| SidOfBee said: Taking the entire history of videogames into account, I choose my first console... The ColecoVision It's almost like people forget this console. It existed in that space between the Atari VCS/2600 and the NES here in America. It seemed to be popular when I was young, and I even had the Module 1 so I could play Atari 2600 games. Even then, it was clear to my 5 year old eyes, the ColecoVision graphics were much better. It was the first place I got to experience Donkey Kong! It was the pack in game! That's right, A NINTENDO game was the pack in game for a non Nintendo console! And it was a great conversion. The NES version wasn't even much better. The controllers were pretty good for the time too. I preferred them to the joysticks I had used prior, only to eventually be introduced to the NES game pad and obviously those took the cake.... but this was years prior to the NES taking over the US. The ColecoVision had great, best of the generation versions of: Donkey Kong Frogger Q Bert Zaxxon Smurfs Jungle Hunt Popeye Pitfall Congo Bongo Galaxian and more. I guess it seems like I lived in some alternate version of videogame history sometimes. I got into gaming literally DURING the crash. I remember my poor parents buying me cheap games in discount bargain bins... I didn't know the difference. I played the hell out of Spiderman and ET for the 2600. I beat ET. I don't care what people think in their revisionist history, but there were much worse games than ET. Heck, Spiderman was worse. Regardless, when I see the history of videogames being portrayed in media it seems to go from the 2600 to the NES, negating this awesome system and it's nice little run that gave me awesome memories, even if it tends to just be a footnote. Oh, and BTW.. the ColecoVision had a great version of PacMan!!! I was spared from the 2600 atrocity. |
I was going through this thread and agreeing with just about every post, and then I got to this one. I agree so much with this. The Colecovision was the first console I grew up with. People today tend to overlook it or downplay the impact it had at the time of its release because the North American Video Game Crash happened so soon after. The Crash was another thing that I have seen people recently downplay as if it was an event that became overexaggerated over time. But, it was very real for me growing up in the 80's. I remember my father driving me to Toys R Us in the mid-80's asking for release dates on Coleco games which would never see the light of day.
The Colecovision also played a key role in the development of the Famicom/NES. Nintendo executives have stated that Coleco set the bar for graphical quality of home video gaming. The two companies had several meetings which resulted in Coleco securing the rights to program and distribute the home versions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.
I'm not sure though what Pac-Man you are remembering though? Atari had the exclusive home console rights to Pac-Man. They did release an Intellivision version under their Atarisoft label that was much better than the 2600 version. Atarisoft also created a prototype of Pac-Man for the Colecovision, but it was never released. It was probably being worked on too close to the Crash. Although homebrew versions do exist on cartridge format now.
In addition to the games mentioned on your list, other personal favorites of mine were:
Mr. Do
Bump n Jump
Donkey Kong Jr.
Gateway to Apshai
Venture
Root Beer Tapper
Lady Bug
Mouse Trap
Carnival
Space Fury
Cosmic Avenger
