"The ColecoVision"
August 1982 saw the release of the ColecoVision. This system was far superior in graphics and sound of both the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision. The most popular title was the maga-popular Donkey Kong game. This was very much a must have from 1980's gamers and made the Coleco console a household name during that time and among today's classic gamers.
"The ColecoVision"
Coleco (name from COnneticut LEather COmpany) was founded in 1932 which originally
supplied leathers to shoe makers. Soon later, the company got into plastics
and started manufacturing kiddie pools. By the 1960's, pools sales have reached
well over million dollar a year profit. Coleco continued to expand its swimming
pool line and while this was obviously a seasonal product, they looked into
other areas to invest. Coleco came into the videogame business with Telestar
(a Pong clone) in 1976. In 1982, Coleco released another ColecoVision console
with a pack-in game, the ever so popular Donkey Kong. After much success of
the game and a few lawsuits from Universal Studios who claimed Donkey Kong was
an infringement on King Kong, they have outsold Atari and Mattel systems by
1983. Not only did ColecoVision have better graphics and sound than the competitors,
they had more expandability. A steering wheel with gas pedal and a 2600 adapter
was released as an accessory to the console. The adapter allowed you to play
Atari 2600 games on the ColecoVision. Quickly they have became the choice of
much gamers during their stand in the market.
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 "Screenshots of the ColecoVision" |
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During the early 1980's, the ColecoVision was quite popular but home computers
were overtaking the game consoles because they were more justified in the eyes
of the parents. In July 1983, Coleco jumped on the bandwagon and into the home
computer business with the ADAM. The system was initially pricey but included
a tape recorder, keyboard, printer, the ability to play ColecoVision games,
and the support of both cartridges and cassettes. The system was quite buggy
at the time and have lost over $80 million dollars on the system. After a close
bankrupt situation, Coleco stopped production of the system in 1984 and got
out of the business all together just as the video game industry was about to
crash down.
By this time in 1984, Coleco had sold over six million ColecoVision's in a short
three year period. This was amazing because 1984 was considered the year of
the videogame "crash". ColecoVision was clearly beating out the Atari
and Mattel systems and would have been the choice in 1980's have the crash not
happen.
 "Dina 2-in-1 ColecoVision Clone" |
 "The Telstar" |
 "ColecoVision with 2 controllers" |
ColecoVision was eventually acquired by Telegames which bought much of their stock. In 1988, Telegames began manufacturing and distributing the Bit Corporation-designed Dina 2-in-1 ColecoVision clone. This was later renamed Telelgames Personal Arcade. It was a smaller version of the original console and uses joypads instead of the awkward ColecoVision stick. The Personal Arcade had expansion port but its physical configuration made it incompatible with expansion units of Coleco's own. To add to this problem, the RAM chips were fed too much voltage which caused permanent damage of the system after short periods of play.
 "ColecoVision's Action controllers" |
 "Colecovision Roller Controller" |
Page References:
ClassicGaming.com - The Museum: ColecoVision (http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/colecovision/)
Norman G. Sippel's ColecoVision Homepage! (http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~ngsippel/cv.html)