10 Essential Games for ColecoVision - Player One Start 

Popeye was definitely a highlight on the system. Was a pretty faithful arcade port and one of my personal favorites.

In like 93 I was helping clean out a church and a deacon came out with 5 of these bad boys in the box, gave me one. Great console.

The ColecoVision had a licensed game based off of the movie "Wargames" starring Mathew Broderick which was really good, imo. It used overlays on the keypad, 8 difficulty settings and was a lot of fun. It was my favorite by far. Sadly, I mostly used my ColecoVision with the adapter to play the large number of Atari 6400 games I already had.

Smurf is definitely a must-have 😇 You've mentioned Turbo. I loved playing that as a kid. I think the console, my games and the steering wheel are still somewhere in my basement. For some reason these games are giving me more joy than many of the modern Playstation or XBox games.

One game I would add to this list is Montezuma's Revenge.

I had Colecovision as a kid and just recently acquired one for my collection. This is a very good list. If you do a part two consider Carnival, Mr. Do, Tapper, Jungle Hunt and Burgertime.

Two of my favorites are Mr. Do and Smurf: Rescue In Gargamel's Castle.

The evil robot in Zaxxon was the BANE of my childhood! I seriously HATED that stupid thing lol! One of the first boss battles in gaming at that!

I had one when I was a teenager. It was light years ahead of the 2600. Zaxxon was my absolute favorite game to play back then. Donkey Kong was also well done except that it had only three actual levels instead of the four that the Arcade version had.

I have to say, Mr. Do! was the game I played more than any other on Colecovision. I loved the arcade game, and the Colecovision version was so close to the arcade version that I no longer had to spend my quarters at the arcade to enjoy the game.

My list (excluding the excellent choices already shown)... 1. Jungle Hunt † 2. River Raid 3. Jumpman Junior 4. Centipede † 5. H.E.R.O. 6. Defender † 7. Montezuma's Revenge 8. Galaxian † 9. Super Cobra 10. Squish 'Em † You just can't go wrong with _any_ of the Atarisoft releases. 😉

I've gathered reputable reviewers' top ten lists over the years. To give you an idea of the variety, not a single reviewer had the same number one game. Even more surprising, none of the games you mentioned did these other reviewers list as their top game. Here are the 16 picks for the number one slot: Spy Hunter, Oil's Well, Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, Tutankham, Fortune Builder, Antarctic Adventure, Tapper, Q*Bert, BurgerTime, Jumpman Junior, Carnival, Mr Do's Castle, Gateway to Apshai, Popeye, Montezuma's Revenge, and Frenzy. When selecting a top game for this system, there isn't anything close to a consensus.

Super-Action Baseball. That game made my jaw drop, the visual presentation of the three base runner positions simultaneous to the pitcher and batter. Perhaps you didn't include it because you have to have the enhanced controller because there is so many options as a player and that made a rather expensive. Still in my mind it represents some of the best that came out of the 8-Bit video game system of the early 80s

Transitioning form the Atari 2600 to the Colecovision was quite a leap. Even if the 2600 had fun games it could not produce the visuals the CV was capable of. Nearly every CV game I played was incredibly playable. Mr. Do, Pepper II, Venture, Mouse Trap, Cosmic Avenger, Lady Bug, Zaxxon, Turbo, Donley Kong... it came out at the right time, but a year earlier would have been better.

I'm glad that you brought up "Lady Bug", and "Venture". Those were 2 of my Favorites. Another one if I remember correctly was "Bubble Bobble" I do have "Turbo" with the gas pedal, and steering wheel.

Nice video. You keep it short and give each game it’s due time. I suggest folks dig deeper into ladybug as that game has many different aspects and should be deemed more of an “original” than compared to Pac-Man. I see why you use the comparison.

Sweet video Tyler! I appreciate seeing the Coleco ColecoVision featured some because despite it's rather short main retail lifetime it was one of the more notable second generation home video game consoles which I feel doesn't always get the respect, or recognition it should. Sorry to hear your original hardware has been having some issues. Perhaps you might look into something like the Collectorvision Phoenix from Collectorvision which uses FPGA chips to recreate the original capabilities of the original Coleco ColecoVision hardware capabilities, and then some. I found a pair of factory sealed still new Coleco Adam controllers to go with mine. I was able to test them with some other nine pin layout consoles I have, and despite being 30-40 years old they still work like brand new!! Not sure if it would be considered essential, but I really enjoy the game Evolution. It does a decent job of illustrating the concept being both somewhat educational, and a blast to play.

