I love the Colecovision. It was very impressive with arcade ports for its time. Games like Ladybug, Venture, Frenzy, Mousetrap, Zaxxon, Time Pilot, Gorf, Qbert, and more were incredible arcade ports.

ColecoVision was by far the best of the second generation.

your review is just cold man , i had my colecovision back in the 80's and i loved it. i kept thinking about the good times i had playing with my friends after school . i love it so much that i just bought one today! if it wasn't for the colecovision, alot of gaming systems today would not be the same ....

Was thrilled to receive my Colecovision with pack-in Donkey Kong cart @ 10 yrs old.. Fun fact- it's the only non-Nintendo console ever to ship w/ a Nintendo pack-in game

Probably the most significant legacy of the ColecoVision is that it served as the technological reference point for Masayuki Uemura and his team at Nintendo when they were designing the Famicom. Apparently, it was the ColecoVision that technologically spurred him and the ColecoVision he had in mind when considering the image of the Famicom during development. Not surprising really, as it was certainly a cut above the other 2nd gen systems and a well engineered product.

Little 3rd party support? The Coleco had tons of it. Parker Bros, Interphase, Atarisoft, Activision, Imagic, Epyx, Spectravideo, Xonox, Sierra, Sunrise, Spinnaker...even Telegames supported the Coleco through the late '80s, mostly producing reprints of older games bought/licensed from some of the aforementioned companies (and even the Coleco-compatible DINA system made by Bit Corp.), until they ceased support for all classic systems in the early '00s.

I'm with the judge. Providing the expansion module was not unethical. Just like Apple II and PC clones that later followed, that hardware is not copywritable like a creative product is.

The Colecovision had five 'expansions'. The Adam deserved a mention. I may be biased but I feel the Colecovision was/is better than your video suggests. The Intellivision also had an Atari 2600 adapter. Not sure which came first. Thanks for the videos.

A new AVGN, and Adam Koralik Retrospective...my life is complete in 2016.

Connecticut Leather Company was CoLeCo's original name. Yep. Boots, coats, gloves, etc... That's the oddest part of their involvement.

What makes that absurdly large power brick even funnier is that there is a TON of empty space inside the ColecoVision. Certainly enough to put the power supply inside the shell and just have a normal plug.

They never shipped out bad labels "Cuz that's just how they did it back then" . The label tore off and someone just made up a crappy replacement. And there are plenty of 3rd party games for it.

IMO games on this system played much better than the 2600 versions so it's always baffled me that this never got more love.

This was my very first game console. I had Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Carnival and a few others. Nice to see it remembered here

As in this video, I've heard other people mention the huge power brick on this console and I would just like to point out the obvious . . . you don't have to plug it into the wall--you can plug the brick into a small extension cord and it would be pretty much like the X-Box or whatever.

Adam, I don’t think you adequately covered the Colecovision in your video. You had too few games, and it appears that you have not played the console much. That is understandable when trying to cover all second generation machines, which were before your time. In my opinion, The Coleco vision was the superior second generation machine. 🙂

I don't think Coleco used any custom parts. The Sega Master System is essentially a slightly upgraded Colecovison.

Colecovision had more third party support than odyssey 2. I owned both. Colecovision was and still is a great console to own if you like the early to mid 80's arcade period. Collectorvision is making a new colecovision system that plays atari 2600 games as well.

The dreamcast of that generation

You mention something around 7:30 regarding not being able to just enjoy a game because you've matured a little and it kind of reminded me of something. I feel that when I was little, I could enjoy any game not because of my innocence, but because games were an expensive luxury my parents only bought around once or twice a year. So any game I picked I was pretty much FORCED to enjoy it lol. I remember really enjoying games like Stuart Little for the GBC and Power Rangers for the SNES. As I grew older and could afford my own games, I am very picky and even then I don't enjoy the games I buy 100% of the time haha

You could also use a 2600 controller on the CV for the expansion unit.

5:53 I love AVGN's reaction to the power brink in his video: "IS THIS NECCESSARY?!" 😂 Seriously, that tickles me every time.

Wooooo Happy 30 years Adam!

Well, this one I find kinda disappointed with. When Colecovision came out, it was head and shoulders above anything else... It's games aren't just "near" arcade perfect (at it's time), most of them we're. Fantastic console and I'm happy, that I bought one at the end of it's life cycle. Sad, that it came out a little too late, for it's own good...

Happy Birthday Adam!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!!!

