Restoring and exploring a ColecoVision (1982) Games Console
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ต.ค. 2021
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The ColecoVision really did deserve better. Born into the North American video games crash it got off to a blinding start before events caught up with it and it was quickly retired. But this console deserves a 2nd look. The quality of the arcade ports and its add on capabilities mean that this really should be remembered as one of the best of its era, and this example needs some TLC to restore it to its former glory so we can try it out.
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Again, all the best to Mark. So nice to see the support here.
Just be a little careful with this, similar happened to friends of ours and their contents insurer used a gofundme collection as reason to cut their pay out.
It has 3.5MHz and C=64 just 1MHz - why?
@@ryanfarmer4882 Ah, how surprising.
@@AppleReviews Because of the VicII.
I hope anyone who loves retro will make a small donation to Mark if they can spare it. A fire is an unfathomably horrific thing to live through, let's at least try to help take the financial worry away.
Fun fact: "Coleco" is an abbreviation of "Connecticut Leather Company. Coleco started out producing leather goods and later moved into toy production.
They nearly went out of business a year before they actually did, but Cabbage Patch Kids were the surprise fad sell-out toy of the year. Then they bet all that money on Adam.
Nice fact, like it a lot.
"How did you Americans put that in the wall without it falling off every five seconds?"
We didn't; we'd connect it to an extension cord that sat atop shaggy carpeting. You know: The safe option.
It's got to be in the running for worst wall-wart. Pretty sure we used an extension cord, too.
Duct tape!
usually a 16 gauge zipcord with the end modified so you could defeat the ground plug on three pin plugs. For that extra bit of fire safety.
Me to me: "don't tag Technology Connections don't tag Technology Connections don't tag Technology Connections"
@@justin-g-360 you win the internet, today! 🤣
ColecoVision is easily the best pre-NES console made.
We had this as my first console when I was a kid
U simply cannot underestimate the arcade quality u where bringing home when this was released.
this was my first video game system back in the late 80s. I have fond memories of this system
A wonderful console for the time, cut short by the US crash, but continued to be supported by a loving fan base, and strong home brew development. I still like making games that run on the original hardware and show what else could have been in store if it had of kept going.
There is even a modern add on called the Super Game Module, that expands the internal Ram to 32k and adds the slightly more capable sound chip from the MSX series of machines, making it a bit like a consolised MSX in a way.
Absolute tragedy for Mark and his family, I hope that the support of the retro gaming community gives him some hope of a way forward.
I miss my Colecovision. It was w very under rated console and I do believe it had more headroom in it's capabilities.
My dad bought a ColecoVision (North American) around 1982. I still have it. We had a lot more Atari cartridges than ColecoVision ones. I was still playing with it, and buying used games for it, years after the console left the market. By then cheap Atari cartridges were just a lot easier to come by.
I loved the controllers. And a great "expansion module" was the trackball.
Excellent video of my first game consoll. Still have it today and still enjoying playing on it. I have resent years aquired a SD cardtridge with all the games on and a ColecoVision Super Game Module that I highly recomend every ColecoVision owners to get.
Man, the first system I ever remember playing on in 1986. Pepper II FTW.
The hours spent at my neighbour's house trying to beat Looping on his ColecoVision. I'll forever have the music from that game in my memory. Great times.
Wow, I had forgotten all about that game.
Hey I could have said that too! Colecovision was a genuine hit with the kids😋
I always held the controller upside down for Looping. It just made more sense to me.
I've read the word "Looping" and the music immediately started in my head.
It helps that's not a commonly used word, I guess.
Nearly 40 years later, and I still refer to Bach's Invention #8 as the Looping music. 8)
I was an EE student when this system came out, its two standouts as I remember were its VCS adapter (expansion 1), but in its own right the Head-to-Head series of games, They included new controllers (very elaborate) and cartridge. The Baseball, with its 3 baserunner + batter perspective was truly amazing for 83. That it was built from industry components (rather than custom ICs) was a great achievement of the engineers. BTW the fat brick PS is noteworthy in its +/-5 and +12 which the early 4116 DRAMS had to use, truly an indulgence of its time.
