When compiling my list of games, I wanted to add my Colecovision games and discovered that the Colecovision and its games aren't in the database. I think this needs to be corrected because the Colecovision was one of the finest videogame systems of all time.
The Colecovision for its time delivered cutting-edge games, it featured better graphicsthan any other console of its time, and after seeing Donkey Kong then Donkey Kong Jr. in the arcades then hoping to be able to get a home version that in some ways resembled them only to be totally disappointed by the stinking pile of goo that was the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong, one just had to run out and get the very authentic especially in comparison to the 2600 Colecovision version of Donkey Kong.
As a matter of fact, the Colecovision version of Donkey Kong and especially the version of Donkey Kong that was available on the the Coleco Adam computer and computer attachment for the Colecovision rival any pure version of Donkey Kong that I've ever seen on a Nintendo console as far as faithfulness to the arcade version of Donkey Kong. In the Adam version, just like in the arcade version, the game begins with Donkey Kong snatching Pauline and then climbing the building structure (true he DK does go to the wrong side on Adam once he gets to the top, but still he climbed the building just like in the arcade version) follwed by a blink that switches to the "How High Can You Go? message screen. I've never seen that in one of Nintendo's home ports of Donkey Kong. Certainly, that didn't happen in the NES version included in Donkey Kong Classics much to my disappointment. Also, the Coleco Adam version came on a cassette tape packaged in a cardboard box that looked exactly like the arcade cabinet of Donkey Kong.
Much as Nintendo's fans have been very fond of expansion items and attachments that allowed them to expand their consoles in new ways during its lifetime ie. the balance board on the Wii and the upcoming Wii Motion Plus, the Colecovision was the first system that I can remember ever allowing owners the ability to purchase expansion modules for their system.
They had Expanison Module #1 that gave Colecovision owners the ability to pop almost any Atari VCS or 2600 game into it so that they good enjoy all of the games available on the 2600 (a feature that I believe Atari's own advance 8-bit system the Atari 5200 didn't allow owners to do) on the Colecovision.
It had Expansion Module #2 which was a steering wheel and accelerator pedal that came packaged with the Colecovision version of Turbo. This was the first home driving wheel and accelerator peddle that I ever remember seeing for a home racing game. And then there was the aforementioned Expansion Module #3 which was the Adam Home Computer attachment that allowed owners to slip the Adam hub, into the same slot on the front of the Colecovision that Expansion Module #1 fit into to allow Colecovision owners to play 2600 games on their system, to allow Colecovision owners the exciting ability to transform their existing videogame console into a full-fledged 8-bit computer. That was a very favorable feature to have on a video game console in the early eighties. The Adam could also be purchased separately. The Adam was unfortunately done in by that bane of many new computer systems over the years. It had a prohibitively high price point $500.00 and on top of that it had a very fragile tape deck, so that most people that didn't know about that probably broke their Adams on day one as my father and I must have done (leading to a latter purchase of an IBM PC Jr. about a week later after we returned the Coleco Adam we couldn't get to work back to where we purchased it).
Outstanding games on Colecovision include: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Smurfs an early platformer that was more complex in graphics and abilities than Pitfall on the 2600 but not in the same league as Miyamoto's Nintendo platformers although still an excellent early example of the platform genre, several shooters including Space Fury, Sega's Zaxxon, and a good version of Sega's Buck Roger's Planet of Zoom (also this came with the Adam as its gamepak and was very close to the arcade in terms of graphics), Burger Time, Ken Uston's Black Jack Poker, Venture, several arcade conversions such as the early action rpg Venture, Pepper II, Lady Bug, Mouse Trap, and a very early and amazing rts type game in War Games based on the United Artists' motion-picture starring Mathew Broderick and a computer obsessed with the idea of playing a real-world game of Thermo-Nuclear War.
The Colecovision was one of the most amazing of all pre-Nintendo video game consoles, and I think that the Colecovision and its games are very deserving of a spot in the VGChartz database.
The History of the Colecovison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision
The Colecovision's Best Games:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1482.html
Colecovision Adam Donkey Kong
Colecovision Adam Donkey Kong Jr.
Colecovision Sega's Buck Rogers
Colecovision Smurfs
Colecovision War Games
Heavens to Murgatoids.
