The Game That Killed Atari
Written: Sep 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good graphics and sound
Cons: weak choice of games, horrible controllers
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| tkerodd's Full Review: Colecovision |
Back in the early 1980's, a measuring stick for how great you were was your video game system (at least in my neighborhood). Everyone had an Atari 2600, and a few people had an Intellivision. The Intellivision had good graphics, but boring games that were hard to play. The Atari 2600 had the best titles, but the graphics were pretty bad. (Remember Pac-Man?). Then came Colecovision, which was almost a combination of the two. Within two or three years, Atari was finished. Unfortunately, so was Coleco.
This system's initial appeal was the Donkey Kong game. The graphics were very close to the original, which was refreshing at that time. The only drawback was that all the screens were not on the home version. Sound quality was excellent. Once I saw this, I had to have one! After getting the Colecovision, every kid in the neighborhood was at our house. Over time, we picked up some of the more popular games, like Zaxxon, Mr. Do. Donkey Kong Jr., and a really good casino game.
This system had some major drawbacks as well. First of all, the controllers really sucked. The joystick part was too short, and the firing buttons were in the wrong place. And I never figured out what that numberic keyboard was for! Beyond that, Coleco was unable to put out versions of the most popular games. Between Atari and Intellivision, there weren't many gaming companies left for Coleco to get games from. That meant that Coleco had some good, but obscure, games. Although you could play Atari 2600 games on the system, the Coleco games were better.
Over time, Coleco got caught up in the idea of developing the Adam Computer. This was their idea for getting into the home PC market. It was a major failure. In the meantime, the entire home video game industry was preparing to collapse. The Colecovision quietly disappeared, never to be heard from again.
To the people who were at Coleco at that time, thanks. That game system was a lot of fun, and was the center of some good times with friends. If only that controller had been better...
Recommended:
Yes
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tkerodd
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Location: Jackson, MS
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