The Colecovision was my first console, my aunt bought it for my birthday in 1984. Unfortunately by then no stores in my area sold games for it anymore so the only game I ever owned for it was the pack-in game Donkey Kong. I still played it to death though, until I finally got an NES in 86. I had a cousin with an Intellivision and my uncle had a 2600 so I did get to play other games but Donkey Kong was my favorite. I bought a mint condition Colecovision on eBay a few years ago and now I finally have a nice collection of games for it; this was such a great console for its time.
Sorry to hear about Mark's home. I lost my home to fire when I was 19. Had to live in a tent for a long time before we found somewhere else to live.
I'm glad Mark and his family are safe, and while I don't have any money spare right now, in a week or two I should have some spare and I'll chuck some his way to help him and his family get back on track.
Those power BRICKS, which in this case I think needs to be in all caps, were the absolute bane of anyone who ever wanted to plug more than one thing in at a time. Even the mightiest of power strips stood no chance.
I love the old coleco controllers - you could easily use the joystick with either hand, and I liked holding it on its side. It was actually pretty convenient and comfortable for me.
I bought my Colecovision back in 1982 and collected the 25 most popular games. Many of my friends bought theirs's as well and we traded games, so I played almost all the available titles including the Atari ports like Centipede Asteriods, etc... These Colecovision versions also had arcade quality graphics. Expansion packs that were available, The super controllers with baseball & Frontline army games. Turbo racing game with Steering wheel and gas pedal and the rare track ball expansion module the Roller Controller for Slither a Centipede type game and Atari Port of Frogger. The failed ADAM Computer was also an expansion module as well as stand alone unit.
As a kid I did upgrade from the 2600 to the colecovision. It was a major upgrade. I loved that system and played it faithfully until I got the nes in 87. Great video guys.
I always wanted a Colecovision. Ok, even though I had a computer rather than a console, I wanted every console released, but wanted the Colecovision most. Never got one, so used to play one if I saw one set up in a shop.
Believe me, if my parents hadn’t said “You’ve got a computer, why do you need a console as well”, I would have tried for every console.
Always wanted a Colecovision with Expansion 2 and Turbo.
Very sorry to hear about Mark, glad no-one was hurt.
Pepper II, Gyruss, Montezuma's Revenge, Tutankham, Centipede, Ladybug... the hours, so many hours. 37 years later and I'm still loving the Colecovision.
Wow , I'll be 55 this Year and so like this stuff was everywhere when I was a kid , I keep thinking how can you call it retro , Then I remember how fast Time goes by . Thank you both for the Flashback :) QC
I had this whole setup handed down to me from an uncle. The Coleco and the Atari adapter. It was pretty common. My mother sadly threw it out while it was still dirt cheap, but now it's 200 bucks to get it back lol. I wasn't an 8bit kid outside of NES living in the US, but the actual Caleco games were pretty solid depending. Great vid!
I remember the video game crash in the 80's, but I kept gaming because I had a Commodore 64 and it had tons of games.
I love seeing that Atari adapter. Whenever I told people about having that they thought I was lying.
We are all one in the retro community. From my little group of PC nerds to yours. Best of wishes and hope everything is well with your family and best of wishes for the future.
Good deeds do come back … hope you will recover quickly . And glad that the most important treasure of all „ the family „ is fine. Best wishes from Europe
Ahh the memories, Had a ColecoVision in 1984 (early 85), it was a hand me down from my oldest brother. He bought it in 1982 here in Australia and then bought a C64 in 1984 and I ended up with his ColecoVision. Got about 20 games for it from him as well as the Atari2600 Expansion Module 1 and Expansion Module 2 steering wheel with Turbo.
Favourite games on at the time were Time Pilot and Mouse Trap.
Those controllers were horrid, hand cramps after about half an hour I reckon.
