Why does the Colecovision have so many Educational / Kid titles?

[RangerG]

I have always wondered why the Colecovision had so many educational / kids games. I knew people with the Colecovision and it was a high-end, arcade oriented machine. But, once I got into collecting I found out it had all these educational / kids games. Why? Were they trying to sell the educational angle to parents (like the keyboard on the Odyssey2 or the intelligence of the Intellivision)? Maybe this was a focus of Coleco (they even tried the KidVid for the 2600)? I understand the Cabbage Kids games (they had a popular license), but the 5200 and 7800 had few to no such titles, why the Colecovision? Were they popular? It seems so if different companies released them.

[TPR]

I have always wondered why the Colecovision had so many educational / kids games. I knew people with the Colecovision and it was a high-end, arcade oriented machine. But, once I got into collecting I found out it had all these educational / kids games. Why? Were they trying to sell the educational angle to parents (like the keyboard on the Odyssey2 or the intelligence of the Intellivision)? Maybe this was a focus of Coleco (they even tried the KidVid for the 2600)? I understand the Cabbage Kids games (they had a popular license), but the 5200 and 7800 had few to no such titles, why the Colecovision? Were they popular? It seems so if different companies released them.

 

This is actually a very good question! In 1982 & 1983 ColecoVision was the premier "arcade port" machine with it's arcade conversions looking arguably better than anything it's competition had. But by 1984 the market was changing, "home computers" were all the rage and being looked at as both entertainment machines and educational (or edutainment however you want to look at it) devices. The Coleco ADAM had just shipped the Christmas before hand and in order to be considered a "serious contender" in the home computing world, your system needed to have a good balance of software that was both fun and educational.

 

So looking at the release dates, you don't see many of the edutainment/kids games prior to 1984. But after that year you had games like Dr. Suess Fix-Up, Brain Strainers, Monkey Academy, Cabbage Patch Kids Picture Show, Smurf's Paint N Play, Alphabet Zoo, Linking Logic/Logic Levels, Telly Turtle, Learning with Leaper, WizMath, etc.

 

Based on my dealings with companies like Nintendo when I was in the games business, and how they would come around to the publishers and "suggest" types of games they should make based on where they hope to position themselves and their console in the market, I'm going to assume Coleco did the exact same thing, especially after ADAM was released. This is why you see some of those companies pop up post-ADAM's launch with more educational titles. Coleco really wanted to play in that "educational" space, but the reality was, it would never be their strong suit. But, that's all history now... Bring on Donkey Kong Arcade and Gradius!

[RangerG]

That is a really good point about the release dates. Also, I can see the games tying in with the Adam in that a lot of these were also released for classic computers, but not game consoles.

[TPR]

That is a really good point about the release dates. Also, I can see the games tying in with the Adam in that a lot of these were also released for classic computers, but not game consoles.

 

Yep. There were quite a few games that came out for Commodore 64 and the Atari/Apple home computers and Coleco was trying as hard as they could to align themselves with those products. I mean, I give them a ton of credit. I think they saw the writing on the wall in terms of where the "video games" market was heading and they did their best to pull out of that and try to be a contender. It's just a shame that their product wasn't as well received based on the troubles they had at launch. Oh, well, let's hope history does not repeat itself again...

[fiddlepaddle]

Also, at the same time, Apple was making significant inroads into the educational market, and touting it as the future, where Coleco desperately wanted to be. There was a (delusional) general consensus that proliferation of microprocessors would magically turn everyone into a programmer, and whoever sucked up the kids first would eventually would win it all.

[ValkerieSilk]

Yep, I got all my 'edutainment' from my Adam.

[ColecoDan]

My mom said that I would watch sesame street and when anything educational started like counting or anything else I would leave the room. Then when fun stuff started again then I would come back into the room and continue watching. I did not have any educational games for the coleco when I was a kid.

[Jinks]

Cause you got alot to learn son!

[Pixelboy]

Yep, I got all my 'edutainment' from my Adam.

That can be interpreted so many ways...

 

Anyhow, bone-headed people make bone-headed decisions, stupid is stupid does, and all that. ColecoVision controllers were too big for the small hands of young children, so I can only wonder why young kids would want to play "edutainment" titles on the ColecoVision to begin with. I'd rather play Donkey Kong again than waste my time with such trivial titles. Coleco should have just stuck with arcade ports, or maybe make clones of arcade games if the licensing was becoming too expensive.

[Nebulon]

Exactly what TPR said.

 

In fact, I don't even recall seeing any educational titles for the ColecoVision on the shelves back in the day (and I was pretty obsessed with keeping informed on what CV cartridges were available). It was only decades later that I saw educational titles for the CV.

 

Times were certainly changing around 1984/1985. The video game industry was trying to shake off its bad-boy image and present the face of safety and good manners. Of course, it was still driven by money -- just the same as before.

[TPR]

The other thing to keep in mind is that at the time, educational games or "games for kids" really were not that good. Most game developers had zero interest in making them and most publishers didn't want to put a lot of money behind them. So if there is one of many things I learned from my years in the gaming business is that if you have an unmotivated and under-funded developer making a game, chances are you're going to get a shit game out of it. And most of those early kids games were exactly that... shit. So no kids wanted to ever play them and parents didn't want to buy them. So ultimately the ColecoVision failed miserably in that space.

 

And while games like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego were sort of popular anomalies at the time (but again, well funded games or developers with a passion for edutainment) it would still be a few years yet until products like the Jumpstart series or Freddie Fish would set a new standard for edutainment games and start making games that kids actually found enjoyable to play and were also educational.

[NIAD]

What TPR said in Post #2 and #4. While it was inevitable to see some edutainment titles released for the ColecoVision in 1984 and beyond, the ADAM was the real catalyst that pushed companies like Fisher Price and Spinnaker to releases their edutainment games for the CV & ADAM. The reason why these titles weren't released on ADAM Data Pack or 5 1/4" Disk is pretty obvious as well... releasing them on cartridge meant that they could be played on the CV or ADAM and the CV had a much larger installed base.

 

Anyway, I think Monkey Academy by Konami is a very well done edutainment title.

[Pixelboy]

What TPR said in Post #2 and #4. While it was inevitable to see some edutainment titles released for the ColecoVision in 1984 and beyond, the ADAM was the real catalyst that pushed companies like Fisher Price and Spinnaker to releases their edutainment games for the CV & ADAM. The reason why these titles weren't released on ADAM Data Pack or 5 1/4" Disk is pretty obvious as well... releasing them on cartridge meant that they could be played on the CV or ADAM and the CV had a much larger installed base.

 

Anyway, I think Monkey Academy by Konami is a very well done edutainment title.

Fisher Price did a couple of good ones too. Dance Fantasy was abysmal, but Logic Levels, Linking Logic and Memory Manor are somewhat entertaining if you give them a small chance. All three games are a bit slow-paced though...