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Colecovision
A history of the Colecovision
The Colecovision games console was produced by Coleco in August 1982 following previous success with the Telstar console in 1975. Initially, the Colecovision was launched with 12 games titles available and a further 10 were promised shortly. The games were arcade quality and were mostly conversions of popular coin-operated arcade games.
The console itself retailed at $175 and sported a flat joystick with two side-buttons and some number buttons. Before long add-ons were available that let you play Atari 2600 games and use a steering wheel and gas pedal to control games like Turbo and Destructor.
In it's lifetime, around 170 games titles became available for the Colecovision including classics such as Donkey Kong - in fact the Colecovision was the very first console to feature Donkey Kong.
Within a few months of its release, over half a million Colecovision consoles had been sold and a few months later this increased to one million units.
In 1983 another add-on module was released which actually turned the Colecovision into a proper computer rather than just a games console. The computer was called the Coleco Adam.
Sadly the video game crash in 1983 troubled Coleco and the Colecovision was discontinued in early 1984. In all over 6 million Colecovision consoles were sold in just a couple of years.
There are still plenty of Colecovision consoles around today though and you can pick one up on eBay for as little as $9.99 sometimes - see the eBay listings on the right for example!
Colecovision tech specs
Screen res: 256 x 192 pixels
Processor: Zilog Z-80A 8bit 3.58MHz
RAM: 1KB
VRAM: 16KB
Colours: 16
Sprites: 32
Sound: 3 tone generators and 1 noise generator
Popular Games
- Donkey Kong
- Zaxxon
- Venture
- Lady Bug
- Cosmic Adventure
- Mouse Trap
- Carnival
- Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle
- Donkey Kong Junior
- Gorf
- Space Fury
- Space Panic
- Pepper II
- Looping
Colecovision trivia
Coleco the company was actually founded in 1932 as a Connecticut Leather Company selling leather supplies to shoemakers.
For some reason Coleco promised around 50 games titles for the Colecovision which were never actually released. Some even had screenshots available although some think these may have been faked. Colecovision gamers today still lament the ability to play excitingly titled games such as Dracula and Tunnels and Trolls!
Sources
Wikipedia
DoYouRemember
Maniacworld
Classic Gaming
About Colecovision | Buy Colecovision games and hardware | Colecovision links | Contact us