Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites

[enoofu]

[Northcoastgamer]

Interesting. I found this interesting as well. http://colecotoys.com/. They sell a coffee mug, mens shirt, womens tank top and the CV Flashback. When you click on the Flashback it takes you to Bed Bath And Beyond to order it, but it's out of stock. So no Colecovision games, but they claim that Coleco is back. They have also altered their ad from last year with a different logo that now almost completely covers the Xbox controller.

 

[opcode]

 

Prometheus with WIP

 

[Jinks]

I like how the ad says turned dk into a huge brand...hmmmm what for 2 years 40 years ago? I think nintendo kinda made about 10 other dk games and may have been responsible for the HUGE brand.

The picture clearly shows a xbox 360 controller..

Question... do any of these guys actually own and play a real coleco?

Awaiting the fake answer.

I am never buying anything coleco unless it is not licensed and made sure it has 100% nothing to do with this fake brand.

I hope everyone does the same.

[Keatah]

..well they did introduce DK to masses at home. Gotta give the original 1980's Coleco some credit.

[Jinks]

..well they did introduce DK to masses at home. Gotta give the original 1980's Coleco some credit.

I thought every console and computer had dk as well.

But yeah I guess more dks on the coleco at that time.

[TPR]

Interesting. I found this interesting as well. http://colecotoys.com/. They sell a coffee mug, mens shirt, womens tank top and the CV Flashback. When you click on the Flashback it takes you to Bed Bath And Beyond to order it, but it's out of stock. So no Colecovision games, but they claim that Coleco is back. They have also altered their ad from last year with a different logo that now almost completely covers the Xbox controller.

 

OMG! The website is AWFUL. Broken links, pathetic merchandise, and this amazing nugget of awesome: a link to a video labeled "Embrace History - Our Story in a nutshell" and it links to a video that has so many incorrect facts. Wrong system overlays, incorrect names of games, gameplay footage where it looks like the guy is playing the game for his first time and then when he says "ColecoVision is known for it's great arcade ports...let's look at some of their best titles..." He shows Brain Strainers! WHAT??? It's just such an awful video. His description of "Looper" is amazing. lol It's pretty clear that Coleco doesn't even know their own history, otherwise there is NO WAY they would have chosen this video to feature as their "history."

 

OH! And the BEST part of this video! Towards the end of the video, remember the same video that Coleco suggests you should go watch, the guy talks about Gamester 81's homebrew game that includes this little gem right here:

 

While I know that the game doesn't include direct versions of those games or even this screen, but I still think it's hilarious and obviously hypocritical that Coleco would choose a video to showcase as their "history" right on their official website that includes a section dedicated to a homebrew game that features unlicensed references of existing video game intellectual property.

 

Every time I uncover something new about this whole scenario it keeps getting dumber.

[128Kgames]

I thought every console and computer had dk as well.

But yeah I guess more dks on the coleco at that time.

 

Coleco was the first with Donkey Kong on a home console, and the first with an actual arcade game as the pack in game, and a popular game at that. Up to that point the 2600 came with Combat, Intellivision ? (sorry, did it come with a pack in?), Bally and later Astrocade had built in games, and I'm not up on my Odyssey II either, sorry. But you get the gist: what Coleco did was unheard of at the time, giving away an actual arcade title they could have charged money for instead of a generic type of title.

 

Many copied their lead down the road by packing in known arcade titles. Oh and the other console versions of DK? All made by Coleco.

 

Computers? No idea, but I did play a cool knock off called Donkey King on the CoCo...

[enoofu]

Coleco did a small run on computers before they got in trouble with Nintendo as Atari had the license for the platform

[Northcoastgamer]

I knew Zombies were involved somehow. Here's an interesting & informative read, a little long. Not sure if it's been posted yet, it's past my bedtime. http://www.inta.org/TMR/Documents/Volume%2098/vol98_no6_a1.pdf

[Swami]

 

OMG! The website is AWFUL. Broken links, pathetic merchandise, and this amazing nugget of awesome: a link to a video labeled "Embrace History - Our Story in a nutshell" and it links to a video that has so many incorrect facts. Wrong system overlays, incorrect names of games, gameplay footage where it looks like the guy is playing the game for his first time and then when he says "ColecoVision is known for it's great arcade ports...let's look at some of their best titles. Here's Brain Strainers...." WHAT??? It's just such an awful video. His description of "Looper" is amazing. lol It's pretty clear that Coleco doesn't even know their own history, otherwise there is NO WAY they would have chosen this video to feature as their "history."

