small repair (bypassing a broken contact finger in the connector that plugs into the host ColecoVision). The guy at the TrU said that this one was from the second production run...all the units from the first run were defective and were returned. None of the units from the second batch came back. Coleco did get its act together, but almost nobody recognized that fact and only remembered / publicized the faillure-prone first run.
I know what Adam's talking about when he says that part of him that could just get attached to old games and get engrossed in them died, because it happened to me somewhere during my time playing the 360... until the past couple of years when I got my Dreamcast. Now I just play old games and it's like when I was a kid and I got my first console, a PS1. Now I'm playing just nostalgic, 2001 and earlier games for various old consoles plus the 360 games I still like. Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Super Nintendo, PS1, hell, I've even found a few NES games recently that I love, which is something I thought would never happen (for a while I've kinda thought the NES was overrated and looked down on people who worship it, glad I'm much more open minded about it now)
What do you gain when someone who doesn't know too much about a subject talks about said subject? He said on multiple occasions that he wouldn't be able to do a proper retrospective on the first generation. I'm sure there are people who are Gen 1 experts you can listen to.
My parents bought me the colecovision back in 82. For its time it was ahead in graphics. Hated the controls but games like triathlon, zaxxon, pitfall etc were amazing for its time. I never had the atari expansion port but do agree that was like highway robbery. It would had been an outrageous ruling by a judge today.
The first system I owned was an Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision had better graphics but my parents bought me the 2600. When the Colecovision came out I was blown away by the graphics, I had a friend who owned one and played Donkey Kong every chance I got when I went to his place. Unfortunately he didn't own Zaxxon but I did play it on a Colecovision at the CNE which is an annual fair in Toronto.
Coleco also made the TELSTAR way back in 1976. Which also happens to be my very first console as a kid. Well, technically it was my brother's, but it was the first system I gamed on.
Some points... the Atari 2600 does have custom silicon inside it. The TIA chip which handles graphics and sound is custom. Designed by Jay Miner who would design the Atari 400/800 computers [and thus the 5200 indirectly] and later was the father of the Amiga computer line. The rest of the silicon was MOS/Synertek/Rockwell usuals with the 6507 and the RIOT chips. But what happened since the 1977 release of the 2600 was that the TIA chip was successfully cloned in a "clean room" operation. So the chip Coleco used in the 2600 adapter and the Gemini console are clones of the TIA chip. The courts ruled Coleco could do that and thus Atari couldn't block them - or Mattel's adapter for the Intellivision 2 - but Atari turned around and successfully sued Coleco for $300 million+ over patent infringement and won/settled. The Colecovision doesn't have any custom silicon in it. It has the Z80 CPU and TI graphics and sound chips inside it. The only real thing that's custom is the BIOS. And consequently, Atari planned to make a Colecovision adapter for the 5200 with the same case design as the 5200's 2600 Adapter - dubbed by Atari's engineering team as the "Piggyback Parasite" - but The Crash killed that plan along with the 5200. Once Jack Tramiel bought up the assets of Atari Consumer, that adapter remained cancelled and the new company also cancelled the planned 7800 Adapter for the 5200. The Colecovision's tile graphics from the TI graphics chip influenced Nintendo's use of tile graphics in the Famicom/NES. That TI graphics chip was directly in response to Atari's ANTIC graphics chip on the 400/800 so it's all connected.
Another curiosity about the CV's video chip. According to the Hacker's Guide to Adam, there is a feature in the TMS9918 (I think that's the right name), not implemented on the Coleco hardware that allowed it to piggyback its video output atop that of another TMS9918. That could have doubled the number of sprites displayable on any particular scanline (normally any more than four sprites in a horizontal row would induce flickering even though the system was capable of displaying 32), and even permitted bitmaps to change colors more than once every eight pixels. (although this probably would have ramped up processing overhead more than practical)
I've never actually owned one or even played one but I've always felt that if I did have one it would probably be my favourite console of the 2nd Generation.
I actually had a Colecovision as a kid, and Coleco third parties had some $30 titles at Sears in 1984 and 85. 2 of the best ones were from Parker Bros. They were QBert's Cubes and Mr Do's Castle. What killed the Colecovision was their computer called The Coleco Adam. It was either stand alone or a CV add on. That's what killed Coleco's contract with Nintendo. It blurred the line between a console and a computer, and the Nintendo agreement had Coleco make console versions, and Atari make computer versions. Colecovision was the number one video game system locally within 1984 because Colecovision wasn't on a fire sale like Atari. Atari sol more consoles, but they had $20 consoles vs Coleco's $100. We gorged on Coleco games eventually owning half the collection. Speaking of gorging, my brother gave the system to a friend of his who never returned it. So I was on a quest to get it back. Even in the NES days, no one had Colecovision. Then soneone at Video Game Echange gave me 2 pieces of advice:. A Retro game store that was around in 1993 called Video Game Connection, and I found out about Goodwill, garage sales, and similar places. Rarely found Coleco stuff even then. but I found everything else, 2600, Bally Astrocade, Odyssey 2. Intellivision, 5200 Starpath Supercharger add on for the 2600, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Master System, 7800, Turbo Grafx 16, 3DO, Jaguar, Virtual Boy, and many games at bargain basement prices. I'll give you one guess of what pop culture phenomenon started to make trips to the Thrift Stores dry up. If thrift store hunting was a religion, this would be the birth of Christ in terms of a clear before and after. Any guesses?
