Coleco: Gone But Not Forgotten

[Cal Jeffrey]

#ThrowBackThursday For those growing up in the 1980s, the name "Coleco" stirs up nostalgic memories of a gaming era long past. The ColecoVision competed with the likes of Atari and Intellivision, leaving its mark in gaming history.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2301-coleco/

 

[Irata]

Thanks for the flash back. The Colecovision was the childhood dream console for my friends and me since games were so much better than on the Atari 2600. It was rather pricy but those who were gifted one by their parents became rather popular.

 

[Ravey]

We had something similar to this when I was a kid.. it looked different though. it had two wired joysticks and about 6 or 8 buttons that had preset games to them. Pong, Duck Hunt, Football... it was very basic but fun enough to kill an hour with friends. That said, I was probably only about 6 at the time.

I bet if my dad hadn't thrown it away it would have been worth some decent cash now.. but oh well.

 

[Beerfloat]

Donkey Kong on Colecovision was an amazing looking port for its time, though it did sacrifice one of the stages of the arcade to be able to fit into ROM. I think for a lot of us though it might have been other carts like Zaxxon and Smurf that really highlighted just what a generational leap this box was over the Atari, Intellivision and Magnavox competitors of its age.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Wow, the ColecoVision! I had one of these. I used to play games like Donkey Kong (of course), BC's Quest for Tires and, my favourite game on ColecoVision, Venture. I can still hear that 8-bit Venture theme music in my head.

Ah, to be a kid again... Wait, no, forget that. I like pr0n too much for that!

 

[GLenn63]

I had the football game and I played it alot,Also had a hand held baseball game but I don't remember the brand. The pong game was great to have around for friends to to have a couple of beers and play.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Wow, the ColecoVision! I had one of these. I used to play games like Donkey Kong (of course), BC's Quest for Tires and, my favourite game on ColecoVision, Venture. I can still hear that 8-bit Venture theme music in my head.

Ah, to be a kid again... Wait, no, forget that. I like pr0n too much for that!

BC's Quest for Tires!! I remember that game.

I had the football game and I played it alot,Also had a hand held baseball game but I don't remember the brand. The pong game was great to have around for friends to to have a couple of beers and play.

Yeah I had the single-player Electronic Quarterback game and I got so quick on the buttons that I could usually score a touchdown every play, so it got boring once I mastered it. I only played it to show off. Then they released the Head-to-Head Football game. I didn't have that one my my buddy did. That was much more fun because you couldn't exploit the "AI" patterns or use speed mashing. Playing against another human was so much more fun.

 

[GreenNova343]

LOL, the Adam was my family's first home computer. Loved the sound of that daisy wheel printer...

 

[Avro Arrow]

BC's Quest for Tires!! I remember that game.

Yup. The first video game with a character named "Thor" IIRC. It was actually such a rudimentary game with you just jumping over side-scrolling objects similar to the T-Rex game built into Google Chrome. In its day though, it was definitely a favourite!

 

[Tinderbox]

Colecovision was great, we loved ours. Except the hand controller design was awful, practically crippled your wrist after a while.

 

[RetroToyGuy]

This is a very well written article, but ends abruptly by saying that Coleco has not been heard of since 2106. The company held a Convention in 2017, re-introduced the Coleco Mini-Arcade with Robotech and Rainbow Brite. According to a spokesperson from Arcade 1-Up, some type of partnership was announced with Coleco whereby Arcade 1 Up would produce the Mini-Arcades. A 2021 article in Action Figure Insider confirms that Coleco has teamed up with a Canadian company to release an FPGA style console (much like the Chameleon). It appears as though this has occurred as Coleco has posted the item for sale in its online store.

 

[BadThad]

Coleco! What great memories! I had forgotten about Venture, one fun game! I also like Zaxxon on it but the arcade version was way superior.

Thanks for the article, it's an interesting history.

 

[Tinderbox]

Colecovision games were great, but those controllers were murder on the hands!