Colecovision Mega Score

[intric8]

When I was a kid in the 80s I had a few video game consoles before finally landing on my dream come true: the C64.

Prior to that watershed moment, though, I'd had:

• Some sort of off-brand "PONG" machine that had a janky skeet rifle hookup
• A hand-me-down Atari 2600 with a few carts (anything Activision made was my fave for that console)
• A Vectrex, which I bought new
• And ultimately a Colecovision.

I was raised by a single mom with a dad mostly out of the picture at that time. She was raising two boys almost single-handedly, so money was very tight. Getting new shoes was a big deal for me back then. We had no cable, and only a 13" color TV and no VCR. We didn't enter the VCR world until well into 1986 or so. We were always a couple years behind the Joneses, felt like at the time. But for obvious reasons.

One Christmas (in '82 or '83) I collected enough money from various relatives to think I could afford a Vectrex. So, the week after the holiday, we went to Toys R Us. That's when I realized I had enough to get the machine, but no games. Nor could I cover the tax! Somehow, my mom found a way to stretch things out and I left a very, very happy kid. (Little did I know until I got home that the Vectrex came with a fantastic built-in game called Minestorm, which is a brilliant Asteroids clone - another vector-scan screen game. So now I had 2 games!).

In March of 2019, a good friend of mine helped me source a Vectrex after all of these years and get it back in my life. I nearly cried when I got it. It's fully re-capped, too, thank to him. I got an embroidered vinyl cover for it to keep the dust off it.

Back then, browsing and picking a game was a certain sort of anxious ecstasy. I needed to look at every option and read the back of every box, if possible. And after reading all of them, start back at the beginning and start over. It was the same way years later at the video store. I'd spend almost as much time looking for a movie as it would take to later watch that same movie! But just like collecting, sometimes the hunt is as fun as the prize.

The Vectrex was, and still is, other-worldly awesome. And by the way, its sound chip can hold its own against the SID at times, too.

There was never any blockiness because everything was drawn with pure light in perfect straight lines. It didn't have multi-colored light beams so it employed beautiful and clever overlay screens that came packed in every game box. For the Vectrex my "killer app" I always showed people was Pole Position. And man did it play and sound so good.

Unfortunately, within a year or so of owning it the company went out of business. I was absolutely crushed. I liked to think of myself as a cutting-edge gamer back then.

And I swear - I read a magazine at the time that had a blurb (or maybe it was an ad?) that teased a Vectrex add-on full blown computer attachment that was in the works. But it didn't matter, because not long after I read that the Vectrex was dead. I've tried to remember and hunt that article/ad/whatever down multiple times but have never found it. I could have sworn it said the computer would add a keyboard and supply an additional 4KB of RAM, or something pathetic like that. 4KB! That's what my brain remembers anyway. RAM was expensive back then, ya'll. Plus, most of the real memory was left to the cartridge based systems at the time. Yes, please for a Vectrex computer...

Anyway, I'll never forget convincing my mom to drive me to Toys R Us and running to the aisle where all the Vectrex games were and... wait, where did they go? What are all these bare metal hooks?

I couldn't believe it.

A week after that I told my best friend at the time of my sad misfortune. He looked at me and offered to trade his Colecovision for my Vectrex.

I was like, "REALLY?!" and jumped at the chance.

Now, in 2022, you'd call me a fool. The Vectrex in 2022 can cost north of $500 on Ebay in good condition. A Colecovision? Maybe $100. They just aren't valued very highly for some reason.

But back in the day? The Colecovision was THE platform to buy if you wanted the most arcade-accurate experience at home in console form. The level of craft that went into the games was off the charts impressive. It easily blew all of the competition away.

It even came packed with Donkey Kong. A REALLY good version of Donkey Kong. Let that sink in for a moment.

And some of the games on that console are just fantastic. Zaxxon, Ladybug, Mr. Do... the list is impressive.

Well, did you know that there is a large "home brew" scene for the Colecovision in 2022? And that term, "home brew" almost gives it a sound of cheapness. I'm talking about a modern resurgence of high-quality games - cartridge based - that, like the C64, employ next-gen levels of quality and shine. That even includes hardware expansions!

In any event, I'm so proud today to have finally brought a Colecovision back into my home.

I'll probably go into more detail about all of this later, but here she goes:

• Colecovision console
• 2 NOS ADAM controllers
• Modern PSU upgrade (so I can lose the 10 pound brick)
• Super Game Module
• Atarimax Ultimate 3D cart
• Dual 9 pin connector cables - do 4-player CV games exist? Time to find out!
• 9pin CV/Atari to USB connector, for modern peripherals
• RCA to RF connector for coaxial connection on newer TVs
• 3 original carts, including Mr. Do - one of my favorite arcade games BITD

More info on the Atarimax CV cart.

The Colecovision Ultimate SD Cartridge is a high quality, professionally produced multi-cart for the Colecovision game system.

The kit includes the following:
- Atarimax Colecovision Ultimate SD Cartridge
- 32MB or Larger SD Card
- Menu Software (Pre-loaded and ready to use on SD Card)

The Super Game Module increases RAM from 16KB to 32KB and adds four additional sound channels. This expansion brings the ColecoVision very close to the MSX computer architecture standard, allowing MSX software to be more easily ported.