@@AdamKoralik actually, I'd say the song "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore. More people got into them because of the song, and though his lyrics were mainly about making an old man's clothes look cool, as more people found old video games, they were snapped up faster than usual. In the 90s I was probably one of the few guys that was thrifting for Pre-crash games. I kept it up almost always getting at least one game until that song came out. Ever since that song, it's hard to find video games in the wild
Hey Adam, try some Goo Gone to see if that will get out the WD-40. Goo Gone is also good for wiping off price tag sticker residue. Every collector should have some. Of course you'll have to wipe off the Goo Gone afterwards, otherwise it leaves an oily residue, but that's better than sticky residue.
I got my hands on these idk abit over 10 years old I think. I got a little less games then you do and only one proper controller. It indeed must of been a powerful system for its time based on the ones I've played compared to it's competition. Sadly it's boxed away with allot of my other consoles of that generation since I don't have the space to have them hooked up sadly.... I miss my old place, I had my own extra room in the apartment filled with vintage computers and game consoles. Hell.... I even had a Commodore 64 hooked up in the bedroom, and just about every other console I had hooked up in my living room.... maybe a bit much..... but I was happy lol.
There was also a steering wheel expansion module for playing Turbo. I think another expansion module was a trackball. More recently, there was a memory expansion module and there are new games to support it. Gamester81 had a video about it. I never had one. The only new game I had was Battle of Hoth which was essentially a clone of the Empire Strikes Back game released in 2013.
The only "modules" that plugged into the expansion port were the Atari 2600 adapter and a later version of the Adam computer. The other "expansion modules" were just controllers that plugged into the controller port. The trackball was called the "Roller Controller" and was a huge thing almost the size of the console that contained joystick storage on both sides and a power tap that went between the console and its power cord. I believe the Super Action Controllers (a pistol-grip version of the standard CV controller) was also referred to as an "expansion module". Source: I still own these.
I only saw its games on screens so far but I think they looked pretty solid for what they were. The 2600 adapter is one huge mindfuck from today's perspective tho. There has been a similar product for the Commodore64 and 128 to use AppleII soft- and hardware with it but I only saw it once on some on print scan online.
when I was a little nipper this was the first console we had. I have bought one a couple years ago for about £50 which is about half the going rate in the uk. you should try lady bug and venture. both great games and very cheap. oh and zaxxon is a brilliant game.
And I could play Turbo with the Wheel that left my hands absolutely black with some sort of odd resin that Coleco decided to use on the wheel proper. I'm pretty sure it's why I've no finger prints now.
I remember getting the Coleco Vision to replace my Atari 2600. Of course I had the expansion so all my 2600 games lived on. I think the only 2 games I had for it were Zaxxon and Donkey Kong. I almost want to get a Flashback console of it as the other Flashbacks pretty much all have compilation discs I can play. Atari Anthology, Intellivision Lives, Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis collection, Activision Anthology. I have all of those, but I have yet to see a Coleco Vision compilation disc. Of course I could get emulators, but I'd rather get the Flahsback console.
How many consoles have creative names these days anyway? Playstation 1,2,3,4 ... Xbox 1 comes after Xbox 360 (does stupidity count as creativity?), what does the U in Wii U stand for anyway? Switch at least describes what it does, I got to give them that.
You're completely missing the console names. It's not the Sony 1, 2, 3, and 4. It's not the Microsoft, Microsoft 360, and Microsoft one. Wii U is known to be a terrible name choice and credited as a reason for it's failure, but playstation, Xbox, and Wii are much more creative than simply "2600" However I don't think most names were that bad. Odyssey seems like something that could come out today, intellivision makes sense since it was a new technology played on a television, colecovision is basically the same thing with their name in it, then there was creativision so that one was pretty overdone and a little lazy but not terrible. Atari was really the only ridiculously uncreative one, just using numbers. At the time that was probably futuristic and techy sounding, it just hasn't aged well.
CAX117 Nintendo has always described their system with their names. Nintendo entertainment system, then they made it super good and added a super, then they had 64 bit so just called it that, then a cube that plays games. Then Fukushima radiation fucked with their heads for a couple consoles until the switch.
I had this unit as well it was bring out so you could play with out intervision games as well and I think it was going to have a add-on replay apple games
if there were only one console to buy from this generation which would pick in the terms of having the best version of the most common games found on each
The Colecovision actually had the best ports of many games and its graphics capabilities were far beyond the Atari2600 and Intellivision. Also the controllers are better than both Atari and Intellivision.
it's worth trying with better games, I just finished tearing apart my vic 20, these consoles we never used are worth a go, at least for seeing what we missed out on.
The Intellivision had an Atari 2600 adapter too. Has the Intellivision II styling. That's actually my Atari 2600 since I can't seem to get video from my actual Atari.
3 things: 1. Favorite description of the Colecovision is that it looks like it came off the Millenium Falcon. 2. Zaxxon is the bomb on CV. 3. My console needs a new switch, know anyone in the southeast I could send it too? Would consider also getting a video mod. while I'm at it.
