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Possible Return of the Coleco MiniCades!


thevnaguy

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Coleco is asking for the communities help :) the following is quoted from their Facebook page.

 

"MINI-ARCADES: Yes. We know that everyone wants the Mini's out. We are looking into costs to produce the units. We do need your help. Clearly members in the community have extensive hardware/software knowledge. There are typically a lot of opinions on what to use.
Here is what we are researching. Please feel free to give your opinion on what type of screen you feel would be best. What kind of platform would be best and any other technical specifications that you feel would be idea for the mini-arcades. LET'S do this as a team!...
Keep in mind that we would like to keep the quality of the plastic high as well as having a mid range quality on the guts of the machine. BUT, at the same time, we would need to be able to have a retail price point that consumers would be interested in. (And while we are at it, you may as well give us an idea of what you would expect to pay for a mini). Any other advice would be appreciated."

 

They can be contacted at colecotoys.com

 

I am sharing this thread with them as well, so post in here to if you like :)

 

post-8976-0-81785700-1457702805_thumb.jpg

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If Coleco were to to reproduce what they originally made in the 80's with the bright and colorful Plasma/LED look (or close to it) that would be great. With todays Chinese production, could see them retailing for $20-$30ea., which would be a good price point for this sort of thing.

 

What's next, the return of the Game & Watch? :lol:

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I think a mini multicade would be awesome. Pack in 5-10 classic arcade games like the Plug-in TV games.

 

That and I'd like to see someone sell a mini-cabinet wired up with a harness ready to plug into a Raspberry Pi. (My crafting skills are terrible)

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For those looking to game on tiny screens... already exist a plethora of highly customizable handhelds on the market and most of us already own smartphones and tablets. Then there's the iCade cabinets and even the "Duo" (italicized 'cause it couldn't be any more singular) pinball controller you slide your iPad into. Of course, NONE of these products work all that well and certainly not as you'd expect all the time. Not without jailbreaking/hacking anyway. The pinball controller for example - should work with The Pinball Arcade, but it doesn't. Out of the box, iCade and that pinball controller should be open to play with any and all emulators. Maybe what Coleco could do, is tie all these devices and software together in some kind of grand licensing agreement and offer game packages to go with it. Or produce a MiniCade modeled after the 80's stuff that you simply slide your device into. Would imagine such a product would come with a limited amount of games to play, then as time goes on, user could purchase more bundles, volumes or whatever.

 

Oh and almost forgot... then there's the Atari "Duo" controller for iOS that only plays the Atari games. On top of the iCade(s) and pinball controller, have that one too. sigh

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On the topic of Coleco minicades, I would love to see these make a comeback. I understand many AAers are nostalgic and would like to see exact replicas, but I think that's unrealistic. Small color LCD screens are fairly cheap now and I think a multicade with a half dozen or so licensed arcade titles would be great. As much as I would love to see Donkey Kong, that's likely out of the question because Nintendo refuse to license their games to third parties, but if Coleco could partner with Namco to get Pacman, Ms Pacman, Galaga, and maybe some third party IP like Frogger or Qbert all in one unit, would be great. If you goto the expense of designing a unit, better put multiple games on it. Casual consumers expect more for their dollar and this is by and large where the majority of the market is. Collectors might prefer the idea of individual units for their "collection", but units with one game each would be a hard sell to casuals unless you can make them very cheaply.

 

My two cents on the matter.

 

 

For those looking to game on tiny screens... already exist a plethora of highly customizable handhelds on the market and most of us already own smartphones and tablets. Then there's the iCade cabinets and even the pinball controller you slide your iPad into. Of course, NONE of these products work all that well and certainly not as you'd expect all the time. Not without jailbreaking/hacking anyway. The pinball controller for example - should work with The Pinball Arcade, but it doesn't. Out of the box, iCade and that pinball controller should be open to play with any and all emulators. Maybe what Coleco could do, is tie all these devices and software together in some kind of grand licensing agreement and offer game packages to go with it. Or produce a MiniCade modeled after the 80's stuff that you simply slide your device into. Would imagine such a product would come with a limited amount of games to play, then as time goes on, user could purchase more bundles, volumes or whatever.

 

Oh and almost forgot... then there's the Atari controller for iOS that only plays the Atari games. On top of the iCade(s) and pinball controller, have that one too. sigh

That's the problem with third party controllers. Complete lack of standardization. If Apple would just release an official game controller for iPad, developers could map controls seemlessly and automatically, and iCade like devices could copy those controls. But of course Apple will never do that. They want their devices sleek and free of clutter, to the point that they gimp functionality in the name of fashion. The latest Macbook Air for instance has no USB ports, and you need to buy an expensive dongle that plugs into the power receptacle in order to connect USB devices, which also means you must run the thing off batteries in order to use USB devices. #appleisstupid

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For those looking to game on tiny screens... already exist a plethora of highly customizable handhelds on the market and most of us already own smartphones and tablets.