Turbo with the Driving Module was outstanding, miles better than any other home driving game (not comparing it to Enduro however which is an absolute classic)

Whenever I think of Frogger, I think about George Costanza from Seinfeld. He bought a Frogger cabinet so he can preserve his high score, but then the cab got destroyed by a truck.

Wow what a stroll down memory lane. Qbert and smurfs were excellent games.

I don't know how any list could miss Mr. Do!

I still have the Coleco I got for Christmas 1983. My favorite games were DK, Carnival, Smurfs, Turbo. Still have all my games also.

If you do a part 2 I would consider Q-Bert, Bump N Jump, Spy Hunter, Oil Well and Burgertime. Great video.

My parents bought every one of the games on the list when I was a kid. I was a little too young to really understand them completely, but I have fond memories of the Coleco Vision. Venture scarted the hell out of me as a kid. When the music changed because the big bad thing was coming I sometimes would shut the game off in fear.

I almost got a ColecoVision for my game collection but I got an Atari 7800 instead but I may get one in the future

Ive never seen one with the CBS branding, Im familiar with them and the 2600/etc games they published with their khaki colored carts.

I loved Zaxon, Looping and Frontline.

I had a colegovision too...the games as mousetrap, venture, pepper II and donkey kong(junior) I like the most...when will it come on retro systems like super console X?

Here is my list of great Coleco games (in no particular order): * Mr. Do (a favorite) * Star Trek (a favorite) * Space Fury * Time pilot * Popeye * Cosmic Avenger (a favorite) * Zaxzon * Defender * Turbo w/ controller (a favorite) * War Games (My personal favorite) * Venture (loved Evil Otto) * Slither w/ roller controller * Mouse Trap (packman clone, but better) * Berserk * Frogger Anyway, this is what my old mind can remember.

my top 10 are 10. Mouse Trap 9. DK JR. 8. Cosmic Avenger 7. DK 6, Buck Rogers 5. Miner 2049er 4. Venture 3. Ladybug 2. Jumpman Jr. 1. Frenzy

I had a Colecovision but ended up with an Adam that I still have and works. Some of the tape based games like Donkey Kong and Zaxxon were much more like the arcade versions. Sadly my tapes have almost all been eaten. Centipede in cartridge form was so much like the arcade it was hard to tell from arcade - I never had the trackball. Some of the games that utilized the super action controllers were amazing - super action baseball was probably the best of those.

Just a tip for anyone playing Donkey Kong on the ColecoVision. When you go to climb a ladder push up then release and then push up again. For some reason, the system glitches when you try to climb a ladder after moving left and right in one fluid movement. If you let off the stick and then try again, Mario (Jump Man) will climb much quicker.

Zaxxon for the Colecovision should have utilized that second fire button with a guidance laser, to shoot a bright, red beam in front of the ship, giving you an idea of what obstacles are in your path.

Some cool games i think was cool also for Coleco was Burgertime, Centipede, Popeye, and Carnival. I had my Coleco av modded, and a controller modded to use the nes controller for the action part of games, while using the keyboard on the controller to do keyboard functions. Made gameplay much better best of my memory (been a while since ive played it).

Great choices. I love the colecovision. I need to pick up miner 2049er. I also really enjoy time pilot. Gonna hit that subscribe button this channel is up my alley.

Same here, just cleaning and organizing when I came across my Coleco which I haven't played with in a while. No fan of RF but I haven't modded my console yet so who am I to complain. ;) Not much can be done about vertical arcade games, they just didn't make TVs that spin, but they should have heh. Ah Jump Man, is he Italian, is he a plumber, we just don't know. ^_^ Zaxxon is kind of jerky, guessing it's using some kind of page flipping frame system rather than scrolling diagonal since the tilemap palettes wouldn't allow that. That's a view zoom function in Venture, you're seeing more distance with a smaller graphics scale outside but you go inside the virtual camera is closer to the objects so things get larger and more detailed. The way you phrased that you made it sound like the game engine is broken or something. Also Gorf is Frog backwards. I'd like to get Frogger eventually, can't go wrong with any version of that. :D True about Miner being a great fit for that hardware. I like Time Pilot, decent port imo.

