Some retro-things received from my friend Gerben.

• 2 x Commodore 64 Manual
• 1 x Commodore 64 Programmer’s Reference Guide
• 1 x Sony HITBIT MSX-Basic Manual
• 1 x Sony HITBIT MSX-Disk Basic Manual
• 1 x Sony HITBIT Manual
• 1 x Jack Nicklaus Accolade game for Macintosh
• 1 x Commodore 64 Tune-up Book
• 1 x Getting More from your Commodore 64 Book
• 1 x Commodore VIC-1541 Manual
• 2 x Commodore Mouse 1351 Manual
• 3 x Spare Manuals of Coleco Vision Cartridge (Mouse Trap / Turbo / Time Pilot)
• 1 x 16k Memory Module for ATARI 800 (Boxed)
• 1 x Radio Shack TRS-80 Ribbon Daisy Wheel Printer II (Boxed)
• 1 x Donkey Kong Junior Coleco Vision Cartridge (Boxed)
• 1 x Narco Police C64 & C64GS Game Cartridge
• 1 x Simons’ Basic C64 Cartridge
• 1 x Power Cartridge for Commodore 64
• 1 x 16K Expansion Memory for Commodore VIC-20 (RED CASE)
• 1 x Homemade Joystick Interface for ZX-80/81
• 1 x Commodore 64 RS-232 Interface
• 1 x Multi Cartridge for VIC-20
• 1 x Protek Joystick Interface
• 1 x Philips MSX Mouse
• 1 x S.C.N. Modem for Commodore 64
• 1 x Modem House Spectrum VTX 711 for ZX Sepctrum (Boxed)
• 1 x Intel 8087
• 9 x IBM 2164-20 (RAM)
• 1 x Sony HITBIT HB-75P (MSX)
• 1 x Philips 8245 (MSX2)
• 1 x Frankenstein ZX-81 (Homemade wood case for ZX-81 with a ACORN Electron Keyboard) + Expansion Memory Inside. The worst thing i’ve ever seen.

Some RS-232 Gender Changer, Null Modem, RS-232 Tester and unknown cables.

The Frankenstein ZX-81 it works! the keyboard not but is not a problem of the keyboard but of the missing connections of the matrix, maybe an unfinished project ?

Gallery:

The Coleco Adam is a Home Computer, and expansion for the ColecoVision (port 3), released in 1983 by American toy 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 orphaned in early 1985.

Coleco announced the Adam at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in June 1983, and executives predicted sales of 500,000 by Christmas 1983. From the time of the computer’s introduction to the time of its shipment, the price increased, from USD $525 to $725.

Coleco’s 1983 announcement of the Adam received favorable press coverage. The Boston Phoenix, observing that the computer’s $600 price was comparable to the lowest price for a letter-quality printer alone, stated “a nice trick if they can do it!” It was, in fact, a trick; the computers were shown behind tinted glass that hid the fact that they were hand-made and had non-working tape drives.

In June the company promised to ship the computer by August. In August it promised to ship a half million Adams by Christmas, but missed shipping dates of 1 September, 15 September, 1 October, and 15 October. Ahoy! reported that Coleco had not shipped by early October because of various problems. Each month of delay could mean losing the opportunity to sell 100,000 units, the magazine reported, adding that missing the Christmas season would result in “inestimable losses”. The company only shipped 95,000 units by December, which were very defective; Creative Computing later reported that “the rumored return rate was absolutely alarming”. One store manager stated that five of six sold Adams had been returned, and expected that the sixth would likely be returned after being opened on Christmas. Coleco partnered with Honeywell Information Systems to open up repair chain stores around the nation. By December 1983 the press reported that company executives at a news conference “fielded questions about Coleco’s problems with its highly-publicized new Adam home computer, which has been plagued by production delays and complaints of defects”, with the company only able to fulfill one third of its Canadian orders for Christmas. Less than 10% of Adam units had defects, the company claimed, “well below industry standards”.

Gallery:

Gallery (Cleaning the Keyboard):

Gallery (The big Box & Under the Cover):

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Adam ColecoVision Video (Daisy-wheel Printer Test / Tape Loading / Game Cartridge):

source: wikipedia

Autopsy:

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This version of Coleco Vision SECAM (Péritel/Euroconnector) uses a PCB 91162 REV D which differs from the classical version with PCB 91209 because integrates an internal video encoder from Y (BY) (RY) to RGB which is separate from the motherboard.

This makes think that in theory all PAL versions that use the VDP 9929A with PCB 91162 REV D and RF output can be modified to have a RGB output signal by adding this external video encoder.

from Wikipedia homepage:

The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries’ second generation home video game console, which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered near-arcade-quality graphics and gaming style along with the means to expand the system’s basic hardware. Released with a catalog of 12 launch titles, with an additional 10 games announced for 1982, approximately 145 titles in total were published as ROM cartridges for the system between 1982 and 1984. River West Brands currently owns the ColecoVision brand name.

