5200 Stay? Proceed, Atari, 7800!

[Allpaul]

"Sales quickly passed one million in early 1983, before the video game crash of 1983. The ColecoVision was discontinued in the spring of 1984.[citation needed] In 1986, Bit Corporation produced a ColecoVision clone called the Dina, which was sold in the United States by Telegames as the Telegames Personal Arcade."

River West Brands currently owns the ColecoVision brand.

 

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision

 

Gus, I'm not saying that Wikipedia is the gospel, but these are the only statistics I can find (which are echoed by other sites, I'll provide links if necessary). Where are you getting 3 million units from? I guess it is entirely possible that the clone makers and liquidation warehouses sold 2 million more Colecovision based platforms, but going from these figures, it would had to have happened after the crash.

Edited November 6, 2008 by Allpaul

[8th lutz]

By the time Coleco stopped videogame production in 1984, the company had sold more than six million ColecoVisions in just three years.

 

From ClassicGaming.com's Museum

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?...d=24&game=8

Classicgaming.com is a long time site. I remember seeing it as long back as the late 90's. I don't know how accurate or outdated that info is. I remembered seeing this on the site back in the 90's.

 

According to the FAQ at Gamefaqs, 6 million ColecoVisions sold in just two years.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/coleco/file/916371/2638

This faq was posted on Gamefaqs 10 years ago. It also could have outdated infomation as a result.

Edited November 7, 2008 by 8th lutz

[Allpaul]

By the time Coleco stopped videogame production in 1984, the company had sold more than six million ColecoVisions in just three years.

 

From ClassicGaming.com's Museum

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?...d=24&game=8

Classicgaming.com is a long time site. I remember seeing it as long back as the late 90's. I don't know how accurate or outdated that info is. I remembered seeing this on the site back in the 90's.

 

According to the FAQ at Gamefaqs, 6 million ColecoVisions in just two years.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/coleco/file/916371/2638

This faq was posted on Gamefaqs 10 years ago. It also could have outdated infomation as a result.

 

That's alot of Colecovisions! Twice as many as CVGUS was quoting!

 

Edit: Is that figure on either of these links? I cant find it.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Allpaul

[8th lutz]

By the time Coleco stopped videogame production in 1984, the company had sold more than six million ColecoVisions in just three years.

 

From ClassicGaming.com's Museum

http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?...d=24&game=8

Classicgaming.com is a long time site. I remember seeing it as long back as the late 90's. I don't know how accurate or outdated that info is. I remembered seeing this on the site back in the 90's.

 

According to the FAQ at Gamefaqs, 6 million ColecoVisions in just two years.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/coleco/file/916371/2638

This faq was posted on Gamefaqs 10 years ago. It also could have outdated infomation as a result.

 

That's alot of Colecovisions! Twice as many as CVGUS was quoting!

 

Edit: Is that figure on either of these links? I cant find it.

 

Yes the figure is in the link. I had a difficult time to find it myself before posting it.

 

The gamefaqs faq has the figure inside the 1.0 section called What is ColecoVision?

The figure is shown inside the paragraph before a timeline is shown.

 

The paragraph you are looking for has the following: When Coleco left the industry they had sold more than 6 million

ColecoVisions in just two years, even with the last year being troubled

by the shake-out. Many in the industry believe if it wasn't for the

videogame crash of '84, that Coleco could have gone through the 80's as

the system of choice, especially with its proposed Super Game Module. It

was clearly beating Atari and Mattel, but just didn't have the installed

base to last out the crash.

 

Right after the timeline, 2.0) ColecoVision and ADAM Specs section starts.

 

I hope you can find it now.

[Allpaul]

Gotcha.. Wow, that site is easy on the eyes! Was it made on an Adam?

[8th lutz]

Glad you found it.

 

The classicgaming link I gave has it the following spot:

 

You seeing a paragraph next to a picture of a Cabbage Patch Doll. The Paragraph below the one I described has the following:

 

By the time Coleco stopped videogame production in 1984, the company had sold more than six million ColecoVisions in just three years. This was amazing, especially considering 1984 was the year of the great videogame "crash." Some experts believe that if the crash hadn't happened, the ColecoVision could have gone through the '80s as the system of choice, especially if its proposed Super Game Module was released. Coleco was clearly beating out Atari and Mattel, but even so it couldn't survive the crash. The ADAM debacle certainly didn't help the company either.

Edited November 7, 2008 by 8th lutz

[suaiden]

Glad you found it.

 

The classicgaming link I gave has it the following spot:

 

You seeing a paragraph next to a picture of a Cabbage Patch Doll. The Paragraph below the one I described has the following:

 

By the time Coleco stopped videogame production in 1984, the company had sold more than six million ColecoVisions in just three years. This was amazing, especially considering 1984 was the year of the great videogame "crash." Some experts believe that if the crash hadn't happened, the ColecoVision could have gone through the '80s as the system of choice, especially if its proposed Super Game Module was released. Coleco was clearly beating out Atari and Mattel, but even so it couldn't survive the crash. The ADAM debacle certainly didn't help the company either.

 

Well then we must grant that the real winner was... again... Intellivision.

 

It sold 3 million units before the crash.... and then 3 million AFTER.

 

According to the same classicgaming link:

 

"Despite Mattel's awful marketing, the Intellivision sold over 3 million units.

