Telegames find / Rediscovering Colecovision

[eegad]

My Colecovision story... 

 

I was always an Atari guy throughout the 80s (and still today) .  2600...400...800xl.  But 2 of my favorite games in the arcades were Venture and Turbo. Venture was available on 2600,  but wasn't very good.  And Atari had no Turbo  ( although - Thank You Atariage for finally releasing a 2600 cart several years ago... It was the coolest Christmas present,  30+ years late) .   Anyway...when Colecovision came out (I was in high school) , I drooled over the Venture and Turbo versions it had.  But, having just talked my parents into getting me a 400 setup, there was no way I'd get one. 

 

Fast forward to 1988 or 1989.  I'm out of college with a job and finally have some spending money.  A mail-order videogame catalog lists a clearance on Colecovision stuff - both new & used consoles & carts,  and also some Coleco clone called "Telegames Personal Arcade".  I think a new CV console was maybe $80 or $90, used maybe $60? The Telegames thing was only like $40 so I ordered it, a used driving controller (with Turbo cart),  plus Venture & a dozen other used carts for maybe $5 each. 

 

Got it.  Played it.  But Turbo doesn't  work.  WTF?  Found out Telegames doesn't work with driving controller.  So I gave in and ordered a new Colecovision console.  Got it. Played it.     ....for a few weeks.  Then packed both consoles away in their boxes and mostly forgot about them. 

 

The 90s drift by, and then....

 

Got married and bought a house 20 years ago.  My old videogames and computers made the move. About a dozen years ago,  nostalgia hit and so I set up my Atari stuff in the basement and have continued to play with it occassionally to this day.  On one rainy weekend while I was down there maybe 6-8 years ago,  I decided to hook up the Colecovision just to see if it still worked. It did,  so I played some games that afternoon and then packed it up again. 

 

 

A few weeks ago,  while at my parents house, I found a box of my stuff in their laundry room. In there was the Telegames Personal Arcade box, and the separate box for the power pack.  Hmmm.  I only vaguely remembered it at first.   Brought it home and hooked it up.  Works fine; nice clear picture.  Got me thinking about Colecovision in general again,  so I hooked up that system too and have been playing around with them both. The Coleco works fine mostly, but has some occasional graphic glitches.  I Googled and read about common issues.  Mine seems to be with power plug. Jiggle it a bit or pull it out and re-insert it and screen clears up. Totally playable, but sometimes screen tears briefly or shows squiggly interference lines, so it is a bit annoying. The Colecovision is practically brand new,  so I don't really want to mess with it if jiggling the power cable clears up video glitches. But would a new power supply most likely fix it? If so, I might consider getting one. Also plan to try to light sandpaper the contacts and see if that helps.

 

 

What shocked me was when I was Googling the Telegames console.  Like,  seriously,  this thing is going for hundreds of dollars on ebay these days? What I'm wondering is WHY? It's a cheaper knockoff,  the controllers suck (though regardless of which console I now play,  I prefer to use an Atari joystick anyway) ,  and the expansion modules don't even work with it.  What makes it so special?  

 

Also....what do people consider the must-have carts? Maybe I'll pick up a few more on ebay while I've got both consoles set up. Have Burger Time,  Donkey Kong, Cosmic Avenger,  Carnival,  Lady Bug,  Destructor, Smurf and 2 or 3 others. 

 

Thanks for any feedback. 

[Supergun]

The infamous reason as to why the Telegames Colecovision clone system became rare, is the “tornado in Texas destroys warehouse” story. And one of the reasons why the clone system was slightly desirable, was because it could also play Sega SG-3000 cards.

[youki]

9 hours ago, Supergun said:

The infamous reason as to why the Telegames Colecovision clone system became rare, is the “tornado in Texas destroys warehouse” story. And one of the reasons why the clone system was slightly desirable, was because it could also play Sega SG-3000 cards.

in fact it is compatible with Sega SG-1000 carts. 

 

The computer Sega SC-3000  can also play Sega SG-1000 carts  but the opposite is not true.

[Oldschool80skid]

On 3/29/2021 at 3:11 PM, eegad said:

Fast forward to 1988 or 1989.  I'm out of college with a job and finally have some spending money.  A mail-order videogame catalog lists a clearance on Colecovision stuff - both new & used consoles & carts,  and also some Coleco clone called "Telegames Personal Arcade".  I think a new CV console was maybe $80 or $90, used maybe $60? The Telegames thing was only like $40 so I ordered it, a used driving controller (with Turbo cart),  plus Venture & a dozen other used carts for maybe $5 each. 

Did the CV console come in it's original retail box from the mail-order catalog site?

[eegad]

11 hours ago, Oldschool80skid said:

Did the CV console come in it's original retail box from the mail-order catalog site?

Yes,  both CV and Telegames were new and sealed in the box. The steering controller also was in the box, but used... Good condition,  but with signs of usage. Carts were all loose,  some looking clean,  some pretty beat up. 

 

 

[BassGuitari]

On 3/29/2021 at 11:20 PM, Supergun said:

The infamous reason as to why the Telegames Colecovision clone system became rare, is the “tornado in Texas destroys warehouse” story. And one of the reasons why the clone system was slightly desirable, was because it could also play Sega SG-3000 cards.

People keep forgetting or ignoring that Telegames continued to sell the system into the early 2000s, likely until they ceased sales of all classic systems in 2004. They even bundled River Raid or/and Pitfall! with the system toward the end (first one, later both, IIRC). Radio Shack, via their in-store Radio Shack Unlimited catalog, and Atari2600.com--one of the premier online classic game dealers of the '90s and '00s--also stocked DINA systems into the early 2000s.

 

The only thing the tornado seems to have wiped out* was the name "Personal Arcade," which got reassigned to a compilation of Colecovision games for Win95, after which Telegames called the console the DINA (although these were packaged in Personal Arcade boxes).

 

(*Yes, some inventory was likely lost. And, unrelated to Telegames, several people were killed. ?)