Collecting Scene

[TheCurlyBard]

I don't see many topics here on collecting, and the eBay market seems really stale - all bin sales, not much seems to move.

 

To me it seems like a good system to collect for - not many stupid expensive games, boxes and manuals available at reasonable prices too.

 

So what gives? Is it just that the community is small and you all have the games you want? Or is the lack of limited releases, protos, etc just unnapealling for hard-core collectors? Is the scene alive and I'm just not looking in the right places?

 

What are you collecting goals and did you reach them? Personally I've got just 13 games, and aiming to collect the titles I'm interested in playing, and any rarities I happen to find along the way.

Edited August 12, 2018 by TheCurlyBard

[HoshiChiri]

Having picked up my Colecovision not quite a year an a half ago, I'd say there's an issue with identity for the system. Why does one own a Colecovision? What do you play on it? A lot of what's on the system is arcade ports... and in a post-mame world, that's just not as nessecary a thing to have around. For most of my systems I can name something that's good or interesting (not nessecarily both) to play on it exclusively. I don't even know what's exclusive on the Colecovision. I remember trying to find a list back when I got it & not suceeding.

 

My collecting goals are along your lines, with the caveat that I don't really know what titles I'm interested in playing. I have Telly Turtle and Illusions noted as titles to look for, but aside from that I don't often find Coleco content to tip me off to additional games. It's one of the few systems I shop for like my sister shops for games- "the words in this title are interesting, I'm going to impulsively buy it." I did get a new game at Seattle Retro a few months ago. I got a Donkey Kong cart out of a dollar bin. Oddly enough, my starter lots did not include Donkey Kong, so I was happy to find a cheap one.

[dj_convoy]

I lucked out when I bought my CV a few years ago and got an eBay lot with all of the expansion modules, Super controllers, the Roller controller and like thirty + games, so I'm not out there pounding pavement everyday for CV stuff. I mostly keep an eye out for quality of life stuff (like that new USB power supply or controllers) and homebrew. There aren't a ton of actual games I truly need left at this point.

 

It's much like my Atari 5200; there are a handful of games I would still like to get (that's one of the systems I'd like to have a complete set for), but I'm not on the hunt on a consistent basis.

Edited August 12, 2018 by dj_convoy

[digress]

I can suggest a few that are only on colecovision that are worth checking out.

 

Smurf - it is available on atari 2600 too but this is really the original and best version.

Alcazar - is both rare and good. It is ona few other systems but I've not seen a better version

Frenzy - The coleco version is better than the aracde

Looping - Depends on your taste but this it agreat version but it was an arcade port

SPy hunter - The coleco version is very different & yet the same as the arcade. It's a really good version

 

There are some home brew exclusives too in recent years that are only on colecovision.

[TheCurlyBard]

Having picked up my Colecovision not quite a year an a half ago, I'd say there's an issue with identity for the system. Why does one own a Colecovision? What do you play on it? A lot of what's on the system is arcade ports... and in a post-mame world, that's just not as nessecary a thing to have around. For most of my systems I can name something that's good or interesting (not nessecarily both) to play on it exclusively. I don't even know what's exclusive on the Colecovision. I remember trying to find a list back when I got it & not suceeding.

 

Yeah this is the problem really, it doesn't really have defining games, and while the ports for the time are good, have been surpassed since.

 

Similarly to yourself, I'm not really sure what is I am after from my collection, so I browse for stuff that's for sale, look up the game play on YouTube, and buy on impulse. I'm a CPC/Mega Drive guy, and while I'm aware of the famous games of the era, most of the Coleco's library is a mystery to me. It's cool exploring it though

[+nanochess]

It depends on what do you understand for collecting: Collecting everything, collecting the set, or collecting only the games you like.

 

In my case, I'm collecting every single official release before the crash of Coleco in CIB form (Complete-In-Box). This is 131 games. I'm only missing 2 games and this has took me 5+ years and there are some rather expensive games. For your information, I had already collected the 131 games as loose cartridges, I invested around $1000 in this because the rare ones.

 

I'm following the "official" list by NIAD http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221017-colecovision-adam-computer-collectors-lists-updated/

 

Also I've purposely avoided box variations, although myself I discovered a variation in Pitstop manual.

