Could Coleco have become a Nintendo game developer?

[onthinice]

Always wondered if Coleco had developed games for the Nes. What those games might have been?

 

The Nes has several good arcade ports. So the market was open for more arcade conversions.

 

Some of the obscure games from Exidy, Universal and maybe even Sega games like Zaxxon on the Nes would have been cool to see and Coleco was still around even if it was just the Cabbage Patch dolls.

 

So I ask could it have been possible?

 

Maybe the rights had already passed but if not it is to me a big what-if?

[Pixelboy]

That's a rather complex question. Coleco didn't do all that much development themselves, they usually outsourced it, especially later in the CV's short life. So if they had survived the crash of 84, and left the ColecoVision behind to become an NES publisher, they would have likely published just a few outsourced games, like other toy companies such as Milton Bradley, Mattel and Bandai. How many games Coleco would have published on the NES is anyone's guess.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Pixelboy

[onthinice]

Thanks Pixelboy!

 

Stiil make me wonder what games might have been released?

[NIAD]

That's a very interesting spin on the whole Coleco and Nintendo what-ifs.

 

I personally always thought that if Coleco has survived the crash and more importantly themselves (ADAM Computer and some other rather poor decisions), that the ColecoVision Game System would have been the dominant game system for quite a number of years more in the North American market. If this was the case, I don't think the NES would have ever seen the light of day in North America unless Atari had decided to pickup the distribution rights to it instead of telling Ninento no thanks.

 

With this being said, Coleco would have never developed games for the Famicom and the Japanese market especially seeing that the largest percentage of games that they released fo the ColecoVision and ADAM were licensed and not original creations of their own. Even a game like Cabbage Patch Kids was originally a Konami game called Athletic Land and I don't think an NES version of Destructor would have been a very good seller.

 

It would have been hilarious, however, to see Coleco release NES versions of Donley Kong and Donkey Kong Junior for Nintendo's Famicom / NES System. It probably wouldn't have gone over very well, but considering the grief that Nintendo and Atari gave Coleco over the ADAM Computer Super Game version of Donkey Kong, I think it would have been a nice way for Coleco to say F.U. back... to both of them.

[retroillucid]

Acoording to Eric Bromley:

 

"If Coleco hadn't given up on video games -crash or not- it would have been here today instead of Nintendo"

 

 

It is silly to think this way knowing how Nintendo is huge today

looking back at the Famicom released in 1983, its tough to imagine Coleco surpassing the Famicom

However, if Mr Bromley said that in an interview, I bet he had the SuperGame Module in mind

 

I like to think that the SuperGame Module was the video game revolution at time.... And add the CED Player on top of that and you get something ultra mordern for the time....

 

In the end, its hard to say what if.... And what if....

But all I know I miss Coleco so much

I just don't like how the videogames of today are......

[retroillucid]

 

.... I like to think that the SuperGame Module was the video game revolution at time.... And add the CED Player on top of that and you get something ultra mordern for the time....

 

Humm........ Or you get a Sega Genesis + Sega CD + Sega 32X

[NIAD]

.... I like to think that the SuperGame Module was the video game revolution at time.... And add the CED Player on top of that and you get something ultra mordern for the time....

 

Humm........ Or you get a Sega Genesis + Sega CD + Sega 32X

Yeah, that is a pretty ironic thought there seeing as the CV + SGM + CED configuration would be comparable to that Sega setup. Something tells me that this Coleco setup/evolution would have been more successful than the Sega setup. While I think the Genesis is one of the best systems of all time, I also think that Sega would have been better served transitioning from the Genesis directly to the Saturn, without the 32X and CD in between to try to extend the lifespan of the Genesis, due to how fast the videogame industry was progressing at that time. Back in the early to mid 80's, things seemed to more a lot slower due mainly to the higher costs of development, chip costs and manufacturing, so these add-ons would have proven to be very valuable additions to the ColecoVision which probably would have kept the system viable until the 90's.

[onthinice]

Thank you all for the input!

 

I did not get to play the Colecovision until the middle 80's. But it is another of my favorite systems.

 

I just wished they had released the Intellivsion adaptor also.

[fiddlepaddle]

If Coleco had weathered the crash they likely would have continued to produce good arcade conversions. Nintendo probably would still have eventually entered the North American market using their "quality" based marketing and become a contender. Atari would still have imploded, albeit in a different way, perhaps. Maybe Coleco would have developed Nintendo-compatibility capability (Expansion Module # 9?).

[opcode]

I still think that the original SGM, as cool as the concept might have sounded back then, was doomed from start. Other than the extra RAM, the tape drive was unnecessary as megaroms were just around the corner and re-releasing games, even if enhanced versions, wasn't going to make it sell beyond the hardcore crowd. CED? LD games were a fad, we know that. Sometimes the best course of action is keep things simple: concentrate all your resources on producing more and better games in cartridge format.

 

case in point, the Famicom Disk System. Released in early 86. Just a few months later the first megarom Famicom cartridge got released. Worse, it was a 2 megabit cartridge, more memory than a single FDS disk could hold. That made the FDS immediately obsolete. And we know what happened, two years late it was dead.

[65Gamerguy]

Interesting question. I wish Coleco had survived as well. Think of all the games we could have had back in the day after 1984 or later if Coleco would have survived. If they had survived the crash in a strong enough position to still get the rights to games for the Coleco then the NES might not have been such a big game changer in the US market. But this is all what if.. stuff.

 

It is interesting that Opcode is currently working on the Super Game Module, which is probably what could have happend back then, if things were different.

 

So maybe it has taken 30 years but it is becoming a reality in the near future.

[onthinice]

My main thought was a lot of classic game titles ended with the Colecovision. Games like the two B.C. titles, Carnival, LadyBug, Subroc, and Venture.

