Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar dedicated consoles and ColecoVision. While the company disappeared in 1988 as a result of bankruptcy, the Coleco brand was revived in 2005, and remains active to this day.
The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second-generation home video-game console that was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered a closer experience to more powerful arcade game systems, compared to competitors such as the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200, along with the means to expand the system's basic hardware.
The ColecoTelstar brand is a series of dedicated first-generation home video game consoles produced, released and marketed by Coleco from 1976 to 1978. Starting with Coleco Telstar Pong clone based video game console on General Instrument's AY-3-8500 chip in 1976, there were 14 consoles released in the Coleco Telstar series. About one million units of the first model called Coleco Telstar were sold.
The Coleco Adam is a home computer and expansion device for the ColecoVision released in 1983 by American toy and video game manufacturer Coleco. It was an attempt to follow on the success of the company's ColecoVision video game console. The Adam was not very successful, partly because of early production problems, and was discontinued in early 1985.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle is a 1982 video game published and developed by Coleco for the ColecoVision and Atari 2600. The game is based on the television series The Smurfs. In the game, the player must brave a series of obstacles to rescue Smurfette from Gargamel's castle.
The Coleco Gemini is an Atari 2600 clone manufactured by Coleco Industries, Inc. in 1983.
The ColecoTelstar Marksman, commonly abbreviated as Telstar Marksman, is a first-generation home video game console that featured a light gun. It was released by Coleco in 1978. Because it had a manufacturer-set number of games, it is considered a dedicated console. It was part of the Coleco Telstar series Pong-based home video game consoles; it is essentially a Coleco Telstar Colortron bundled with a "3 in 1" light gun and two shooting games. The Marksman light gun is a pistol that features an attachable stock and barrel. It is similar in this regard to the later-released Stack Light Rifle and the Sega Menacer. The elongated barrel included a simple aiming sight. In addition to the light gun, the system featured two paddle controllers built directly into the console. Its reported features included "on-screen digital scoring" and three different difficulty settings. It required two nine-volt batteries or Coleco's Perma Power AC adaptor to power the system.
In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey², and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex, all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fueled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released on August 1982.
Garry Kitchen is a video game designer, programmer, and executive best known for developing games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as co-founding Absolute Entertainment with ex-Activision developers. His port of Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 was a major hit for Coleco, selling over a million copies. His other 2600 work includes Keystone Kapers and Pressure Cooker for Activision and Space Jockey for US Games. He also wrote Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker and The Designer's Pencil for the Commodore 64.
An illusion is a distortion of the senses.
De Blob is a platform-puzzle video game. The game has players explore and liberate an alien city from the evil, monochromatic INKT Corporation that has taken over the city and outlawed all color and fun from daily life. Playing as de Blob, players embark on a quest to re-animate the fictional Chroma City and free it from the INKT Corporation by splattering buildings, landmarks, and citizens with color.
Cosmic Avenger is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Universal Entertainment Corporation and released in arcades by Universal in July 1981. It is one of the first shooters with forced X-axis scrolling along with Konami's Scramble released earlier in the year. The final installment in Universal's Cosmic series, players take control of the Avenger space fighter and use bullets and bombs to fight enemy forces.
The Dukes of Hazzard is a 1984 racing video game developed and published by Coleco for their ColecoVision game console and Coleco Adam computer. Elite Systems released a different game with the same title for the ZX Spectrum computer on February 23, 1985. Both versions are based on the television series of the same name.
View-Master Interactive Vision is an interactive movie VHS console game system, introduced in 1988 and released in the USA in 1989 by View-Master Ideal Group, Inc. The tagline is "the Two-Way Television System that makes you a part of the show!" The titles include four Sesame Street games, two games featuring the Muppet Show characters, and a Disney game, Disney's Cartoon Arcade.
De Blob 2 is a platform puzzle video game and the sequel to the Wii 2008 video game De Blob. As with its predecessor, De Blob 2 was developed for home consoles by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ, this time in association with the TV network Syfy. Unlike de Blob, however, de Blob 2 was also released for other consoles other than the Wii; the game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo DS, with the latter version having been developed by Halfbrick Studios and taking place between de Blob and de Blob 2. This was the last game to feature the 2000 THQ logo: it appears in-game and on the Australian box art of the Nintendo DS, PS3, Nintendo Wii, and Xbox 360 versions. Oddly enough, it also appears on the digital release of the Xbox 360 version.
The Retro Chameleon, originally called the Retro VGS then Coleco Chameleon prior to the loss of the Coleco Holdings license, is a cancelled home video game console. Its creators have stated that it was inspired by the second to fifth generations (1976–1999) of home video game consoles, and like most consoles of those generations, the Retro VGS had planned to run all of its games on individual cartridges, as opposed to optical discs and digital download. The Retro VGS was not expected to support any manner of online connectivity whatsoever, meaning all hardware and software released would have been the final product, and would not have the ability to update after release. A Kickstarter campaign was initially planned to raise funds for the project, but this was later moved to Indiegogo one week before the start of the campaign when a physical prototype was not produced.