[phattyboombatty]

Good topic!

 

Collecting for Colecovision is fun. It’s an old system that was largely forgotten (with the exception of us!). The system was actively around retail shelves for less than three years, but to those who discovered it at the time of blocky, home TV graphics, the system was incredibly impactful.

 

Check out Jack Berg sales. Send an email to Tanny. You should be able to get about half a dozen new-in-box games for under 20 bucks apiece. They’re still around, and they own an old warehouse in El Paso, TX.

 

My collecting goals are on par with nanochess’s, However I am taking it very slow. I probably have 20 to 25 boxed (or new) original releases.

[TheCurlyBard]

I'd not heard of Jack Berk, and I'm not sure if they mail to the UK but worth asking - the box art on the US version of Beam Rider is way nicer so may ask about that.

 

Personally I was only vaguely aware if the Coleco before the AVGN episode on it, then a few years later a friend gifted me his broken one. It's sat largely untouched for a number of years but in a recent fit of enthusiasm I've got it working and started on a solution for the controller.

 

I'm having a blast on Frenzy, Mr Do, DK, but getting frustrated by my unresponsive controllers. Tank Wars arrived yesterday and I'm itching to play that.

 

I was always planning cart only for this system, due to space, but the number of nib games around makes it hard. I've still not found any coleco game in the wild here in the UK yet though.

[mr_me]

What do you see more of in the UK from the early 1980s consoles. Was the Atari 5200 released there? Vectrex, Intellivision, Atari 2600. Was there a UK specific console?

[Keatah]

The only reason I have a Colecovision emulator on my classic gaming rig is because of teen nostalgia. Nothing else. The system lacks uniqueness and is rather stratified and rarified IMHO. I don't even chase after the homebrew scene much because of that.

[TheCurlyBard]

What do you see more of in the UK from the early 1980s consoles. Was the Atari 5200 released there? Vectrex, Intellivision, Atari 2600. Was there a UK specific console?

I believe they all got releases, but didn't sell all that well - we were mainly into Micro's so from the console era I see Atari 2600 stuff, then a big gap in second gen stuff before 8 bit games start to become prevalent. It was the cost of the carts that put all our parents off the consoles. Tape and based games were relatively easy to copy and piracy was mainstream unfortunately.

 

Oddly, it was the 5200 that was my first ever experience of a video game, but I only played it that once and it was 20 years before I saw another one in the flesh

 

So yeah, you can get UK Vetrex's, Intellivisions, etc but I reckon a full set of PAL games for them will take a while to track down because numbers are so low.

[mr_me]

That's true, it was hard to compete against copying and downloading. There's no such thing as a pal intellivision cartridge. They are all the same other than the packaging.

 

I don't have any coleco vision nostalgia. I wasn't familiar with the library aside from Donkey Kong and other arcade conversions that were either obscure or didn't interest me. I wouldn't mind checking out coleco vision games like Fortune Builder, Alkazar, 2010. And I always like comparing arcade conversions of arcade games I remember playing. The homebrewers are doing interesting work porting arcade code and msx code but those don't interest me as much.

Edited August 12, 2018 by mr_me

[TheCurlyBard]

Well yeah Pal Coleco seem to be the same with the CBS added to the logo.

 

I learned of Alzarar from this thread, looks interesting but no saves means I'm going to playing that one on an emulator.

[HoshiChiri]

I can suggest a few that are only on colecovision that are worth checking out.

 

Smurf - it is available on atari 2600 too but this is really the original and best version.

Alcazar - is both rare and good. It is ona few other systems but I've not seen a better version

Frenzy - The coleco version is better than the aracde

Looping - Depends on your taste but this it agreat version but it was an arcade port

SPy hunter - The coleco version is very different & yet the same as the arcade. It's a really good version

 

There are some home brew exclusives too in recent years that are only on colecovision.

 

I already own 3 of these, but Alcazar is definitely on the radar now- thanks for the tip!

[Mulletino]

The Colecovision didn't seem too popular in the UK where I grew up, likely due to price. But it was always the system I wanted the most (we had an Atari) purely because the arcade conversions looked so much better.

