ColecoVision Versus Atari 5200 Commercial

[+Random Terrain]

I don't remember seeing this commercial before. It's from November 19, 1983:

 

youtu.be/a4qSAnQdXYc?t=352

 

 

As pboland said below, here is Atari's response:

 

youtu.be/a4qSAnQdXYc?t=653

 

 

And as pboland also said below, here is Commodore's response:

 

youtu.be/a4qSAnQdXYc?t=863

 

[0078265317]

I dont remember that either.

[BIGHMW]

I remember this commercial from back then, but what are C-V owners thinking now since they don't have their own dedicated site to their classic system compared to what we have with AtariAge??? Where are any ColecoVision homebrews, or any conversions from their cousin ADAM to their unit like what we have with our growing library of 5200 conversions from the 8-bit (400/800/XL/XE) computers???

 

Do ColecoVision owners have guys like @playsoft, @Thelen, @TIX, @CPUWIZ, and many others who are dedicated in leading the way putting out new original games for Big Sexy??? I can't think of any. How about units like the brilliant new (pending) Super 52 that @edladdin is working on, and the Wico 5200 self-centering joystick and its touch-tone telephone-quality keypad, and the Competition Pro that came out years ago, and also things like what @Albert came out with years ago like Redemption 5200 (and the Masterplay Clone) to allow that vast assortment of other controllers for other systems (2600/Sega, 7800, and PC) to be used as alternatives to the (somewhat-quirky) CX52 joystick??? 

 

And how about that brilliant CX53 Trak-Ball that when regularly maintained, can last almost forever. And what about Best Electronics with the gold-plated 5200 flex circuitry and the better bubble contacts for both the CX24 (7800) and CX40 (2600/Sega) joysticks??? And the 2600 adapter, and lest we not forget the brand new ProPaddle 2 5200-compatible paddle controller from 0711 Spiele in Germany that makes Tempest (and Kaboom! and Super Breakout among others) a dream to play as opposed to a joystick or Trak-Ball!!!

 

How about a loyal and dedicated following including all of us on AA that also spans 4 decades even to this very day!!!

 

The Atari 5200, by far the best, even 4 decades later. Fact of the matter. Bottom line.

Edited July 15, 2020 by BIGHMW

[+pboland]

17 hours ago, Random Terrain said:

I don't remember seeing this commercial before. It's from November 19, 1983:

 

youtu.be/a4qSAnQdXYc?t=352

 

If you watch starting at 10:53 you can see Atari's response. ?

[BIGHMW]

Yeah take THAT Coleco!!!

[+pboland]

25 minutes ago, BIGHMW said:

I remember this commercial from back then, but what are C-V owners thinking now since they don't have their own dedicated site to their classic system compared to what we have with AtariAge??? Where are any ColecoVision homebrews, or any conversions from their cousin ADAM to their unit like what we have with our growing library of 5200 conversions from the 8-bit (400/800/XL/XE) computers???

 

Do ColecoVision owners have guys like @playsoft, @Thelen, @TIX, @CPUWIZ, and many others who are dedicated in leading the way putting out new original games for Big Sexy??? I can't think of any. How about units like the brilliant new (pending) Super 52 that @edladdin is working on, and the Wico 5200 self-centering joystick and its touch-tone telephone-quality keypad, and the Competition Pro that came out years ago, and also things like what @Albert came out with years ago like Redemption 5200 (and the Masterplay Clone) to allow that vast assortment of other controllers for other systems (2600/Sega, 7800, and PC) to be used as alternatives to the (somewhat-quirky) CX52 joystick??? 

 

And how about that brilliant CX53 Trak-Ball that when regularly maintained, can last almost forever. And what about Best Electronics with the gold-plated 5200 flex circuitry and the better bubble contacts for both the CX24 (7800) and CX40 (2600/Sega) joysticks??? And the 2600 adapter, and lest we not forget the brand new ProPaddle 2 5200-compatible paddle controller from 0711 Spiele in Germany that makes Tempest (and Kaboom! and Super Breakout among others) a dream to play as opposed to a joystick or Trak-Ball!!!

 

How about a loyal and dedicated following including all of us on AA that also spans 4 decades even to this very day!!!

 

The Atari 5200, by far the best, even 4 decades later. Fact of the matter. Bottom line.

You might want to visit the Colecovision section here at Atari Age. I think you would be surprised to find the Colecovision homebrew community is quite large.

[+pboland]

18 hours ago, Random Terrain said:

I don't remember seeing this commercial before. It's from November 19, 1983:

 

youtu.be/a4qSAnQdXYc?t=352

 

At 14:23 you can see Commodore wants in on the action too! ?

 

Now that's just funny!

[+Ryan Witmer]

I'm convinced.  Who wants to buy a 5200 with about 70 games?  I need money for a Colecovision.

