website/content/museum/colecovision.md

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Colecovision	Consoles	name company company_name tabs photos adverts hardware screenshots emulators links videos comments oc_id source Colecovision /companies/coleco Coleco photos adverts hardware software emulators links videos title subtitle text image COLECOVISION null title subtitle text image COLECOVISION null title subtitle text image FRONT null title subtitle text image REAR Left is the video/audio output connector, and right is the power in connector. null title subtitle text image LEFT SIDE The controllers are stored in their housing... null title subtitle text image RIGHT SIDE The button at the fore ground is the reset button. null title subtitle text image EXPANSION CONNECTOR This expansion connector was used by different expansions like the ADAM computer or the VCS 2600 adapter. null title subtitle text image TOP We can clearly see the controllers housing on the left. Bottom rigth are the on/off switch, cartridge slot and reset button. null title subtitle text image CONTROLLER The Colecovision controller is composed of a "mushroom" joystick, 12-button keypad and fire buttons on each side (they both have the same function). null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) "I clicked"... null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) This is an advert from the ILLEL store null title subtitle text image AMIGA POWER-STICK null title subtitle text image SPECTRAVIDEO JOYSTICK null title subtitle text image WICO JOYSTICK null title subtitle text image UNKNOWN BRAND This is not a new controller. You just attach a small red joystick on top of the original coleco one... and there you go! null title subtitle text image ATARI VCS 2600 ADAPTER This in fact more than a simple adapter. This module incorporates all the hardware of the Atari 2600 systems, thus enabling the Colecovision to play Atari VCS cartridges! You can even use Atari joysticks. null title subtitle text image FRONT We can spot here the two Atari-standard controller connectors. null title subtitle text image REAR This is the connector used to connect the module to the Colecovision system. null title subtitle text image CLOSE-UP There are exactly the same buttons found on the original Atari VCS system: Display color/black&white, Left & Right player difficulty, Reset, Select. null title subtitle text image CONNECTED null title subtitle text image DRIVING CONTROLLER null title subtitle text image TRACK-BALL null title subtitle text image THE ULTIMATE CONTROLLER ? For some people this is the ultimate controller: a nice joystick, a 12-button keypad, a knob and 4 buttons. The whole thing designed perfectly. If you haven't tried them already, you have to! null title subtitle text image TOP null title subtitle text image SIDE VIEW null title subtitle text image REAR null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCEENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image BOX ART null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image BOX ART null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) null title subtitle text image TITLE Screenshot null title subtitle text image FIGHTING Screenshot null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) null title subtitle text image BOX ART null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image BOX ART null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image BOX ART null title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1984) null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title subtitle text image SCREENSHOT null title url platform text ADAMEm http://www.komkon.org/~dekogel/adamem.html MS DOS A great Colecovision emulator for DOS. Also comes with a Coleco ADAM emulator. title url platform text blueMSX HTTP://WWW.BLUEMSX.COM Windows Excellent free MSX emulator that can reproduce MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and Turbo-R. The emulator also supports the SVI318/328, and ColecoVision systems ! title url platform text Virtual Colecovision http://www.classicgaming.com/vcoleco/ Windows Nice emulator. There is even a Java emulator on the website! title url platform text COLEM http://fms.komkon.org/ColEm/ Multiplatform Multi-plateform emulator (Unix, Windows, MacOS, MSDOS, OS/2) title url platform text MESS http://www.mess.org Multiplatform The famous MESS emulator emulates the Colecovision title url text COLECO.COM http://www.colecovision.com/ Seems to be the official Coleco website... woth something related to the Colecovision soon to happen title url text coleco.free.fr http://coleco.free.fr/ French website dedicated to the Colecovision title url text Colecovision FAQ http://www.classicgaming.com/colecofaq/ All you need to know is in here title url text eColeco http://coleco.freeservers.com/ Ecommerce Site For Classic Coleco and Other Products and Services title url text Norman G. Sippel's Colecovision homepage http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~ngsippel/cv.html A lof of info here! title url text Rogue's Website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rogue/colecovision.htm Excellent french site dedicated to the Colecovision and Adam products title url text Wikipedia - Colecovision entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colecovision Nice information title url text Colecovision 1983 TV commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unpuywHanBc Length: 30s author date text Neonridr (Canada) Wednesday 25th May 2011 The Colecovision was my first console too. My favorite game was Venture. Want to talk about advanced graphics, you were a head that went in and out of various rooms collecting treasures. If you stayed too long in the room, a giant green head came after you. Was the most basic of games, but was incredibly fun. author date text Thomsonicus (Poland) Wednesday 15th November 2006 I don't know if anyone noticed, but in one of episodes of an animated comedy series "Family Guy" a maid, whose service Mr. Griffin had won, at one point finds a Colecovision system in Mr. Griffins bellybutton! His comment was: "Hey! A Collecovision! This is going to be a fun afernoon after all!"\ :-D author date text Chocolate Thunda (united states) Wednesday 10th March 2004 I have one of these consoles and they are neat. Why did they stop making them? author date text Alex (Munich/Germany) Sunday 1st June 2003 Yes ! This was also my first console. And i loved it so much ! My favorit game was "The Heist" ! Genius !! author date text Jeremy Pavleck (Madison, WI USA) Saturday 28th December 2002 Wow, this was my first console. I was 7 at the time. I still remember, to this day, playing Donkey Kong and Tarzan and all the other great games out for it. I even had the Atari game adapter. Wow, this takes me back! 755 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230328052322/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=755 2023-03-28