 

I think it's the same here in Australia, they don't seem to come up often, I got close to buying one a while ago (with the VCS adaptor and wheel etc) but missed out. I think i'd still like one, but it's not a priority atm.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

The Coleco is a weird system for me, because it was the very first home console I ever played growing up (it belonged to my older brother) and I remember sinking countless hours into games of Smurf, Venture, GORF, Frenzy, Donkey Kong Junior, and Cosmic Avenger back then. My brother also had the Atari 2600 expansion module for his Colecovison and I spent just as much time playing Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Defender, and Vanguard on that as a 5 or 6 year old.

 

Yet when I got into retro gaming as an adult and went back and re-bought every old system I had growing up I skipped the ColecoVision. I got an NES, a Sega Genesis, original PlayStation, GameCube, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance SP, and everything else I had growing up; but I skipped the ColecoVision and got an Atari 2600 instead.

 

I had such fond memories of the Coleco growing up, and yet I completely passed over it because I had read from a bunch of people that it was a really unreliable system and I didn't want to have to screw with trying to maintain the hardware. I know that wasn't exactly what the original poster was asking, but for me personally that's why I never got into collecting for the Coleco as an adult in spite of there being a bunch of games on the system that are really significant to me.

[Keatah]

ColecoVision was a big stink around here in Chicago. Highly desirable. It was THE benchmark for bringing the arcade home. Once you got a ColecoVision you had arrived! It was one of the few systems that satisfied us sound & graphics baggie chasers. It felt like a genuine step-up at the time.

 

At the same time it earmarked the closing of a generation. And many of us were disappointed that more mainstream titles were not made available.

 

When CV came out to market, we already had an Intellivision and VCS as well as 2 or 3 of the then-contemporary home computers. So it was no newcomer. We were familiar with all aspects of computer and console gaming. Nevertheless it was sought after because "arcade". And it was exciting when we got one.

 

All the Official ColecoVision Catalog titles were made available in a timely fashion to us teens. Very very important. We could get them at the local mall or even drugstore from behind the electronics counter. Remember that? Yuh.. It was when more "exotic" mail-order only titles that I lost interested CV collecting. And collecting in general, or building a library as I thought of it back then. Learning about new games that weren't available in my immediate stomping grounds of retail stores, which by the way spanned a good 20-mile radius, was a very real deterrent. That did it too. That's when the slippage happened.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Keatah

[HoshiChiri]

The Coleco is a weird system for me, because it was the very first home console I ever played growing up (it belonged to my older brother) and I remember sinking countless hours into games of Smurf, Venture, GORF, Frenzy, Donkey Kong Junior, and Cosmic Avenger back then. My brother also had the Atari 2600 expansion module for his Colecovison and I spent just as much time playing Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Defender, and Vanguard on that as a 5 or 6 year old.

 

Yet when I got into retro gaming as an adult and went back and re-bought every old system I had growing up I skipped the ColecoVision. I got an NES, a Sega Genesis, original PlayStation, GameCube, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance SP, and everything else I had growing up; but I skipped the ColecoVision and got an Atari 2600 instead.

 

I had such fond memories of the Coleco growing up, and yet I completely passed over it because I had read from a bunch of people that it was a really unreliable system and I didn't want to have to screw with trying to maintain the hardware. I know that wasn't exactly what the original poster was asking, but for me personally that's why I never got into collecting for the Coleco as an adult in spite of there being a bunch of games on the system that are really significant to me.

 

There is a lot of truth to this- the tales of unreliable hardware are very off-putting for new entrants. I wouldn't have one at all if a refurbed & modded unit didn't happen to turn up in the marketplace here on a week I just happened to have cash to burn. (Also by sheer dumb luck, it's a Canadian machine with a Canadian power supply. I was thrilled to discover that when it showed up!)

[Hannacek]

I had such fond memories of the Coleco growing up, and yet I completely passed over it because I had read from a bunch of people that it was a really unreliable system and I didn't want to have to screw with trying to maintain the hardware. I know that wasn't exactly what the original poster was asking, but for me personally that's why I never got into collecting for the Coleco as an adult in spite of there being a bunch of games on the system that are really significant to me.

 

I would say ColecoVision is about as reliable as Atari 2600. I think the real issue is the power brick. If the power brick has failed, someone will assume the system is broken. There can also be graphical issues if the power supply is beginning to fail, and the console doesn't get the proper voltages. However, a lot of 2600 power bricks have failed just the same.

