Which controller do you prefer: ColecoVision or Intellivision?

[Leeroy ST]

These are two of the most divisive controllers in gaming, especially for their time of relevance. Both have fans that admire their ambition, but many, including fans, often bring up flaws, including how both controllers work well for some game types and poorly for others, and build reliability.

 

Both sport a rectangular "phone dialpad" design, with the Intellivisions pad being concave and the ColecoVisions being convex, otherwise the main difference being button quality and placement, along with different control methods.

 

The Intellivision uses a directional pad disc for character movement, while the ColecoVision uses a rounded joystick.

 

Which controller do you prefer to use out of these choices? Which do you feel is better, more comfortable, and better for playing games?

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Leeroy ST

[Mikebloke]

Should be an option for both being as awful as each other. 

 

I opted for colecovision. I like it's bulkyness a bit more, and prefer it's buttons over intellivision, but I do like the disk of the Intellivision. 

 

I think my view is slightly skewed that I now own all the alternative colecovision controllers and I don't have to bare with the standard controller as much, with intellivision it's all I've got. 

[Tales from the Game Room]

Both were known to not be very user-friendly.  But, I never liked the nub of the joystick of the ColecoVision, and I always preferred the keypad to be over the controller, so that the buttons and overlays could be utilized better.

 

~ Ash

[+jgkspsx]

I can’t stand the INTV disk for directional inputs. I love everything else about it, but that drives me screaming-at-the-TV crazy. So even though I’ve never so much as touched a Colecovision controller I voted for that.

[+GoldenWheels]

I choose hara-kiri.

 

 

(As a better than both of them. I know I know....just always hated both.)

[DragonGrafx-16]

I've only used the ColecoVision controller of the two and while I don't like the controller that much at least it still has a real joystick.

[fiddlepaddle]

My first impulse was to think, "That's like asking me if I prefer mowing the lawn or brushing my teeth". I do both, but neither for the experience itself.

[Leeroy ST]

3 hours ago, fiddlepaddle said:

My first impulse was to think, "That's like asking me if I prefer mowing the lawn or brushing my teeth". I do both, but neither for the experience itself.

Well some people have fun on the riding mowers lol.

[carlsson]

21 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I can’t stand the INTV disk for directional inputs.

That can be a bit of a problem for homebrew developers who do the grunt work of testing and debugging in emulation using a PC keyboard that nicely supports all kinds of directional input, but once the program is tested on real hardware and controllers, it shows what works and what doesn't. Same about the stiff fire buttons on the sides, which are much harder to push than using a PC keyboard in emulation. I'd assume the Colecovision may have similar issues, though the more distinctive the joystick input is, the less of a problem it is to move from emulation to real hardware.

[fiddlepaddle]

I've been thinking more about this question, and I think a better analogy is the difference between using a spoon and a fork.

You CAN eat soup with a fork, or steak with a spoon, but there are better combinations.

Some games work great with the intellivision controller, others are workable, but not ideal. Same with the Colecovision. I did replace my mushrooms with balls, though.

But in the final analysis, I'll eat what I want and play the game I like with the best tools I have available.

[Leeroy ST]

Thunder Castle seems to be one of the few games of it's type that works surprisingly well with the disc.

[digdugnate]

16 hours ago, fiddlepaddle said:

I've been thinking more about this question, and I think a better analogy is the difference between using a spoon and a fork.

You CAN eat soup with a fork, or steak with a spoon, but there are better combinations.

Some games work great with the intellivision controller, others are workable, but not ideal. Same with the Colecovision. I did replace my mushrooms with balls, though.

But in the final analysis, I'll eat what I want and play the game I like with the best tools I have available.

seems like there's lotttts of soup fork-eaters around, lol.

[carlsson]

So in an ideal world, we would have sporks to use for playing video games.

[Bonkey Kong]

Colecovision all the way, and the Colecovision has other controller options to choose from which is always nice.

[dendawg]

If you're gonna have a controller with keypad poll, IMHO The Atari 5200 and Jaguar controllers should be in there too.

[Leeroy ST]

On 8/4/2021 at 6:33 PM, Bonkey Kong said:

Colecovision all the way, and the Colecovision has other controller options to choose from which is always nice.

Hmm? Intelivision does to though.