Dauber Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I gotta admit...I've been really considering adding a ColecoVision to my home after seeing the OpCode games, but...then I actually saw them -- and other ColecoVision games -- in action. Too choppy for my tastes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Really? Here in Canada I remember seeing Sega Master System in the stores next to Nintendo NES, but never 7800. People I know had Sega, played Sega. Atari was non-existent in the late 80s here. I'm also Canadian and owned both a 7800 and an SMS (II) when they were new. As I've said on these forums before, I think it depended where you lived. I saw the 2600jr in most stores. I saw the 7800 at Toys R Us, Toy City and K Mart. I saw the XEGS at Zellers. The SMS did seem to be number #2 in Canada, but the market day I've seen says that in the USA, the 7800 was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I gotta admit...I've been really considering adding a ColecoVision to my home after seeing the OpCode games, but...then I actually saw them -- and other ColecoVision games -- in action. Too choppy for my tastes. The lack of hardware assisted scrolling and limited palette is definitely a drawback, much like the 7800's TIA sound. Still - I'm impressed with what Opcode has done given those limitations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitleSeventeen Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Coleco is one of my first loves. I've had mine for years now. I has support sure, which is cool. But on the other hand I need to actually get one of mine functioning again. Its not a well built as the 7800, imo. That said, to me its comparing apples to oranges, Coleco was more of competition to the 5200. I think the 7800 has potential, but it was just never fully realized. For example fire up Ballblazer for the NES and on the 7800, it blows the NES clear out of the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 We only had a woolco 40 miles away which sold the jr. sms and nes in late 80s nothing else. toys R us was 160 miles away. K mart was in the states 140 miles away. coleco etc were all sears wishbook material. The sears drop off was at the town arcade. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I'm also Canadian and owned both a 7800 and an SMS (II) when they were new. As I've said on these forums before, I think it depended where you lived. I saw the 2600jr in most stores. I saw the 7800 at Toys R Us, Toy City and K Mart. I saw the XEGS at Zellers. The SMS did seem to be number #2 in Canada, but the market day I've seen says that in the USA, the 7800 was. I did see the 2600 Jr in places like Towers and Zellers. There was also a commercial ad campaign with a neat jingle where they were only selling it for $50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 The lack of hardware assisted scrolling and limited palette is definitely a drawback, much like the 7800's TIA sound. Still - I'm impressed with what Opcode has done given those limitations I'll take good sound over good scrolling, honestly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) I did see the 2600 Jr in places like Towers and Zellers. There was also a commercial ad campaign with a neat jingle where they were only selling it for $50. I remember seeing this commercial in Windsor Edited February 6, 2017 by DracIsBack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I remember seeing this commercial in Windsor Yup, that's the commercial I remember. But by that time NES was just about to take over the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEFF31 Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 OK - being a 'coleco only' collector... I've purchased 'new' 2600, 5200 and 7800 games... (and colecovision games - not all - I can't afford!!) Consider yourself lucky!!! 15-40 games put out every year at 50-60 bucks each!!! just sayin... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 At least the pace of 7800 games is somewhat affordable. If froggie and bentely bear and super circus were sold after they were done being programmed it would be easy to afford instead of all coming out at once. Also the Canadian dollar was worth much more then. Now it is a 40% increase in price when you factor shipping which doubled from 8 years ago. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digress Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 i've been considering making a 7800 games for some time. I aquired a 7800 last year and have 6 games. it's pretty cool. I program for the colecovision but it's not fair to compare the 2 as the atari came out in 1986 and had the benefit of hindsight and newer tech. The coleco scrolling is sad & choppy but look at this. it can be done now with the upgraded f18a. go to 8:30 for the scrolling on colecovision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRKa0WyCn_M anyways I love atari too and am going to start tinkering with ataribasic. I do tend to finish what i start. no specific project in mind at the moment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicViper Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 OK - being a 'coleco only' collector... I've purchased 'new' 2600, 5200 and 7800 games... (and colecovision games - not all - I can't afford!!) Consider yourself lucky!!! 15-40 games put out every year at 50-60 bucks each!!! just sayin... 15 to 40 games a YEAR!? it's worse than I thought !