My next door neighbor at the time had an Atari 2600, used to borrow games off him all the time to play on my Coleco.
Same here in Australia regarding the NA video game crash, didn't affect us at all.
The controllers were so bad because the human hand just doesn't work with buttons on the side like that, especially when your hand also has to hold the controller in "tall" orientation and fight against the tension of the joystick. The 5200 controller was awful for the same reason, and a few more.
mine was spy vs spy and sea wolf lol.
Great video. I've still got the ColecoVision which my parents bought for me and my brother back in the 80's. We were lucky that our local video store rented the games, out, then when they closed, we bought them all. I was also lucky that my uncle had the steering wheel addon for Turbo. I'm surprised you didn't touch upon where the name came from. Most people find that hard to believe!
My mom was hooked on Ladybug, and Smurf was excellent for visuals and audio.
I know the controller is unique, but there were games which made good use of the keypad, Mousetrap for example.
This was the first childhood system I ever owned. My parents got it used in around 1987. I spent so many hours on DK, Zaxxon, and Pepper II. Man, I loved Pepper II.
The North American video crash really just affected the video game console market; computer gaming picked up strongly in the US and Canada at this time, with the Commodore 64 in particular leading the charge. It's not like we all stopped gaming from 1983-1985 until the NES saved us! :)
"Cap it off" sounds like a great title for a retro repair vlog/blog/podcast XD
Sorry to hear about the disaster that struck Mark and his family. I wih them lots of strength , support and luck in overcoming this horror.
5:15 Oops. It was actually Eric Bromley who met with Nintendo in Tokyo, discovered Donkey Kong in their offices and negotiated the deal. As head of Coleco's Advanced Research and Development (ARD) team Eric was THE driving force behind the entire ColecoVision project. There's a fantastic interview with Eric, where he talks about the entire Donkey Kong licensing piece, in Issue 73 of Retro Gamer magazine.
Get the ColUSB plug , designed to power any original 1982-1985 ColecoVision console (including both NTSC and PAL)
back-order, but worth hunting down !
I was in retail in 1982.We couldn't keep these in stock.Zaxxon was the best.Played Smurf mostly at work
I had one (in Netherlands in the 80s), and the trackball with slither game. Modded trackball to work on amiga when got a500. the big ball inside trackball made it a joy to use, and very precise too.
The reason the we had the expansion module #1 was because at the time places like toys r us had barrels full of 2600 games for a dollar. So when u didn’t have a enough cash for a colecovision game you could spend your change on a couple 2600 games at least.
Can't recall this console at all and it's not like I'm not old enough, we had a C16 (AKA Commodore Plus 4) around the same time a friend had an Atari 2600 (which I thought was pants!)
All that lovely leaded solder. No brittle joints or RRoD here!
This is the console that I got started on. Donkey Kong, Venture, Mouse Trap, Cosmic Avenger, and Star Wars. Such great memories.
Remember gateway to apshai
The ColecoVision was my first console experience. I remember my parents calling my siblings and I into the living room and surprising us with this machine running Galaxian, in the early 80s. I was astounded. It was the first time that I realized that video games could be played at home, on your on TV. I was immediately hooked, and this console is directly responsible for my love of video games.
Zaxxon was THE best Coleco gane ever. It was way ahead of it's time.
Speaking of that Coleco STEERING WHEEL*I have that AND my Father's in great condition Coleco-Vision!!Plus alot of his old games too!&The Atari adapter!ALL WORKING like new!He passed away & My mother doesn't realize the "Value" of all the old retro-gaming gear etc,But I stopped her from throwing away the Coleco,The intellivision,The ATARI 5200,The rare Computer version INTELLIVISION II,With keyboard!Its an off-white/Beige color,with a red stripe going around the 2-piece console/computer units!Plus 2 of those "Intelli-voice" units.I think my Father had bought a 2nd one,because one malfunctioned?I haven't tested either,Yet but will soon.I'm just glad I was able to get everything retro in my hands!I cleaned all cartridges and each console.I need to get C-cell battery's for that Coleco-steering wheel.My Father would be happy to see all the retro consoles working in 2024!He loved gaming alot& Even when he passed,he bought a Nes-mini,Which Sadly I didn't get hooked up before he passed.He went into a coma unfortunately,But I'm glad we got to talk a little before he deteriorated more.He would've LOOOOOVED your youtube channel!Stay creative fellow gamers!RIP Dad,We all love&miss talking an laughing with you!!