As a result, the very active homebrew Colecovision scene has really embraced these types of advancements. The other thing that's so great about this scene is, at least right now, it's still pretty sane. Prices aren't ridiculous for the most part and it's very easy to dive in and build an impressive system without feeling like you need to rob a bank. In the retro world, that's getting kind of rare these days!

Now all I need to do is get my RF-out to Composite converter so I can hook it up to my 1702. Then, I think, I'll go get lost in Colecovision heaven for a while.

[obitus1990]

Nice score, Eric. I still have my original Colecovision from 1983-ish. My grandmother bought it for me on clearance at Sears, right around the video game crash, so it was cheap. The games were great. Far better conversions than the stinky Atari 2600 we had (but loved!). It was weird that it came, brand new, with Adam controllers -- if I had to guess, a symptom of the crash and the desire of Coleco to liquidate everything they had, mismatched or not. I had DK, a roller controller with Slither and Destructor (which really needed a steering wheel, instead), Rocky III (which needed super action controllers, which I did not have), and a couple of other games that I managed to pick up on the cheap at Lionel Playworld with money from cutting grass. It sat for a few decades in my attic at my old house, and when I pulled it out, it still worked, but, the image quality was bad and very much filled with static over RF. So, I recapped it, replaced the RAM with the lower-power, more reliable type that does not require -5V (after modding the motherboard to support it), and did a modification to it to get COMPOSITE video out. What a difference! A couple of years ago I bought that flash-cart that you have, and loaded it up with ROMs. I also added that modern PSU. There is a way to modify it to get true RGB, but I've never bothered to have the boards made for it (you can get them on OSHPark's shared files section, IIRC). It looks great in composite on the C=1802 monitor.

I had to rebuild my controllers too, due to broken traces on the simple PCBs inside them. I've been tempted to buy the steering wheel, the expansion module that lets you play Atari 2600 games, and that new module that you have that ups the amount of RAM and gives practically true arcade conversions, but just can't justify it yet.


Edit to add: If you want to add on-board composite this is the kit I used: https://console5.com/store/colecovision ... sion.html

[intric8]

Thanks for all of that info, Obitus. Very cool stuff!

I did some mild research when I decided to relive my CV childhood and actually was looking at this mod.

I ultimately didn't go for it because it looked like some fairly non-trivial surgery and was afraid I'd screw something up, even with the very nice step-by-step instructions the guy provides.

So, I I decided to go the yet-another-device-to-plug-in route and got one of these, which I think I'll get near the end of next week. I don't have any snazzy old 13" TVs but I wanted to hook this bad boy up to the 1702. Fingers crossed it's not a terrible picture or I will have to go down the modding route, too. In the box came high-quality cable connectors and a really nice heavy video cable.

That's super weird you got NOS ADAM controllers with your CV. Honestly, I was kind of baffled mine came with NOS ADAM controllers, too - still in the little baggies! They look brand new.

Man, I remember that dial controller giving me some serious thumb cramps back in the day.

[G8rduc]

Awesome score.

Just so you know, the Colecovision systems are going for upwards of around $300 for a unit in good shape. AND the Coleco ADAM community is about to get onboard with Fujinet and there are homebrew games for that now, too. Absolutely love my ADAM.

The reason the ADAM controllers are out there is that they had so many when Coleco went out of business, that Radio Shack and some other stores had bought stock and were selling them.

[intric8]

1st time since late 7th grade (1984) I sat down and played the ColecoVision. MAN! What a crazy blast from my past from my pre-C64 days (starting in '85). These games are just GREAT. Via a massive pile of wires, I'm using my trusty 1702.

Totally rocked Mr. Do to "Phase" 15, too!

Some things I learned today

My Colecovision came with a very cool, tiny PSU conversion gadget called the "COL USB." I can't find a place that sells them anywhere, but it is this teeny tiny doo-dad that plugs into the back of a Colecovision that lets you then use a USB-C cable and typical phone charger mini-brick. The advantage is the original CV brick - no joke - is MASSIVE. It's like the C64 power brick, except you actually plug the damn thing into the wall. There's not cable coming off of it like you'd expect. Massive brick with 2 prongs!

Problem is the adapter I used didn't supply the necessary current, which really surprised me. It made these horizontal staticky bands cycle up the screen, which looked like total crap. But after using the original PSU everything was just fine. I'll need to experiment with some different power bricks and see if I can find a nice one that doesn't generate that noise.

I also think I will want to pop this thing open an really clean the cartridge port contacts as I sometimes get a bad connection there. All of these old cartridge-based systems seem to experience this issue over time (looking at you SNES). So I need to learn how to open this thing up.

I think I might like to do a video upgrade to the thing some day so I'm not forced to use all these crazy wires and RF > Composite devices, which creates a huge mess. But in the short-term I'm loving just playing these old games from my past. And I can't wait to check out the very vibrant homebrew game scene, too!

[intric8]

And damn, guys, the graphics/sound are so sweet sometimes. Today we’d think we were looking at a Hokuto Force remake for C64 in 2022. This was 1983!

[G8rduc]

The Colceco was the best home system, esp when it came to arcade ports. You should see some of the games on the ADAM.

[intric8]

I plan on it! Since I have the Super Game Module, I'll be able to run ADAM games as well as get that enhanced arcade-level audio going. It also opens the door to some homebrew games that'll only run with the extra RAM.