I started with the Atari 2600. When it came time to get a replacement system for the 2600 (mine having undergone an EPIC crash and burn), I convinced my mother that ColecoVision was the way to go...mainly because we could still play the Atari games that we had. I can still remember taking the ColecoVision next door to play on the big screen TV. Mario was four inches tall on that thing! :D I currently have, in my game room, TWO ColecoVisions, with an Atari adapter for each. In addition to about 20 games for the Coleco, and 25 for the Atari. I play them all on a regular basis.
I was lucky enough to have a Dad who is a gamer who let me have his Colecovision along with a great collection of games as soon as I was old enough to start playing games. I think I was about 5 years old at that point. Donkey Kong Junior and Burger Time were a few of my favorites.
Really enjoy your series. You have a very pleasant voice and are very knowledgeable about this subject matter. I appreciate the details you provide and insight into the history of each concept. I would love to see more of your talents on other technology. You do better reviews then most of the other presenters and shows that are common today. Good work!
"because your vision is our vision" that's one heck of a slogan. I've never played colecovision. I had an NES growing up, but my cousin had an intellevision and we loved playing Snafu.
This was a game console made by Connecticut Leather Company! I also specialize in leather and electronics. Tandy also specialized in those two specific things.
hey matt. 30 years old, 20+ years gaming here in USA. just wanted to say love the vids. the research you have put into your videos is amazing. taught me some things i never knew, and brought up alot of old wonderful memories. thank you. please don't ever stop.
Dude. I found your channel a month ago. And you deserve so many more views and subscribers. I've been binging your retro replay series. I absolutely love information and the showcasing!!! Keep these coming
When climbing vines in Donkey Kong Jr. try to use two vines/chains at once when possible. You'll climb faster plus be able to push up two keys at a time. Also, when going down, you'll go faster if only holding one.
I was a fortunate kid to grow up playing the Coleco Vision before ever seeing the Atari. Later, when I did play the Atari system, I was completely bored with it because of the graphics and gameplay. I remember Space Panic too, and the sound in that game was pretty crazy, but entertaining. So, there was nothing wrong with your system, it's supposed to sound weird.
Colecovision was meant to compete with Atari 5200. Because the step forward is, for it's time pretty huge, it is not crazy at all that you like colecovision more, especially because you grew up with the system. If you asked a kid: Atari 2600 or 5200? Of course he is going to say 5200 because numbers and bits meant everything back in the day! Very cool that you have played Colecovision though, i have never played on one or even seen one! So hard to find one in a working order these days. Edit: It was not MEANT to compete with 5200, it did later on. Atari 2600 is obviously no comparison to the colecovision, colecovision blows away the atari 2600 when it comes to graphics and arcade ports. I don't know about the joysticks though... It's like the sega genesis > NES SNES > Sega Genesis wars.
There are actually a few Coleco conversions that were actually BETTER than the arcade version. Space Panic is one of them it had better graphics and much better sound than the arcade version. I played that game on MAME (arcade) and was shocked to see how bad it was compared to the CV version. Most of he time that wasn't true but for Space panic and I think Venture and a couple more (maybe Pepper II) the CV version had better graphics and or sound. Tony, the 5200 came out after the ColecoVision. That was Atari's answer to it because the CV came out and was starting to gain on the 2600. They basically scrambled and stripped the keyboard and stuck an Atari-400 computer into a console case. The 5200 was good but the non-centering analog sticks were dreadful for playing arcade games that were digital at the arcade.
Extremely informative about the history of gaming, interesting subjects and reviews. Subbed! I believe the power port at the back is the same as on the intellivision one.
The video is correct about the CBS logo. It's not featured on Colecovision consoles purchased in the U.S. (I have several of these consoles). About the sound on Space Panic... the U.S. version didn't have any background music (as far as I remember). I looked at a gameplay video a few minutes ago, and it didn't have any background music.
The Colecovision was my very first video game console so, it has a very, very special place in my heart. The one from my childhood is long gone but, I recently purchased one and at least 25 games from eBay. Much love for the Colecovision!!
Great review, of course impressed the the graphics of the day but especially the sound. Your time in front of the camera was well composed and spoken, thanks for keeping it clean and informative.
A great system to start season 4 off with. I never owned one myself but a friend of mine did and it was great. Good sound and graphics a very well made console for its day. Great vid.