I had an Atari 2600 but I visited my cousins who had a ColecoVision with the Atari 2000 adapter. I played Zaxxon on it...and was blown away. Then they put a 2600 game into the adapter...and I was blown away even more!

Not sure if you are aware, but there was also the Colecovision Adam Computer, which had the Colecovision cartridge port to play games, along with a pair of direct spindle servo driven "high speed" (ha) tape drives, an expansion bay cover with three expansion slots, a detached QWERTY keyboard, those same awful "telephone" controllers, and a daisy wheel typeset quality printer. The power supply for the whole thing was in the printer, so even if you didn't use the computer functionality, you still HAD to have the printer attached... Cause IT was the power brick! It was featured in a flashback segment on the old TV show "VR 5", from the mid 1990s.

Just got my colecovision! Favorite 2nd gen console and it's story is awesome!

Donkey Kong was the only game that came with the console. You have good reviews of systems but you should do a little more research on this system. It was the best at the time and great games.

Coleco had the best version of Burger time. I actually like my Coleco better than my Atari 2600 and 7800.

These videos always make my day :)

Love your videos your seriously the best video game channel out there

Happy Birthday!

Awesome video Adam!

Happy birthday!

Some of this was probably mentioned, but I'd actually say that 3rd party support was pretty good for CV. Activision and Imagic released their top games, and they were superior to VCS of course. The Mattel games are garbage. The Coleco developed games featured a ton of arcade titles that were not licensed by competitors, which was kind of their aim. So they got the Exidy, Stern, Bally games that Atari or Mattel did not. The console actually sold well for several years, but Coleco got slammed by the failure of the Adam computer. As for the power supply, for whatever the reason they decided to run different voltages to different parts of the system, and so the Adapter had to be big enough to supply +5V, -5V, and +12V voltages at once. Normally the adapter would supply ONE voltage, and you'd put regulators on the motherboard to step it down where needed. It was quite backwards to do it their way.

This was the best system of its gen

Happy birthday Adam~ And Merry Christmas

Coleco had actually been a huge player in the FIRST generation--their Telstar was one of the most popular Pong clones, I think because they were among the first ones to use a low-cost system-on-chip design that allowed them to price it to move. That was what got them into video games, and they had a long series of dedicated consoles that followed--one was a tank game, some had light guns. Their last pong was a freaky-looking triangular console that had paddle dials on one side, a big steering wheel on the second and a disturbingly realistic light gun holstered in the third.

Happy belated birthday!

Adam that power brick was so huge & heavy it was as strong as Thor’s hammer!!!!!!!

It's extremely rare so I'm not surprised you don't have it, but concidering the name, I'm surprised you didn't mention expantion #3.

great video adam

cool video talk adam

Of the three major systems of that generation, the Colecovison was king because I could leverage my 2600 cart collection with the Colecovison 2600 add-on. Plus, thanks to Coleco's devious nature, on the Colecovison, I could play almost pixel perfect Donkey Kong. 😉

I definitely owned the Coleco. I loved the T.V. commercial. It sure captured my attention. I played zaxxon but my fave was track n field. I owned it for 6 or 7 years that I remember. I sold it off. It was still working.

you can also use a genesis controller with this as well which is nice. i have A LOT of love for this console and im glad you did a retrospective on this.

That power brick is massive! And I thought the one for the TI-99 was big!

The lack of an LED makes it tricky to know if the unit is getting power. Mine wont play and I'm not sure if its the unit or the power supply as both can tend to go bad.

The display chip on a Atari 2600 is called the "TIA" or Television interface adapter it is a "custom" purpose designed Atari Chip .,. so the Atari 2600 does not use all off the shelf parts ... Coleco' must have reverse engineered the "Atari custom TIA" chip (Which handles both the systems graphics and sound ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_Interface_Adaptor

Coleco also made the TELSTAR way back in 1976. Which also happens to be my very first console as a kid. Well, technically it was my brother's, but it was the first system I gamed on.

happy birthday Adam lol

Started collecting for this system during the pandemic, such an impressive console for the time. The games here look and play much better than Atari or Intellivision. What's really cool too is despite its obscurity, the homebrew scene is still alive and kicking!

Fill my eyes, with that DoubleVision.....

Here's a thought. If you have a collection of Colecovision and Atari 2600 games, which would be more convenient? Having both systems set up, or just the Colecovision with its expansion module?

DO the first generation retrospective of all pong systems even if you don't have them, just talk remotely about them.

thats mad about the pen-written labels! and the atari-feltching.. wild west indeed.