So sad to hear about what happened to your home, mate. Best of luck on your rebuilding and glad you and you're loved ones are safe! Cheers from America! :-)
So sorry to hear about Mark, thoughts are with him, hope he's able to rebuild his life again soon.
Back when the "Big Three" were the Atari 2600, Intellivision and ColecoVision, the CV always had the best looking and most faithful arcade conversions. And if the Adam Computer had not run into so many issues and delays (or if they had not wasted so many resources on it in the first place), we may have gotten a second even more powerful CV. Sadly, 1983-84 made sure that didn't happen...
Was amazed as a kid at that Turbo Add-on Wheel bitd ... Its a still pretty cool thing imo ✌️
The reason it looks a bit like later consoles is because it is.
The circuit board is a Sega SG-1000 supplied by Sega and it was used in the Sega SC-3000 computer and an upgraded version with more video RAM and another mode was used in the Sega Master System .
Coleco didn't stop with the court case ; they introduced a reverse engineered Atari VCS console called the Coleco Gemini which did not violate copyright.
One of my earliest memories involving video games was The Smurfs. It taught me early on the concept of "rage quit."
Yes, it was terrible!
I beg to differ - the Colecovision was a modern looking design for it's day. It was less sleek than it's contemporary, the Atari 5200, but was in keeping with the design language of VCR and stereo components of the mid 80s through the 90s.
I agree, and I still think it looks nice and somewhat modern today (minus those controllers of course).
"using a general purpose PNP transistor" ... "In this case we used a 2N3904" ... yup that's NPN. :D
You would be surprised about that label that was on the top. A significant number of North American systems still have it. Also look into the Super Action Controller (two more triggers and a spinning wheel) and Roller Controller and the games that supported those, IMO the Star Trek Combat Simulator game is very unusual for a home console title at the time.
The spinning wheel was supposed to be on the standard controller, early revision controller PCBs have the traces for it and everything.
WarGames (Yes, it's a movie license) is also interesting, you have to manage your response to the invasion across nine screens simultaneously, each with differing resources. The controller overlays that came with the game are massively helpful if you can find them, they label the buttons on the keypad.
The version of Choplifter isn't bad either.
I still have mine and all my games. Venture, Donkey Kong and Ladybug are my favourite games. I bought it with the money from my part-time job when I was still at school.
It was more the ADAM debacle that killed Coleco. Not the game crash. The Colecovision was still doing decent sales. But Coleco lost so much money on the ADAM it finished them.
Very sorry to hear about that Mark!
My ColecoVision is the one console in my collection that is permanently hooked up and ready to play at any time I feel like it (which is often)!
unfortunately I've been in equally dire straits to Mark's situation. All I can say right now is good luck to him and I hope we both recover soon.
I've modified my Colecovision controllers by taking the disk off and adding a joystick ball top and a 3d printed shaft to make them a bit taller, makes a huge difference in usability.
When I was a kid, I would play by resting my thumb on top of the stick’s “hat” instead of pinching it between thumb and forefinger. I developed a big callus right where the thumb bends because there’s a little lip on the ridge of the hat.
I really enjoyed this system more than the NES actually. Many good memories playing that on the weekend.
A family friend had this and it was the first console I ever played when I was young. They even had the steering wheel with brake and accelerator pedal. We played Pac-Man for hours
My uncle bought the atari expansion, and 3 or 4 games.
I still mostly played Colecovision games at my grandma's.