The Colecovision is about to recieve a plug and play. It will even have those retro controllers. Search Atgames Colecovision for more details, it should be under fifty dollars with 30 plus games built in. There will be a Intellivision version as well.
Thanks for the kind words mate, i aim to educate :P yeah i can see what you mean about the VHS thing, the system does have a bit of an VCR/Betamax quality to it
Great memories from watching this video. The hard wired video cable actually turned out to be a problem for some people because I remember my dad returning the system twice because the connector on the board failed. I remember one time I was over a friends house and he had the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong. I remember being somewhat horrified by the difference in graphics to the point where I begged my friend to put another game in.
It is not usually the cartridge slot that needs to be cleaned. To clean the switch you need to open your Coleco (guide online), then spray some PCB cleaner into the ON/Off switch and forcefully move it back and forth quickly a few times. Let it dry completely before turning on again. If this does not work you will need to rebuild your switch (guides online for this).
I like the original commercials in the beginning of each episode an the background information on each game system. You do a great job on reviews very entertaining
Slight correction to the history. The Colecovision design was licensed off the initial design by the two guys from Spectravideo to help them finance their computer build. Their contact with Microsoft to arrange the included Basic, got Nishi involved who then took the design around the Japanese market. Sega went ahead with the design as is & came out with the SG-1000 console & SC-3000 computer. Nishi lined up Yamaha as a partner so the audio chip was changed to their chip.
Pretty good review. Just a couple small corrections..... - The ColecoVision uses a Texas Instruments SN76489A sound chip, not the General Instrument AY-3-8910 sound chip. The AY-3-8910 was used in the Intellivision. Both the TI and GI chips sound similar, though. - The ColecoVision's CPU is an NEC Z80 clone, not an actual Z80.
Welcome back, sir! Good to see you again! You're one of the few game/system reviewers who remembers what gaming is about and doesn't get caught up in silly rivalries. Sega, Nintendo, Atari, Playstation, it's all good.
I said it had 4 years where it was booming. My parents bought our family a VCS somewhere @ 1977-78, when it was still an expensive item, but the console really didn't come into its own until Space Invaders was released in 1979. I played my VCS to death until around 1982, when I started playing computer games on my dad's TRS-80 CoCo and later my C-64.
The 2600 only had a 4 year span 1979-82, when it was very popular to own one. The Colecovision and 5200 were seen as consoles that could bring home arcade games, but they were never taken seriously compared to the 8-bit computers. Coleco tried rushing the Adam computer add-on in North America, to compete with the booming home computer market, but it was a dud out the door. I'm surprised it actually made it to the UK.
This was the very first video games console that I ever owned, I received it for Christmas back in 1984 when I was 7 years old & it came with 5 games that are Zaxxon,Donkey Kong,Donkey Kong Jr,Mousetrap & Looping.
In retail manufacture the life span is typically the period over which a system is produced and considering the Junior was only produced in 86 and was still on sale when the NES came out it's clearly longer than 4 years, heck the final official games were released around 1990 with unofficial still in 92! so saying it only had a 4 year life span is very harsh on it, even during the crash it was never actually discontinued
I feel lucky to have grown up during the birth of modern gaming and being around when arcades were big I got a Coleco for xmas in 82. later getting turbo with the driving wheel.I think by the end of the systems life i had about 12 games. In the 1990's i remember telling friends i had a system in the 80's that had almost perfect arcade ports,all my core gamer friends said SHIT MAN YOU HAD A COLECO!. sadly my dad gave the system away when we got a NES in 1986.
Other Japanese companies also licensed/used/borrowed the design Nishi showed - Sord C5, Memotex. The basic Spectravideo launch design (not launched until CES January 1983 - but they did launch a complete range of machines and peripherals) then got used as the basis of the MSX standard (with some minor changes - cartridge slot, expansion port). You need to clean your Coleco's power switch as if it does not turn on properly you get the graphical glitches - try some PCB cleaner to start with.
