Selling a few games and an SGM

[+lawdawg710]

I am selling a few games that I have doubles as well as an original SGM by Opcode.

Here are pics of the games and SGM, and I am open to offers via pm (just let me know you pm'd I may not see it).

Games are:
Defender (CIB): $25
Zaxxon Super Game (CIB): **SOLD**
Zaxxon (Original release /CIB but has a few tears on box):$20

Loose carts:

GORF: $10
Venture: $6
Mr. DO: $10
Carnival: $5
Mousetrap (X2 no overlays): $5 ea
Subroc: $6
Burgertime: **SOLD**
Looping: $5
Popeye: $10
Galaxian: $50

Super Game Module (SGM): **SOLD**

[ColecoJoe]

wow, that's an expensive SGM

[NIAD]

wow, that's an expensive SGM

Not really seeing as it is from an early run in the original cardboard box/packaging. So a collector that may have missed this version would certainly be interested in it at this price as well as someone who does not want to wait for the next run sometime next year.

[ColecoJoe]

Not really seeing as it is from an early run in the original cardboard box/packaging. So a collector that may have missed this version would certainly be interested in it at this price as well as someone who does not want to wait for the next run sometime next year.

Yeah I figured the original packaging would be enticing

[Hannacek]

Back when the Coleco brand name and logo was a positive thing. Those were the days.

[NIAD]

Back when the Coleco brand name and logo was a positive thing. Those were the days.

It still is if you don't let the Kennedys and Cardillos of the world ruin it for you. Remember they weren't, have never been and will never be Coleco.

[Hannacek]

The newer runs of the SGM and the CollectorVision Phoenix refused to pay for the name and logo. Are any homebrewers still paying for it?

 

 

Coleco Holdings has absolutely nothing to do with the real Coleco company. They have no products, employees, designs, or anything from the actual company. They had to ask Ben Heck to give them a copy of the logo to put on whatever product they were licensing at the time. They didn't even own a copy of the Coleco logo, until Ben Heck gave them one he drew in Adobe.

 

All they own is the name and logo, which they license to t-shirts, flashback consoles, and Jaguar related scams.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Hannacek

[san-d-2000]

For how much did the SGM go?

[Downland1983]

The newer runs of the SGM and the CollectorVision Phoenix refused to pay for the name and logo. Are any homebrewers still paying for it?

 

 

Coleco Holdings has absolutely nothing to do with the real Coleco company. They have no products, employees, designs, or anything from the actual company. They had to ask Ben Heck to give them a copy of the logo to put on whatever product they were licensing at the time. They didn't even own a copy of the Coleco logo, until Ben Heck gave them one he drew in Adobe.

 

All they own is the name and logo, which they license to t-shirts, flashback consoles, and Jaguar related scams.

 

Technically, the Collectorvision Phoenix did have a licensing deal negotiated for the ColecoVision name originally. It was only dropped after a poll here revealed that more people in the ColecoVision community would prefer the name to be left off the product rather than any money whatsoever go to Coleco Holdings. Just pointing out that the name on the box does hold value to some people as a link to what they grew up loving, without associating it with the people currently squatting on the brand name.

[TPR]

The newer runs of the SGM and the CollectorVision Phoenix refused to pay for the name and logo. Are any homebrewers still paying for it?

 

I think the reality here is that no homebrewer would be stupid enough to pay for it. If anything, you would just have to hope that by using it, Cardillo or River West Brands (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) wouldn't be bothered to go after someone for using it. After all, most of the homebrewers are using it to make "nostalgic reproductions" on products that get very little, if any, retail attention, and you're talking about a very small amount of quantities sold. The fact that *cough* "Coleco" *cough* would even care in the first place just shows how petty those guys really are.

 

Technically, the Collectorvision Phoenix did have a licensing deal negotiated for the ColecoVision name originally. It was only dropped after a poll here revealed that more people in the ColecoVision community would prefer the name to be left off the product rather than any money whatsoever go to Coleco Holdings. Just pointing out that the name on the box does hold value to some people as a link to what they grew up loving, without associating it with the people currently squatting on the brand name.

 

And even if no money went to Coleco Holdings, with all the unfair backlash the Phoenix got due to the Chameleon already, can you just imagine what would have happened if all of a sudden Cardillo was involved and there were photos of him holding up the Phoenix? CollectorVision would have never been able to shake that stigma that was already set up because of Mike Kennedy, Chris Cardillo, and Coleco.

