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Why is the importance of ColecoVision almost never brought up historically?


JaguarVision

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The Colecovision is arguably the most important console in the world (maybe even more overall than the Channel F) and it's basically a foot note these days.

 

colecovision-sgm-opcode.jpg

 

Without the ColecoVision:

 

  • We wouldn't have the NES as it is today since the ColecoVision was the bar Nintendo had set for the NES to pass.
  • The NES may not have existed if Coleco Agreed to give Nintendo the right to distribute the System in japan.
  • Is the reason why, through presentations, Atari pumped up the 5200.
  • Is the main target the Atari 7800 was going to compete against.
  • Was the system that separated the Intellvision/2600's/ofdyssey 2's from the Coleco/NES/7800/5200's back in the day before ignorance retroactively sent the system back to gen 2.
  • Was basically completely cloned by Sega for the SG-1000
  • Was also basically cloned for the Sega Master System outside of a stronger graphical prowess.
  • Was the Console that influenced the design of the MSX which was basically a near copy of it, and would lead to the MSX2.
  • Introduced Arcade and more realistic visuals (relatively) on a TV for the first time instead of odd vague shapes that mostly required imagination.
  • Was the first console to have security against unathorized copies
  • Expansion port
  • Steering Wheel for Racers

And more that I am missing.

 

If there was a game console that you could point to as basically shaping the modern industry as we know it it would be literally the ColecoVision, not the Atari 2600. It basically spearheaded things that are most common (even Intellivison did some cool stuff like downloading games etc.) in games we see to this day. it basically set the standards for how games would look on TV and got of the experimental age. It has the presentation that the others didn't.

 

It's amazing how this system gets shafted as time passes and even when news comes out 'recently" through interviews from companies about how Coleco influenced them and change the game but they fall off into the sunset.

 

 

 

 

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...and even stole the 'vision' part for their name. Besides, we all know that without the Atari VCS and its success, there would have been no ColecoVision. ;)

 

Always loved the irony of both Intellivision and ColecoVision producing peripherals for their systems to play VCS games too. Now that was important! :lol:

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The video processor in the coleco vision was very influential. Both Nintendo and Sega based their custom chips from that design. However, that chip was designed by Texas Instruments and first seen in the TI-99/4 home computer. It was offered to Mattel in 1978 but they turned them down. Much like the Atari 5200 and the Atari 800/400 tech, the TI graphics tech didn't make economic sense until RAM prices came down in 1982.

 

The games that Coleco produced were mostly arcade remakes. Even though they looked better and at the time we all wanted to play arcade games at home, golden age arcade games never translated well to home. Still, if you wanted to play Donkey Kong today you would go for MAME rather than Coleco's version. You could argue that Mattel games were more influential with its original sports games and next generation sports games like World Series Baseball, and it's library of unique games including Utopia, and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons to name a few. The Intellivision was one of the first video games (home or arcade) to use tile based graphics. Mattel introduced thumb pad controllers which everyone adopted years later.

 

Edit:

The coleco vision could have had more of an impact in video game history. In 1983 it established itself as the most popular next generation console. And therefore attracted third party developers creating more interesting games. Unfortunately, Coleco self-destructed cutting the life of its console short prematurely.

Edited by mr_me
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The video processor in the coleco vision was very influential. Both Nintendo and Sega based their custom chips from that design. However, that chip was designed by Texas Instruments and first seen in the TI-99/4 home computer. It was offered to Mattel in 1978 but they turned them down. Much like the Atari 5200 and the Atari 800/400 tech, the TI graphics tech didn't make economic sense until RAM prices came down in 1982.

 

The games that Coleco produced were mostly arcade remakes. Even though they looked better and at the time we all wanted to play arcade games at home, golden age arcade games never translated well to home. Still, if you wanted to play Donkey Kong today you would go for MAME rather than Coleco's version. You could argue that Mattel games were more influential with its original sports games and next generation sports games like World Series Baseball, and it's library of unique games including Utopia, and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons to name a few. The Intellivision was one of the first video games (home or arcade) to use tile based graphics. Mattel introduced thumb pad controllers which everyone adopted years later.

