A long, long time ago Colecovision won a forum poll to decide which platform I would review next. I put it off for a long fucking time, but I decided to give it a shot. So here we go.

To refresh your memory, here are my other reviews:
Mattel Hyperscan
Atari Lynx
3DO
Atari Jaguar
Nokia N-Gage QD
Virtual Boy

As you might have noticed, the above platforms were all fringe platforms. For one reason or another, most of them sold poorly and are generally hated or misunderstood by the average gamer.

But the Colecovision is a different story. From 1982 until late 1984, Colecovision was the platform of choice for hardcore gamers. It died along with the rest of the second generation consoles (aside from the resilient 2600) during the great Crash, and people quickly forgot about it when the NES came out. But for a few years, Colecovision was king.

It has far more advanced than the 2600 or Intellivision. Colecovision and its main competitor, Atari 5200, were the first consoles that let people have the arcade experience at home. Sure, the 2600 had some versions of arcade games, but they hardly resembled the games they were based on. 2600 and Intellivision were both far better for original games. Colecovision was all about bringing the arcade home. Sort of the Neo-Geo or Saturn of its day. Atari 5200 had similar capabilities, but it had too many issues to take out Colecovision (maybe I’ll tell you about those issues when I review 5200).

Let’s look at the system:

There are a few points of interest. You’ll notice the cartridge slot on the top of the unit. It has a hinge-based dust cover, which wasn’t common on systems at the time. The on/off switch is on the right, with the reset button residing on the left. Taking a page from the Intellivision’s book, the controllers rest inside the system. This makes for convenient storage, and I actually like it. The last, and possibly most important thing you’ll notice is the expansion slot on the front. What could that be for? Well, as it turned out, a lot of things. One expansion module was an arcade steering wheel, allowing you to play driving games with more precision. Sounds like standard stuff these days, but before the Colecovision driving games were either played with a joystick or an Atari hand wheel controller (which looks like a Pong paddle, except the wheel turns 360 degrees). Coleco also released an expansion module which allowed you to play Atari 2600 games. That’s a huge “fuck you” to your primary competitor, right there. Imagine an Xbox 360 add-on, produced by Microsoft, that let you play PS2 or PS3 games on it. Atari tried to sue, but they lost the case because the Atari 2600 was made entirely of parts you could buy off the shelf. The third expansion module turned the Colecovision into a fully functional ADAM computer, complete with keyboard and printer. Not useful by today’s standards and a huge financial failure, but still sort of cool.

Let’s take a closer look at those nifty controllers:

Again, reminiscent of the Intellivision, but also distinct. It has two fire buttons (one on either side), a joystick on top, and a keypad. The keypad has a slot which lets you slide an overlay over it, making it easy to identify functions in games that require more than two buttons. The keypad can be a little difficult to access, but it really isn’t used for regular gaming. A special attack every now and again, menu navigation, switching modes, and other such things. One cool thing about the system is that it uses a standard 9-pin connector, just like Genesis and Atari 2600/7800. So once you get a game started, you can swap out your controller for a different one if you like.

The graphics on the Colecovision blew those of previous systems out of the water. The only contemporary system that could compete with it was 5200, and the two systems have numerous advantages and disadvantages when compared to one another. Take a look at a few Colecovision games:

Very, very good compared to Atari 2600. Colecovision games tended to look clearner and more colorful than their 5200 counterparts. In contrast, a 5200 game often had better sound and smoother movement.

And now we come to the system’s library. As I mentioned before, the Colecovision had a lot of great arcade ports. It has the best version of GORF you can find. It also has great versions of Galaxian, Frogger, Centipede, Defender, Frenzy, and (of course) Donkey Kong. Some of the mentioned games have better versions on 7800, but the Colecovision definitely has the best versions of some of them and also some great exclusives. If you like SHMUPs, early platformers, or arcade games in general you’re going to feel right at home with Colecovision. You won’t find a better version of Pitfall, Defender, Dragonfire, or Riveraid. The Colecovision is also the way to go for home versions of more obscure arcade titles, like Congo Bongo or BurgerTime. For original titles, look no further than the hilarious BC’s Quest for Tires or Space Panic.

I should mention that the Colecovision’s hardware can be a bit problematic. Not as bad as PS2 or Xbox 360 by a long shot, but it’s worth bringing up. Sometimes you’ll end up with a noisy video signal, which indicades that your power switch needs to be cleaned from the inside. Also, there’s a chip inside the system that oversees the controlles that has been known to go out. It happened to my system, and though it wasn’t hard at all to fix, it was a pain in the ass. And the power supplies themselves often died out, but luckily, they’re external and not too hard to find.

Bottom line? The Colecovision was an outstanding system. Overshadowed by the Atari 2600 and NES (the two biggest systems that immedinately preceded and succeeded it), but an amazing system in its own right. The only reason I can think of for its relatively unknown status is its short lifespan, because while it was around it sold pretty well (about three times as many units as Atari 5200). The system is fairly expensive these days (60 dollars and up for a loose console), but many of its games are dirt cheap. They’re often mistaken for 2600 carts at used game stores, which makes it easy to pick them up on the cheap.

So, do I recommend the Colecovision? It depends on who it’s for. Retro gamers, arcade enthusiasts, and collectors will have tons of fun with it. Your average 15 year old 360 owner will probably not understand it. It’s sort of expensive and a little buggy, but it’s still an outstanding console. I might recommend getting the Colecovision and the expansion module to play Atari 2600 games, to save you the space of having two whole consoles and add more value to the Colecovision itself.

Final score: A-