Colecovision is 'third wave' meaning 'third generation'?

[high voltage]

article from EG some 83 issue:

 

[MaximRecoil]

NES is third generation; ColecoVision is second generation. That's how it is generally accepted today anyway.

[NIAD]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

I will stick with "3rd Generation" myself and ignore the change, just as John F. Kennedy ignored the second letter that was received from the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis and responded to the first letter.

 

History NEED NOT rewrite itself!

[Rex Dart]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

I will stick with "3rd Generation" myself and ignore the change, just as John F. Kennedy ignored the second letter that was received from the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis and responded to the first letter.

 

History NEED NOT rewrite itself!

 

Go tell the Jaguar nuts that their system is 64 bits again!

[MaximRecoil]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

They were probably counting the original Odyssey and Pong consoles as the first generation. Those were a different breed of cat than consoles as we know them today, which started with the Fairchild Channel F, and were made famous by the Atari VCS (both the first of their kind). The difference is that they were programmable via interchangeable ROM (something which continues to this day with current generation consoles), whereas the Odyssey and Pong consoles were not. The Odyssey had interchangeable "cards", but they only functioned as switches; all of the game variations were contained within the console itself, the same as with any Pong-type console.

Edited April 5, 2012 by MaximRecoil

[TheGameCollector]

1st gen (the graphical weaklings) - Channel F, Atari 2600, RCA Studio II, Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Intellivision

2nd gen (a little better, not released until 1982, killed early by console crash) - Atari 5200, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Vectrex, ColecoVision

3rd Gen (vast improvements) - NES, SMS, Atari 7800

 

This is how most console only people group them. Some people go ahead and count the original Odyssey and Pongs as the 1st generation and bump everything up one notch.

[Pixelboy]

1st gen (the graphical weaklings) - Channel F, Atari 2600, RCA Studio II, Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Intellivision

2nd gen (a little better, not released until 1982, killed early by console crash) - Atari 5200, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Vectrex, ColecoVision

3rd Gen (vast improvements) - NES, SMS, Atari 7800

 

This is how most console only people group them. Some people go ahead and count the original Odyssey and Pongs as the 1st generation and bump everything up one notch.

 

You put the Intellivision in the 1st wave? You better hope the Inty fans don't find out where you live...

[TheGameCollector]

1st gen (the graphical weaklings) - Channel F, Atari 2600, RCA Studio II, Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Intellivision

2nd gen (a little better, not released until 1982, killed early by console crash) - Atari 5200, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Vectrex, ColecoVision

3rd Gen (vast improvements) - NES, SMS, Atari 7800

 

This is how most console only people group them. Some people go ahead and count the original Odyssey and Pongs as the 1st generation and bump everything up one notch.

 

You put the Intellivision in the 1st wave? You better hope the Inty fans don't find out where you live...

 

Well, think about it. It came out in the late 70s, tail end of 1979 not 1982 like the rest of them. Graphically weaker than the Arcadia 2001 even.

[+5-11under]

Well, at the time, I think it made pretty good sense to have pong as part of wave 1, 2600 as part of wave 2, and CV as part of wave 3. Actually, it may make pretty good sense now, too.

[high voltage]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

I will stick with "3rd Generation" myself and ignore the change, just as John F. Kennedy ignored the second letter that was received from the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis and responded to the first letter.

 

History NEED NOT rewrite itself!

 

I go along with that. The NES kids as usual have little knowledge of pre-NES stuff and as usual, Wikipedia is wrong AGAIN!!!

 

[Nukey Shay]

3rd generation console...2nd generation programmable. So whatever, it works either way.

[MaximRecoil]

1st gen (the graphical weaklings) - Channel F, Atari 2600, RCA Studio II, Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Intellivision

2nd gen (a little better, not released until 1982, killed early by console crash) - Atari 5200, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Vectrex, ColecoVision

3rd Gen (vast improvements) - NES, SMS, Atari 7800

 

This is how most console only people group them. Some people go ahead and count the original Odyssey and Pongs as the 1st generation and bump everything up one notch.

 

That's the way I group them too. The Intellivision is closer to the VCS than to the ColecoVision, both in terms of release date and performance.

[SoulBlazer]

I also would call ColecoVision 2nd Gen and NES 3rd Gen. It's not a matter of history re-writing itself -- this is how I've seen it for as long as I can recall. It's more a case of a magazine writer not knowing what the hell he is talking about.

[high voltage]

Katz and Kunkel no knowledge? Doubt that very much. Obviously it's you

Edited April 5, 2012 by high voltage

[SoulBlazer]

Is it really needed to personaly insult me? I ment that more in how it was seen at the time as opposed to now.

