ColecoVision: Difference between revisions

 

The '''Colecovision''' was one of the more powerful systems of its era when Coleco Toys introduced it in late 1982. In fact, it was actually much closer to the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] in terms of overall power than any of its competitors in the pre-Crash video game market. It was expandable, had a fast CPU and a Texas Instruments [[GPU]] with its own video memory, and had a decent assortment of attachments ([[Vaporware|at least on paper]]). It's probably more famous now for being the machine that brought the first truly faithful port of ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' to the home user, and for getting sued by [[Atari]] over the "Expansion Module", basically an [[Atari 2600]] in a box that could attach to a port on the console.

----

=== Specifications ===

* The main processor was the venerable (and, in 1983, still quite formidable) Zilog Z80, running at 4 MHz. The ADAM added several Motorola 6801s for running the keyboard, printer and tape drives.

* Both systems used the same [[GPU]], the TI 9928, which was also used in MSX consoles and (in slightly improved forms) in the [[Sega Master System]] and [[Sega Genesis]].

** Sega's SG-1000, the ancestor of both the Master System and Genesis, was virtually identical to the Colecovision, to the extent that at least one clone console could play both Colecovision and SG-1000 cartridges.

* The main CPU was somewhat starved of RAM unless you had ADAM, but both systems had a very generous 16K of dedicated VRAM, making them two of the most powerful consoles of their time.

* ADAM itself had a full complement of 64K, as well as two different operating systems in ROM. (Or one OS and a word processor.)

* Used a TI three-channel programmable sound generator, the same as in TI's own machines and the IBM PCjr, and similar in capabilities to the GI/Microchip AY-3-89xx used by the Intellivision and MSX.

 

=== Games available for the Colecovision included ===

* ''[[Turbo]]'' (packaged with steering wheel and gas pedal controllers)

* ''[[Tutankham]]''

* ''[[Zaxxon]]''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Videogame Systems]]

[[Category:Colecovision]]

[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]