ColecoVision general discussion thread Options

[classicvidgamer]

* recommended ColecoVision games
* its various peripherals and/or controllers

Highly recommended games for this system:

Burgertime
Frogger
Galaxian
Pepper II
Turbo
Zaxxon

Pepper II is by far my favorite CV game. It's Amidar done right. If you haven't played Amidar before, it's Pac-Man meets Qix which is an incredible combination.

Turbo is an awesome game but you'll have to find yourself a CV steering wheel for it.

In much the same way the Atari 5200 had improved ports of arcade games to a point they were nearly on equal footing, the ColecoVision did the same thing. In many cases the ports I listed above are better than the arcade versions!

I agree about Pepper II. A great Colecovision game. I played Pepper II and Venture in arcades when they first came out. Then latter enjoyed Pepper II on the Colecovision. Great port of a great game. Also love Lady Bug!

I was unable to afford Colecovision when it first came out so I would go over to a neighbor's house to play it. Donkey Kong and the Smurf game were great. Sometime in the 90's I managed to pick up both an Atari 5200 and a Colecovision with a bunch of games at a steal of a price from a newspaper ad. Haven't played my Colecovision in years though.

I really need to find some time to play my games!

[ACE]

I just purchased me a Colecovision from a local fleamarket for $16, but it didn't come with any games. Just added another retro system to my collection.

[DreamcastRIP]

Cool! Was there anyway of testing it to know if it works?
I'm currently "watching" a few ColecoVision games on eBay in the hope for soon snagging a few bargains.

EDIT:
I just snagged Donkey Kong (cart-only), Mouse Trap (cart+manual) and Venture (cart-only).

This post has been edited by DreamcastRIP: May 26 2010, 05:23 PM

[walter_J64bit]

It has DK!

[DreamcastRIP]

It has DK!

Hell yes!

[ACE]

Cool! Was there anyway of testing it to know if it works?
I'm currently "watching" a few ColecoVision games on eBay in the hope for soon snagging a few bargains.

EDIT:
I just snagged Donkey Kong (cart-only), Mouse Trap (cart+manual) and Venture (cart-only).

Haven't tried it yet, but the thing is in mint condition with no scratches or nothing on it. I still have it in the fleamarket sealed bag... I have a looksee soon enough. Just checking out the tech specs on this thing and I'm very impressed. It has a Z80 at 3 megahertz with 8k of system RAM... No wonder the 2600 had a tough time competing; not to mention the 2600 add on where you can play 2600 games on it??? Did Atari ever sue?

This post has been edited by ACE: May 26 2010, 06:40 PM

[DreamcastRIP]

Cool! Was there anyway of testing it to know if it works?
I'm currently "watching" a few ColecoVision games on eBay in the hope for soon snagging a few bargains.

EDIT:
I just snagged Donkey Kong (cart-only), Mouse Trap (cart+manual) and Venture (cart-only).

Haven't tried it yet, but the thing is in mint condition with no scratches or nothing on it. I still have it in the fleamarket sealed bag... I have a looksee soon enough. Just checking out the tech specs on this thing and I'm very impressed. It has a Z80 at 3 megahertz with 8k of system RAM... No wonder the 2600 had a tough time competing; not to mention the 2600 add on where you can play 2600 games on it??? Did Atari ever sue?

Sounds very likely it'll work properly then.
I think the specs were quite similar to both MSX and Sega Master System.
As for Expansion Module #1, Atari did indeed try to sue. Wikipedia states, "The expansion module prompted legal action from Atari, but Atari was unable to stop sales of the module because the 2600 could be reproduced with standard parts.".

[Tursi]

Colecovision? It only has 1k of CPU RAM, but 16k of video RAM.

Strange that Wikipedia says the 2600 could be reproduced with standard parts, the TIA wasn't very standard. Maybe you could buy it though.

[DreamcastRIP]

I'm far from been any kinda expert in such matters but its true to say I've seen that specific Expansion Module #1 argument put forward (with regard to why Atari proved unsuccessful in their attempts to legally halt its production) several times these past few years. Whether that's cos those varied sources had like me simply trusted in what's stated on Wikipedia is of course an unknown. If another explanation should exist or should it be more complex than suggested by Wikipedia then it'd sure be interesting to hear of the details from anyone who knows. If I weren't currently feeling so low on energy and therefore lazy I'd try researching it myself...

EDIT: The thread's poll is finally shaping up into something perhaps worthy of comment ...

* 13 votes cast
* 62% of respondents own (or in the case of one, at least "use") the console
* 85% own or once owned the console
* 31% of respondents own the console - the largest single voting choice (figure rises to 38% should Tursi be included)

This post has been edited by DreamcastRIP: May 27 2010, 04:09 PM

[ACE]

Colecovision? It only has 1k of CPU RAM, but 16k of video RAM.

Strange that Wikipedia says the 2600 could be reproduced with standard parts, the TIA wasn't very standard. Maybe you could buy it though.

Well wikipedia is exactly where I got my info. Very misleading. 8K would've made the system way better then the NES... That's too bad... Wikipedia getting my hopes up like that.

[ACE]

Colecovision? It only has 1k of CPU RAM, but 16k of video RAM.

Strange that Wikipedia says the 2600 could be reproduced with standard parts, the TIA wasn't very standard. Maybe you could buy it though.

Well wikipedia is exactly where I got my info. Very misleading. 8K would've made the system way better then the NES... That's too bad... Wikipedia getting my hopes up like that.

Every website I go to all says the Colecovision has 8K of system ram... Serious talk. If that's so, this system was a powerhouse during it's day... I mean you can't go wrong with a z80 that's 3 times faster then a 6502. The old Astrocades packed those Z80s, plus the TI calculators and the Sinclare computers had those z80s in them. Definetly a good chip for it's time.

Pac Man on Astrocade

[Tursi]

Most websites on the internet today copy each other (especially they copy Wikipedia). The Colecovision has 1k of CPU RAM and 16k of video RAM. Any website that doesn't make the distinction is having you on in the first place.

If you need an internet source, have a look at this development guide: http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/Cole...programming.pdf

or the tutorial: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=colecov...8dfc6e89f934b5d

Particularly this point is probably the cause of Wikipedia's error:

Though the ColecoVision has only 1 KB of RAM it's mapped 8 times so that the mapping uses 8K of address space.

This is normal for computer systems, to reserve more space than they use.

Oddly, the FAQ says 8k, but the FAQ I found hasn't been updated since 1996.

Now I'm going to go fix Wikipedia and put an end to this.

This post has been edited by Tursi: May 31 2010, 01:29 AM

[DreamcastRIP]

Just snagged Carnival, Cosmic Avenger, Lady Bug and the console's user manual.

@ Tursi: I see you did indeed correct that error on Wikipedia.

[DreamcastRIP]

I thought the ColecoVision Expansion Module #1 looked big in the pictures I've seen...
 0.jpg ( 17.38K ) Number of downloads: 3

... but then I watched this cool video review.

Is that a small moon? No, its a space station ColecoVision plus ColecoVision Expansion Module #1 setup!

This post has been edited by DreamcastRIP: Jun 22 2010, 09:13 AM

[DreamcastRIP]

Just snagged Pepper II, Space Fury and Space Panic (all cart-only).