 

In January 1984, as the video game market crumbled, T.E. Valeski, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Mattel Electronics, along with a group of investors, purchased the assets, trademarks, patents, and all other rights to the Intellivision for $16.5 million. They formed a new company, Intellivision Inc., which was later renamed INTV Corp. In the fall of 1985, the INTV System III (so as not to be confused with the Intellivision III, the system was sometimes sold as the Super Pro System) appeared at Toys 'R Us, Kiddie City, and in a mail order catalog sent to owners of the original Intellivision directly from INTV. The new console was of the same general design as the original Intellivision, except that it was black with aluminum trim. Several new games accompanied the release of the new system, and in 1985 INTV registered over $6 million in sales worldwide. INTV had indeed revived the Intellivision, and continued to market games and repair services through the mail with great success. Between 1985 and 1990 over 35 new games were released, bringing the Intellivision's game library to a total of 125 titles.

 

In 1987, the INTV System IV was shown at the January CES. The new system sported detachable controllers and many other minor improvements. It was never released. In 1988, INTV reintroduced the computer keyboard adapter through their mail order catalog on a limited-quantity basis. Obviously this didn't suddenly cause NES owners to run to INTV. In 1990, INTV finally discontinued retail sales of their games and equipment and sold them only through mail order, partly due to agreements with Nintendo and Sega to become a software vendor for the NES, Game Boy, and Genesis (the company released only one NES title, Monster Truck Rally). In 1991, INTV sold out its stock of Intellivision games and consoles, and the company, along with the Intellivision, faded away. The company went bankrupt later that year, but had managed to sell three million systems during its run—no small accomplishment in the face of Nintendo's market dominance. " --http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=ConsoleMuseum.Detail&id=17&game=9

[Crazyace]

Rescue is pushing the 7800 quite hard - mainly because of the special ram - but not much else is...

[Atariman]

Look, I'll always say that Atari dumping the 5200 after just 1 1/2 years was a rotten thing to do.

 

If I remember right, the 7800 was the result of polls Atari took to determine what people really wanted in a system. They took out the complicated 5200 controller design, threw out the gigantic size, and wound up with the sleek, neat, all-in-one system that is the 7800. You want 2600 compatibility out of the box? Voila - there it is.

 

Why should they have supported it longer? If it wasn't a success, why should they try to keep it afloat? Do you hold a grudge against Nintendo for not pouring money into the Virtual Boy after it was obvious it wasn't doing the trick? That may be a "crappy thing to do", but it's business. You cut your losses and move on. As mentioned previously, they didn't plan on completely leaving the 5200 owners in the dust (Slam Pam module)

 

Atari tried to learn from their mistakes - they tried to listen to what people wanted while at the same time giving support to those who had faithfully purchased the 5200. Boy, what a bunch of jerks.

[atari_envy]

Well then we must grant that the real winner was... again... Intellivision.

 

It sold 3 million units before the crash.... and then 3 million AFTER.

lol. Well, according to your criteria, the 2600 wins by a landslide selling over 40 million units. And if the numbers in Wikipedia are to be trusted, similar to the INTV, half of 2600's sales were before the crash and half after the crash.

 

Back to the original question:

...Would you have preferred Atari to have stuck with the 5200, or to have dumped it in early 1984 for a 1984 7800 release? If it had been up to YOU, what would you have said?

Atari should have released the 7800 in '84. The fact the 7800 even had some limited success despite its late release, Atari's poor marketing/chanel problems, and the brutal competition tells me it would have fared better than the 5200. It was a good system that deserved the opportunity to compete for market share. It makes business sense to try a new product when the current one is not performing. But instead Atari shelved the 7800 and put their resources into their computer line. This didn't work out very well for them because of people like me -- I just kept playing my 2600 and bought an Apple IIe instead.

 

Look, I'll always say that Atari dumping the 5200 after just 1 1/2 years was a rotten thing to do.

Just as you think it was rotten to "dump" the 5200 after 1 1/2 years, I feel it was rotten to let 7800 gather dust on the shelves for 2 years before releasing it.

[suaiden]

Well then we must grant that the real winner was... again... Intellivision.

 

It sold 3 million units before the crash.... and then 3 million AFTER.

lol. Well, according to your criteria, the 2600 wins by a landslide selling over 40 million units. And if the numbers in Wikipedia are to be trusted, similar to the INTV, half of 2600's sales were before the crash and half after the crash.

 

I would NEVER argue that point. CV versus INTV is one thing. The 2600 was WAY out ahead of both and many times over. Like comparing the SMS, the 7800 (its only other competitor) and the NES, which sold 60 million units. So then the NES is the ultimate winner.

 

And the simple fact is that the 2600 and the NES defined what society thought of as "the video game" in their time. These arguments about the other guys are partisan, the rants of enthusiasts. I am just happy to contribute my two cents, ever decreasing in value.

[atari_envy]

I would NEVER argue that point. CV versus INTV is one thing. The 2600 was WAY out ahead of both and many times over. Like comparing the SMS, the 7800 (its only other competitor) and the NES, which sold 60 million units. So then the NES is the ultimate winner.

 

And the simple fact is that the 2600 and the NES defined what society thought of as "the video game" in their time. These arguments about the other guys are partisan, the rants of enthusiasts. I am just happy to contribute my two cents, ever decreasing in value.

Well said.

 

I think if my wife knew how much I loved my 2600, she would file for divorce. My mistress, though, is the Intellivsion. As a kid, I fell in love with that system, too. Gawd, how I loved (love) playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons on the INTV. Maybe I have a fetish for faux wood trim. Come to think of it, maybe the lack of it is the reason I never dated the CV.