 

Yeah but the right design with the official brand name can still sell well. There are numerous ways to do this using existing products for about half the price, but still they have taken $450k in pre-orders, and that's just from the UK, the US has 5 times the population: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-vega-plus-console#/

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I love retro games, I love arcade games, and I love miniaturization. Yet I'm not sure I'm so into this idea. It's kind of the worst of several possible worlds:

 

- limited titles for licensing

- need to drive down cost, which leads to cheap materials

- closed architecture, so what you buy is what you get

- bad ergonomics, hunched over a tiny hooded screen with awkwardly-placed controls

 

We put up with all that when these were new, because there weren't as many game franchises as there are today. I never had one, but they seemed expensive for what they were at the time yet still desirable because of the unique technology within. One game per unit was acceptable in those days. You needed the sun shade in order to see the screen.

 

Is Coleco wedded to the "classic or get out" philosophy and form factor? If so, count me out, I'm not a collector of plastic. BUT if you could make it so you could remove the board and controls and play them in a different position, I'd be into that. I'd also be interested in a kit rather than a preassembled unit, if that would keep the price down. I'd pay up to about $120 if these were nicely built and offered some flexibility. Mass production (i.e. a bit less expensive) versions of stuff like Willie's mini-arcades would be great.

 

There's not a good Android equivalent to the iPod Touch, a small non-phone touchscreen device. Something like that would be ideal for this. You could bundle the software with the mini-arcade purchase, or allow people to bring their own device and buy the software separately.

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These things were glorification and iconification of arcade cabinets back in the day, when videogames were still somewhat new. Today the general population doesn't worship the typical arcade game like they did back then.

 

This might be a tough sell outside the hobbyist sphere.

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Cute. I meant recent mock ups of a proposed modern take on them. I thought I had read that the Toy Fare booth was Coleco Holding's and was for new mini arcades and they then added rvgs to it. We're there new mini there?

 

No, they had minicades and Cabbage Patch Kids etc. from the '80s. The only modern thing was the Colecovision Flashback.

 

There's a thread here where Coleco is asking for feedback about what they should build, no prototypes have been made yet: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/250188-colecovision-we-would-like-your-opinions-on-specs/page-1?hl=+cardo1

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I think make the full range of shells as collectable. Let them be housings for your phone, providing controls and running an app that can play software that looks like the original games, as well modernized versions and other software. I would game my everloving ASS off on a little joint like that.

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Yeah, that's definitely up my alley.

 

make a Coleco Multicade unit with Coleco arcade style holder panels and sell panel packs for the minicade out of the same hq plastic.

maybe make it 2x size of the original mini's. There's always the iCade style device as well.

I think make the full range of shells as collectable. Let them be housings for your phone, providing controls and running an app that can play software that looks like the original games, as well modernized versions and other software. I would game my everloving ASS off on a little joint like that.

 

 

WOW... ya KNOW Mike Kennedy has to be drooling on that one.

 

 

Yeah but the right design with the official brand name can still sell well. There are numerous ways to do this using existing products for about half the price, but still they have taken $450k in pre-orders, and that's just from the UK, the US has 5 times the population: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-vega-plus-console#/

Edited by RupanIII
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I think make the full range of shells as collectable. Let them be housings for your phone, providing controls and running an app that can play software that looks like the original games, as well modernized versions and other software. I would game my everloving ASS off on a little joint like that.

Swappable skins or overlays would be nice, as I'm not a fan of buying redundant unless stuff -- just change out the cosmetic bits like a phone case and I'd be happier.

WOW... ya KNOW Mike Kennedy has to be drooling on that one.

 

:roll: Yeah, it does seem like the collectard thing to do. Surely there's a happy place between "collect them all!" and "let's try to sell just one good thing to our audience, which is already small"

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:roll: Yeah, it does seem like the collectard thing to do. Surely there's a happy place between "collect them all!" and "let's try to sell just one good thing to our audience, which is already small"

OMG, YES!!!

 

Glad to see that webpage is back. I posted a topic on NintendoAge a while back that did not end well... :roll:

http://beta.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=155238

 

I collect to play. And also am of the opin that a single multi unit with between six and twelve games would be a better sell than single game replicas. Shelf space is limited and stores are not going to want to carry 12 different SKUs.

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