Bump and Jump came with an actual label. What you showed was obviously hand-made. I played videogames at the arcade in 1982-1985, then at home with the Coleco Vision - All games were quite true to the originals. The main difference was a horizontal display instead of a vertical display. Your review is like someone who never played Shenmue when it first came out, played it briefly many years later and says, "Eh... I guess it's o.k., if you like that sort of thing. You obviously didn't get the ColecoVision for Christmas in 1982. All the expansions and games were released in less than 30 months. The video game crash was very real. Nothing came close to the Coleco Vision during its lifespan, AND no other console was its demise. The ColecoVision was and is still the undefeated home videogame champion for its time. That is FACT. People that experienced this know that Truth. This is why others are commenting on your lackluster review. Just like Shenmue, you had to be there to know what we mean - YOU DON'T GET IT! Context is everything. Respect our culture. For the record - You think the Coleco "Vision" is uninspired in a time of Atari 2600 and 5200 and Commodore 64 - fast forward Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 - Hello...? Also the console is called the "Coleco Vision", not the "Coleco Coleco Vision". You should do more research for you reviews - study history to put things in proper perspective and context...
I know the Atari 5200 and Colecovision get snapped into the second generation. But they're actually part of the generation gap. Think 32X, or PS4 Pro. A mid generation system. Wikipedia sucks.
I love the Colecovision. It was very impressive with arcade ports for its time.
Games like Ladybug, Venture, Frenzy, Mousetrap, Zaxxon, Time Pilot, Gorf, Qbert, and more were incredible arcade ports.
time pilot ruled
ColecoVision was by far the best of the second generation.
I'm with the judge. Providing the expansion module was not unethical. Just like Apple II and PC clones that later followed, that hardware is not copywritable like a creative product is.
Little 3rd party support? The Coleco had tons of it. Parker Bros, Interphase, Atarisoft, Activision, Imagic, Epyx, Spectravideo, Xonox, Sierra, Sunrise, Spinnaker...even Telegames supported the Coleco through the late '80s, mostly producing reprints of older games bought/licensed from some of the aforementioned companies (and even the Coleco-compatible DINA system made by Bit Corp.), until they ceased support for all classic systems in the early '00s.
Was thrilled to receive my Colecovision with pack-in Donkey Kong cart @ 10 yrs old.. Fun fact- it's the only non-Nintendo console ever to ship w/ a Nintendo pack-in game
your review is just cold man , i had my colecovision back in the 80's and i loved it. i kept thinking about the good times i had playing with my friends after school . i love it so much that i just bought one today! if it wasn't for the colecovision, alot of gaming systems today would not be the same ....
Probably the most significant legacy of the ColecoVision is that it served as the technological reference point for Masayuki Uemura and his team at Nintendo when they were designing the Famicom. Apparently, it was the ColecoVision that technologically spurred him and the ColecoVision he had in mind when considering the image of the Famicom during development. Not surprising really, as it was certainly a cut above the other 2nd gen systems and a well engineered product.
The Colecovision had five 'expansions'. The Adam deserved a mention. I may be biased but I feel the Colecovision was/is better than your video suggests.
The Intellivision also had an Atari 2600 adapter. Not sure which came first.
Thanks for the videos.
I don't know why you presume I have anything against it.
Did not say you did, just that the tone of the video was not favorable to the console. I have liked your recaps but this one was incomplete.
Mark from CGR absolutely loves his Colecovision, definitely the best console from this generation, probably more on par hardware-wise with the Famicom/NES. Hands down has the best port of Donkey Kong, except the first level is mirrored, for unknown reasons.
@@Metal-Possum It's like the Atari 8-bit version: the first level deals with the horizontal aspect ratio of the screen by omitting one story--there are five long stages instead of six, as in the arcade. But with an odd number of stages, if Mario starts in the lower left, that means the big guy has to be in the upper right instead of the upper left. In this one detail the Atari 2600 port is actually truer to the arcade, since it has a narrower playfield with six stages.
@@MattMcIrvin Atari's 8-bit version of Donkey Kong has that layout most likely because the programmer, Landon Dyer, preferred it that way. So it's an adaptation. Most of the programmers at Atari hated Donkey Kong and had supposedly passed up on the non-Japanese worldwide rights to the arcade version, although it might've mainly been due to them hating Nintendo's arrogance and them demanding beyond top dollar for those rights. Coleco paid stupid money for the console rights to Donkey Kong while Atari did end up licensing the home computer rights which caused a big fight between Atari-Nintendo-Coleco when Coleco showed Donkey Kong on the Coleco ADAM computer at CES.
Connecticut Leather Company was CoLeCo's original name. Yep. Boots, coats, gloves, etc... That's the oddest part of their involvement.
Huh, that's fascinating. Thanks!
AdamKoralik You bet Adam. As far as their claim to "arcade perfect" is concerned, with the exception of Star Wars arcade, the arcade experience wasn't much beyond its capabilities. It's a great system that really didn't get it's just dues, because (you said something like) parents said all game systems are the same. I remember myself and another Atari owning friend poking fun at our other friend that ONLY had a Coleco AND a Commodore 64. How wrong we were! I didn't have ANY computer until the 90s! Kids can be jerks...
GuideToWhatever coleco shut down n bank rurpt in 1988
Charger Master Yep. It sure did.