[+Random Terrain]

1 hour ago, pboland said:

If you watch starting at 10:53 you can see Atari's response. ?

 

1 hour ago, pboland said:

At 14:23 you can see Commodore wants in on the action too! ?

 

Now that's just funny!

 

Thanks. I added those two commercials to the first post (they'll automatically play at those positions when clicked on).

[+Black_Tiger]

1 hour ago, BIGHMW said:

I remember this commercial from back then, but what are C-V owners thinking now since they don't have their own dedicated site to their classic system compared to what we have with AtariAge??? Where are any ColecoVision homebrews, or any conversions from their cousin ADAM to their unit like what we have with our growing library of 5200 conversions from the 8-bit (400/800/XL/XE) computers???

 

Do ColecoVision owners have guys like @playsoft, @Thelen, @TIX, @CPUWIZ, and many others who are dedicated in leading the way putting out new original games for Big Sexy??? I can't think of any. How about units like the brilliant new (pending) Super 52 that @edladdin is working on, and the Wico 5200 self-centering joystick and its touch-tone telephone-quality keypad, and the Competition Pro that came out years ago, and also things like what @Albert came out with years ago like Redemption 5200 (and the Masterplay Clone) to allow that vast assortment of other controllers for other systems (2600/Sega, 7800, and PC) to be used as alternatives to the (somewhat-quirky) CX52 joystick??? 

 

And how about that brilliant CX53 Trak-Ball that when regularly maintained, can last almost forever. And what about Best Electronics with the gold-plated 5200 flex circuitry and the better bubble contacts for both the CX24 (7800) and CX40 (2600/Sega) joysticks??? And the 2600 adapter, and lest we not forget the brand new ProPaddle 2 5200-compatible paddle controller from 0711 Spiele in Germany that makes Tempest (and Kaboom! and Super Breakout among others) a dream to play as opposed to a joystick or Trak-Ball!!!

 

How about a loyal and dedicated following including all of us on AA that also spans 4 decades even to this very day!!!

 

The Atari 5200, by far the best, even 4 decades later. Fact of the matter. Bottom line.

Pretty much all of that and much more has been produced for Colecovision.

 

Controller parts, adapters and custom controllers also weren't nearly as necessary as for 5200, but there are endless options. Colecovision has had an Edladdin joystick for years already.

 

The Colecovision originally shipped with stock self-centering digital sticks to play its library of nearly all digital control games. The Colecovision also played 2600 games even bitd.

 

Opcode games did one better than Adam conversions and produced the Super Game Module which turns the Collecovision into more or less Adam spec.

 

Instead of Atari computer conversions, Colecovision has a growing library of MSX and SG-1000 conversions. There are currently over 200 homebrew productions.

 

There is even the annual Collectorvision Club with an exclusive game each year.

[+Black_Tiger]

It's funny how this commercial doesn't dare to compare 5200 and Colecovision games side by side like Intellivision did with success.

 

They intentionally focus on accessories since the games wouldn't look more impressive.

[Keatah]

Never did like those stack-on add-ons or computer modules. Considered them not well though out. It was always only a year or two later that something better, more integrated would eclipse the stack. They added another level of connections and unreliability. And they were too-niche in what games (if any) that they enhanced. Software always had to be re-written or done from the ground-up to make use of them. 2 piece consoles just suck.

 

Having owned all those consoles in the ads, minus the Adam, I'd go with the 5200. It was closest to real arcade action.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I remember those commercials like it was yesterday though I probably could not tell you what I had for dinner last Monday ??Outside of expansion modules, add-ons etc, also saying this as a happy and proud owner of an original 4 port 5200, as far as each console goes and it's native library of games, having to choose just one it is definitely ColecoVision all the way, it has always been my favorite console of it's era and while there are great Atari classics on the 5200 many are just improved versions of all the classic Atari hits they kept porting from 2600 to 8-bit etc, Centipede, Pac Man, Galaxian, Jungle Hunt etc, etc. While ColecoVision got some ports you still rarely see anywhere if at all like BERZERK. Now I fully admit my history was with 2600 then to Colecovision never owning a 5200 during it's heyday so there is a nostalgic connection to games on ColecoVision with Popeye, LadyBug, MouseTrap, Pepper II, Space Panic and more. 

Edited July 15, 2020 by OldSchoolRetroGamer
additions

[Keatah]

In thinking about what games were on CV vs 5200. It was a no-brainer. The libraries were different. We didn't fret it. We simply traded systems for a weekend or so, back and forth, back and forth, to experience both.

 

Eventually the market crashed and stuff was cheap that we could easily purchase multiple consoles. We didn't see it as a crash. But a flooding and cheapening (in quality) of what was on the shelves. Things going to cheaper boxes, no plastic tray inserts (inty boxes), no more gatefold. Cheaper printing, no more color, and then no colored boxes. A glut in full swing. Then a shift into computers more. And then we grew up.