If you read the list above I can't see how anyone could argue for mattels Influence over the Coleco at all. Unless you redefine Influence.

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...and even stole the 'vision' part for their name. :lol:

 

Besides, we all know that without the Atari VCS and its success, there would have been no ColecoVision. ;)

 

Always loved the irony of both Intellivision and ColecoVision producing peripherals for their systems to play VCS games too. Talk about important! :rolling:

Except all the above wouldn't have happened without Coleco, and literally everything above shaped the industry as we know it today. I don't understand some of these odd posts in here and the images. By the definition of "influence' there's not a console close tot he Coleco in terms of impact and what happened due to it.

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Except all the above wouldn't have happened without Coleco, and literally everything above shaped the industry as we know it today. I don't understand some of these odd posts in here and the images. By the definition of "influence' there's not a console close tot he Coleco in terms of impact and what happened due to it.

Atari's success wouldn't have happened without Coleco?

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... Besides, we all know that without the Atari VCS and its success, there would have been no ColecoVision. ;)

...

It's true. Both Mattel and Coleco would not have produced consoles had it not been for the success of the Atari 2600. However, Ralph Baer deserves the credit for perservering the idea of a home video game console when everyone was telling him it was a crazy idea.

 

Coleco Toys always had a history of watching the market and copying what was successfull. They did the same with pong, and then the handheld electronic games that Mattel pioneered. Even the video game cartridges that coleco developed were copies of already succesfull video games.

Edited by mr_me
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The NES owes little if anything to the ColecoVision. The Famicom was in development prior to the CV's launch, and was first tested just after the CV's launch (in October of 1982). Nintendo was making electronic games before the CV and even if you want to argue that the CV had influence on the NES, they would have just been influenced by some other machine if the CV hadn't existed. But I would argue that they could have taken almost nothing from the CV simply due to the timeline. They were developed more or less in parallel.

 

Of course no system exists in a vacuum and every system is in some ways a reaction to the other systems it's competing against. That's no more or less true of the ColecoVision and its competitors at the time. But it also doesn't make it any more influential than any other major system. It's most notable as the last major new American home console until the Xbox. (Of course, discounting the delayed entry of the 7800, which was originally supposed to come out shortly after the CV.)

Edited by spacecadet
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Steering wheels for consoles came earlier, much earlier, like on the Coleco Telstar. Expansion ports were present on the Atari 400/800 and other micros like the Vic-20. Nothing new here.

 

Colecovision didn't really influence the modern industry as we know it. It's simply too far removed in time and stronger more recent forces are still work. It may have represented some of the changes on the horizon, but it did not create them it guide them.

Edited by Keatah
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Of course no system exists in a vacuum and every system is in some ways a reaction to the other systems it's competing against. That's no more or less true of the ColecoVision and its competitors at the time. But it also doesn't make it any more influential than any other major system. It's most notable as the last major new American home console until the Xbox. (Of course, discounting the delayed entry of the 7800, which was originally supposed to come out shortly after the CV.)

This.

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The ColecoVision made the cut in my book, Vintage Game Consoles, so I indeed think it was important in the context of its time and at least somewhat influential, but let's not overstate its significance. Its commercial lifespan was obviously cut criminally short, with other platforms lasting much longer and ultimately able to succeed better with its core technology and concepts.

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I don't think it was the most important game system.

 

-but-

 

It definately doesn't get the recognition it deserves. For instance when CV and 5200 came out, they were heralded as "3rd wave" games systems. Nowadays they get lumped in with the 2nd Generation systems like Channel F. SERIOUSLY? CV is clearly a generational leap over the Channel F and VCS. It's closer to an NES than it is to the late 70s systems it gets lumped in as.

 

When it comes to retrogaming and the media, there's a tendancy to gloss over anything pre-NES, unless it's to talk about how ET allegedly destroyed the entire industry, or how bad the 5200 controllers were

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