ColecoVision - Coleco’s second generation game console
ColecoVision is a second generation game console by Coleco Industries, released in August 1982. ColecoVision offered arcade-level graphics and gameplay, the ability to use games from other gaming systems (primarily the Atari 2600), and system scalability. The system was released simultaneously with 12 games for it, and 10 games were planned for release during 1982. During the period from 1982 to 1985, about 170 games (on cartridges) were released.
Coleco entered into a licensing agreement with Nintendo that each ColecoVision included a version of the Donkey Kong game. The transfer of this game from the slot machine to ColecoVision was done perfectly, the graphics and sound effects were very similar to the original. Most of the other games released for ColecoVision were also transfers of arcade games (many of which were not very popular at the time).
Over Christmas 1982, Coleco sold 500,000 consoles, a success largely fueled by the bundled game. ColecoVision's main competitor among consoles of that generation was the technically more advanced, but less commercially successful, Atari 5200.
The console's sales quickly topped a million units in early 1983, shortly before the 1983 video game crash. Production of the ColecoVision was discontinued in the spring of 1984. Despite recent difficulties, the ColecoVision sold over six million units. In 1986, Bit Corporation released a clone of Colecovision called Dina. It was marketed in the US by Telegames under the name Telegames Personal Arcade.
Outside the US, ColecoVision was distributed by CBS Electronics under the name CBS ColecoVision.
Currently, Coleco emulators and games are widely available as abandonware on the Internet. While the games remain copyrighted, ColecoVision games' rights holders do not prevent them from being distributed, unlike Intellivision games and some Atari games.
Externally, the console was a 14 x 8 x 2 inch (356 x 203 x 51 mm) rectangular plastic case that housed the console's electronics. The cartridge slot cover was on the top right side of the case. An external power supply and an antenna cord were connected to the connectors on the back of the console. Game controllers were placed in a special recess in the case, in the upper left part.
The design of the ColecoVision game controller was similar to that of Mattel's Intellivision (released in 1979), but had a short 1.5-inch joystick handle instead of a spinning dial. The joystick was at the top of the controller, above the rectangular numeric keypad. Two side buttons and a keyboard provided additional control options such as jumping, shooting, or typing a sequence of numbers. There was also a very thin slot for inserting plastic overlays containing a description of the purpose of the buttons for a particular game. The console package included two such game controllers, and there is also compatibility with other controllers, you can connect a controller from Atari 2600 and Sega Mega DriveSega Genesis.
Specifications
- Processor: Zilog Z80A at 3.58 MHz
- Video controller: Texas Instruments TMS9928A
- Resolution 256×192
- Simultaneous output of 32 hardware sprites
- Fixed palette of 16 colors
- Sound: Texas Instruments SN76489A
- 3 tone generators
- 1 noise generator
- Video Memory: 16 KB
- Main RAM: 1 KB
- Media: 8/16/24/32 KB cartridge