atari2600land's Blog - "Fun" with a Colecovision

[RSS Bot]

So after I went to the bank, I figured I might as well stop into Game Star and see what they had. As it turns out, they had an overpriced Colecovision. I've always wanted a Colecovision, so I bought it. The only game they had for it was Donkey Kong. I figured I needed a game for it (it's no fun without a game, right?) so I bought it as well. I got the thing home and it was acting strange. Sometimes the picture was really weird, acting like an Atari 2600 with no game in it and you turn it on anyway. I asked for help in the AtariAge Colecovision forum. After hearing I might need to solder (and I don't know how), I thought I was sunk. Following the advice of trying to clean the power switch, I unscrewed and got the case off. I cleaned it. It looked a little better, I figured cleaning it some more might do it. Then I cleaned it some more. I plugged some stuff back in, and the thing didn't power up at all. Oh no, I thought, I broke the Colecovision! As it turned out, I had plugged the wrong cord in. I plugged the cord back in. Still nothing. Argh! I checked the 2/4 channel switch, put it on channel 4 and just like that, after about an hour of cleaning, the picture was just fine! But now I have a new problem: I can't put the case back on. And then another problem emerged. I finally admitted to myself that I suck at Donkey Kong. I think part of the problem though was the wonky controller that came with it. Yesterday I tried to put in a Colecovision Flashback controller in but it didn't like that. The joystick didn't work. And the DK cart said "Colecovision and Adam." I wondered if that would work since my Colecovision is not an Adam. I don't even know what an Adam is. I thought an Adam was something Apple had made a long time ago. But anyway, now that I have a working Colecovision, I need more games for it. Sure, I can find hundreds of Atari 2600 games in these types of stores, but not Colecovision ones.

http://atariage.com/forums/blog/168/entry-12928-fun-with-a-colecovision/