The colecoVision was referenced in *South Park* Kenny's family has one . I want one .

Genesis controller works on it. SG-1000 and Colecovision have very similar hardware. The Colecovision is actually Sega's first console confirmed.

The first system I owned was an Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision had better graphics but my parents bought me the 2600. When the Colecovision came out I was blown away by the graphics, I had a friend who owned one and played Donkey Kong every chance I got when I went to his place. Unfortunately he didn't own Zaxxon but I did play it on a Colecovision at the CNE which is an annual fair in Toronto.

I had this unit as well it was bring out so you could play with out intervision games as well and I think it was going to have a add-on replay apple games

That Smurf game is one of the most difficult games I ever played.

Hey! Welcome to the 30 club. Hope You enjoy! :)

I got my hands on these idk abit over 10 years old I think. I got a little less games then you do and only one proper controller. It indeed must of been a powerful system for its time based on the ones I've played compared to it's competition. Sadly it's boxed away with allot of my other consoles of that generation since I don't have the space to have them hooked up sadly.... I miss my old place, I had my own extra room in the apartment filled with vintage computers and game consoles. Hell.... I even had a Commodore 64 hooked up in the bedroom, and just about every other console I had hooked up in my living room.... maybe a bit much..... but I was happy lol.

There was also a steering wheel expansion module for playing Turbo. I think another expansion module was a trackball. More recently, there was a memory expansion module and there are new games to support it. Gamester81 had a video about it. I never had one. The only new game I had was Battle of Hoth which was essentially a clone of the Empire Strikes Back game released in 2013.

be nice to see some short game play clips during description.

My parents bought me the colecovision back in 82. For its time it was ahead in graphics. Hated the controls but games like triathlon, zaxxon, pitfall etc were amazing for its time. I never had the atari expansion port but do agree that was like highway robbery. It would had been an outrageous ruling by a judge today.

That plugin looks like a quick way to burn your house down haha

I actually had a Colecovision as a kid, and Coleco third parties had some $30 titles at Sears in 1984 and 85. 2 of the best ones were from Parker Bros. They were QBert's Cubes and Mr Do's Castle. What killed the Colecovision was their computer called The Coleco Adam. It was either stand alone or a CV add on. That's what killed Coleco's contract with Nintendo. It blurred the line between a console and a computer, and the Nintendo agreement had Coleco make console versions, and Atari make computer versions. Colecovision was the number one video game system locally within 1984 because Colecovision wasn't on a fire sale like Atari. Atari sol more consoles, but they had $20 consoles vs Coleco's $100. We gorged on Coleco games eventually owning half the collection. Speaking of gorging, my brother gave the system to a friend of his who never returned it. So I was on a quest to get it back. Even in the NES days, no one had Colecovision. Then soneone at Video Game Echange gave me 2 pieces of advice:. A Retro game store that was around in 1993 called Video Game Connection, and I found out about Goodwill, garage sales, and similar places. Rarely found Coleco stuff even then. but I found everything else, 2600, Bally Astrocade, Odyssey 2. Intellivision, 5200 Starpath Supercharger add on for the 2600, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Master System, 7800, Turbo Grafx 16, 3DO, Jaguar, Virtual Boy, and many games at bargain basement prices. I'll give you one guess of what pop culture phenomenon started to make trips to the Thrift Stores dry up. If thrift store hunting was a religion, this would be the birth of Christ in terms of a clear before and after. Any guesses?

Damn, I've seen some GB shirts, but that one is legit.

And I could play Turbo with the Wheel that left my hands absolutely black with some sort of odd resin that Coleco decided to use on the wheel proper. I'm pretty sure it's why I've no finger prints now.

I know what Adam's talking about when he says that part of him that could just get attached to old games and get engrossed in them died, because it happened to me somewhere during my time playing the 360... until the past couple of years when I got my Dreamcast. Now I just play old games and it's like when I was a kid and I got my first console, a PS1. Now I'm playing just nostalgic, 2001 and earlier games for various old consoles plus the 360 games I still like. Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Super Nintendo, PS1, hell, I've even found a few NES games recently that I love, which is something I thought would never happen (for a while I've kinda thought the NES was overrated and looked down on people who worship it, glad I'm much more open minded about it now)

Basically, this retrospective series will be the final one, because the first generation like you said: is the Pong Consoles only.

Shit didnt know you're friends with DeeDave. You really should go to one of the Retropalooza conventions next year, I'd love to meet you there dude.

It came with more then one game?

so u had that celeco vision back n 2000?