@@AlienExorcist I've been watching Gaming History Source's "Let's Compare" videos that collect a zillion ports of some arcade game and show the gameplay for all of them, with the arcade version at the beginning. The ColecoVision version is very often one of the best ports, beating most of the personal computer ports. The frame rates could be butter-smooth.
I think it was just doomed because it was the ultimate expression of a trend that was about to crash: the arcade-centric home console. When the industry came back with the NES, of course the NES had plenty of fine arcade ports, but that wasn't primarily what it was known for. The flagship NES games were things that had arcade versions ported FROM them.
A new AVGN, and Adam Koralik Retrospective...my life is complete in 2016.
Ha. Aside from standing next to James at a few conventions, I've never been referenced to him in the same sentence.
Thoughts on his new video?
I found it very different. I understand it's always nice to change up the style of presentation. And I thought it was decent. It had its funny moments, and looked pretty good. But I do kinda still prefer his usual methods of displaying retro video games and accessories.
Your thoughts Adam?
I think you hit it out of the park there.
And the only glass that didn't break was his glasses.
I agree with everything you said there. And this might just be me, but it felt like it had too much in that area. If he made it a little more modern day like his collection game room, it would appeal better.
The way it was setup and done to me felt kinda forced. All in all was still funny, and that's what AVGN is supposed to be. Funny with Retrospective humor and "taking you back to the past".
They never shipped out bad labels "Cuz that's just how they did it back then" . The label tore off and someone just made up a crappy replacement. And there are plenty of 3rd party games for it.
As in this video, I've heard other people mention the huge power brick on this console and I would just like to point out the obvious . . . you don't have to plug it into the wall--you can plug the brick into a small extension cord and it would be pretty much like the X-Box or whatever.
IMO games on this system played much better than the 2600 versions so it's always baffled me that this never got more love.
D Nice video game crash of 83..... Plus the base controllers sucked....
I don't think Coleco used any custom parts. The Sega Master System is essentially a slightly upgraded Colecovison.
Colecovision had more third party support than odyssey 2. I owned both. Colecovision was and still is a great console to own if you like the early to mid 80's arcade period. Collectorvision is making a new colecovision system that plays atari 2600 games as well.
When
This was my very first game console. I had Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Carnival and a few others. Nice to see it remembered here
What makes that absurdly large power brick even funnier is that there is a TON of empty space inside the ColecoVision. Certainly enough to put the power supply inside the shell and just have a normal plug.
You mention something around 7:30 regarding not being able to just enjoy a game because you've matured a little and it kind of reminded me of something.
I feel that when I was little, I could enjoy any game not because of my innocence, but because games were an expensive luxury my parents only bought around once or twice a year. So any game I picked I was pretty much FORCED to enjoy it lol. I remember really enjoying games like Stuart Little for the GBC and Power Rangers for the SNES. As I grew older and could afford my own games, I am very picky and even then I don't enjoy the games I buy 100% of the time haha
Well, this one I find kinda disappointed with. When Colecovision came out, it was head and shoulders above anything else... It's games aren't just "near" arcade perfect (at it's time), most of them we're. Fantastic console and I'm happy, that I bought one at the end of it's life cycle. Sad, that it came out a little too late, for it's own good...
Coleco had the best version of Burger time. I actually like my Coleco better than my Atari 2600 and 7800.
But have you played the unauthorized version of BurgerTime! - Beef Drop - on the Atari 5200 or 7800? It's sweet. AtariAge sells them.
Adam, I don’t think you adequately covered the Colecovision in your video. You had too few games, and it appears that you have not played the console much. That is understandable when trying to cover all second generation machines, which were before your time. In my opinion, The Coleco vision was the superior second generation machine. 🙂
Just watched the Intellivison review and felt the same way but the video overall was good.
Not sure if you are aware, but there was also the Colecovision Adam Computer, which had the Colecovision cartridge port to play games, along with a pair of direct spindle servo driven "high speed" (ha) tape drives, an expansion bay cover with three expansion slots, a detached QWERTY keyboard, those same awful "telephone" controllers, and a daisy wheel typeset quality printer. The power supply for the whole thing was in the printer, so even if you didn't use the computer functionality, you still HAD to have the printer attached... Cause IT was the power brick! It was featured in a flashback segment on the old TV show "VR 5", from the mid 1990s.
There were two versions of the Adam computer...the one that plugged into the Colecovision via the same expansion port as the 2600 adapter, and the stand-alone version. Curiously enough, both versions contained the expansion port, so you could have a Colecovision console with an Adam computer plugged into it at the front, and the 2600 adapter plugged into the side of the Adam. And it all worked.
The tape drives were high-speed compared to ordinary cassette drives of the day. The Adam drives would read and write at 20 inches per second, and fast-forward/rewind at 80 IPS. Typical cassette drives like those available for the Atari and Commodore computers only ran at 1 7/8 inches per second.
5.25" Floppy disk drives of 160K capacity were made for the Adam computer late in its life. Up to two could be connected to it, and with an aftermarket EEPROM hack, you could add two more (which I did, adding a pair of 3.5" 720K drives to my system). Other aftermarket add-ons were a serial port (for a faster modem), parallel port (for a dot-matrix printer) and a hard drive interface.
Just got my colecovision! Favorite 2nd gen console and it's story is awesome!