I remember the ColecoVision, Thanks for showcasing this beast on your channel.
Is mark vaguely local to the cave? If so I might be able to donate some time and some new carpets and flooring when the time comes for it
Well done that man, very generous.
The kindness of people restores my faith in humanity!
@@RE-wo1ss It's not unconditional kindness though. Mark is getting the help due to his celebrity, which is absolutely fine, but if someone random (who was also a nice person) had their house burned down would people be so quick to help? Probably not, and that's sad because kindness shouldn't be something which people have to earn.
@@nebularain3338 I'll interject here. Sure, Mark's celebrity status, together with his exposure on the Cave, will help bring attention to this terrible event. However, people are very predisposed to helping each other. We've managed to graduate from cave dwelling (pardon the pun) to our modern existence thanks to caring for each other. That is no small feat, and it should not be underestimated.
Sure, we can't help everyone, but that's not our own fault. In a just world, everyone's needs would be cared for. I think that, given the ability, the vast majority of people would chose to help someone ailing if they had the means to.
@@nebularain3338 The callousness of *some* people erodes my faith in humanity!
I love my colecovision i have all the add on stuff and games i play them now and then lol great video by the way nice to see this
Really sorry to hear about your home Mark, thank goodness you are all safe and well. All the best.
Those dreaded metal cone disc membrane push buttons with that sticky vinyl on the joysticks! One major incentive to learn to troubleshoot electronics. Learn to replace those membrane pimple buttons with proper mechanical momentary push buttons. THANKS FOR SHARING THIS!!
I recently RGB modded my CBS Colecovision using a TMS RGB V2 board. Highly recommend doing so. The difference in video quality is incredible. Plus no more fiddly RF tuning. Also, I'm grateful the power cable of my CBS Colecovision doesn't have a wal wart like that. Instead, it has the adapter halfway along the cable with just a normal plug on the end.
I got a Colecovision for christmas in 1982. I have fond memories of plugging that huge power brick into the wall. It worked fine. But it sure felt precarious.
I recently rebought it along with all the stuff I never got. I have a steering wheel and roller controller showing up in about a week.
There's a super game module that plugs into the front. It adds more memory and extra sound channels iirc. There are dozens of homebrew games designed for use with and without the super game module.
You guys should do a review on the steering wheel, roller controller, and super action controller. The super action controller is comically ridiculous. It has to be the craziest joystick ever made.
I remember seeing the Colecovision demoed at the Malboro stand at Silverstone 1982 or maybe 3? It was a perfect setting, glamour girls in tight fitting jump suits showing us teenage boys how to use the console and handing out free cigarettes as we played. I still have a Coleco and smoke 20 a day, so marketing if done right, really does work 😞🙂
I have both the "Turbo" Steering Wheel and the Sports Action controllers for the Baseball and I think Football games that came out. It worked great with the Baseball game for sure (I didn't have the football game). Anyway, the steering wheel meant for use with the arcade conversion of Turbo was awesome. It has pedals as well! Anyway, just thought I would mention it... Great video!
Great to see you back making videos in the 'studio' end of the cave :)
Wow, I had an ADAM and I loved it! I had all those games, blast from the past!
I didn't know there was an ADAM expansion for the ColecoVision! I've only ever seen the full stand-alone ADAM; what a monstrosity the expansion version is.
It was the dream of one day being able to expand it that convinced me to buy a ColecoVision way back in the summer of '83. My first console purchase and my first love. I never did get the massive ADAM expansion, it was pulled from the market well before I could ever afford to buy one. A year or so later I bought a second hand C64 and that became my second love. These are still my two go to systems today.
I just can't get my head around how circuit boards work so when I see someone modding it's like a dark art! 😵😂
This is a great look at the coleco, thanks! I know that this isn't the popular approach to cleaning cart slots, but here goes.