 

If Coleco could have done something similar like 3DO except in this case the games would have been licensed to Nintendo or Sega or even Atari. Then maybe we would could have had updates now of those games.

[NIAD]

I still think that the original SGM, as cool as the concept might have sounded back then, was doomed from start. Other than the extra RAM, the tape drive was unnecessary as megaroms were just around the corner and re-releasing games, even if enhanced versions, wasn't going to make it sell beyond the hardcore crowd. CED? LD games were a fad, we know that. Sometimes the best course of action is keep things simple: concentrate all your resources on producing more and better games in cartridge format.

 

case in point, the Famicom Disk System. Released in early 86. Just a few months later the first megarom Famicom cartridge got released. Worse, it was a 2 megabit cartridge, more memory than a single FDS disk could hold. That made the FDS immediately obsolete. And we know what happened, two years late it was dead.

I agree 100% that the Wafer Tape and Drive was an ill-conceived concept and choice from the start that was indeed doomed... not due to Coleco, but due to the fact that these tapes just couldn't hold up to repeated and extended use. However, since this thread is dealing with "could ofs" and "what ifs", I think we need to think on the lines that the Wafer Tape and Drive did indeed work and was successful. I think it's a lot more fun that way as well for the sake of this discussion... to dream the impossible dream.

 

One of the biggest reasons that any computer or videogame company looked into alternative medias for supplying their games back in the early 80's was the extremely high cost of chips, as I am sure you know all too well. So even though "megarom" or "bank-switching" technologies were the right way to go, their eventual widespread use was about 3 years after Coleco's attempt to cut costs by using tape media with the SGM. Seeing as Nintendo, themselves, created the Famicon Disk System (FDS), proves that even they were trying to find alternative media to supply their games on in order to cut costs before these megarom PCBs became the norm and chip costs fell.

 

I'm not quite sure on this, but was the MegaCart the first PCB that offered bank-switching technologies on the CV or were Sean Kelly's 16-in-1, 32-in-1, 64-in-1 and All-in-1 MultiCarts the first CV carts that used this technology or some form of it? Well, anyway, you perfected it seeing as a lot of Sean's multicarts are no longer functioning from what I have read in these forums.

[opcode]

Well, when I said the SGM was doomed, it wasn't because of the wafer tape, but because of the concept. I mean, as you said, we cannot blame Coleco and Nintendo for trying new things, but we know how those new things ultimately ended. And when you say megaroms were more expensive, I agree. However we know that Coleco wasn't going to give SGMs for free, so you save on cartridge but expend on the module.

 

Please understand that I am not against expansion modules, otherwise I wouldn't be working on one. I just think that creating new medias for a given console never worked well, and I don't think it would have worked for Coleco either. And of course it is easy for us now to say Coleco should have done this, shouldn't have done that. But I guess back then everything was new and they were just trying to find their way .

[+pboland]

In a way ColecoVision was the pinnacle of that generation of video game systems (meaning capabilities). Just after the crash and before the big N (at least where I lived) we still dreamed of changing out our OD2's and 2600's for a ColecoVision. As kids we didn't understand the crash. Heck, we were between the ages of 10 and 12 at the time. Every kid at school knew of ColecoVision and wanted it (and remember, this is during the crash, think 83-85). Now I realize that this is anecdotal evidence but, I believe ColecoVision was well on its way to the number one spot right when the crash happened. Even when the NES first came out, we first compared it to what we remembered of the ColecoVision. I'm talking right before NES took off like a rocket. I know its hard to remember but the first year and a half the NES was out, so was the Atari 7800, and SMS. At that time, it was still up in the air who would be number #1. And even at that time, the high water mark was how these new systems compared to the ColecoVision.

 

On a side note:

I sometimes wonder if Coleco went on to make a ColecoVision II, what would it be capable of doing. You know, as a competitor to the NES (that would have been the right time frame for a new system). I'm pretty sure it would have been a lot like the specs for the SMS. Just guessing of course.

 

But, no I don't think Coleco would have been a Nintendo developer. I think they could have been a competitor however. Heck, INTV was.

[Murph74]

Just a few thoughts for a great discussion here (after way too long away from the forums!), but I don't see Coleco developing for NES, or SNES for that matter. I really see them in the role Sega had if they hadn't shut down the game operations-- which means 'eventually' they may had gone the software route if they somehow lose the hardware battle.

 

Soem additional thoughts: On the talk of the SGM and tape media: to me was A) a cost saving move and B) a gimmick. At that time, pretty much everything in video game marketing was a gimmick. From expansion modules to light phasers to ROB to power gloves to Uforce to infinity and beyond. Millions of units sold because of gimmicks and marketers convincing kids it was 'the next big thing'. Coleco was right at the forefront of that type of marketing, and it worked. Our middle class family had the Expansion Module #2, for no other reason than it was pushed as 'cool' and 'fun' in the magazines from what I recall. And when the tide turned to Nintendo, I was still using my Adam frequently, but got the NES Deluxe set for Christmas in '86. Why the Deluxe? Cuz of the gimmicks! I mean 'what if' ROB really did become a must-have? Or the best NEW games for the NES needed the light gun? Better to have the hardware ready to use!

 

Now on the talk of 'had Coleco stayed the course', I'm not so sure it would have worked out. I'm sure it will be subject to debate, but to me Colecovision was missing one thing to make the long haul: a *second* killer app. DK sold a ton of systems for Coleco, just like SMB did for the NES. But Nintendo either learned from or just 'got it' more so than the others when they introduced a second killer app in the first year of release with Zelda. From my perspective, that game sold probably just slightly less systems than SMB. Meanwhile, I don't recall another wave of Colecovision sales because of a particular title only being on their system (feel free to correct me if I'm blanking out on something!).