 

OH! And the BEST part of this video! Towards the end of the video, remember the same video that Coleco suggests you should go watch, the guy talks about Gamester 81's homebrew game that includes this little gem right here:

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 23.12.27.png

 

While I know that the game doesn't include direct versions of those games or even this screen, but I still think it's hilarious and obviously hypocritical that Coleco would choose a video to showcase as their "history" right on their official website that includes a section dedicated to a homebrew game that features unlicensed references of existing video game intellectual property.

 

Every time I uncover something new about this whole scenario it keeps getting dumber.

Did you click on the Technical link on the page. It takes you to a colecovision.dk website where there is a starburst with the message "Please Support Homebrewers to Keep ColecoVision Alive"

[Northcoastgamer]

The plot thickens....... https://www.trademark247.com/company-profile-coleco+holdings+llc-4299739.html

[Andromeda Stardust]

Isn't that an infringement on Microsofts patent or trademark? Using an Xbox controller in a "Coleco" ad? I don't think Microsoft even knows about this but I could be wrong.

I don't think they give a crap.

 

Just look at all those B-rated movies that show some dude on a couch with an Xbox 360 controller or some random dual stick BT pad, with flashing lights and vintage era arcade sound samples coming from the TV set (which you can't see as the camera is typically mounted behind the TV to avoid the issue of copyrighted screenshots). If you're gonna go all retro with the sound effects, at least do the decency of using a retro joystick like the CX-40.

 

That photo could have just as easily be lifted out of such a movie scene.

[Keatah]

I thought every console and computer had dk as well.

But yeah I guess more dks on the coleco at that time.

Yup. But the CV version made the biggest impact by a far margin. Edited May 26, 2017 by Keatah

[Andromeda Stardust]

Just wondering if you could actually do porn on the CV since most sprites look like stick figures much like the the so called Atari Porn games which are basically PG-13 jokes

There was this clip from a southpark episode with rather graphic stick figure pr0n which regularly airs uncensored in Comedy Central syndication:

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/qqsz42/internet-porn-simulator

 

I get it that Beat Em and Eat Em or Custer's Revenge on the Atari had graphic pixel pr0n, but playing the games is more like your best friend from grade school telling a really dirty joke that makes you laugh, and less actual eroticism. Anyone who collects or plays vintage 8-bit pr0n games is doing it for the LOLs or novelty and not because they are genuinely aroused by it. At least I hope that's the case anyway. Maybe someone out there besides a young pubescent male finds pixel pr0n genuinely erotic, but to me and any other normal healthy adult, it's really just crude humor, ie a "potty joke" on a cart.

[+GoldLeader]

Kosmic Stardust, on 25 May 2017 - 11:15 PM, said:

Anyone who collects or plays vintage 8-bit pr0n games is doing it for the LOLs or novelty and not because they are genuinely aroused by it.

 

Speak for yourself.

 

 

 

Joke ...LOL

[Keatah]

Toilet humor for the win. It's the best we could expect from ROM carts of the day. Computer porn was more in depth with stories.

[+GoldLeader]

Keatah, on 25 May 2017 - 11:08 PM, said:

Yup. But the CV version made the biggest impact by a far margin.

 

I could be wrong, but I do get the impression here that some people in the retro gaming scene really don't remember what Coleco was like BITD. Even that Hackaday article pretty much recalls Coleco as an "also ran". No...Not by a long fucking shot! I know that some people were too young to remember the Pre-Crash Console Wars...But in no way shape or form was Coleco (Old Coleco, real Coleco) an "also ran"...There was even a point in time, I'd call them The Winner of said wars... People who don't remember, and I'm not ripping on the young here, would do well to read a magazine from the time period. It's all too easy to get lost in modern tech, with its myriad of ways to play almost any game, and assume we always had such choices...

Edited May 26, 2017 by GoldLeader

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Speak for yourself.

 

 

 

Joke ...LOL

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I have several and played them all...

• Beat Em and Eat Em CIB Atari.
• Custer's Revenge CIB Atari.
• Soap Panic Famicom (Japanese version of Bubble Bath Babes)
• AV Pachinko Famicom.
• Majong Lady - Some unlicensed Japanese Megadrive game I have no idea how to play.
• Strip Fighter II CIC PC Engine.
• Pirate Booty by RetroUSB (Panesian NES multicart)
• Beat Em and Eat Em NES (homebrew port)
• Cornball Cocksuckers NES (homebrew)

Also what's this white crusty stuff on my joystick???