This episode isn't really about the Adam so i didn't want to go into too much detail on it (it deserves its own show one day) The lawsuit you're referring too was for the Intellivisions computer expansion, i seem to remember covering it in the Intellivision episode so check that out, thanks for watching
Have a look at page 3 of the MSX History Book thread on msx dot org and the republished section from the book "The MSX Standard" by R.C.Wood. Harry Fox and Alex Weiss are the designers from Spectravideo credited. Nishi (Went on to form Microsoft Japan) is on a patent somewhere, but still am waiting on specific evidence, but he did take a SV prototype around Japan in early 1982. Also there is no mention of the Coleco design ever being licensed, but there is a lot of such talk around Spectravideo.
Err, I meant 1980, when Space Invaders was released on the VCS. Anyways, I really enjoyed playing the Colecovision at a friend's house somewhere @ 1982. He had 8 or 9 games including Zaxxon, Miner 2049'er, Space Panic, Space Fury, Lady Bug, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Venture and Subroc 3D. It was a great system that arrived just as the home computer market was about to explode onto the market.
@ReplayRetro Yeah my cousin was 20 back then so he had the cash, and had the super action controllers, steering wheel, and the roller controller as well. I really loved the colecovision and to this day I play it. I even love just the sound of it, some of the games sounded so cool.
I think you missed out an important aspect of the ADAM. Coleco promised there would be both a stand alone and expansion version, but then the expansion version was perpetually delayed. This caused a major backlash and I also seem to recall a law suit, which pushed them in to releasing the ADAM expansion version. In general, the device wasn't ready and it had serious issues (like wiping the data off of cassettes under certain circumstances.)
My cousin had 2 systems (coleco, intellivision) and I had the 2600 back when I was 10. I got to play all 3 and colecovision was my favorite. I began collecting in 1999 and I have all of themnow, but coleco is still my favorite, even over any modern system.
There is the WHOLE ColecoVision community over AtariAge forums, section is Classic Gaming and you will find ColecoVision section there. All the great Colecovision homebrew stuff is all there
the Atari was massively successful and was the first to really make home gaming a commercial success so its no surprise its the most known and buying a second console was very unlikely for most people, definitely worth getting hold of one though
Woop! Season 4 is here :) Great to see the return of the show Matt. Always liked the format/layout of the show, the intro music etc reminds me of a show from the early 90's don't take that as an insult as thats when shows was the best lol. Very informative about a system i didn't know much about so something new learnt yet again. The style of the Colecovision reminds me of an old top loader VHS player we had in the 80's though lol.
I was obsessed with Colecovision and i was dying for that super expansion module and the promised Trolls and Tunnels game that was supposed to be one of the release games for it . I really lost count how many hours i spent playing the likes of DK, DK JR, Ladybug, Smurfs, Sewer Sam, Frantic Freddy, Looping, Cabbage Patch KIds, Hero, Rocky ( kicked Clubber Lang's ass ) , Dukes of Hazzard, Pitstop, Turbo, Frontline.... Great system and great review, Colecovision rules
fair enough, not to doubt you as i don't mind the feedback but not one of the reference items i use has any mention of this stuff, infact interviews with the design team don't even mention using a licensed design, quite rude of them really if what you say is true
Wow your Coleovision looks different than mine. Doesn't say CBS Colecovision. Mine says Coleocvision and the coleco logo is in the opposite corner. Also my TV cable is not hard wired, I can easily switch out the TV cable if it gets wrecked. Just like AVGN has a different one than I do because he has this massive power brick on his, but mine there is a cord, then it leads to a power brick, then a cord again leading to a normal plug. I live in Canada which makes me wonder if each country got their own unique versions of the hardware.
"those of you that are not familiar with Zaxxon, where have you been?" ha! excellent review, sir. my beloved console from my childhood. please don't be mistaken, that is indeed Mario in Donkey Kong and DK Jr. most of you youngsters just weren't around early enough to see this system in its day. these games are where Mario Bros originally appeared. you can fact check me by Googling the game instructions where Mario is referenced. i knew this without looking, of course 🤘😎
Just a bit of an addendum . After CV died down a bit , i became somewhat disillusioned with videogames but the arcade grabbed my fancy for a spell until i found the C 64 . The Commodore was my segue into the Nes, so for me there was no lull or crash just a maturation process as a teenager and for the videogame industry
I was 18 in 1982 and in the military and thankfully did not have any exposure to a Colecovision or I would have stayed home at nights instead of shagging chicks in San Diego. Luckily all I had access to were friend's Atari 2600's which did not impress me.
