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ColecoVision Prototype Consoles


retroillucid

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Coleco Prototype Console

This is the console that was believed to have been sold to Mattel wich would later become the Intellivision
If you look at the design, the cartridge slot placement, it makes sense
Not much is known about this other than when I've contacted the owner of this cell, he told me this was the console Coleco first made and sold to Mattel

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ColecoVision Prototype #1


This is the very first ColecoVision prototype and it has been rumored it was just rolling a tape inside of the console to show its potentional during CES and other tradeshows events


If you look at the console, the console faceplate have a white ColecoVision logo with a rainbow strip in lines. The Coleco logo on the faceplate is red.

The cartridge itself looks almost like the final cartridge design but with an imprinted Coleco logo instead of an engraved one.

The cartridge slot is a perfect rectangle, instead of having a unique shape (like in the final design)


The Controller have a joystick similar to the final one, but the numbers on the numpad have a very tick bold font

The Coleco logo is engraved between each side buttons

The buttons seems different than the final design and are blue

There's no Speed Controller (Roller Controller) in this design.


From an advertisement, it seems like Coleco already planned the Expansion Module #1 and #2

But somehow, don't mention the VCS Module at all


Donkey Kong catridge was already listed as the Pack-in game with the console.


All of the ''screenshots'' used for the promo of this prototype were ALL mockups


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ColecoVision Prototype #2


The 2nd Prototype is looking very similar to the first one at the first look.

Although, the cartridge slot area had been completely redesigned and moved to the front of the console.


*I think the main problem with this design was the cartridge slot placement VS the Expansion Port placement.


The faceplate have a few differences, the ColecoVision logo is for some reasons, printed like Coleco never did, probably a print mistake. The rainbow stripe looks identical to the first prototype. The Coleco logo on this faceplate is white now.


The Controller

The 2nd prototype controller now have a Coleco imprinted logo, instead of a engraved this time.

The Blue side buttons looks identical to the 1st prototype controllers.

The Keypad also looks identical to the 1st prototype controller, but this time the Asterix and Dial buttons are now yellow instead of black.

The Speed Roller has been added to the 2nd prototype controller, at the bottom of the keypad.

The Joystick area seems to have a kind of restricted movements shaped-hole


''Screenshots'' used during this era were also all mockups

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post-11933-0-18702600-1546925224_thumb.png

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ColecoVision Prototype #3


Probably the most obscure Colecovision prototype!

Not much is known from this one, and not much pictures available other than this one


This is probably where things changed the most in the design.

The Cartridge placement has been switch back to its original position (see first prototype)


The faceplate is identical to the final design of the console


The Controller have a few changes, it uses the very same bold font for the numpad, although the Asterix and Dial has been changed back to black.

The Speed Roller has changed position, now under the engraved Coleco logo

The side buttons are now grey instead of blue like in the previous designs


The Cartridge slot is still have a perfect rectangle...

post-11933-0-41950600-1546925298_thumb.png

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ColecoVision Prototype #4 (Pre Production Units)


This is the final design of the console, but not its controller!


The cartridge slot area has been completely redesigned, now with its final unique shape slot (instead of perfect rectangle)

Probably due to avoid people putting other's systems cartridge into the CV cartridge slot.


The faceplate is identical to the previous prototype and also the final design


The controller look just like the final design but with the Speed Roller wich would be removed from the final design, but still visible on some PCBs

The Keypad on the Controller now have a tinner font compared to the previous prototype


This is the console that was in the famous Purple Box

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Edited by retroillucid
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Great pics, JF! Thanks for sharing. :) A couple of those pics I've never even seen before. Very, very cool!

 

A couple years ago, I made myself a custom prototype look-alike console.. Sorta, though I put my own spin on it to a degree. ;) I modded it to have a pause button, which lights up, along with the other buttons but only when pressed. The switches are the same ones that DoubleDown and Grips03 used, so I was inspired by them. I had a custom top label made to include the pause button and painted the front face plate white to resemble the proto. It came out great, cosmetically and it's fully modded on the inside too, intro skip/fire button bios, f18a, internal power supply, etc. Wish I had a better picture of it.. I need to reglue the front label again, as it started peeling up on the bottom. I'd like to make another version someday, more authentic to the original prototype, with sideways buttons instead of the normal vertical orientation. :P

 

post-37932-0-51643900-1546959652_thumb.jpg

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Coleco Prototype Console

This is the console that was believed to have been sold to Mattel wich would later become the Intellivision

If you look at the design, the cartridge slot placement, it makes sense
Not much is known about this other than when I've contacted the owner of this cell, he told me this was the console Coleco first made and sold to Mattel

 

 

Cool. That makes sense since both consoles use the same joystick with keypad.

 

Why doesn't Intellivision share the same hardware than Colecovision?

 

Or maybe the first colecovision prototype was Intellivision hardware and sold it to Mattel?

Edited by Serguei2
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Or maybe the first prototype was Intellivision hardware and sold it to Mattel?

 

I don't think it was EXACTLY the same hardware, but it must has served Mattel R&D to make the final design of the Intellivision

At least, that's what I think

 

Maybe NIAD can speak about this, he also know ALOT of this kind of stuff

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Unfortunately companies destroy all prototypes. The only ones that are around have survived by accident or some set of unusual circumstances. If you want to know why, just look at the only known Nintendo PlayStation prototype that survived. Both companies would rather forget that endeavor happened.

Or look at the Atari Jaguar injection molds. It hurts your reputation as a company to have your old products running around so anyone can use them to put whatever they want in them. In that case Atari went bankrupt, so they couldn't destroy the molds as is the normal procedure, they had to sell the molds (and everything else) for whatever money they could get to pay the creditors in the bankruptcy.

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Great pics, JF! Thanks for sharing. :) A couple of those pics I've never even seen before. Very, very cool!

 

A couple years ago, I made myself a custom prototype look-alike console.. Sorta, though I put my own spin on it to a degree. ;) I modded it to have a pause button, which lights up, along with the other buttons but only when pressed. The switches are the same ones that DoubleDown and Grips03 used, so I was inspired by them. I had a custom top label made to include the pause button and painted the front face plate white to resemble the proto. It came out great, cosmetically and it's fully modded on the inside too, intro skip/fire button bios, f18a, internal power supply, etc. Wish I had a better picture of it.. I need to reglue the front label again, as it started peeling up on the bottom. I'd like to make another version someday, more authentic to the original prototype, with sideways buttons instead of the normal vertical orientation. :P

 

attachicon.gif20190108_094540.jpg

 

Here's the one I had a few years ago .....of course it is custom ;)

post-11933-0-59008000-1547079639.png

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Wow didn't know about the prototype controller with the speed roller. Are there any in the wild?

There are 3 confirmed to exist.

 

- 2 are identical to the one pictured with the last Prototype CV, ie. they look like the black hand controller that comes with the system but with the Speed Roller.

 

- 1 is an earlier prototype of the above with small differences.

 

Anyway, I sold mine to Coleco_Master with the Purple box CV Prototype and ValkyrieSilk now owns the other two that were originally found by Yurkie.

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