Great list! As an original Colecovision owner from 1982, my personal favorites also would have included Tarzan and Carnival. I also have a personal connection to the Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, as me and my brother pooled our money to buy it! Thank you! :)

I remember trying to tell people that I played Donkey Kong jr. When I was a kid and literally none of them even knew what the ColecoVision system was here's my proof

I've always told people how great the Coleco was. Venture was a unique kind of D&D and fun. Being a Cold War kid, War Room was fun if not macabre but it seemed very high tech and exciting trying to defend the USA from the "Evil Empire". Another one I found near the end of the system on clearance, was Jumpman Jr and had a great time playing that.

Donkey Kong on Colecovision only had 3 levels (no cake factory), which always annoyed me. Same thing with the NES edition.

If you want the arcade experience of the 80s a Colecovision and Atari 400 is all you need. Of course you’ll want a 2600 too for all the uniques.

Check out Jumpman Jr. It's somewhat similar to Miner 2049er, but I feel the sheer genius of the stage design places it above that game. Possibly my favorite game on the system and one of my favorites from that generation (It's great on the Atari 8-bit line of computers, as well).

Brings back memories. We had several of those games. I liked Miner 2049er the best.

I would just like to shout out "Artillery Duel" and "Super Action Boxing" for being the only two games on Colecovision that have simultaneous multiplayer.

Looping and Smurf at its hardest difficulty come to mind. Mr. Do also. Donkey Kong blew my mind seeing and playing at Macy's. That has to be 1 on any list.

I have Miner 2049r on my Atari 400/800XL, it was a fun game. It got pretty challenging at the higher levels.

Actually, in the opening cut scene of the arcade original Donkey Kong Jr, he is called “Mario”, and is no longer Jumpman.

Should have had Burger Time. OMG that port was dead on. Also, didn't they have Lock N Chase for Coleco? It wasn't showing in the list of Coleco games but I swear I had it ...

Still have mine Colecovision with the Atari module and 46 cartridges including the steeringwheel. Its in a big box with my old commodore 65, amiga 500, sega saturn and n64.

The same developer of miner 49 er “ micro fun” also developed a game called “ the heist “ a lot of fun you steal painting and avoid boogie traps you need keys to unlock doors and have 3 levels escalators and elevators to figure out how to pass the level by collecting all the paintings if you mess up you can get trapped requires agility and memory very entertaining and addictive , never did beat it , because my controllers broke back in the 80s before eBay gonna get a coleco just to beat that game

Gateway to Apshai is also one of the best, although it's kinda obscure so I'm assuming you haven't played it. It's really impressive for its time though so I'd recommend it.

Donkey Kong for cv was excellent but not even close to Atari 8 bit. It is so much faster, more fluid, and has all the screens.

The videogame crash, IMO, was due to the fact we were in a recession at the time. Parents back then were from the 70s on back, and they weren't particularly keen on upgrading every time a new console came out. Seriously, you couldn't even sell them on a Vectrex for $99 back then, even though it included a built in game and it's own monitor.

I would have included Jungle Hunt (as this version was better than the other consoles) and Space Panic (that really weird, but oddly really fun game)

I had all of those games when I had my colecovision, plus about 50 more...I wish I still had it.

What about Tapper, Burgertime, and Beamrider? Also Keystone Kapers?

Hoping BC makes the cut. It was unlike anything else I’d ever seen before. I don’t know its origins.

Pepper II is definitely the game with the most replay value in this list. Played all of these as a kid and P2 was the one that i went back to the most, perhaps outside of Donkey Kong Jr. I dont know if Dukes of Hazzard was good, but i remember loving it as a kid. Also Smurf.

Miner was a nice game. Also turbo was something special in that day. With the steering wheel.

Loved the Colecovision minus the controllers. I would use the Sega Master System controllers and then the Sega Genesis controllers.

Carnival was also fun. As I was a kid at the time too I thought the Smurfs game with the skulls was weird for a kids game.

Zaxxon. Yes. Ive wondered what game that was for like 40 years. Only played colecovision at one kids house a couple of times. Thank you

I iked this video but don;t understand why you said there is no emulation for this console? There is emualtion for this console right now...

War Games! I have the cart but not the overlays for the controllers. :( But I'm not aware of any ports of that game on other systems.

My parents bought a Colecovision for Xmas in 82 or 83. We only ever owned 6 games but they were some of the best. We had the steering wheel and it had Turbo and we bought The Dukes of Hazzard. The other games we had were Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Pepper 2, and Looping. Looping was my favourite next to Turbo.