 

I mean, I had to put in bold letters in almost every video I posted "NOT ASSOCIATED WITH CHAMELEON" and still... STILL people making claims that it was the same system under a different name. The first week and a half of that campaign was fighting off people who were DETERMINED to prove that system was a fake, there was a SNES Jr. board inside of it (the SNES controller port didn't help in this argument), and did everything they could to try to disprove the Phoenix was real. *sigh*

 

We just have to hope that at some point, River West Whatever gets tired of dragging that brand around like a cheap whore, or someone comes and makes them an offer they can't refuse, and that someone is actually a decent person who would want to revive the brand properly and with respect to the original company.

[Downland1983]

 

I think the reality here is that no homebrewer would be stupid enough to pay for it. If anything, you would just have to hope that by using it, Cardillo or River West Brands (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) wouldn't be bothered to go after someone for using it. After all, most of the homebrewers are using it to make "nostalgic reproductions" on products that get very little, if any, retail attention, and you're talking about a very small amount of quantities sold. The fact that *cough* "Coleco" *cough* would even care in the first place just shows how petty those guys really are.

 

 

And even if no money went to Coleco Holdings, with all the unfair backlash the Phoenix got due to the Chameleon already, can you just imagine what would have happened if all of a sudden Cardillo was involved and there were photos of him holding up the Phoenix? CollectorVision would have never been able to shake that stigma that was already set up because of Mike Kennedy, Chris Cardillo, and Coleco.

 

I mean, I had to put in bold letters in almost every video I posted "NOT ASSOCIATED WITH CHAMELEON" and still... STILL people making claims that it was the same system under a different name. The first week and a half of that campaign was fighting off people who were DETERMINED to prove that system was a fake, there was a SNES Jr. board inside of it (the SNES controller port didn't help in this argument), and did everything they could to try to disprove the Phoenix was real. *sigh*

 

We just have to hope that at some point, River West Whatever gets tired of dragging that brand around like a cheap whore, or someone comes and makes them an offer they can't refuse, and that someone is actually a decent person who would want to revive the brand properly and with respect to the original company.

Yes, I hope to see that day.

[Hannacek]

 

We just have to hope that at some point, River West Whatever gets tired of dragging that brand around like a cheap whore, or someone comes and makes them an offer they can't refuse, and that someone is actually a decent person who would want to revive the brand properly and with respect to the original company.

 

Coleco is such a small name compared to Atari or Sega, that the only people who remember it are the people here who don't want anything to do with it. No one would want to buy the name, because it is pretty useless at this point. Unless they want to make another ColecoVision flashback, or something like that they would sell at Walmart or Walgreens to people who have no idea about Coleco Holdings.

 

It goes back to Coleco was famous for the other brands it owned like ALF and Cabbage Patch Kids. Anything that was worth anything was sold to big companies decades ago.

 

Maybe if everyone refused to deal with Coleco Holdings, then they would give up on it, and sell it to one of the hombrew companies. It seems like the homebrew companies are buying up the other defunct brands like Aklaim and LJN.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Hannacek

[TPR]

Coleco is such a small name compared to Atari or Sega, that the only people who remember it are the people here who don't want anything to do with it.

 

This is exactly correct and you and I know this, but to the people who own Coleco, they *THINK* they are just as big as Sega or Nintendo. Those early conversations I had with Cardillo where he told me he wanted to treat licensing like Nintendo did where people would have to get "approval from Coleco" to make a game... you know... to make a game for that console that hasn't been on a retail shelf for 35 years and that they actually don't even own the rights to... it was so laughable. I told him it was a bad idea and I told him exactly why, pretty much for all the reasons you just listed here. They should be happy this group is around because these people are the only ones keeping the brand alive and towing that company name.

 

 

Unless they want to make another ColecoVision flashback, or something like that they would sell at Walmart or Walgreens to people who have no idea about Coleco Holdings.

 

And this is exactly the reality. They are just hanging on to the name "just in case" someone like ATGames comes around and offers them a few bills to use the name on another crappy shovelware product that they can get WalMart to buy into for cheap. They aren't holding onto the name to make "quality" products or to be respectful to the brand.

 

 

Maybe if everyone refused to deal with Coleco Holdings, then they would give up on it, and sell it to one of the hombrew companies.

 

That's kind of what I would hope for. Now that homebrewers like CollectorVision and Opcode have chosen not to work with them, and their reputation which they created themselves with how they treated the enthusiast community and with failed products like the Chameleon or the Coleco Expo, you just have to hope they've done enough damage to their own brand that they give up on it. It's just unfortunate that their fake mini arcade units had a moderate amount of success which is causing them to linger like an annoying cough that you can't shake. Which, by the way their Mini Arcade Kickstarter said they were supposed to deliver in September of 2018 and as of their last update a few weeks ago they said they haven't even started production on them, so there is that...