 

I think the ColecoVision is equally as reliable as any 35 year old electronic item from 1982.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Hannacek

[TheCurlyBard]

The difference is though that a replacement Atari power supply can be obtained cheaply and easily. There are way more Coleco consoles than power supplies right now, and UK ones are irreparable.

 

But that aside, yes, I'd expect a similar number of common faults from any hardware I was trying to use of that age. I don't think the Coleco was poorly made or anything.

 

Hardware is a barrier to the community though, Not everyone is able or willing to fix it, and if you are going to emulate there are better versions that could be emulated now with ease.

 

I kinda like tinkering and bringing old machines back from the dead, but sometimes it's tiresome and I just want to play.

[Keatah]

I would say ColecoVision is about as reliable as Atari 2600. I think the real issue is the power brick. If the power brick has failed, someone will assume the system is broken. There can also be graphical issues if the power supply is beginning to fail, and the console doesn't get the proper voltages. However, a lot of 2600 power bricks have failed just the same.

 

I think the ColecoVision is equally as reliable as any 35 year old electronic item from 1982.

 

Yes something like that. Each device will have certain weak spots. And as a kid I had to redo the power switch with a good cleaning. General connectors were my sore-spot bitd.

 

Everyone owning vintage electronics could benefit from a community college ET-101 class and perhaps hands-on experience doing basic PM.

[ColecoDan]

I think you just were late to the show. Back in 2009 - 2011 maybe even more year span than that a lot of us were on ebay all the time trying to get our collections complete and fighting making the prices high. I believe all of us have a full compliment of complete games now with nothing left to buy except the game you never see.

 

So the ones that were really collectors have their collections full now.

 

If you don't try to get a CIB collection like mine and just get all the games in their carts then it is rather cheap to get a full collection.

If you want them CIB then it gets very expensive for some games and some games are just down right impossible to get.

[Swami]

Good topic!

 

Collecting for Colecovision is fun. It’s an old system that was largely forgotten (with the exception of us!). The system was actively around retail shelves for less than three years, but to those who discovered it at the time of blocky, home TV graphics, the system was incredibly impactful.

 

Check out Jack Berg sales. Send an email to Tanny. You should be able to get about half a dozen new-in-box games for under 20 bucks apiece. They’re still around, and they own an old warehouse in El Paso, TX.

 

My collecting goals are on par with nanochess’s, However I am taking it very slow. I probably have 20 to 25 boxed (or new) original releases.

Heh, I saw Jack Berg offered a NIB expansion module 2 on his site for $90 and jumped at it, since this is more like a $200+ item, usually. Turned out is was actually an expansion module 1 , which is a pretty typical price. That was a singular experience that I'll always remember, just for the unfilfilled steal, but, I think he is generally a good source to buy from,

[TheCurlyBard]

I think you just were late to the show. Back in 2009 - 2011 maybe even more year span than that a lot of us were on ebay all the time trying to get our collections complete and fighting making the prices high. I believe all of us have a full compliment of complete games now with nothing left to buy except the game you never see.

 

So the ones that were really collectors have their collections full now.

 

If you don't try to get a CIB collection like mine and just get all the games in their carts then it is rather cheap to get a full collection.

If you want them CIB then it gets very expensive for some games and some games are just down right impossible to get.

 

Yeah I did wonder if this was the case - small community, achievable number of games, all collectors pretty much satisfied apart from the oddities that don't make it to eBay often anyway.

 

You have a complete CIB set? Or you still chasing some? Personally I'm aiming at just carts, for reasons of space and my mental health, but boxes seem very common for a machine of this age. Already got 3, and a couple of carts that came with a bonus manual. Which is kind of why I asked this in the first place, seems like a cheap way to get a shelf full of retro cardboard.

[marc.teeters]

For someone jumping in today without any electronic skills, would you buy a console and get it modded and repaired, buy an already modded console or wait for one the clones that are possibly going to be on the market next year. I have yet to see one in the wild and haven't had any luck on Facebook or Craigslist either. I'm seeing 75-125 for a working unit plus 25-50 shipping on eBay unless it is boxed or has a ton of games. I've seen modded systems in the 250-300 range and haven't heard a price on the clones yet.

 

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