*what am i trying to figure out ?*

I only saw its games on screens so far but I think they looked pretty solid for what they were. The 2600 adapter is one huge mindfuck from today's perspective tho. There has been a similar product for the Commodore64 and 128 to use AppleII soft- and hardware with it but I only saw it once on some on print scan online.

Some points... the Atari 2600 does have custom silicon inside it. The TIA chip which handles graphics and sound is custom. Designed by Jay Miner who would design the Atari 400/800 computers [and thus the 5200 indirectly] and later was the father of the Amiga computer line. The rest of the silicon was MOS/Synertek/Rockwell usuals with the 6507 and the RIOT chips. But what happened since the 1977 release of the 2600 was that the TIA chip was successfully cloned in a "clean room" operation. So the chip Coleco used in the 2600 adapter and the Gemini console are clones of the TIA chip. The courts ruled Coleco could do that and thus Atari couldn't block them - or Mattel's adapter for the Intellivision 2 - but Atari turned around and successfully sued Coleco for $300 million+ over patent infringement and won/settled. The Colecovision doesn't have any custom silicon in it. It has the Z80 CPU and TI graphics and sound chips inside it. The only real thing that's custom is the BIOS. And consequently, Atari planned to make a Colecovision adapter for the 5200 with the same case design as the 5200's 2600 Adapter - dubbed by Atari's engineering team as the "Piggyback Parasite" - but The Crash killed that plan along with the 5200. Once Jack Tramiel bought up the assets of Atari Consumer, that adapter remained cancelled and the new company also cancelled the planned 7800 Adapter for the 5200. The Colecovision's tile graphics from the TI graphics chip influenced Nintendo's use of tile graphics in the Famicom/NES. That TI graphics chip was directly in response to Atari's ANTIC graphics chip on the 400/800 so it's all connected.

I've never actually owned one or even played one but I've always felt that if I did have one it would probably be my favourite console of the 2nd Generation.

Adam, HELP. Is the Sega Genesis 3 an ACTUAL genesis console? I ran across one and wanted to know if I should pick it up.

I had one of these badboy's back in the day. Only had 2 game's tho lol Smerf and Donkey Kong :)

I need repair mine, i want play some jumpman jr , pit stop, and few others...lol

I'm commenting first, I was impressed with the coleco, I never had one as a kid but I definitely missed out.

when I was a little nipper this was the first console we had. I have bought one a couple years ago for about £50 which is about half the going rate in the uk. you should try lady bug and venture. both great games and very cheap. oh and zaxxon is a brilliant game.

I have this System & did a composite video mod & have the ColUSB PSU replacement because my BRICK is dead.

I'll be honest, the main reason I'm watching this vid is because I remember the south park reference.

Thanks adam for the video! and l like all your comments onec more!! XD

I remember getting the Coleco Vision to replace my Atari 2600. Of course I had the expansion so all my 2600 games lived on. I think the only 2 games I had for it were Zaxxon and Donkey Kong. I almost want to get a Flashback console of it as the other Flashbacks pretty much all have compilation discs I can play. Atari Anthology, Intellivision Lives, Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis collection, Activision Anthology. I have all of those, but I have yet to see a Coleco Vision compilation disc. Of course I could get emulators, but I'd rather get the Flahsback console.

I used my colecovision power brick on an extension cord. the brick was just too big and I had it come out of the wall socket twice before I said screw it I'm not going to keep doing this

Adam, an off-topic question, do you think I should buy an used original 60gb PS3? Is the one you have still alive? Or should I just get a Slim one?

3:00 As the AVGN put it when talking about something similar, "there would be lawsuits up the ass."

I have the atari 2600 adapter for my intellivision I believe is called the system changer

Other then an emulator how can you play Colecovision games?

Wasn't there a new console from Coleco coming out this year?

Hey Adam, try some Goo Gone to see if that will get out the WD-40. Goo Gone is also good for wiping off price tag sticker residue. Every collector should have some. Of course you'll have to wipe off the Goo Gone afterwards, otherwise it leaves an oily residue, but that's better than sticky residue.

The Intellivision had an Atari 2600 adapter too. Has the Intellivision II styling. That's actually my Atari 2600 since I can't seem to get video from my actual Atari.

if there were only one console to buy from this generation which would pick in the terms of having the best version of the most common games found on each

5:55 "Is this necessary? Look I can't fit this god-for-saken piece of shit in the electrical outlet, unless there is nothing next to it! What a fucking hog! That's what it is, a self-indulgent glutton of a power hog!"