CV Gus

Since I've lived near Amsterdam, N.Y., for the past 16 years, I've met quite a few people who used to work at Coleco. Yeah, the ADAM was a disaster. First of all, in those days, you had a good number of computers out there already. If you wanted to get anywhere, you had to have something GOOD- but the ADAM, with that ridiculous tape drive, oddball programming, and the like, just helped shoot it down. Compare it to a C-64, which had a superior set-up- just as the Ataris did. It wasn't even close. It was also rushed out. This is why it had so many defects. But all of the blame cannot be put on Coleco. They fell for that marketing/compunerd "video gaming was dead, computers were the wave of the gaming future" line. Had they stuck with the CV, they might have made it. Just as Atari should have stuck with the 5200. In a way, they never had a chance; the NES, had it been released with them, probably would have been doomed. It was not the market itself, but the folly of relying on theory and marketing "research" to make decisions, that doomed the third generation. Those particular years were slow poison for any home console, since the ones in charge believed that it was already over- something the SMS and NES didn't have to deal with. It was the prophesy fulfilling itself. Note- As for "dumping"- who is to stop them? The Government? That pretty much ended with Reaganomics, didn't it?

I've actually known and have discussed the ADAM with a number of former Coleco employees. They were so eager to rush it out, they slapped together some plywood tables together and hired people off the streets to solder things together. There was no effort at "ultraclean" or static electricity protection, which is why so many were defective. It was simply a poorly-planned and executed effort. The tape drive alone was a mistake. Since the CV seemed to be similar to a Spectravideo computer, a keyboard and a cable to allow you to store things on a tape recorder would have been a perfect start for most people.

How hard would it have been to simply check a few facts? About 2 minutes?

Having been around since the first "Pong" game hit the arcades, and thus having seen the home systems from Day One, there are a few observations to be made: 1) Arcade-To-Home. One of the BIG reasons to own a home console was to play home versions of arcade games. Since the arcade lifespan of the vast majority of arcade games was measured in mere months, once it was gone, then unless you could travel the world to find an arcade machine (on-line emulation did not exist in any modern sense of the word), the home version was IT. Period. The problem was, and maybe still is, the fact that home versions had the game rigged against them from the start. A home console had to be able to do many things; an arcade game could be geared to do just one, especially with unusual controls (steering wheels, guns, etc.). You could rarely expect a console that ran about $200.00 to truly match the most recent arcade machines that weighed hundreds of pounds and cost a few thousand. The simple fact was that arcade technology, especially from about 1978 through 1984, was evolving at a fantastic pace, while home consoles could not, except via chips in the cartridges, and this could not overcome the difference, just lessen it somewhat. Therefore, it would be unfair to hate any system for failing to match an arcade game, unless it was obviously a cheap effort (why a 3-screen NES version? Why not a 4-screen CV version of DKJr., when such did exist after a time, in the first place?). Even then, budgets were a problem, as were schedules. If a home console did a good job overall of arcade games, and had a good variety of non-arcade titles as well, what more could one expect, really? 2) Capitalism does not always yield the best. As mentioned earlier, a company with an inferior system but a huge budget can overwhelm a superior system by sheer mass. For one thing, they can buy up more arcade (and other) titles, especially the most popular. So a better system may not have as many games as one would like, through no fault of "its" own. You just have to make the best choices you can, that's all.

There are two versions of this module: one that does not use any battery but so far only works with a 7800 controller, and one that uses a battery (or current from my wind-up radio). Since I've only enough materials for one or the other, I've decided to go with the battery-powered one. This is because it works with just about every 9-pin controller, including a CV controller. It also takes 2600 paddle controllers, but you do not have the gear-shift button from the 5200 paddle controller. Thus, of all the games I have, this is good mainly for Super Breakout.

But can any home version, really? You're not in the arcade with your friends. It's not the same place and time as when you played it as years go by, and you're no longer the same person. All of the harware dedicated to that one game is not there. Didn't all of this add to the overall experience?