Here's a thought. If you have a collection of Colecovision and Atari 2600 games, which would be more convenient? Having both systems set up, or just the Colecovision with its expansion module?
The display chip on a Atari 2600 is called the "TIA" or Television interface adapter it is a "custom" purpose designed Atari Chip .,. so the Atari 2600 does not use all off the shelf parts ... Coleco' must have reverse engineered the "Atari custom TIA" chip (Which handles both the systems graphics and sound ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Interface_Adaptor
Correct, this part was most definitely proprietary to Atari, which was why they actually won the lawsuit. The judge allowed Coleco to keep producing Atari clones, but they had to pay a royalty (licensing fee) to Atari for each unit produced.
It was actually the ColecoVision that used all generic, off-the-shelf parts that anyone could buy.
Started collecting for this system during the pandemic, such an impressive console for the time. The games here look and play much better than Atari or Intellivision. What's really cool too is despite its obscurity, the homebrew scene is still alive and kicking!
I had an Atari 2600 but I visited my cousins who had a ColecoVision with the Atari 2000 adapter. I played Zaxxon on it...and was blown away. Then they put a 2600 game into the adapter...and I was blown away even more!
5:53
I love AVGN's reaction to the power brink in his video:
"IS THIS NECCESSARY?!" 😂 Seriously, that tickles me every time.
Some of this was probably mentioned, but I'd actually say that 3rd party support was pretty good for CV. Activision and Imagic released their top games, and they were superior to VCS of course. The Mattel games are garbage. The Coleco developed games featured a ton of arcade titles that were not licensed by competitors, which was kind of their aim. So they got the Exidy, Stern, Bally games that Atari or Mattel did not.
The console actually sold well for several years, but Coleco got slammed by the failure of the Adam computer. As for the power supply, for whatever the reason they decided to run different voltages to different parts of the system, and so the Adapter had to be big enough to supply +5V, -5V, and +12V voltages at once. Normally the adapter would supply ONE voltage, and you'd put regulators on the motherboard to step it down where needed. It was quite backwards to do it their way.
That strategy to get the licenses to over-looked arcade games was all due to the genius of Michael Katz at Coleco. When Coleco went under, he jumped over to Jack Tramiel's Atari Corp and tried to get overlooked computer titles licensed for the 2600, 7800, and XE Game System since Nintendo had illegally locked up almost all of the 3rd Party Developers into exclusive non-compete contracts in order to make games for the NES. That and Tramiel's Atari Corp did own Atari Inc's former arcade division [arguably the "Real Atari"] known as the Atari Games Corp and Tengen, so they didn't have the rights to any "Atari" arcade games beyond July 1984. That was rough. He still beat Sega in North America also thanks to Tonka's stupidity, and thus Sega of Japan offered Atari Corp the North American rights to the Sega Mega Drive. But Jack Tramiel also wanted the European rights and SoJ wouldn't budge so Atari Corp lost out on the "Genesis". Katz retired from Atari Corp for one month, then became the President of Sega of America, and successfully launched the Sega Genesis while also coining the "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" slogan.
You could also use a 2600 controller on the CV for the expansion unit.
I definitely owned the Coleco. I loved the T.V. commercial. It sure captured my attention. I played zaxxon but my fave was track n field. I owned it for 6 or 7 years that I remember. I sold it off. It was still working.
Donkey Kong was the only game that came with the console. You have good reviews of systems but you should do a little more research on this system. It was the best at the time and great games.
The dreamcast of that generation
Of the three major systems of that generation, the Colecovison was king because I could leverage my 2600 cart collection with the Colecovison 2600 add-on. Plus, thanks to Coleco's devious nature, on the Colecovison, I could play almost pixel perfect Donkey Kong. 😉
Adam that power brick was so huge & heavy it was as strong as Thor’s hammer!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!!!
Wooooo Happy 30 years Adam!
you can also use a genesis controller with this as well which is nice. i have A LOT of love for this console and im glad you did a retrospective on this.
Thanks for watching!
Coleco had actually been a huge player in the FIRST generation--their Telstar was one of the most popular Pong clones, I think because they were among the first ones to use a low-cost system-on-chip design that allowed them to price it to move. That was what got them into video games, and they had a long series of dedicated consoles that followed--one was a tank game, some had light guns. Their last pong was a freaky-looking triangular console that had paddle dials on one side, a big steering wheel on the second and a disturbingly realistic light gun holstered in the third.
wow, I just looked up some more about that last Coleco Telstar, and it was actually a programmable system of sorts that took game cartridges! They were more than just ROMs; they actually contained the microcontroller that ran the game. A really odd architecture, by later standards, and there were only ever a few cartridges, though each one had multiple games. Programmable but at the same time clearly first-gen.
Happy Birthday Adam!
It's extremely rare so I'm not surprised you don't have it, but concidering the name, I'm surprised you didn't mention expantion #3.
Love your videos your seriously the best video game channel out there
Thanks!
The lack of an LED makes it tricky to know if the unit is getting power. Mine wont play and I'm not sure if its the unit or the power supply as both can tend to go bad.
