Author Topic: Colecovision or Intellivision?  (Read 5211 times)

Offline pcm92

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Colecovision or Intellivision?
« on: March 19, 2016, 01:09:55 am »
Which console was better and why?

Offline Centrale

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2016, 01:18:10 pm »
Both systems are great and have some gems in their libraries, but I give the nod to the Colecovision.

The Colecovision is technically quite similar to the Sega SG-1000, which was very powerful for 1982-83. The game library is primarily focused on arcade conversions which are generally excellent. Since the U.S. video game industry crash happened soon after its introduction, there aren't many other home versions of this era of arcade games. It's also got some cool controllers - a steering wheel that came bundled with a home port of Sega's Turbo, a trackball, and a module that makes Atari 2600 games playable.

The Intellivision is also a nice system with an interesting library. It's technically the first 16-bit home console. However, most of its games, while having detailed graphics for a 1979 system, have a rather slow frame rate. There's a motocross game for the Intellivision which is incredible - it's like a combination of Super Off Road and Excitebike, except for the fact that it plays so slowly. The controllers are also kind of unusual and not as responsive as later d-pad type controllers.


Offline pcm92

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2016, 11:24:05 am »
I wasn't alive when any of that was going on. Why was there a crash in 1983 if there were so many cheap consoles to choose from?

Offline Tad

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2016, 12:29:46 pm »
Because there was too many and they were all rather bad.

Offline Centrale

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2016, 01:25:25 pm »
I wasn't alive when any of that was going on. Why was there a crash in 1983 if there were so many cheap consoles to choose from?

At that time, third party software was a new concept. Activision was formed by ex-Atari programmers who felt they were underpaid and under-appreciated. The president of Atari rather infamously told them that he felt that programmers were no more worthy of compensation and credit than the people on the box assembly line. They started Activision and immediately put out many of the best 2600 games. A few other third party companies formed and put out high quality software, too... Imagic, Parker Bros., even Mattel (Intellivision) and Coleco set up third party divisions for the 2600.

However, as the industry grew, a lot of shoddy companies started producing tons shovelware as video games began to be seen as easy money. They released broken and boring games that sat right next to the high quality software. Atari didn't have any certification program like Nintendo and Sega started later to vet the quality of the titles coming to their system. For example, as a young kid, I was amused to see that even Quaker Oats had their own third party company (U.S. Games) developing for the 2600... and they weren't even the worst of them.

There also was barely any gaming press back in those days - only a couple of magazines existed that provided reviews of games, and they couldn't cover them all. These were such early days in the industry, magazines often would use hand-drawn illustrations rather than screen shots because standard review practices were only starting to be established.

Consumers had a hard time figuring out what was a good quality game and what was drek. Eventually everything - great, mediocre, and terrible - ended up in dollar bins because the market was flooded with too many games and consumers were wary of them. U.S. retailers had had it with games, and this was what's known as the "crash."

However, this only occurred in the U.S. and the games markets in Europe and Japan continued to go on growing their markets. Europe shifted more to PC development and Japan, of course, had the Famicom (NES) and eventually the Master System.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 01:30:38 pm by Centrale »

Offline Tad

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2016, 01:30:32 pm »
Just my opinion, but I actually think the industry suffered a mini crash during the life of the PS2/DC/GC/XBO generation too. During those years, we practically lost the entire middle tier of gaming.

Offline crackdude

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2016, 04:31:35 am »
Just my opinion, but I actually think the industry suffered a mini crash during the life of the PS2/DC/GC/XBO generation too. During those years, we practically lost the entire middle tier of gaming.
That's a slow burning issue that is more visible now than ever before.
Happily, the Indie scene is now fully developed and fills that gap somewhat reasonably. But a crash happening this gen would be no surprise.

As for those two consoles, afaik they are very american.. What I mean is that in Europe we focused almost exclusively on computers, like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, until the Master System came along (and Amiga, and Famiclones). From this point of view, the Coleco/Intellivision were rather subclass. The controllers didn't help either
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Offline Tad

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2016, 08:38:48 am »
Yeah, I know I go on about it a lot, but I'm watching the documentation of Revolution Software currently and this very issue is clear to see. They are only a small studio and during 00's they had no choice but to make 3D games despite not really being able to afford it. The publishers pretty much screwed the little guys over to point where despite the game being a critical and financial success, the actual devs saw very little of that money. They nearly went bankrupt because of it. If it hadn't have been for smartphones and PC, they wouldn't be around now I suspect.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2016, 09:33:43 am by Tad »

Offline Barry the Nomad

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2016, 09:23:20 am »
Regarding the original post, while I've not played either console, I have played emulators for both and have watched videos in the past showing off the hardware. I would have to side with the ColecoVision, as the Intellivision's controllers look like crap (the overlays are cool, but the weird dials look really bad). ColecoVision also appears to have the edge with better games and accessories.

Offline Team Andromeda

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Re: Colecovision or Intellivision?
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2016, 08:32:12 am »
 Intellivision - only because it was my 1st ever console way back in the day
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