An oldie, but a goody!
Written: Dec 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ARCADE GAMES IN YOUR HOME!/ Gimmick controllers
Cons: Sound/Extra buttoned controller/Unproduced games
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| joculator's Full Review: Colecovision |
Think back to the early 80's. Reagan's in office, punk music and break dancing is the rave, and competition for the atari 2600......COLECOVISION! For the same creators of Cabbage Patch Kids comes one of the best home game systems EVER! With an unprecidented 14 buttons (16 and a track wheel with the Super Action Controller), this 4 bit system was the hit of the town. From PONG (1 bit)to the Atari (2 bit) to Intellevision to Colecovision (4 to 8 bit) to Sega and NES (8 bit) to the Genesis and SNES (16), Saturn (32), NeoGeo (32-64) to Playstation & N64 (64), to finally the Dreamcast and PS2 (128), home gaming has evolved into the phenom it is today. But the one who brought it to the mainstream: Colecovision!
I was a big video game room freak back in the day. The ability to play all of my favorites...in my own house? TOO COOL! Colecovision offered a step up from the Atari 2600, and a better variety of games than the Intelevision. Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Popeye, Dig Dug, Pole Position, all the great arcade hits were available. Coleco even had licenses from Star Wars, Star Trek, Tarzan, Smurfs,ROCKY, and even from the Wizard of Oz (although it was never produced).
The front port offered an expansion system to play ATARI GAMES!!! TWO GREAT SYSTEMS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE (kind of like the new PS2). A one point, it even had the ADAM computer system as an option.
GOOD POINTS:
1) WIDE variety of games that were translated almost dead on from their coin-op counterparts. With the Atari expansion, it opened up a huge flood gate of games to boot.
2) The "gimmick" controllers were first seen here; TURBO MODULE (with steering wheel and gas pedals) for their racing games; (Super Roller Controller (Track ball), Super Action Controller, Atari Expansion Module, ADAM computer system.....WHEW!!!
3) THe VENDORS: Coleco, Nintendo, Midway, Ceturi to name a few. This was the begining of big companies producing their games into the home system.
BAD POINTS:
1) The sound on some of the games were not as perfected as they could be. Granted, what do you want from a 4 bit game?
2) Another feature that didn't work was the extra buttons. It was great for FORTUNE BUILDER, and BASEBALL, but for 80% of the games it did nothing but select a skill level; which was only done at the beginning of the game.
3) They solicited games, or had previews for games that never got produced. It was a let down for me. (Anyone with info on some of the titles please post comments about it!)
All in all, it was WAY ahead of its time. Even though it was only on the market for three or so years, it's impact is still felt today.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
joculator
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Location: Atwater, OH
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 5 members
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