The game crash didn't kill the Colecovision, Coleco killed the Colecovision. Coleco put all of their profits (including that lucrative Cabbage Patch money) into the Adam computer. The Adam was a complete failure, in many cases not working right out of the box. If Coleco had stayed the course with the Colecovision and invested in a next gen console for 1985 they could have survived the crash and beat Nintendo. Hell they had a relationship with Nintendo. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros. on a Coleco machine.
Yep, I had three Adam computers, all purchased from Toys R us.The first one did not work and was returned. The second one seemed to work, but was obviously a return, as the printer did not have its styrofoam packaging (the whole system was in one large rectangular box), as well as the pack-in Buck Rogers game had names in the scoreboard, and so and was also returned.
We then went to another TrU one state over and this one worked flawlessly. I could probably fire it up today with one small repair (bypassing a broken contact finger in the connector that plugs into the host ColecoVision). The guy at the TrU said that this one was from the second production run...all the units from the first run were defective and were returned. None of the units from the second batch came back. Coleco did get its act together, but almost nobody recognized that fact and only remembered / publicized the faillure-prone first run.
I know what Adam's talking about when he says that part of him that could just get attached to old games and get engrossed in them died, because it happened to me somewhere during my time playing the 360... until the past couple of years when I got my Dreamcast. Now I just play old games and it's like when I was a kid and I got my first console, a PS1. Now I'm playing just nostalgic, 2001 and earlier games for various old consoles plus the 360 games I still like. Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Super Nintendo, PS1, hell, I've even found a few NES games recently that I love, which is something I thought would never happen (for a while I've kinda thought the NES was overrated and looked down on people who worship it, glad I'm much more open minded about it now)
Genesis controller works on it. SG-1000 and Colecovision have very similar hardware. The Colecovision is actually Sega's first console confirmed.
DO the first generation retrospective of all pong systems even if you don't have them, just talk remotely about them.
What do you gain when someone who doesn't know too much about a subject talks about said subject? He said on multiple occasions that he wouldn't be able to do a proper retrospective on the first generation. I'm sure there are people who are Gen 1 experts you can listen to.
RISING SUN - Playthroughs and more!
I don't know, i love listening to him in particular.
My parents bought me the colecovision back in 82. For its time it was ahead in graphics. Hated the controls but games like triathlon, zaxxon, pitfall etc were amazing for its time. I never had the atari expansion port but do agree that was like highway robbery. It would had been an outrageous ruling by a judge today.
The first system I owned was an Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision had better graphics but my parents bought me the 2600. When the Colecovision came out I was blown away by the graphics, I had a friend who owned one and played Donkey Kong every chance I got when I went to his place. Unfortunately he didn't own Zaxxon but I did play it on a Colecovision at the CNE which is an annual fair in Toronto.
That power brick is massive! And I thought the one for the TI-99 was big!
Coleco also made the TELSTAR way back in 1976. Which also happens to be my very first console as a kid. Well, technically it was my brother's, but it was the first system I gamed on.
That was technically my first console, too. I had the triangular one with the steering wheel, light gun and pong clone.
thats mad about the pen-written labels! and the atari-feltching.. wild west indeed.
Damn right.
Happy Birthday!
This was the best system of its gen
Some points... the Atari 2600 does have custom silicon inside it. The TIA chip which handles graphics and sound is custom. Designed by Jay Miner who would design the Atari 400/800 computers [and thus the 5200 indirectly] and later was the father of the Amiga computer line. The rest of the silicon was MOS/Synertek/Rockwell usuals with the 6507 and the RIOT chips. But what happened since the 1977 release of the 2600 was that the TIA chip was successfully cloned in a "clean room" operation. So the chip Coleco used in the 2600 adapter and the Gemini console are clones of the TIA chip. The courts ruled Coleco could do that and thus Atari couldn't block them - or Mattel's adapter for the Intellivision 2 - but Atari turned around and successfully sued Coleco for $300 million+ over patent infringement and won/settled. The Colecovision doesn't have any custom silicon in it. It has the Z80 CPU and TI graphics and sound chips inside it. The only real thing that's custom is the BIOS. And consequently, Atari planned to make a Colecovision adapter for the 5200 with the same case design as the 5200's 2600 Adapter - dubbed by Atari's engineering team as the "Piggyback Parasite" - but The Crash killed that plan along with the 5200. Once Jack Tramiel bought up the assets of Atari Consumer, that adapter remained cancelled and the new company also cancelled the planned 7800 Adapter for the 5200. The Colecovision's tile graphics from the TI graphics chip influenced Nintendo's use of tile graphics in the Famicom/NES. That TI graphics chip was directly in response to Atari's ANTIC graphics chip on the 400/800 so it's all connected.
Another curiosity about the CV's video chip. According to the Hacker's Guide to Adam, there is a feature in the TMS9918 (I think that's the right name), not implemented on the Coleco hardware that allowed it to piggyback its video output atop that of another TMS9918. That could have doubled the number of sprites displayable on any particular scanline (normally any more than four sprites in a horizontal row would induce flickering even though the system was capable of displaying 32), and even permitted bitmaps to change colors more than once every eight pixels. (although this probably would have ramped up processing overhead more than practical)
Happy birthday!
Happy belated birthday!
I've never actually owned one or even played one but I've always felt that if I did have one it would probably be my favourite console of the 2nd Generation.
