my interaction with the Colecovision for past couple of years

+grips03 · January 27, 2013

I brought out the Sega Genesis today for some retro gaming, but could not get into it. So I ended up putting it away and went back to Colecovision. I then started to think why Coleco is such a great machine and figured I write down some of the reasons and how I got where I'm at with the Colecovisions I own. Some of these reasons quickly turned into the people on Atariage, So here we go.

I bought my first adult Coleco a few years back, not sure whatever happened to the one we had as kids as I've moved many times since the 80s, anyway this one had flaky RF video output, so I bought a composite video mod kit to see if this would fix the issue. It kind of did - video was clear when it was present, but it wasn't always present

Mostly played Frogger and DK and only had a few carts.

I was never a fan of the CV controller, so started reading the AA forums I saw people pad hacking Genesis controllers, etc so I gave it a try and got good results.

I then saw Atariage new article on Atarimax's Colecovision Ultimate SD cart and bought one. This opened up my library of games I could try to whatever was on the Internet. I prefer carts, so I just use the Atarimax to see if I like the game, and if I do I buy the cart. I now have about 20 of the first generation carts.

Now that I was playing CV more, I really needed to fix the video issue, so I bought another CV and purchased the 5-11under component video board. This was an amazing upgrade, but something happened and this CV died. I was able to track down a replacement system board (looked new) and the CV was back in business.

Then I starting hearing about new games for this old system and not just 1 or 2, but a ton of them, with boxes and full color manuals. Now this is amazing. So I start ordering a bunch of these games. Some of these games I love even more then the ones from my childhood. A big thank you to Opcode, TeamPixelboy, Collectorvision, Good Deal Games and all the developers.

I'm now I'm in full swing of only playing Coleco (and to be honest NeoGeo).

At this time I noticed some strange dimming issues with Gorf using component video, so I was looking for a solution and found a F18A thread and Matt's excellent board. I didn't want to have to mess with removing the component video board, so I bought another CV for the F18A. In fact I got the Canadian model CV with the different style power brick from Goodwill of Maine. Now with the F18A on board, the dim Gorf issue was fixed and video nice and clear. Matt helped me fix the F18A reset issue (seen with Frogger) with 10uf cap in location C3.

Now one thing that always bugged me was the lack of a power led, as I would leave the system on all the time and so would my son, so I searched AA and found the Doubledown led power switch thread and tracked those parts down from Digikey and fixed the issue.

With the VGA video upgrade, power switch led upgrade done I then built a Neo Geo to CV adapter. This allowed me to play the CV with my favorite controller. This controller works so well on CV shooters (Star Force, Gulkave, Ozma Wars, etc), but then I was trying to track down Pac Man Collection cart as I just missed ordering one from Eduardo. Then Eduardo did the coolest thing possible and released the rom. PMC exposed Neo Geo controller for what it was, an 8 way controller. The evil pac man ghosts would win, but wait, couldn't I just make a 2nd NeoGeo controller with a 4 way stick - yes and the Seimitsu LS-33 fit the bill perfectly. This controller is also great for Princess Quest. Someone on AA sold me their PMC cart for a fair price and life with the CV is just plain awesome!

Now my coffee table is getting filled up with all this CV stuff, so I tried to free up space by pad hacking and inserting a keypad into the 8 way controller. Good results, but I think I can do better. Perhaps one controller with a 4/8 way gate that's easy to change with a built in keypad and 4 buttons?

These days I'm playing PMC, Star Force, Gulkave, Princess Quest and Chess Challenger. Thinking about DKA. Next month I turn 40 and if all goes all planned then SGM should ship around the same time, only giving me more reason to stick with the Coleco.

I'm glad the Colecovision games remain fun, simple, easy to pickup and put down, and can be shared with my 8 year old.

Edited January 27, 2013 by grips03