Atari VCS: Still the all-round "has to have something you like" console. And how I remember getting it for Christmas back in 1977! To this day, it has a number of appealing titles, like Super Breakout, Haunted House, and Keystone Kapers. Atari 5200: O.K., so I prefer a CV. Big deal. If I didn't like this one, I would not have spent hours trying to fix it at a time when my skills were still minimal, and hours more designing and building controllers and adapters for it. The talking Berzerk, Qix, Defender, Ms. Pac-Man, Blueprint, Robotron: 2084, the crude-looking but great-playing Wizard of Wor, Pengo, Star Raiders, and Space Dungeon- among others- is why it is plugged in and ready to go next to the CV. Atari 7800: It has some great games- Dig Dug, Xevious, Food Fight, among others- but overall the variety was lacking, and it lacks the "brightness" of the 5200 games, which were more relevant to their times (somehow this matters). Maybe in part I'm somewhat biased because I purchased it in later 1988, the dawn of the dark years of my life. To be honest, had the Atarisoft Dig Dug, JOUST, and Pac-Man been 100% completed and released, I likely would never have bought it. NES: I keep it strictly for Terra Cresta, Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, Donkey Kong 3, Gauntlet, Ghosts `N Goblins, and Galaga. Klax and Marble Madness are good, too. I do not favor it over the 7800. ColecoVision: If 1988 biased me against the 7800, then 1982 favors the CV. A superb collection of games, lacking only a B-17 Bomber/Star Raiders shooter, not to mention terrific homebrew support, and the so-very playable Lord of the Dungeon, makes this an all-time favorite. Spy Hunter or Fortune Builder, anyone? How about Cosmic Avenger or Pac-Man Plus? Intellivision: This eccentric old console is the most recent addition- a week ago, roughly- but some recently-acquired (what a pleasnt surprise!) games like the UGLY yet addicting Night Stalker, the ahead-of-its-time Auto Racing, the fine Space Armada, the superior-to-the-CV's (overall) Blackjack/Poker, and others just make this a good console to own.

No. There are a number that have not interested me, though. For example, a few years ago, I was given a broken Sega Genesis. I managed to get it working, but not long after I gave it back. The 16-Bit era really did nothing for me.

Yes, it was a 1983 NAP (War Room) game, by a Mr. Battenberg. It was mentioned in one of my old magazines- Video games Player/Computer Games magazine- as "Caverns," or "Creatures and Caverns." But there are people who do not believe that there was such a game for a CV, or any old system, from those days (most people believe it started with the NES era). These photos should help prove it, as well as showing others what the game actually looks like. I also promised o2williams some images a while back, but the C-64 had broken down. I'd like for him to have some images for his website. Have you ever managed to defeat the Titans? So far, they wiped me out every time.

You've heard of it- and there are some who think it's just a myth...but here are actual photos of the battery-backed 1983 CV cartridge!

Please excuse the clumsy way this was done; I'd just obtained a digital camera a few days ago, and this is the first time I've ever tried to upload images from one to a website. Right now, I'm trying to learn this without instructions. The two pictures on the left show the switch used to shift gears on Pole Position. The third is the CV controller with a two button/four button option; the small switch is used to toggle between the two. This controller is great for playing Front Line and Rocky Boxing, and you can use the alternate setting for Spy Hunter. And on the far right is my 5200. Still haven't found replacement plugs for it, so only controller port one works. And even that took quite a bit of effort. This is here so certain people know that I actually have one, and have put quite a bit of effort into it- such as posting the tech specs and diagrams for the digital controller. Until my module (9-pin-to-5200) is fully constructed, I'll withhold those images. Sort of a contribution to classic gaming.

Here are some of the things I've built so far: On the left is that digital 5200 controller. On the right is the 5200 paddle controller.

You all missed the point. The point was that comparisons are largely pointless. You'll do who-knows-how-many hours of research, learn everything possible, organize it nicely, set it all up, the ultimate comparison- and it can be for anything, right up to the two most recent systems in existence... And then something will come up that'll completely throw it all off. So is there even any point in a "definitive" comparison? No matter how objective? And how "next generation" is a system as opposed to its predecessor? It seems as though even the manufacturers don't know what they have! Therefore, are companies putting money, effort, and resources into next-generation systems too soon? What brought this to mind also was that last Saturday they had an electronics recycling day. You brought your old stuff down to the town garage so the area solid waste authority could take it all away. It started at 8:00 A.M.; I got there no later than about 9:30. But by then there was this BIG, BIG pile of stuff, even though I live in a sparcely populated area, and most people probably hadn't even heard of this effort in any case. If, rather than rushing to put out a new generation of (whatever), companies worked on what was out there, there would be a good deal less trash to worry about. So you kindly go away, marc, until you get it.

Over the years, there have been many such topics; here, of course, it was and will likely be the CV vs. the 5200. There is an extensive comparison over at AGH, but there is a problem with all of this: time. Recently, newcoleco released a game called "Ghostblasters." You can see it at YouTube, but the video does not do it justice. What I am talking about is the unbelievable scrolling, in all directions, here. I actually contacted newcoleco to ask if this cartridge used added-on chips. It doesn't. The scrolling in this game, which is multi-plane, is beyond anything which even I never thought possible. It makes almost makes Nova Blast and Matt Patrol look like Time Pilot. So- what does this mean? You clearly cannot ever compare two systems properly, because you do not know what a system can really do. The CV has scrolling which looks nearly the equal of even the NES, if this is any example. Therefore, the last CV vs. 5200 comparison is not valid, since it did not take this into account. So- who knows what the 7800 was ultimately capable of? The Intellivision? The 5200, or the first Playstation? Only homebrewers will ever really know, evidently, and even that will take time.

In other words, it was a cheaper way of doing it. If so, that would be typical.