Fishkeeper63 it is cool though having a celecovision with the atari expansion port
That Smurf game is one of the most difficult games I ever played.
I actually had a Colecovision as a kid, and Coleco third parties had some $30 titles at Sears in 1984 and 85. 2 of the best ones were from Parker Bros. They were QBert's Cubes and Mr Do's Castle.
What killed the Colecovision was their computer called The Coleco Adam. It was either stand alone or a CV add on. That's what killed Coleco's contract with Nintendo. It blurred the line between a console and a computer, and the Nintendo agreement had Coleco make console versions, and Atari make computer versions.
Colecovision was the number one video game system locally within 1984 because Colecovision wasn't on a fire sale like Atari. Atari sol more consoles, but they had $20 consoles vs Coleco's $100.
We gorged on Coleco games eventually owning half the collection.
Speaking of gorging, my brother gave the system to a friend of his who never returned it. So I was on a quest to get it back. Even in the NES days, no one had Colecovision. Then soneone at Video Game Echange gave me 2 pieces of advice:. A Retro game store that was around in 1993 called Video Game Connection, and I found out about Goodwill, garage sales, and similar places. Rarely found Coleco stuff even then. but I found everything else, 2600, Bally Astrocade, Odyssey 2. Intellivision, 5200 Starpath Supercharger add on for the 2600, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Master System, 7800, Turbo Grafx 16, 3DO, Jaguar, Virtual Boy, and many games at bargain basement prices.
I'll give you one guess of what pop culture phenomenon started to make trips to the Thrift Stores dry up. If thrift store hunting was a religion, this would be the birth of Christ in terms of a clear before and after.
Any guesses?
Uh, RUclips?
@@AdamKoralik actually, I'd say the song "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore. More people got into them because of the song, and though his lyrics were mainly about making an old man's clothes look cool, as more people found old video games, they were snapped up faster than usual.
In the 90s I was probably one of the few guys that was thrifting for Pre-crash games. I kept it up almost always getting at least one game until that song came out. Ever since that song, it's hard to find video games in the wild
Hey Adam, try some Goo Gone to see if that will get out the WD-40. Goo Gone is also good for wiping off price tag sticker residue. Every collector should have some. Of course you'll have to wipe off the Goo Gone afterwards, otherwise it leaves an oily residue, but that's better than sticky residue.
Basically, this retrospective series will be the final one, because the first generation like you said: is the Pong Consoles only.
I'll probably do handhelds eventually.
Then I shall wait by playing on my Xbox One S with Dead Rising 4 (a game that I have been highly anticipating for years).
Adam Koralik there was the Fairchild channel f,but that’s all of I can think of
Fill my eyes, with that DoubleVision.....
I got my hands on these idk abit over 10 years old I think.
I got a little less games then you do and only one proper controller.
It indeed must of been a powerful system for its time based on the ones I've played compared to it's competition.
Sadly it's boxed away with allot of my other consoles of that generation since I don't have the space to have them hooked up sadly....
I miss my old place, I had my own extra room in the apartment filled with vintage computers and game consoles.
Hell.... I even had a Commodore 64 hooked up in the bedroom, and just about every other console I had hooked up in my living room.... maybe a bit much..... but I was happy lol.
These videos always make my day :)
There was also a steering wheel expansion module for playing Turbo. I think another expansion module was a trackball. More recently, there was a memory expansion module and there are new games to support it. Gamester81 had a video about it. I never had one.
The only new game I had was Battle of Hoth which was essentially a clone of the Empire Strikes Back game released in 2013.
The only "modules" that plugged into the expansion port were the Atari 2600 adapter and a later version of the Adam computer. The other "expansion modules" were just controllers that plugged into the controller port. The trackball was called the "Roller Controller" and was a huge thing almost the size of the console that contained joystick storage on both sides and a power tap that went between the console and its power cord. I believe the Super Action Controllers (a pistol-grip version of the standard CV controller) was also referred to as an "expansion module". Source: I still own these.
Awesome video Adam!
Thanks!
cool video talk adam
I only saw its games on screens so far but I think they looked pretty solid for what they were.
The 2600 adapter is one huge mindfuck from today's perspective tho.
There has been a similar product for the Commodore64 and 128 to use AppleII soft- and hardware with it but I only saw it once on some on print scan online.
when I was a little nipper this was the first console we had. I have bought one a couple years ago for about £50 which is about half the going rate in the uk.
you should try lady bug and venture. both great games and very cheap.
oh and zaxxon is a brilliant game.
Happy birthday Adam~
And Merry Christmas
+R3MIX Productions Thanks, happy holidays!
great video adam
Thanks!
And I could play Turbo with the Wheel that left my hands absolutely black with some sort of odd resin that Coleco decided to use on the wheel proper. I'm pretty sure it's why I've no finger prints now.
The colecoVision was referenced in *South Park* Kenny's family has one .
I want one .
3:00 As the AVGN put it when talking about something similar, "there would be lawsuits up the ass."
I remember getting the Coleco Vision to replace my Atari 2600. Of course I had the expansion so all my 2600 games lived on. I think the only 2 games I had for it were Zaxxon and Donkey Kong. I almost want to get a Flashback console of it as the other Flashbacks pretty much all have compilation discs I can play. Atari Anthology, Intellivision Lives, Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis collection, Activision Anthology. I have all of those, but I have yet to see a Coleco Vision compilation disc. Of course I could get emulators, but I'd rather get the Flahsback console.
be nice to see some short game play clips during description.
