opcode

I don’t think they had disclosed the SGM yet that early. If I remember the SGM was something that only lasted a few months from its announcement to cancellation for the ADAM. But anyways, by that point Coleco was doing all the cool and innovative stuff that Atari couldn’t because they were just a shell marketing and design company.

If I remember correctly, the original plan was (don't remember the source): 1) release SGM, 32KB of RAM, tape drive 2) release keyboard component, with another 32KB + BASIC Keyboard connects into SGM, thus the expansion port passthrough in the SGM. In the end the result would be about the same, a 64KB computer with a tape drive.

From New York Times. I remember other sources, from magazines to Phoenix (the book), cartridge sales were up in 1983, at lower prices, thus lower revenue. Public was still there. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/17/business/video-games-industry-comes-down-to-earth.html Assuming the $2.9 revenue to be true, since cartridge was $1.6 B, hardware was $1.3 B. In 1983 cartridge is down to $1.3 B (but cartridges sales is up in # units sold), while hardware is down 50%, thus $650 M. And you get your $2 B. Thus public interest was still there.

Exactly, the crash was not about people stop buying games, which in fact sold more in 1983 than in 1982. Instead it was the retail channel getting clogged with dead stock because there were too many of them for the market size at that point. If games aren't selling, they don't make space for new games and so on. So retailers stop buying them. For companies that means that: 1) your new game doesn't sell as much, because fewer retailers are placing orders. 2) a lot of dead stock was being returned. Thus massive losses. The NES probably worked because by 1985/86 retail had already got rid of most of the dead stock.

Yes, we know. And we will have a lot to share about that soon.

Well, I don't fault you. I wish that I had documented a lot of stuff I did or went to in the past. Just asked out of curiosity. In Brazil we had two ColecoVision clones announced. In the only one got released. But I went to a small expo where they had both in display. I even played both... Or the Atari booth in another expo in 1983/1984. I was there, Atari Club shirt and all... As for the time machine, already working on that. I must go back and tell IBM to not agree in letting MS sell their PC-DOS to third parties.... That should change history for better. Will be careful with the butterflies...

May I offer a not so US centric perspective? Famicom with Dk, DK Jr, and Popeye released in Japan in June 1983. June 1983 was still halfway in the CV lifespan. Now those ports were closer to the arcade originals than anything at that point in a US console. Part of that may be the superior hardware. And part was good coding. I believe Nintendo was assigning a lot of those ports to HAL, which also ported Joust, Millipede, and Stargate in 1983 for the Atari deal that never materialized. So no, I don't think it was a matter of budget or tight schedules. And Atarisoft was also doing great stuff for the CV in 1983, all very smooth and polished. Now, if you check who was doing the CV work for Atarisoft, you will find people who was also working in arcade games. It was just a different level of pedigree. Again, I was blown away by the CV back in the day like everybody else, which doesn't mean it couldn't have been done better, even back then.

Wow, I can only imagine what that may have been or felt like, seeing the SGM first hand... Envy... Did you take pictures? So let's get some of those improved ports out. This time with much improved frame rate.

As I indicated, a good candidate for the Super Game Controller extra buttons.

Very cool, they indeed used Moon Cresta tune. And a very good rendition of it btw. As for hi-res games like TRON and Popeye, and the others you mentioned, they are possible, you just have to redo the graphics. I don't think they would look bad at all. Elevator Action: when I was doing the SGM2 stuff I used the tools to produce ports of Jungle King and Elevator Actions. I believe I posted several videos of Jungle King. But that was SGM2. Because of the hardware scroll, those two can't be fully ported by the existing tool without a lot of manual intervention. I will be working soon to add scroll support, but I need a less advanced specimen to be a starting point. The Taito hardware is super advanced for its time, with multiple planes, programable color palettes and a billion PSGs. Just insane.

