else

I really wouldn't read too much in to this. I design hardware for a living and lots of times we will design in extra stuff like this "just in case", with no immediate intended use in mind. Perhaps Coleco just had some extra space on the connector and thought "what the heck", we'll throw these here signals on it...

Walnut?

I don't know if you were joking or not -- but that sounds like an excellent idea! They would have the time and money to get to the bottom of this. Who knows -- they might be up for it!!!

Those soccer images are pretty interesting. I like how they reversed the image on the Lynx one, then colored in the guys jersey number to make it an 8 instead of a reversed 6!

Well, it could have increased Infogames revenues/profits by allowing them to either sell new copies of the older games -- or develop new games and sell them. Just looking at it from the other side....

But wait -- your avatar says "Boycott Atari"! :)

Darn, wish I had seen this post earlier. I never knew such a thing existed before. How rare are these? Are they pre-Tramiel or Tramiel era?

And they toys they made were generally the cheapest and lowest quality stuff. They were the bottom of the barrel back then -- until the Colecovision came along!

I second that. It is a really excellent game. I think I hit this bug only once or twice before I completed the game. Highly recommended!

Just in case you're not aware, there was also Iron Soldier 3 which was released for the Nuon and Playstation systems.

I seem to recall this bug as well. I think the game lets you save three games, so the best thing to do is choose a different on each time. That way if the save doesn't work, you don't lose everything -- you can just start with one of the other saved games.

Actually, Coleco made two games.... 2010 Graphic Adventure for the Colecovision 2010 Text Adventure for the Adam They are completely different games. The Adam one plays like a Zork text adventure game.

Well, if that were true Apple should be #1 today since VisiCalc first appeared on the Apple II. I believe the Apple II had it at least a couple of years before it appeared on the PC.... I think it has more to do with the fact that MS-DOS ran on IBM hardware. And the famous mentality back then was that "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM".

Wow, it is worth that much! Might by time to eBay my copy....

Or better yet -- get the Magnavox TV that had Pong build in!!! They pop up on eBay ever once in a while....

This site appears to have it, though I don't have a password to log on.... http://www.trueroms.com/roms.php?letter=S&...rm=Colecovision

Wow, I guess I woke up in an alternate universe today! Last means first. I'll have to remember that -- it may come in handy in this strange new place....

Isn't Cosmic Creeps in the front (first) row?

Revenge of the Beefstick Tomatos?

You too are apparently unaware that a Coleco prototype of Donkey Kong has been found that fixes all of the issues you point out (well, maybe not the flicker). So all these issues were not a limitation of the Colecovision itself. Coleco cut corners with the released version of Donkey Kong, either to (a) go with a smaller ROM to save money, (b) meet a rushed deadline, or © lazy programming. Same goes for Smurf. I'm sure it could have been a scrolling game rather than a screen-based game. It wasn't, either due to rushed or lazy programming, in my opinion.

You too are apparently unaware that a Coleco prototype of Donkey Kong has been found that fixes all of the issues you point out (well, maybe not the flicker). So all these issues were not a limitation of the Colecovision itself. Coleco cut corners with the released version of Donkey Kong, either to (a) go with a smaller ROM to save money, (b) meet a rushed deadline, or © lazy programming. Same goes for Smurf. I'm sure it could have been a scrolling game rather than a screen-based game. It wasn't, either due to rushed or lazy programming, in my opinion.

Good question, and something I've been wrestling over lately myself. I've got a bunch of rare-ish type stuff, but I now have two very small kids so I really don't have much time to play games any more. I'm thinking about dumping things such as my Intellivision collection and just keep my Atari and Coleco collections, etc. I've already unloaded most of my Apple II collection. Of course, economic theory would tell you you should be indifferent (if you don't let your emotions cloud your judgement), since the price you paid for it reflected the optimal efficient market value already. In other words, it is a wash. Well, that's what the theory says -- of course, markets aren't always efficient.... You also have to consider that with something physical you run the risk of it getting damaged while in your possession (your water heater breaks and your basement floods, for example). If you took the money and put it in a mutual fund such as the Vanguard 500, you should be pretty immune to losing your money (the average market return over the last 60 years is around 12%). Anyhow, to steal the George Carlin line -- "these are the things I think about when I'm home alone and the TV is broke"

Well, I dunno about the rest of you but as for myself I'm in my mid-30s, I've got a full time job, a wife and two young kids. Free time is hard to find these days. I would think a lot of others are in the same boat.....

Probably just an echo effect from how the business worked before The Crash. I mean you had Coleco developing for INTV and Atari, Atari developing for INTV and Coleco, and INTV developing for Coleco and Atari.

I always assumed that paddles three and four work (just like on a regular 2600), while joysticks three and four do not (they are unwired). Also, I'm not sure what extra hardware you are refering to. There is a switch on the top that selects joysticks or paddles. I think this is the only extra hardware there is. You seem to be saying that the 2800 is some sort of "super 2600". It has always been my understanding that it is merely an 2600 in a new case with a slight reconfiguration of the joystick/paddle wiring using a switch.