I lather the cart pins of what I call, a sacrificial game(a cheap one, but this process has never damaged any of my carts) with isoprop. I then push the cart in and out a whack of times(10-20). Then I take a cotton swab to the pins of the cart. Repeat until no more crap comes off. I've had success using this method with everything from my atari 2600 right up to the n64.
I remember it having a nice trackball add-on called the Roller Controller. It came with Slither and also worked with Centipede.
The Roller Controller is a must-have for the Colecovision in my opinion. Aside from the actual roller ball games (which also include Victory and Omega Race), if you combine it with a joystick extender for the original controller it essentially becomes an arcade stick, which is a great match to all the arcade games in the Coleco library. The roller ball even passably replaces the steering wheel, so you can play Turbo and Dukes of Hazzard.
What a joy to see this video, loved my ColecoVision as a 13yr old... what joy :)
Great job guys! I may send mine up to you for a repair :). My case still has that customer service label attached - it's still good as new!
That Pet looks amazing in the background - futuristic, but from 40 years ago
The warning label, scan it in, clean it up to make it white, stick new version on. That's my personal take :D
Sorry to hear that news.
Being a leftie I always found the controllers the best. I used to bring them down the block when playing at my friends houses on their Atari systems.
Even better were the Action Controllers! Those things were awesome!
RMC The Cave uploads a video. Sorry SNES you and the CRT well have to wait
On a serious note glad to hear Mark and family are okay
The crash didn't kill the Colecovision. Coleco had promised a full microcomputer expansion for the Colecovision long before the release of the base system. They "revised" the promise of this expansion several times, altering what was going to be included, changing the expected price, and pushing the release date back. What they eventually released, the Adam computer, was quite powerful for the time, but it was vastly more expensive than originally promised. The design was baffling to say the least. Powering the system through the daisy wheel printer, relying on unreliable high speed tape drives, etc.. They tried to tell us (I was and still am a Colecovision owner) what we needed instead of selling us what we wanted. Combine all that with an amazingly high failure rate and thus an amazingly high return rate, and you get a company killing failure. Like most people who were planning on getting the Adam expansion unit, I moved on to the Commodore 64.
Bought one second hand in 1985. Played it a ton. Found it interesting that Donkey Kong, Jr. looked much better on it than Donkey Kong did.
One point of interest is that the Colecovision is actually a close cousin to the first generation MSX, the main difference being the sound chip. An even closer relative of the Colecovision is the Sega SG-1000, the precursor to the Master System. The Z80 chip also makes it a more distant cousin of the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
B.c's quest for tires for the msx had voice
My dad got one launch-day! I was a few months shy of 2 years old, and my dad bringing it home and teaching me to play Donkey Kong is probably one of my earliest memories!
There was also a trackball add-on module that we got, and played Centipede with it! My favorite games, though, were Donkey Kong, Popeye, BC's Quest for Tires, and Zaxxon!
I hate when my adhisive sprays all over the console i work on, thankfuly Mark teached me how to properly get the job done :)
TechTangents took one of those big Step Down converters apart and they appear to be just awfully put together, usually made to sell to American soldiers, with loose solder joints, thin wiring and just a fire hazard all around.
This system was such and amazing addition to my childhood. I had so much fun with it as I was 10 years old or so when it came out. I fondly remember playing many games and played the heck out of Donkey Kong Jr
I had one of these and spent a lot of time on looping a side scrolling plane game shooting balloons and mr doo
I actually worked for Coleco during the 80s until they shut down.
The colecovision power supply had a tendency to die from overheating. If you were creative enough you could slice open the case and find a fuse that was blown. It was a common fuse that you could replace.
I had done the modification on a few power supplies and luckily Radio Shack was in business and bought some hobby cases to install them into.
Someone in France is selling a 140in 1 chip with 140 games on it. Need to flip dip switches to select what game you want ...seen it on eBay.
sorry to hear about Mark, and I never saw a PSU like that, my cousin & I each had one back in the day as well I had 3 more in later life, and they all (5) were like a C64
So sorry to hear about Mark's house fire. Glad to hear that him and his family are safe.