[Hannacek]

Who even is Cardillo? Is he into retro gaming/collecting and also out to make a quick buck? Or does he have no interest in video games, and just wants to make a quick buck?

 

How did Cardillo acquire the Coleco brand?

[nick3092]

He's into making crappy rap videos and making a quick buck. Which leads us to how the brand was "acquired". He has ties to Dormitus Brands who try to scoop up old brand names like Brim, and Nextel and somehow monitize them. The worst part of it all, they had to prove some kind of use of the brand to acquire it, and they got Ben Heck to recreate the logo, and used it as proof they had ownership.

 

Of course, I'm probably summing up and skimming over a lot of the story. You can get the full scoop in the thread below.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265739-coleco-strong-arming-homebrew-publishers-and-fan-sites/

[The Evener]

Who even is Cardillo? Is he into retro gaming/collecting and also out to make a quick buck? Or does he have no interest in video games, and just wants to make a quick buck?

 

How did Cardillo acquire the Coleco brand?

 

You should really read over US Registration No. 78338364 at the US Patent and Trademark Office to check out River West Brand’s original application for the ColecoVision mark, filed December 9, 2003.

After receiving an application, the US Trade Mark and Patent office then performs a search to determine if there are existing uses of the requested mark. In the case of Coleco, all active uses of the mark expired in the years following the bankruptcy of Coleco Limited Inc. A company must renew their claim to the mark every 10 years, or else the mark lapses.

River West Brands’ application was approved and they were granted a “Notice of Allowance” on January 3, 2006. Once this is issued, the applicant has a maximum of 36 months (3 years) to file a “Statement of Use” (SOU) which demonstrates commercial/business use of the mark in the applicable product category - in this case, International Class 009: Video game software; video game machines for use with televisions. The applicant must apply for extensions every 6 months if they fail to submit an SOU in a timely fashion. Failure to file a statement after 36 months results in the forfeiture of your claim to the mark - for RWB, that dreaded date would be January 3, 2009. At that point, anyone else is entitled to apply for the mark.

Over the next two years, RWB applied for no less than four SOU extensions. The beginning of 2008 saw them use their second to last extension. Things were not looking good.

Then, with only 6 months left on the clock, they submitted a Statement of Use on July 1, 2008. The application stated “the trademark [is] displayed on the product itself.” I wonder what cool product they finally marketed to demonstrate their active use of the mark in a commercial setting?

Hey, way cool! A ColecoVision hand-held video game system! Where can I buy one?

Wait a minute…isn’t that Ben Heck’s hack of an original ColecoVision console modded to be a portable that he created back in 2005?

https://www.benheck.com/Games/Coleco/ColecoP.htm

Allegedly, RWB kindly contacted Ben to let him know that, *ahem*, they owned the ColecoVision trademark, but they would be good sports about it and would authorize use of the mark retroactively to 2005. Ben was asked to sign a document, and he also shared his vector files of the ColecoVision logo since there was nothing usable on the web for his handheld project. What RWB neglected to say was that their mark technically wasn't enforceable - it was pending, and that RWB's application would lapse just three days into the New Year if they didn't submit proof of commercial use - pronto.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265739-coleco-strong-arming-homebrew-publishers-and-fan-sites/?p=3778482

Roughly two weeks later on July 15, 2008, the Trademark office accepted RWB’s Statement of Use featuring Ben’s console. Whew! Close call.

Thanks to that photo of Ben’s handheld and his vector files, RWB could finally execute their brand monetization plan years later by licensing the ColecoVision name to ATGames, who released the ColecoVision Flashback.

As a footnote, apparently there were two other entities interested in claiming marks related to Coleco, although both coordinated with RWB in the end. Perhaps it was RWB all along, I can’t tell from the existing documents. My favourite “above board” application came from a California-based company called (get this) Caesar Collazo, Inc. D.B.A. Collazo Entertainment Company Of Vision A.K.A. ColecoVision, who applied in October 2003.

In the end, this application was abandoned in coordination with RWB, but I think Mr. Collazo had the stronger application. I mean, look at the company name - ColecoVision fits hand in glove! And Mr. Collazo included a Statement of Use in his application years before RWB did - who could ever forget the mind-blowing experience of playing ColecoVision’s masterpiece The Healing Runes Online Game?

Edited November 11, 2018 by The Evener

[The Evener]

Sorry, forgot to clarify a point in Hannacek's query, Chris Cardillo is a partner in Coleco Holdings LLC, which is a "subsidiary of River West Brands.

 

Bump for some great loose cart titles - I recommend Galaxian, Atarisoft did a great job with the version; Venture is one of my all time favourites, great Coleco title.