ColecoVision
Released
August 1982
by
Coleco
Gaming platform
ColecoVision was a popular home console sold in the early 1980s by toy maker Coleco. Considered the last popular console released in North American before a crash in 1983 decimated the video game market, the ColecoVision was known for its strong catalog of arcade ports and licensed titles.
Coleco's introduction into home gaming market was originally by producing games for earlier system like the Atari 2600/VCS and Intellivision. Rather than developing original games in-house, Coleco acquired licenses to popular arcade titles, starting with Donkey Kong from Nintendo. As Coleco purposely held off from producing a port for the Atari 5200, when Donkey Kong was bundled with ColecoVision titles it gave the company an excellent chance to show off the capabilities of the system. Other prominent arcade ports such as Zaxxon and Turbo (which was packaged with the steering wheel controller) added to the popularity of the system.
Based on a Zilog Z80 processor and popular TI sound and video chips the system had similar capabilities to many contemporary systems, and was so similar to the Sega SG-1000 that clone makers produced systems that could play games for either system. Delivered with 16K RAM, the system could display 16 colors and 32 sprites on a 256x192 screen. The system had two hard wired controllers that combined a small joystick with a number pad. The system was intended to be expandable and over its lifetime various controllers and add-ons (including the ability to play Atari 2600 games) were sold for the unit.
Intitially very successful, Coleco sold over a million units in less than a year, but the effects of the video game crash sharply curtailed sales. Coleco tried to keep its home electronics line afloat by introducing a home computer variant, the Adam and even an expansion module that allowed the ColecoVision to become a functional Adam computer. However quality problems with the Adam hindered the company, and sales for the ColecoVision fell precipitously by early 1984 leading to it finally being discontinued in October 1985.
Coleco's introduction into home gaming market was originally by producing games for earlier system like the Atari 2600/VCS and Intellivision. Rather than developing original games in-house, Coleco acquired licenses to popular arcade titles, starting with Donkey Kong from Nintendo. As Coleco purposely held off from producing a port for the Atari 5200, when Donkey Kong was bundled with ColecoVision titles it gave the company an excellent chance to show off the capabilities of the system. Other prominent arcade ports such as Zaxxon and Turbo (which was packaged with the steering wheel controller) added to the popularity of the system.
Based on a Zilog Z80 processor and popular TI sound and video chips the system had similar capabilities to many contemporary systems, and was so similar to the Sega SG-1000 that clone makers produced systems that could play games for either system. Delivered with 16K RAM, the system could display 16 colors and 32 sprites on a 256x192 screen. The system had two hard wired controllers that combined a small joystick with a number pad. The system was intended to be expandable and over its lifetime various controllers and add-ons (including the ability to play Atari 2600 games) were sold for the unit.
Intitially very successful, Coleco sold over a million units in less than a year, but the effects of the video game crash sharply curtailed sales. Coleco tried to keep its home electronics line afloat by introducing a home computer variant, the Adam and even an expansion module that allowed the ColecoVision to become a functional Adam computer. However quality problems with the Adam hindered the company, and sales for the ColecoVision fell precipitously by early 1984 leading to it finally being discontinued in October 1985.
Also known as
Games 43
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