I did. But it doesn't answer the question as to why it's that high in the first place.

What I mean is, why 14V? Why go that high; that's more than 50% higher than the needed 9V. Especially since things usually take a "jump" or "spike" when first plugged in. Why not 10V, or maybe 10 1/2V? I've run a 7800 off of a 12V battery, using an adapter that brings down the voltage to 9V DC (well, o.k., more like 10V...), without any trouble ever. So 14V seems unnecessary.

It's a good one from 1988, so I must make prongs for the smaller circuits used today- like in a DVD player. It has quite a few functions, and can measure up to 10 Amps, too.

With that "new" multitester, I measured the output from the 7800 adapter. It was 14V! I checked with the old analog one, and it came out the same- 14V DC. Why is this? When I run it off of a 12V battery I use the 9V setting on the adapter. That works.

Choplifter. Too damn hard. Dark Chambers. Beautiful game, but boring. The characters all move and attack in the same manner. Yawn. Centipede. No, it's not BAD, but why is the 5200 version so much more like the arcade version? Good Games: Joust, Dig Dug, Asteroids, Xevious, Robotron: 2084 (although I prefer the 5200 version), Ms. Pac-Man (again, in some ways, I prefer the 5200 version), Tower Toppler, Desert Falcon.

Well, well! Last week, at a garage sale, I found a digital multitester- from 1988- for only $10.00. It works fine. It has many options, including the ability to test continuity by using sound (so you don't have to look back and forth). It also has the ability to read resistances. This is typical, but this is the first time I can actually do so with any real accuracy- a problem, many of you will recall from my earlier posts, that I had when building those 5200 controllers. Hopefully now, since at least some of the guesswork can be eliminated, I can carry on some projects with greater speed now. Strangely enough, if I become proficient in anything, it'll be with accessories (e.g. 7800 controller-5200 games system mini-modules, 5200 lightgun, etc.) and repairs. One interesting thing- according to it, both a 5200 and CV take about 7* watts even when switched off. This is probably because they use transformers. Lamps and old televisions have a "kill switch," so they do not. * Or maybe I'm thinking of something else, but they do use power.

I'd keep the module relatively simple. You've already explained the part about the RAM needed for some games, so a CV add-on module would need that, plus extra "regular" memory? The A/V ability might be a good idea, since I've seen televisions without regular RF input, or at least not easy. In this post-anaolg tv age, that might be more and more of a problem. So- a plug-in, with the ability to play old CV games, A/V, extra memory, and RAM? If it could also boost the number of sprites/line/no flicker to 8, that would be nice. For a version of DK like that, I'd buy it. But to be honest, if it's expensive, I could not, at least not for the forseeable future around here.

Heyyyyy...just what could the 5200 have done with games like Pac-Man and Dig Dug? How much better could they have been? Didn't get an answer before. As for the 7800 sales- sorry, but the NES crushed it. The CV did NOT annihilate the 5200; the CV simply outsold it, but it was not by as insane a margin as the NES vs. the 7800. Keep in mind that the 5200 was out when Atari was one big company, and had a decent reputation still- by the time the 7800 came out, Atari was split up and not-so-good joke. So no way did the 7800 outdo the 5200. 5200 figures, like for the CV were typically about the USA; for the 7800, Atari probably considered ALL sales, including European sales. Maybe this is where the confusion about the CV 3-6 million sales comes from- Maybe some people were considering USA sales, while others were including overseas sales?

I've said this before, and I'll say it again- Atari NEVER should've dumped the 5200 the way they did. It does not matter if the 7800 was to have been their next system- once they released the 5200, then they were committed. They should have stuck with it, even if it meant abandoning the entire 7800 project as it was at that point. Remember, the decision to drop the 5200 happened BEFORE the crash, so that had nothing to do with it. The only logical explanation is that they were disappointed by the 5200's performance against the CV, so they decided to try the 7800 against it- because at that point, the NES was not here, so the CV was the only system they would have figured that they'd be up against. But this was ridiculous: they only angered the 5200 owners, and the first, and vital, batch of 7800 games weren't going to sway CV owners from the CV- it didn't work for the 5200, and on top of that, we'd have been as distrustful of Atari as the abandoned 5200 owners. Add this into the mixture- Atarisoft Galaxian, Joust, Dig Dug, and Pac-Man for the CV were all SUPERIOR versions to the 5200 ones! Since Joust and Dig Dug for the CV would have been so great, and two of the better-known games for the 7800's release were to have been Joust and Dig Dug- and Galaxian (CV) was more like the arcade version than Galaga for the 7800, and Pac-Man could've countered the 7800 Ms. Pac-Man- those Atarisoft games could only have hurt the 7800's sales. What was going on with that company back then? Again, I like the 5200 and its games better than the 7800 and its games, although Dig Dug is better on the 7800.

You mean that this is to be "emulated," like the Pac-Man games? The extra RAM cannot be added via the cartridge?