"ColecoVision, the only system you'll ever need" Yeah keep telling yourself that

I think anyone who plays old consoles or even old classic PC games like The SSI D&D games, they must take into consideration the tech at the time.

Great video! Some I would have included: Turbo Time Pilot Looping Mr. Do! Front Line Smurf

One thing that always gets me is why the US version of Donkey Kong had the levels in the wrong order, a search on the internet says it was to extract as much money as possible from the players pocket

Fortune Builder. I couldn't stop playing Fortune Builder. I had Popeye and realsports tennis on the 5200. Then the controllers stopped working...

Considering 8 of these games were ones i immediately was able to rattle off when reminiscing about the ColecoVision with my brother last night, if say this list is spot on! GORF and Miner 2049er were the two I didn't think of, but I never had played the latter.

None of these lists include the 150+ games released since 1990.

I had a Coleco, great experience‼️ I got it in its last year didn’t regret it. It was a much better console than the 2600. It was as close as you could get to the arcade experience at the time. Good video, brought me back👍🏽

I had a colecovision growing up, and we had several games for it, a few that were on this list. My favorite arcade port was far and away Qbert. I was really good at it at the time and the home version for the Colecovision had excellent graphics and practically duplicated the game play of the arcade, something I really appreciated even at the tender age of 9.

Yes the ColecoVision the first time you ever really close to the arcade ports at home I got one January of 83 I have a v modded ColecoVision in my collection now four games on the top of my head that are really good on this system galaxian spyhunter Rocky Moon Patrol spy hunter and Rocky are best played with a super action controller might want to look into that and also into the new collectorvision games for the system great video keep doing what you do

I feel like Montezuma's revenge was a great title.

I'd agree with those. (and I have that DK t-shirt lol) Smurf was deceivingly enjoyable and had a good soundtrack, Popeye, Mouse Trap used an overlay, Galaxian, Mr. Do, Q-Bert, Burger Time, Time Pilot, Carnival are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. My colecoVision works but flakes out sometimes. I have a lot of carts but they're in a storage container so I can't recall all of them. For arcade ports it was and is an amazing system. Too bad Atari 2600 had such horrible graphics yet that was the one that was popular.

Man, I miss my Coleco Vision. My parents bought one back in the day and we had the Atari adapter, as well. The console sat on a shelf in my bedroom for years and when I bought an 8 Bit Nintendo, the Coleco Vision got sold in a garage sale or something. We had Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, PopEye and Q Bert....Not sure if we had any other Coleco titles..We had a bunch of 2600 titles, too. I recommend getting Popeye if you can find it. It was so fun.

Awesome! We had most of these as well as Hero, Slither and a Smurf one. My favorites were Venture, Ladybug, and Hero. Thanks for sharing 😎

Just FYI the crash had zero to do with Coleco going under, in fact they reported increased profits during 83 and 84 while everybody else was losing, it was the ADAM that broke Coleco. They spent a ton developing and marketing the ADAM only to find the market dominated by the $99 Commodore VIC and $199 C64 and there was no way to sell ADAM that cheap and make a profit so they ended up with a warehouse filled with unsold ADAM units.

This is a great list and some I would not have considered. I always liked Bump 'n Jump and it was one of the reasons I sought out the console on eBay some years ago. I also loved Spy Hunter.

Do the Mod so you can use composite cable. I did it to mine, it is nice solid looking, so much better

For me: Zaxxon, DK Jr, Looping, Heist, Miner 2049r, Smurfs, Venture, Cosmic Avenger, Gorf and Ladybug.

This video came across my YT feed, and as a ColecoVision kid growing up, and if you do a part 2 on this, Jumpman Junior is a must. Don't know how many hours I spent on that game growing up. great video though! Definitely brought back some memories.

BC Quest for Tires Antarctic Adventure We're both favorites! Didn't we get River Raid also on the Colecovision?? Popeye was a hit too.... and at one time Qbert seemed super easy yet fun on the system! Remember being very distraught going from the Donkey Kong on the Colecovision to the only same 3 levels over and over on the NES....BOO!!! And Montezuma's Revenge!!! (Got to the end but didn't know WHAT to do!!!!)

Anything with Super Action Controllers!!!

Props for your appreciation of Pepper ll. A real gem.