 

But while things were expensive and the market clearly separated, times were amazing! Every new game was a big stink! A big enough production that we'd plan our weekends around it.

 

4 hours ago, Black_Tiger said:

It's funny how this commercial doesn't dare to compare 5200 and Colecovision games side by side like Intellivision did with success.

 

I'd venture to guess (no pun intended) that the 5200 vs CV wasn't a big race. The hardware seemed to be similar in power.

 

But with the Atari VCS vs Intellivision ads, well, the Intellivision was more powerful. An easy win there. At the same time most Inty games were slower moving compared to the VCS' stuff.

[doubledown]

I love in the Atari response commercial, when showing off the 5200, they compare the awesome 5200 Pac-Man, to the pathetic "ColecoVision" Pac-Man...which is in fact the their own Atari 2600 Pac-Man played through the Atari Expansion Module...though they don't mention this!   

[BIGHMW]

I myself liked both, even though I have been a loyal Atarian, as they each had different arcade hits from the good-ol' days, before the 8-bit conversions became available the only way we Atarians could play Donkey Kong (or Donkey Kong Jr.) was to jump to the C-V, there were an awful lot of great games for both and different ones at that. 

 

Whenever I went to a former (Erikson Center, 1983-84) classmate's (Lisa Rivers) house, her younger brother Natan had both a ColecoVision and a 2600, as well as a 13" Trinitron TV hooked up, I used to blow him away in Pepper II (one of my favorite games for C-V) and also Space Fury among others, and now that there are no longer any exclusive separate home/computer rights to games we 5200 owners can now also experience Donkey Kong and DK Jr. with our 8-bit conversions where legally in the past we were not allowed to do so, as Coleco had (then) exclusive home video gaming rights while Atari had exclusive home computer rights, and those were different animals back then even though the 5200 and 8-bit shared the same technology pretty much. 

 

I would love to see it become more of an open market now as opposed to the day, every game for every system, so that all of us no matter what units we owned can enjoy them as equally as anyone else, which is why I would love to see some of Coleco's games ported to the 8-bit/5200 lineup, I'm sure there are ColecoVisionaires who would love to play some of our games ported to the C-V too.

 

They both found their niches, let's all reap in the fruits of them shall we. Enough of the 1980s bickering, they were both great at their time.

Edited July 15, 2020 by BIGHMW

[BassGuitari]

These commercials are cognitive dissonance at its finest. ?

 

Coleco: *Tells you about all the hardware Atari makes you buy*

Also Coleco: *Shows a Colecovision and a whole stack of crap to buy for it next to a lonesome Atari 5200*

 

Atari: "Look at how bad Pac-Man is on Colecovision!"

Also Atari: *Shows Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man*

[+Ryan Witmer]

8 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

Atari: "Look at how bad Pac-Man is on Colecovision!"

Also Atari: *Shows Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man*

I've seen that commercial come up so many times, and the sheer ballsiness of it never stops being funny.

[+DamonicFury]

29 minutes ago, AverageSoftware said:

I've seen that commercial come up so many times, and the sheer ballsiness of it never stops being funny.

When I first saw it on TV when I was around twelve years old, it was infuriating!  It certainly didn’t make me want a 5200 (and indeed I didn’t get one until 2009) ?  
 

I wonder if this ridiculous ad had anything to do with Atarisoft’s CV PacMan port being shelved. 

[patroclus99]

Oh gosh, those crazy adds, and even crazier network line-ups. . . remember Battle of the Network Stars?

 

But yah, the commercial with Pac-Man comparison on each system. . . really clever, but incredibly dodgy lolz.

[Bill Loguidice]

The funniest commercial would have been one comparing the original pack-in game for the Atari 5200, Super Breakout, versus the ColecoVision's Donkey Kong.

[Greg2600]

Does anyone find it odd that all three commercials featured college-aged (or older) men?  Was this the target group for video game consoles at the time?? 

[BIGHMW]

5 hours ago, Greg2600 said:

Does anyone find it odd that all three commercials featured college-aged (or older) men?  Was this the target group for video game consoles at the time?? 

For most "third wave" gaming systems that both the 5200 and ColecoVision were, yes it pretty much was, the targeted demographic (mostly 18+) considered "lesser" systems like the 2600 to be "mere kids' stuff", compared to the more-grown-up gaming audience who had (allegedly) moved on from the 2600 and Odyssey 2 and wanted something better.

[Greg2600]

Well no wonder they all went out of business.

[christo930]

On 7/20/2020 at 12:20 AM, Greg2600 said:

Well no wonder they all went out of business.

Male 18 plus by far spends the most money on video games and who play the most video games. It was just as true then as it is now.  There are lots of reasons they went out of business, but who they were targeting with their commercials is not one of them.