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldenWheels Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Coleco seriously gets 15-40 new games a year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 All I know is that I have some ideas for games, but need to really sit down and look at 7800 Basic. I don't know if I'd be able to get into assembly at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Intellivision as well. They have a couple games each month at times. Your tank mission game is pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 I'm also Canadian and owned both a 7800 and an SMS (II) when they were new. As I've said on these forums before, I think it depended where you lived. I saw the 2600jr in most stores. I saw the 7800 at Toys R Us, Toy City and K Mart. I saw the XEGS at Zellers. The SMS did seem to be number #2 in Canada, but the market day I've seen says that in the USA, the 7800 was. Agreed, as I have before. I'd wager that the 7800's Canadian penetration was limited to a day's driving distance from Atari Canada's headquarters in Markham. While I *did* see it in the wild, rarely, in Toronto-area stores in the late '80s to early '90s, that certainly wasn't true for me in western Canada. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) I really like Colecovision games, too. I'm just playing around mostly. I think of the hokey nature of controllers and into the 'evolved' state they're in right now (you should really see me play Macross on the PS2. I come up with new ways to hold the dual shock 2). It's all some inadequate way to communicate to your girlfriend (the computer). I (of course), when I get all the money I'm gonna get in the future (ouch..quit it. Ouch.), I'll be sure to buy at least one of every homebrew. I think this is really all about technology allowing us to make new creative things for all of these systems. I use a Sega Pad on my VCS. That's all I'm sayin' (I DON'T think, even for a microsecond, that the Colecovision is the best home game system of all time. Or the NES, or Master System, or the 5200...) Great work, though. Especially the graphics on Gradius. Sheeeew! Edited February 6, 2017 by Papa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 The choppy scrolling is a matter of coding. The standard TMS9918 can compete safely with other vdp's with HW assisted scrolling. Look at this on msx1 (on a plain TMS9918) http://www.file-hunter.com/MSX/Uridium48.html Pixelboy is porting it from msx1 to coleco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 The choppy scrolling is a matter of coding. The standard TMS9918 can compete safely with other vdp's with HW assisted scrolling. Look at this on msx1 (on a plain TMS9918) http://www.file-hunter.com/MSX/Uridium48.html Pixelboy is porting it from msx1 to coleco Atarisoft's version of Defender on the Colecovision was awesome, and had great smooth scrolling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) Yes, defender for msx has a software smooth scrolling so no surprise its coleco port is good as well Anyway in Uridium for msx the 2/3 of the screen is scrolling In Defender (Desolator on msx) the background is almost empty, so it is simpler to make it scroll About coleco and msx, using an SGM on coleco you get 32Kram and an AY8910 audio chip, that make the coleco almost identical to an msx1 Edited February 6, 2017 by artrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicViper Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 Yes, defender for msx has a software smooth scrolling so no surprise its coleco port is good as well Anyway in Uridium for msx the 2/3 of the screen is scrolling In Defender (Desolator on msx) the background is almost empty, so it is simpler to make it scroll About coleco and msx, using an SGM on coleco you get 32Kram and an AY8910 audio chip, that make the coleco almost identical to an msx1 That defender does look pretty solid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Agreed, as I have before. I'd wager that the 7800's Canadian penetration was limited to a day's driving distance from Atari Canada's headquarters in Markham. While I *did* see it in the wild, rarely, in Toronto-area stores in the late '80s to early '90s, that certainly wasn't true for me in western Canada. My suspicion is that more chains carried it (and other Atari systems) early on - ala 1987 and 1988 than later. For fun, I recently did a search on Martime Newspapers for it and it definitely showed up in that time frame in ads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Really? Here in Canada I remember seeing Sega Master System in the stores next to Nintendo NES, but never 7800. People I know had Sega, played Sega. Atari was non-existent in the late 80s here. Agreed. I not once saw a 5200 or 7800 next to the vast supply of NES, SEGA and even Turbogrfx machines. Radio Shack promoted the TG16 like it was sent from God trying to sell it when it first came out. Hell I even saw a couple Neo Geo's but never once a 5200 or 7800. Only place left that even sold 2600's after the NES and GENESIS around here was Consumers Distributing. Speaking of which, I really miss Consumers. Was a heck of business model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Coleco was not a factor in Europe when I grew up, so there's no emotional attachment or history with it for me. As for the 7800, I had a look at the programmer's guide and I have to admit that my initial thought was "WTF". While I understand how the Atari 8-bits "do" playfield and sprit (P/M) graphics, having learned about that in the 80s, the 7800 DL/DLL setup with "holes" in memory and "bottom up" graphics memory looks decidedly strange to me (or maybe I'm just too old to learn new tricks). Made a note to myself to try it with 7800 BASIC but there's so much 8-bit stuff waiting to be done, and life besides, so I might never get to write a home-brew 7800 game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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