This ColecoVision alone just got you a sub I had this all the attachments and literally every game you're showing with it

Yeah, i so need to fix my old steering wheel expansion module. The pedal cable is broken. Maybe ifs an easy fix. It'd be cool if i could mod one for emulators but i hear some emulators have versions of the games that don't need the steering wheel. Still, Destructor and turbo were great. I loved the large innovative games like War Room, Slither (or rather just the awesome Roller Controller (Trackball) Required, and GATEWAY TO APSHAI with 8 levels x 99 dungeon choices per level and lots of rooms per dungeon level. No, not a rouge-like but huge all the same. Sadly... no ending lol. I agree with most of your list. I'd trade out miner 49, frogger, and Gorf with Mouse Trap, Smurf Rescue from Gargamel's Castle and Looping. So many I didn't have. The super actions were ok and tbh, I liked the original controllers. I want a usb one for the pc Lol.

1:56 THAT, THAT right there shows you its main competitor was the 5200, because that adapter was EXACTLY what the 5200's was (the ability to play 2600 games). It was doing what the 5200 was doing through the use of an adapter, showing how the 5200 was its direct competitor.

On weekends we would do a pickup football game, then chill out and play Zaxxon and Venture at a friend's house until dinnertime forced us to leave. Btw love the music at :23 is that your own creation?

In Donkey Kong on screen 1 if you climb the broken ladder and jump off towards the oil can you would disappear and then 5 seconds later be thrown all the way to the top. Also My Donkey Kong would roar at me if I broke the 300,000 mark (flip 100,000 3 times in one game).

It was such an incredible upgrade graphically from the Atari 2600!

Mousetrap > Ladybug (imo) feel like Carnival, and Burgertime (which Bob's Burgers basically did an episode about) deserve mention as well

Not watched the top 10 yet... but "Jumpman Junior", "Smurfs" &"Hero" are MUST plays!

Donkey Kong was horrible, typical throw together games, the control was sloppy and had that annoying bug where you have to double tap up or down to get Mario to not move too slow. It only had 3 boards and not cut scenes so it just jumped to the next board when you finished a board, not even a Get Ready screen and the boards just kept looping in the same exact order and Mario didn't even spin when he died, just stopped moving. No Springs on the Elevators board, the C64 version was better. DK Arcade by OP Games on the other had is amazing but still has flicker, why does Coleco Vision have Flicker if it's supposed to be better than Intellivision that had no flicker? Zaxxon had annoying choppy scrolling and the Fuel Tanks looked nothing like the Arcade version, it had no Radars and the guns looked nothing like in the arcade, just round orange things, The Zaxxon Robot looked nothing like in the arcade, also it did not have the bonus points for destroying all the Fighter Jets in Space., and what was up with those blue,white and yellow round things shooting at you before the Zaxxon Robot, that was not in the Arcade. Cosmic Avenger had the same choppy scrolling, why was it so hard for Coleco Vision to have smooth scrolling if it was supposed to be better than Intellivision which had smooth scrolling? Frogger kept playing the same song over and over again which gets annoying. Gorf was great and so was Lady Bug and Pepper 2. You forgot Mouse Trap, that was a very good arcade quality home version of the game, they did a good job of emulating a Dog Barking and Cat Meowing Sounds without using Digitized sounds.Donkey Kong Jr. was pretty good but had no Mario's Hide Out, and even in the Super Donkey Kong Jr. it had Mario's Hide Out but it wasn't like the arcade and has some chains at the top of the screen that were not in the arcade and it played the wrong song for clearing the Keys Board and Mario's Hide Out Board. The Intellivision Home Brew was much better and played just like the arcade even if it did not have as detailed graphics.

Good job...keep up the good work! Thx for your videos...

DK.Jr Time Pilot War room Cosmic Avenger Q-Bert Turbo DK Zaxxon Venture Great times!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I’ve just gotten a colecovision for my birthday and just like my Saturn, I haven’t found many games for it and most are expensive. This is a great helper for me, thx!

Star Trek Time Pilot Zaxxon Pepper II Omega Race Galaxian Burger Time Venture Lady Bug Carnival Cosmic Avenger Donkey Kong Jr. Centipede Frogger Threshold These are my “top ten” favorites. Plus five! I was personally disappointed with the Colecovision “Gorf” conversion. It wasn’t graphically faithful to the arcade game, and the Atari 800 version looked and played much better. Pepper I is out there, somewhere. Probably next to a “Polybius” machine…………..