I would argue that since the 70s, if you were doing electronics, you should be aware about Moore’s law. Which means it wasn’t a question of “if” but “when” bigger ROMs would show up. And so 1Mbit ROMs were already available in late 85, and by 1986 quite a few companies were already using them for games in Japan. In fact the Disk System, released in early 1986 was made almost instantaneously obsolete that same year. By mid 1986, Konami had the Goemon game out using a 2Mbit cartridge, twice the capacity of a Disk System disk. And btw, true that Zaxxon sold at premium price in 1982, but you are forgetting about all the 24kb games we got in 1983. So prices were going down. Finally, we also had advancements in programming. Sky Jaguar, a MSX game that I ported for the CV years ago, a sort of Xevious clone, has only 16Kb. And it put most CV 32Kb games to shame in terms of content/graphics. Antarctic Adventure is another example, only 16Kb. And I know this is an unpopular opinion because it goes against our rose tinted memories of childhood, but most Coleco games were just plain poorly programmed. Coleco has a wonderful internal game design team that was unfortunately underutilized, but surely not the best programmers. Just one example: CV Time Pilot starts to slow down as soon as the first enemy enters the screen, and gets worse with each enemy. I wonder if even a single Coleco game ran at 60Fps, but I can’t think of any except for the Coleco published Konami games. Compare to stuff that Atarisoft did, which is still simple but really well done and smooth. But I digress.

Not bad for the time. Slow though. And you must deal with the 160 pixels resolution, which isn’t very arcade-ish. how about this instead:

I read somewhere it was going to be 32kb of ram. With 32kb more in the computer module. And that makes sense, as 16kb may not be enough for current stage plus next stage. the added bonus is that those 32kb could have been used as work area, for the same effect as the Opcode SGM. But it was still a expensive device, and they were offering basically enhanced arcade ports. I see that working with the hardcore crowd, but not with the average Joe. They are saying, you pay this more for the SGM to play basically the same games, but better. And something that the Famicom disk system taught us is that magnetic media can be a success with piracy and in fact that can ruin your system. IMHO they should have stick with the system as it was and then eventually release a more ambitious expansion module later, with improved graphics and sound or something like that. As we know cartridge space would increase quickly in the following years and any benefit of the SGM would also be lost quickly.

Btw, latest video: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Vector stuff is always a challenge with the ColecoVision hardware. A tile based system isn’t the best hardware for that unfortunately. A particular game that I am sure would translate great for the CV is Crazy Climber, another Nichibutsu classic. Release only for the 2600, and even so in a limited edition. And the port wasn’t great either. Would be a great match for the extra buttons in the Super Action Controller. And then there is that one game... Phoenix. Have been looking on that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And I agree. The CV could have been so much better. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Too expensive for 1983. Nintendo went with QuickDisk, a poor man’s version of the 3 1/2. Slow and very low capacity, but cheap. However that wasn’t available until 1984. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, I was referring to Donkey Kong for the Famicom. Released June 1983 with the console. About one year after the ColecoVision version. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, technically Famicom DK is from 1983, and it is a far better port. Problem with ColecoVision wasn’t so much the capabilities, but the programming. Most Coleco games were choppy and had low frame rates, and ROM space utilization wasn’t their strongest suit either. I think the BIOS more than the programmers was the culprit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

By 1983 Atari was a shell marketing and design company. They had little actual development of anything related to video games. Their latest major hardware has been the Atari 800 in 1979. 5200 was just a rebranded Atari 400. Most of their games were being made in Boston by GCC at that point. They didn’t have enough R&D to even put together a new console in 1983/1984, so their two options were supplied by 3rd parties: the 7800 was GCC, and they even considered the Famicom. So yeah, all of that to say they were failing as a video game company crash or not. So future was bright for Coleco. Or so it seemed... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Pre-order for the SGM 5th run has officially started. If you subscribed to the waiting list, you should have received an email from us with instructions. If you don't see it, please check your spam box. We will post a direct link for pre-ordering here soon.

Pre-order for the SGM 5th run has officially started. If you subscribed to the waiting list, you should have received an email from us with instructions. If you don't see it, please check your spam box. We will post a direct link for pre-ordering here soon.

Isn't that interesting that Nintendo followed Coleco steps in almost every single concept? They used the ColecoVision TMS9918 was their inspiration for the Famicom video chip. They released the Famicom with Donkey Kong. They released a keyboard/BASIC module, they released their Disk System that uses the exact same concept with the exact same goals as the SGM. I may be missing someone, but I am pretty sure they were a fan of Coleco.

True, but let's not forget about the saving capabilities of the original SGM, that was one of the selling points. We get that with our Super Game Cartridges, we can save whatever amount of stuff we want, so perfect for high score tables and settings. Games like Maze of Galious can get rid of long passwords, etc.