 

 

Okay that last part was a joke...

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I could be wrong, but I do get the impression here that some people in the retro gaming scene really don't remember what Coleco was like BITD. Even that Hackaday article pretty much recalls Coleco as an "also ran". No...Not by a long fucking shot! I know that some people were too young to remember the Pre-Crash Console Wars...But in no way shape or form was Coleco (Old Coleco, real Coleco) an "also ran"...There was even a point in time, I'd call them The Winner of said wars... People who don't remember, and I'm not ripping on the young here, would do well to read a magazine from the time period. It's all too easy to get lost in modern tech, with its myriad of ways to play almost any game, and assume we always had such choices...

Didn't Coleco directly compete with 5200, or did that come later? I honestly have no recollection of this time period as I was a toddler at the time.

[+GoldLeader]

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I have several and played them all...

 

Beat Em and Eat Em CIB Atari.

Custer's Revenge CIB Atari.

Soap Panic Famicom (Japanese version of Bubble Bath Babes)

AV Pachinko Famicom.

Majong Lady - Some unlicensed Megadrive game I have no idea how to play.

Pirate Booty by RetroUSB (Panesian NES multicart)

Beat Em and Eat Em NES (homebrew port)

Cornball Cocksuckers NES (homebrew)

Strip Fighter II PC Engine Hucard CIC.

 

Nice!

 

I still remember when me and some friends found some weird coin op videogame in a truck stop. They had a gameroom hidden away between areas, but away from the restaurant. I can't remember what it was called, but I want to say it played like a reverse QIX or thereabouts, but uncovering the picture would reveal a topless model in all her pixelated glory...We laughed so hard when we finally got the first pic revealed...And other random truckers were coming up to see what we were laughing at...Good Times!

[+GoldLeader]

Didn't Coleco directly compete with 5200, or did that come later? I honestly have no recollection of this time period as I was a toddler at the time.

 

Definitely! And in my neck of the woods there were way more Colecos sold than Ataris.

[mr_me]

The Atari 5200 was the Colecovision's main competitor. And since Coleco had the rights for Donkey Kong console cartridges, they did not make one for their main competitor. So the 5200 did not have a Donkey Kong.

 

The Atari 2600, the Intellivision, and the Colecovision are really three different generations of technology. As RAM prices were coming down in price, each sysyem had about 10x the RAM of the previous generation allowing for more complex graphics.

 

The Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 both had Arcade games for packins. Arcade games were a little different in the 1970s. Why Atari put a 1970s game packed in their1982 Atari 5200; I don't know. Colecovision beat the 5200 in the marketplace, likely due to Donkey Kong. Just as the Famicom beat Sega in Japan by having Donkey Kong.

Edited May 26, 2017 by mr_me

[TheClassyGamer]

 

I could be wrong, but I do get the impression here that some people in the retro gaming scene really don't remember what Coleco was like BITD. Even that Hackaday article pretty much recalls Coleco as an "also ran". No...Not by a long fucking shot! I know that some people were too young to remember the Pre-Crash Console Wars...But in no way shape or form was Coleco (Old Coleco, real Coleco) an "also ran"...There was even a point in time, I'd call them The Winner of said wars... People who don't remember, and I'm not ripping on the young here, would do well to read a magazine from the time period. It's all too easy to get lost in modern tech, with its myriad of ways to play almost any game, and assume we always had such choices...

That also depends on where you were.

 

Around here the Colecovision had close to zero presence. They were not in stores here. I don't remember any advertising for them either. Also the 5200 had a very minimal presence here. It was mostly 2600 and a little Intellivision. The only Coleco console I remember seeing in my youth was the Gemini because a neighbor had it and they moved here. They called it a Coleco and it made sense to me as it used 2600 games and I had some that said Coleco on them, such as DK. Needless to say I've no nostalgia to the Colecovision. That makes this new Coleco pretty much less than worthless to me.

[syn]

The crash in 83 didn't affect the arcades which is where I went after school. That and saving money for a car doing odd jobs (like watching the arcade a few hours a week) meant my exposure to Colecovision was friends siblings. I remember not liking the 5200 controller at the time when I tried it at the mall.