Damn, I've seen some GB shirts, but that one is legit.
Glows in the dark and everything.
happy birthday Adam lol
How many consoles have creative names these days anyway? Playstation 1,2,3,4 ... Xbox 1 comes after Xbox 360 (does stupidity count as creativity?), what does the U in Wii U stand for anyway? Switch at least describes what it does, I got to give them that.
Yaldabaoth i was like what are u talking about adam 2600 vcs 5200 super system 7800 pro system j
You're completely missing the console names. It's not the Sony 1, 2, 3, and 4. It's not the Microsoft, Microsoft 360, and Microsoft one. Wii U is known to be a terrible name choice and credited as a reason for it's failure, but playstation, Xbox, and Wii are much more creative than simply "2600"
However I don't think most names were that bad. Odyssey seems like something that could come out today, intellivision makes sense since it was a new technology played on a television, colecovision is basically the same thing with their name in it, then there was creativision so that one was pretty overdone and a little lazy but not terrible. Atari was really the only ridiculously uncreative one, just using numbers. At the time that was probably futuristic and techy sounding, it just hasn't aged well.
CAX117 Nintendo has always described their system with their names. Nintendo entertainment system, then they made it super good and added a super, then they had 64 bit so just called it that, then a cube that plays games. Then Fukushima radiation fucked with their heads for a couple consoles until the switch.
I had this unit as well it was bring out so you could play with out intervision games as well and I think it was going to have a add-on replay apple games
Shit didnt know you're friends with DeeDave. You really should go to one of the Retropalooza conventions next year, I'd love to meet you there dude.
Ironically, I was in Texas at the time. But I wasn't able to go.
if there were only one console to buy from this generation which would pick in the terms of having the best version of the most common games found on each
That plugin looks like a quick way to burn your house down haha
The Colecovision actually had the best ports of many games and its graphics capabilities were far beyond the Atari2600 and Intellivision.
Also the controllers are better than both Atari and Intellivision.
I'm commenting first, I was impressed with the coleco, I never had one as a kid but I definitely missed out.
the quality was definitely better but the ports where still off, and you could tell it was rushed.
I use the adapters I have for the video inputs as I use with the intellivision.
it's worth trying with better games, I just finished tearing apart my vic 20, these consoles we never used are worth a go, at least for seeing what we missed out on.
Hey! Welcome to the 30 club. Hope You enjoy! :)
So far, not so great.
The Intellivision had an Atari 2600 adapter too. Has the Intellivision II styling. That's actually my Atari 2600 since I can't seem to get video from my actual Atari.
Orly...picture?
Here's a pic of mine: i.imgur.com/D2d57V4.jpg
3 things: 1. Favorite description of the Colecovision is that it looks like it came off the Millenium Falcon. 2. Zaxxon is the bomb on CV. 3. My console needs a new switch, know anyone in the southeast I could send it too? Would consider also getting a video mod. while I'm at it.
I have the atari 2600 adapter for my intellivision I believe is called the system changer
I had one of these badboy's back in the day. Only had 2 game's tho lol Smerf and Donkey Kong :)
davpreec donkey kong was my favorite port on the celco vision at that time it blew away the atari and intellivision out of the water
Charger Master I would have to agree dude it was a great port :)
I need repair mine, i want play some jumpman jr , pit stop, and few others...lol
Thanks adam for the video! and l like all your comments onec more!! XD
Thanks for watching!
AdamKoralik Your welcome! ☺😊
I'll be honest, the main reason I'm watching this vid is because I remember the south park reference.
you know, I don't own an actual 2600, but I own a Gemini.
I have this System & did a composite video mod & have the ColUSB PSU replacement because my BRICK is dead.
colecovision = INTELEVISION BUT BETTER!!
Caleco started shutting down there game division to focus on the Adam.
Bump and Jump came with an actual label. What you showed was obviously hand-made. I played videogames at the arcade in 1982-1985, then at home with the Coleco Vision - All games were quite true to the originals. The main difference was a horizontal display instead of a vertical display.
Your review is like someone who never played Shenmue when it first came out, played it briefly many years later and says, "Eh... I guess it's o.k., if you like that sort of thing. You obviously didn't get the ColecoVision for Christmas in 1982. All the expansions and games were released in less than 30 months. The video game crash was very real. Nothing came close to the Coleco Vision during its lifespan, AND no other console was its demise. The ColecoVision was and is still the undefeated home videogame champion for its time. That is FACT. People that experienced this know that Truth. This is why others are commenting on your lackluster review. Just like Shenmue, you had to be there to know what we mean - YOU DON'T GET IT! Context is everything. Respect our culture. For the record - You think the Coleco "Vision" is uninspired in a time of Atari 2600 and 5200 and Commodore 64 - fast forward Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 - Hello...? Also the console is called the "Coleco Vision", not the "Coleco Coleco Vision". You should do more research for you reviews - study history to put things in proper perspective and context...
Cool.
I know the Atari 5200 and Colecovision get snapped into the second generation. But they're actually part of the generation gap. Think 32X, or PS4 Pro. A mid generation system. Wikipedia sucks.