[high voltage]

Alright I'll take it back, I just get fed up with the NES kids bashing the pre-NES period with their no knowledge nonsense.

[high voltage]

Like the poster above calling the VCS a graphical weakling. When the VCS was released Nintendo still offered Pong consoles and after that Game and Watch b&w handhelds. Nothing programmable at all.

[MaximRecoil]

Alright I'll take it back, I just get fed up with the NES kids bashing the pre-NES period with their no knowledge nonsense.

 

Who are you imagining to be a "NES kid" on this thread; and who on this thread is "bashing the pre-NES period with their no knowledge nonsense"; or "bashing the pre-NES period" at all, for that matter?

[high voltage]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

They were probably counting the original Odyssey and Pong consoles as the first generation. Those were a different breed of cat than consoles as we know them today, which started with the Fairchild Channel F, and were made famous by the Atari VCS (both the first of their kind). The difference is that they were programmable via interchangeable ROM (something which continues to this day with current generation consoles), whereas the Odyssey and Pong consoles were not. The Odyssey had interchangeable "cards", but they only functioned as switches; all of the game variations were contained within the console itself, the same as with any Pong-type console.

 

Of course the Magnavox Odyssey is first generation, if you ignore that, you're just plain ignorant.

 

Gives me a reason to show off my complete Odyssey collection again:

Edited April 5, 2012 by high voltage

[high voltage]

Back in the day... the ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Vectrex were referred to as "3rd Generation" or "Third Wave". Now-a-days, these system are classified as "2nd Generation" and why this change was made still baffles me.

 

I will stick with "3rd Generation" myself and ignore the change, just as John F. Kennedy ignored the second letter that was received from the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis and responded to the first letter.

 

History NEED NOT rewrite itself!

 

Go tell the Jaguar nuts that their system is 64 bits again!

 

You're calling John Mathieson 'nuts'?

 

[MaximRecoil]

Of course the Magnavox Odyssey is first generation, if you ignore that, you're just plain ignorant.

 

You don't get to redefine the word "ignorant".

 

Tell me: what generation console is a Jakks Pacific TV Plug And Play? If the Odyssey and Pong units are part of the "console generations", then so is the Jakks, and the Atari Flashback, and so on. This isn't a matter of "ignorance"; it is a matter of logical categorization.

Edited April 5, 2012 by MaximRecoil

[NIAD]

1st gen (the graphical weaklings) - Channel F, Atari 2600, RCA Studio II, Astrocade, Odyssey 2, Intellivision

2nd gen (a little better, not released until 1982, killed early by console crash) - Atari 5200, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Vectrex, ColecoVision

3rd Gen (vast improvements) - NES, SMS, Atari 7800

 

This is how most console only people group them. Some people go ahead and count the original Odyssey and Pongs as the 1st generation and bump everything up one notch.

 

You put the Intellivision in the 1st wave? You better hope the Inty fans don't find out where you live...

I have heard that Coleco had the opportunity the buy the motherboard used in the Intellivision in early 1979 from the original developer. Fortunately for Coleco and CV fans (NO DISRESPECT INTENDED TO INTELLIVISION FANS), the head of the Electronics R&D Department at Coleco, Eric Bromley, passed on it and continued his search which took a couple more years. Coleco almost bankrupting itself with the TelStar systems probably proved beneficial here as management was in no hurry to jump into the home console market.

 

Can anyone verify and if so, expand upon this.

[NIAD]

I also would call ColecoVision 2nd Gen and NES 3rd Gen. It's not a matter of history re-writing itself -- this is how I've seen it for as long as I can recall. It's more a case of a magazine writer not knowing what the hell he is talking about.

This "GENERATIONAL" thing was in place long before the NES arrived in North America and it was magazines that classified them this way such as VideoGaming Illustrated, Electronic Games, etc. If it was just one writer, I would have to agree, but all of them from back in this Pre-Crash/Pre-NES time period?

[+boxpressed]

I owned this magazine BITD and understood it to mean this:

 

1st wave: Channel F, 2600

2nd wave: Intellivision

3rd wave: Colecovision, 5200

 

Even though I'm aware of the Odyssey, as was EG, the above still makes a lot of sense to me.

[TheGameCollector]

I owned this magazine BITD and understood it to mean this:

 

1st wave: Channel F, 2600

2nd wave: Intellivision

3rd wave: Colecovision, 5200

 

Even though I'm aware of the Odyssey, as was EG, the above still makes a lot of sense to me.

 

hmm, perhaps the 2 year gaps between each of those categories' releases has something to do with it.