Console Debate #9: ColecoVision

[fox | 1,673]

57 minutes ago, glazball said:

"No experience with the console"

Guilty.  I've never come into possession of one, but it has a good reputation of being one of the most advanced and better playing consoles of the era with a solid library of good arcade ports and original titles.

Part of the fun of these threads, is seeing the experiences of other members who have had more hands on time with some of these consoles I don't have.

Edited January 4, 2021 by fox

[Br81zad | 629]

I don't think I'll ever own one, but I might sit down and try one if available at the next Louisville Arcade Expo. They typically have a "Vintage" room set up with old machines to demo. It's where I got play a Vectrex for my first and only time. lol

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

I had ONE friend, back in the day, that had a Colecovision instead of an NES -- the only great game I distinctly remember (that didn't have an NES port) was GORF.

I'd actually be interested in a plug-and-play Colecovision clone just for that game -- the only other game I remember him having was some Smurf's painting "game"...I'm sure he had others, but we mostly played with Battle Beasts at his house, rather than video games (since he didn't have a Nintendo :P)

[fox | 1,673]

5 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

GORF

GORF is a fun one

Edited January 5, 2021 by fox

[Sumer | 221]

3 hours ago, Br81zad said:

... at the next Louisville Arcade Expo. 

Great show!  I have been many times.  I only go for a couple of hours on the Saturday since I have family obligations...wife only lets me go for two or three hours.  I drive down from the Cincinnati-metro area of N. Kentucky.  

If you are into pinball, you gotta go to Pincinnati.  That show has only been around for two years (didn't happen last year due to COVID), but it is already becoming one of the bigger eastern pin shows.

 

[T-Pac | 7,589]

On 1/3/2021 at 6:21 PM, Sumer said:

Gave it a 7, just due to one memory of the Colecovision.  As I have mentioned, we had an Atari 2600 pre-NES (it was actually a Coleco Gemini knockoff console, funnily enough).  As a kid, I was just glad I could play Donkey Kong and Space Invaders at home, even given how fugly DK looks on the 2600.  And then, my brother and I were lucky enough to actually GO OVER to out usual babysitter's house one time instead of him coming over to our house.  The babysitter had a Colecovision as his console of choice at his home.

I just have this memory of walking into a new age family room (can't really describe it with words) and seeing Smurf in the Colecovision up on the screen...looking FAN-F'ing-TASTIC compared to what I was playing at home.  At that moment, I started to realize that not all consoles were created equal.  

I remember going home thinking, "Well, my Atari is also made by Coleco...why doesn't it look THAT good?"  It was a weird time with the Coleco Gemini being a straight clone of the 2600.  I called it an "Atari" because all the game carts had "Atari" emblazoned on them.  But, I didn't quite grasp what was going on with Coleco making the Gemini, me calling it an "Atari," and why my babysitter's console with the "Coleco" name on it looking so much better...I just thought Coleco made all Ataris/Geminis.  

Such a neat story, Sumer! I strongly considered picking-up a Coleco Gemini when I started up my Atari 2600 collection a few months back - I love the form factor but read that the controllers aren't too reliable these days.

-CasualCart

[PII | 1,898]

I give it an 8.  I'm not intimately familiar with every last 2nd gen. machine out there but from what I do know this one was indisputably the best pre-NES Console ever made.  It's a damn shame that the crash killed it off leaving it with a library of ~ 140 games.  It has also had an ever increasing home-brew library for the last 30 years.

For me a great port of Qberts Qubes would be enough to justify picking up a Colecovision.  There was one on Atari 2600 as well but it is very inferior, being unable to rotate the qubes.  It is my favorite Qbert game for sure and it may as well be exclusive.  

As is usually the case with the oldest consoles, it's not for everybody.  Believe it or not but the day will come when the folks who played Mario 64 as kids will be old f***ers shocked at the reality that their grandchildren won't be able to drum up even an ounce of excitement for such a hopelessly primitive game.  I actually had no idea that Colecovision existed until a few years ago.  One of the things that got me excited about it was that it had some games I'd played on a Commodore 64 as a kid.  In most cases those games are superior on the Coleco and some of them are functionally different as well, which is something about Video Games I enjoy exploring that I figure most others don't get too excited about, so there's a lot of that.  In the same line of thought, I love to try out unique/obscure games from that era and there are plenty to choose from here that are exclusive.  "Slurpy", for example is another favorite.  I don't believe it was ever an arcade game and I imagine emulating it might be difficult or impossible at present.

It makes some sense to argue for emulating the original arcade programs as most people cannot afford to purchase original arcade machines, but I happen to like having hard copies of games and there is something (at least for me) about the quality and style of graphics and gameplay on the Colecovision.  I'm not sure I could explain why but I actually enjoy playing Qbert on Coleco more than I do on the NES, it's something about the feel.

Also, if you're using anything more than your thumb to manipulate the Coleco's Joystick you're doing it wrong. lol You can plug in any standard 9-pin controller as well and it will almost certainly work.  I have a pretty good collection of those going and do occasionally use one when playing Colecovision but the majority of the time I've grown to enjoy using the Coleco Controller.  Yes, it really is possible.  It may not go down in history as one of the greats, but it's not the monster it is so often made out to be.  The Console on the other hand along with its minimal yet significant library of games definitely deserves status (Past & Present) as one of the greats!

[mbd39 | 2,030]

On 1/4/2021 at 3:41 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

In 1984 it was one of the greatest; in 2021 it's utterly pointless if you've got access to a decent MAME cab...

A Colecovision emulator was the closest thing to MAME that I could run on my 486.

 

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

I picked up a small lot of games recently and I didn't realize my favorite old school arcade game was only released on the Coleco. Pepper II !!!  I first played this in an arcade close to 6 or 8 years ago and fell in love with it. I spent more time playing that than any other game in the arcade except for the House of the Dead games. It's super addicting for me.

[Sumer | 221]

1 hour ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

I picked up a small lot of games recently and I didn't realize my favorite old school arcade game was only released on the Coleco. Pepper II !!!  I first played this in an arcade close to 6 or 8 years ago and fell in love with it. I spent more time playing that than any other game in the arcade except for the House of the Dead games. It's super addicting for me.

You discovering Pepper II in/around 2015, some 30 years after it released in arcades, impresses me.  

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

1 hour ago, Sumer said:

You discovering Pepper II in/around 2015, some 30 years after it released in arcades, impresses me.  

lol well im not old enough to have been there when it was relevant and it wasn't released on any other console. I wish it would have been on NES or Master System and I would've got to play it much earlier. 

[Dr. Morbis | 2,092]

9 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

lol well im not old enough to have been there when it was relevant and it wasn't released on any other console. I wish it would have been on NES or Master System and I would've got to play it much earlier. 

Coleco actually has a lot of ports of obscure arcade games that other popular consoles didn't bother with; Frenzy and Looping immediately come to mind, and I know there are a bunch of others...

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Not sure it's entirely fair, but in the last decade someone re-designed or created more arcade ports to Colecovision, uses the memory expansion setup too so they're quite detailed and advanced.  The ports that already existed look shameful next to the modern upgrades such as Nemesis/Gradius for one.  They're bootleg homebrew goodies and not cheap either last I looked, but if you're a die hard coleco owner they're a must.