What I’m Playing Right Now #18 – Colecovision: The Awesome Console That Can’t Have a Collection

Need a giggle? Just imagine a person waking up from a coma since 2015. It kind of is funny to think about. Well, assuming they don’t have severe brain damage. So, what AM I playing?

COLECO-ENVISION

I solemnly swear I’ll never do another review like the Campaign ’84 review again. Yea, that crossed the line from “silly” to “stupid” and whatever else you think about me, I learn from my mistakes. BUT, there was something positive that came out of that review. It gave me a chance to glance at the Colecovision library, which I haven’t done a lot at IGC. Actually, before Campaign ’84, I’d done exactly one game, and it never even got released. It was Pac-Man, which you can read in Pac-Man Museum: The Games They Couldn’t (or Wouldn’t) Include. It got a YES!, so after today, Colecovision is batting .500. The Yankees are looking to sign it, but it’ll probably do time in the minor leagues first. You don’t want to rush these things.

This is my new favorite screenshot. Of all time.

Anyway, Coleco, and WHOA, what a library! Of course, it’s a problematic library for a modern collection like Atari 50. See, almost every major game on Colecovision is a licensed game, in some form or another, but mostly arcade games. That was Coleco’s business model. Coleco spent most of their budget securing Donkey Kong, 1981’s hottest arcade game. In fact, Warner Bros. brass was shocked by Ray Kassar for declining to simply match Coleco’s $2 a cart bid (some sources say $1.40, like the Wikipedia page, but the Colecovision page says $2, and I’d always heard it as $2). Kassar refused, claiming $2 a cart would screw up their margins. It’s a little more complicated than that, since Coleco had a side business that Atari didn’t in those little arcade table tops like the one I reviewed in LCD Games IX, which net Nintendo an additional $1 per unit. Still, it was unfathomable Atari refused to match the offer. The Warner suits even told him something to the effect of, in another year, he’d sell his soul for a deal that good. It gets even worse when you consider that anyone in their right mind would have known that, without Donkey Kong, Colecovision was dead on arrival no matter how good the rest of the software was. This isn’t a knock on the rest of the library. It’s a GREAT library, but there’s nothing on the level of Donkey Kong in terms of cultural impact. It was so desirable people would pay good money JUST to play a convincing home port of it. A fact of life Atari knew the value of already from Space Invaders. It’s absolutely unreal Atari didn’t get Donkey Kong.

And Donkey Kong on Colecovision is solid. The playfield is reversed which is weird, but the gameplay is the same. The worst aspect is that a lot of the personality is missing. Like the barrels don’t explode with a satisfying sound effect like they do in the arcade. Killing a barrel in the Coleco version makes a noise similar to picking up a coin in Super Mario Bros. But, it’s fine. Donkey Kong CV isn’t an amazing game, but it is convincing. That mattered a lot more in the early 80s than it does today.

Coleco was ALL-IN on Donkey Kong, and with the remainder of their war chest, they secured high quality games with cult followings. Stuff like two favorites of mine: Lady Bug and Mouse Trap. These are GREAT GAMES that Atari had the path to secure and didn’t. Colecovision owners certainly had a wealth of great software. But, the problem is, that doesn’t transition well to a retro collection today, in the 2020s. Colecovision is a console entirely defined by other people’s games, like no console before or since. I bet the average gaming fan can’t name a single unlicensed Colecovision game. And by the way, there’s nothing wrong with that. Coleco went where the market was at the time, which was arcade ports. But, they weren’t making arcade games themselves, so even their first-party games were essentially third-party games. That creates a problem for access NOW. Below are six games that have a pretty good chance of getting a YES! from me: Pitfall!, Popeye, Cabbage Patch Kids, Mr. Do!, Burgertime, and Carnival. Each of those six games are owned today by a different company.

Pitfall (Rights: Activision)

Popeye (Rights: Nintendo)

Cabbage Patch Kids (Rights: Konami & Jakks Pacific)

Burgertime (Rights: G-Mode)

Carnival (Rights: Sega)

Mr. Do! (Rights: Saudi Arabian Misk Foundation)

And that likely will keep Coleco forever out of reach. OR WILL IT? There IS a way Digital Eclipse could do a Gold Master Series for it. It just wouldn’t look like a normal Gold Master Series release. It would require selling a base that contains the documentary without any games at all. Just the raw documentary/history/behind the scenes feature, however many chapters that is. You could sell it as low as $9.99 to $19.99, depending on if you can include a teeny tiny handful of games. Probably no more than five, and they’d have to be ones that Atari already owns. The real magic happens when you sell the licensed games at $0.99 to $1.99 a pop as DLC. Or, sell entire chunks of games, IE every Konami port comes in its own $9.99 pack. Why not? People REMEMBER the Colecovision. Like most classic platforms, it has a passionate fanbase that still develops new content to this day for it. While it almost certainly has no path towards the type of compilation the platform deserves, one that can put money in every rights holder’s pocket isn’t out of the question. It would suck to do it that way, but someone has to test the waters on this model anyway. Might as well be you, Digital Eclipse/Atari.

But, I’m not doing Coleco right now. I think that library will mostly show up when I look at ports of popular games. Expect it to be a “Games They Couldn’t (or Wouldn’t) Include” staple.

IRON-BORED

“WEEEEEEEE!”

Yep, that’s Fabio.

I really am just treading water until Tetris Forever, Taito Milestones 3, and Power Rangers hit. If you see a slowdown in reviews soon, that’s why. I’ll be posting at least daily updates on those reviews when I start them, but until then, I hit the randomizer using only my review pool, and it spit out the sequel to Wizards & Warriors. I gave W&W a YES!, but very barely so. If that game hadn’t had the boomerang-like throwing knife, I don’t think I would have liked it. Luckily.. or unluckily, more than likely, I can now directly test that theory. That’s because the sequel, Ironsword, has none of that. You do get projectiles unique to each stage which are used specifically to fight bosses, but you get limited ammo. In fact, one of the objects of the game is to build up enough ammo to beat the boss. Otherwise, this is a sword & sorcery game where your hero has almost no attack range and level design based around leaps of faith. This isn’t going to be pretty, folks.