After the success of their Telstar pong systems in the late 70's, Coleco decided to re-enter the videogame market, inspired by the success of cartridge based systems like the Atari VCS and Mattel Intellivision.

As the Colecovision was released later than these competitors, it was possible for the Coleco engineers to put more hardware in the box while keeping the cost acceptable. The Colecovision is thus powered by a Z80A cpu running at 3.58 MHz. It has 8 KB RAM, 16 KB VRAM, three-channel sound and a powerful video display unit (Texas Instruments TMS9928A) offering 16 colors, 32 sprites and a 256x192 resolution. The result is that when the system was finaly released in summer 1982, it was immediately considered the most technologicaly advanced home console. The games simply had arcade-quality graphics!

But even with this technological superiority, Coleco had to face the competition of Atari big arcade hits licenses and Intellivision realistic sports simulations. Coleco did not have enough money to compete with Atari for big licenses, so they secured licenses for small games with strong followings like Mr DO, Lady Bug, Cosmic Avenger and Venture. And Coleco's good relations with Sega resulted in a Zaxxon cartridge that sported excellent 3D effects.

But the best was to come: one february 1, 1982 Coleco and Nintendo signed an agreement which gave six-months exclusive license for Donkey-Kong! Their excellent version was thus exlusively sold as a pack-in with Colecovision as an incentive to purchase the system, and it worked! The Colecovision was an instant success.

Coleco marketed different add-ons for their console. The Expansion Module #1 is an Atari VCS adapter wich enables the Colecovision to play Atari cartridges! Coleco sold 150,000 Atari adapters in just two months... Atari sued Coleco for $850 million, but lost the case.

The Expansion Module #2 is a complete driving controller with steering wheel, acceleration pedal and gear shift. It was shipped with Sega's classic racing game Turbo. The Expansion Module #3 is the ADAM computer.

A rollet controller was also sold to play games like Slither. The Super Action joysticks, a massive and complete controller, was used to play sports games like Super Action Baseball and Rocky Super Action Boxing.

Colecovision was a great success, selling over six millions units in just three years. Unfortunately, the ColecoVision suffered the same fate as the rest in the great video game shake-out of 1984. Coleco's unsuccessful bug-ridden ADAM computer only complicated the problem, and Coleco stopped production of the ColecoVision in 1984.