ataridave Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Coleco as we knew them (or at least what little remained) went away in 1988, with their remaining assets either already sold off or taken over by another entity. Riverwest, aka Coleco Holdings, is a holding company that eventually got the rights well after this period to some of the Coleco-related videogame stuff. They're no more Coleco than the present day Atari is Atari. They just own the rights to certain properties. That's pretty much standard practice though with these classic company names/IPs, i.e., eventually company X buys the rights to Y and calls themselves Y, even though they're not really Y, they're just leveraging the name. The hope is of course that the casual observer doesn't dig too deep and is "fooled" into thinking it's the original company back from the dead, like what happened with, for example, Commodore USA a few years back. It's obviously not the same, though. Gotcha! Thanks Bill! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Ditto Bill. Present day Atari is no more Atari than Nintendo, Sega, Sony, or Microsoft is. Coleco appears to be in the same boat, with modern day companies retaining certain properties but not others. Like the battlezone casualty which recently got sold off. Also properties are still being swapped about. Take a look at some of the many games that have been taken away and added between the Atari Flashbacks 2 and 5. Pitfall 2 is one casualty of that. Niether of the Activision titles released on FB2 ever made it to 2+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Take a look at some of the many games that have been taken away and added between the Atari Flashbacks 2 and 5. Pitfall 2 is one casualty of that. Niether of the Activision titles released on FB2 ever made it to 2+. Activision is one of the companies that lasted, albeit with some major ups and downs over the years (Mediagenic anyone?). On the plus side, I think AtGames at least has a shot now of getting Activision on board for future products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Activision may not have changed hands much, but even the current company is but a shadow of it's former glory. Outside of the Call of Duty franchise and a few others, much of the current catalog is quick cash-ins based on current licenses. A number of the Activision published titles released on Wii were came across as cheap filler which scored low marks in Nintrndolife reviews. So, what happened to this company, which created so many innovative VCS games during the Atari era? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Activision may not have changed hands much, but even the current company is but a shadow of it's former glory. Outside of the Call of Duty franchise and a few others, much of the current catalog is quick cash-ins based on current licenses. A number of the Activision published titles released on Wii were came across as cheap filler which scored low marks in Nintrndolife reviews. So, what happened to this company, which created so many innovative VCS games during the Atari era? Well, this is not really the topic for such a discussion, but, to play Devil's Advocate for a moment, the company has survived for 35 years, and in that time the industry has been through several booms and busts, and changed dramatically from when they started life as the first third party software company for a console. It's natural in that time for them to have survived and still prosper today for much of their original modes of operation to have evolved along with the rest of the industry. Outliers don't last. As for innovation, that again is a completely different discussion. It's easy enough to argue with the volume of content out there that we have more innovation than ever before and that it was easier to notice innovation when Activision first started because there was so little preceding it. Taking off the nostalgia glasses for a moment, there was a LOT of copying and redundancy back then as well, including by Activision. There is and was very little isolated inspiration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Ditto Bill. Present day Atari is no more Atari than Nintendo, Sega, Sony, or Microsoft is. Coleco appears to be in the same boat, with modern day companies retaining certain properties but not others. Like the battlezone casualty which recently got sold off. Also properties are still being swapped about. Take a look at some of the many games that have been taken away and added between the Atari Flashbacks 2 and 5. Pitfall 2 is one casualty of that. Niether of the Activision titles released on FB2 ever made it to 2+. It was Pitfall, not Pitfall 2. And you're still talking as if rights changed hands here. I already explained to you that Atari merely licensed Pitfall and River Raid for the Atari Flashback 2. They haven't returned for subsequent iterations since they haven't been re-licensed. These classic properties haven't changed hands. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconhood Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Payday is upon me, so I went to TRU site to get primed to preorder this and the other two flashbacks due in Oct...but they are gone! Atari 5 FB is still there, but WHAT happened to the Colecovision and Intellivision FBs??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconhood Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 It's not just you. I just checked with their chat agent. The person told me that it's possible that pre-order stock has been sold out. The item would be re-listed on the website when it is available to purchase. I think it can only be a good thing for them to have sold out of their pre-orders for the Coleco, Intellivision, and Sega units. I guess a lingering question would be, "how large was that allocation?" but since we will never know, let's just pretend it's awesome news! I'm glad I ordered mine already. :-) well, that sucks for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 These won't be a scarce item, so it's not a major deal the preorder is closed for now. That at least means demand is good, so that's a good thing for potential future versions of this as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Someplace in the Midwest today, a European 51 y.o. dude stopped at some store, and bought these. [Yeah, I know. They were not supposed to be sold until October 1st. Maybe my charming accent helped ].I love the units and the controllers. They feel "real", look about the same size as the original (will check later on), and the Colecovision controller feel better, more responsive, less clunky! Will try them out later on, after dinner. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Jealous!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I'd happily share the happiness if I could . [Wait, maybe they are bad . However, I have good feelings about them. The controllers alone scream "quality", and they've done a good job with the way the units look, also] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HkryCrkStudio Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 AtGames themselves is only distributing through US retailers at the present time. Coleco Holdings is able to use a sub-distributor if they so choose, but neither AtGames or I have insight into that. That's up to them. In other words if they're saying Canada (and are not simply mistaken, which is possible as if you just read through this thread you'll see how things have evolved over time), then presumably they have bought x number of units and worked out a deal with another distributor. The same would obviously apply to other territories, but it's not direct from or through AtGames. And Coleco Holdings LLC won't answer my question, so maybe they don't really know themselves if this will be sold in Canada. Perhaps just making some empty promises to appease us passive canucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Fairly bad quality video, but you get the idea. I'm VERY pleased with this product! The controllers feel great, very much like the original, yet better. The "mushroom" stick has a nice click to it, and it's very responsive. The side buttons are great, equally more responsive. The keypad, rather than being made of one single layer, has individual buttons, nice and soft. Emulation is spot-on, down to the (annoying? ] few seconds delay on the title screen. Pepper II plays just like the original (I'm a big fan of this game). Excellent product! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks for the info, pics and video! Any reason for being secretive about where in the Midwest and what store the FB units were bought at? From the video, it looks like the power cable plugs into the right side towards the front of the CV FB. if this is the case, why in the world would AtGames place the power conector there instead of the back of the unit???? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Ugh the power cable is in the front right side... I agree it's ugly, and it will probably make hooking up the unit rather awkward. Not sure why they couldn't fish it around back. But this is still nice! The emulation looks pretty damn good and I'm glad the controller is great. Now I will really miss Donkey Kong and all the other games even more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Thanks for the info, pics and video! Any reason for being secretive about where in the Midwest and what store the FB units were bought at? From the video, it looks like the power cable plugs into the right side towards the front of the CV FB. if this is the case, why in the world would AtGames place the power conector there instead of the back of the unit???? Not really. It was on the shelf of a chain store. I didn't know about the new release date of October 1st (they were supposed to be released sometime in August, the last thing I knew. I came back from Europe for the summer 2 days ago. I did not keep up with related news while I was gone). I was told at the counter that they were not supposed to be sold until October 1st, but since they were on the shelf... I wondered about the power connector on the side / front, but it really does not bother me. The Intellivision one is on the side, also, but towards the back of the unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I could care less what side of the console the power connector is on, so long as it's not bundled into the RF jack like a certain classic Atari console [cough]5200[/cough]. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didimo63 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I wondered about the power connector on the side / front, but it really does not bother me. The Intellivision one is on the side, also, but towards the back of the unit. Sorry, my bad. The Intellivision power connector is in the exact same position, right-hand side, towards the front. Doesn't bother me, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekkiELO Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I think Battlezone was one of the IPs that actually sold in the first round of Atari IP auctions last summer before they reorganized and decided to not liquidate everything. That might be the reason for non-inclusion. I notice that Math Grand Prix is also missing from the list, another of the IPs that sold. Math Gran Prix was never on any Atari Flashback, only "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekkiELO Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Apparently all Toys R Us stores have these on their shelves now at $39.99! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Apparently all Toys R Us stores have these on their shelves now at $39.99! Can you confirm that? My sources say only one retailer got the early stock (and were of course not supposed to break October 1 street date). If Toys R Us is officially doing it too, then I imagine none of them will be waiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekkiELO Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 (edited) Can you confirm that? My sources say only one retailer got the early stock (and were of course not supposed to break October 1 street date). If Toys R Us is officially doing it too, then I imagine none of them will be waiting. I can confirm as I've called some of my local Toys R Us stores and they have stock of all 3 including the Atari Flashback 4 from last year! What other retailer, Dollar General? Please contact me via Facebook if necessary. Edited August 24, 2014 by TrekkiELO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekkiELO Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Is it me or is the Colecovision Flashback and the Intellivision Flashback not on the toysrus.com site anymore? I still see the Atari Flashback 5. Guess we now know why the preorder links were taken down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Good for fans, but what a mess! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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