In 2009, IGN named the ColecoVision their 12th best video game console out of their list of 25, citing “its incredible accuracy in bringing current-generation arcade hits home.”

Coleco licensed Nintendo’s Donkey Kong as the official pack-in cartridge for all ColecoVision consoles, helping to boost the console’s popularity. By Christmas of 1982, Coleco had sold more than 500,000 units, in part on the strength of its bundled game. The ColecoVision’s main competitor was the arguably more advanced but less commercially successful Atari 5200.

The ColecoVision was distributed by CBS Electronics outside of North America, and was branded the CBS ColecoVision.

Sales quickly passed 1 million in early 1983, before the video game crash of 1983. By the beginning of 1984, quarterly sales of the ColecoVision had dramatically decreased.

Over the next 18 months, the Coleco company ramped down its video game division, ultimately withdrawing from the video game market by the end of the summer of 1985. The ColecoVision was officially discontinued by October 1985. Total sales of the ColecoVision are uncertain but were ultimately in excess of 2 million units, as sales had reached that number by the spring of 1984, while the console continued to sell modestly up until its discontinuation the following year.

In 1986, Bit Corporation produced a ColecoVision clone called the Dina, which was sold in the United States by Telegames as the Telegames Personal Arcade.

source: wikipedia

I have decided to repair my Coleco Vision Secam version (RGB) purchased some years ago in a full working state, today is died. Below a description of the defect and of components being replaced.

Defect: dirty sprite

• 3 x 4116 (RAM)

New CBS Coleco Vision cartridges for my collection.

List of cartridges:

• Antarctic Adventure by ©1984 Konami
• BC’s Quest for Tires by ©1983 Sierra On-Line
• Donkey Kong Junior by ©1982 Nintendo (France Secam Version)
• Miner 2049er by ©1982 Micro Fun/Microlab inc.
• Omega Race by ©1981 Bally Midway
• Pitfall by ©1983 Activision
• Q*Bert by ©1983 Parker Brothers
• Roc’n'Rope by ©1984 Konami
• Schtroumpfs by ©1983 Logiciel (France Secam Version)
• Super Action Football by ©1984 CBS Toys
• Tarzan by ©1984 Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.
• Tournament Tennis by ©1984 Imagic
• Venture by ©1983 Exidy (France Secam Version)
• Pitstop by ©1983 Epyx
• Looping by ©1982 Venture Line Inc. (France Secam Version)
• Subroc by ©1982 Sega
• Turbo by ©1981 Sega (France Secam Version)
• Cosmic Avenger by ©1983 Universal (France Secam Version)
• Gorf by ©1981 Bally Midway (France Secam Version)
• Zaxxon by ©1982 Sega (France Secam Version)

I have decided to repair my two ColecoVision consoles bought like non-functioning many years ago. Below a description of the defects and of components being replaced.

Defect: black screen

• 1 x 2114 (VRAM)
• Joystick port # 1 broken (replaced with the joystick port of a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)

Defect: black screen

• 1 x 2114 (VRAM)
• 3 x 4116 (RAM)

Special thanks to a friend. He donated this console for spare parts.

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Expansion Module #2 is a driving controller expansion that consists of a steering wheel, gas pedal and the pack-in game Turbo. The driving controller is also compatible with the games Destructor and Dukes Of Hazzard.

source: wikipedia

Cartridges list:

• Donkey Kong by Nintendo.
• Cosmic Avenger by Universal.
• The Official Turbo by Sega.
• Smurf by Peyo.

click here for the CBS Coleco Vision category.

CBS ColecoVision RGB pinouts only for the French (Secam) AV Out version.

Here my first ColecoVision RGB hack.

source: colecovision.dk

Cartridges list:

• BurgerTime by Data East U.S.A.
• Rocky Super Action Boxing by United Artists Corporation + Joystick Sticker.
• WarGames by United Artists Corporation + Joystick Sticker.
• Buck Rogers by The Dille Family Trust.

click here for the CBS Coleco Vision category.

Autopsy:

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from Wikipedia:

Coleco prototyped a fourth expansion module intended to provide compatibility with Mattel’s Intellivision, but this was never released.

Two controller expansions were also available. First was the Roller Controller, a trackball packaged with a port of the arcade game Slither, a Centipede clone and meant to be used with some dedicated games like Victory or to enhance the gameplay of previously published cartridges which benefitted from its trackball system (like Wargames).

The second was the Super Action Controller Set, resembling a pair of boxing gloves each with joystick and numeric keypad on top and a series of buttons along the grip. It came with the game Super Action Baseball and saw later release of the Rocky Super Action Boxing, and a port of Front Line.

source: wikipedia

Autopsy:

from Vintagecomputing:

And you thought video game controllers were over-complicated these days; this one requires five (slightly-pudgy child) hands just to use it properly.

Take a look at this bad boy: four trigger buttons on the pistol-like grip (one per finger), twelve buttons in the overlay-friendly numeric keypad matrix on top, a one-dimensional “speed roller” wheel near the back, and an extremely flaccid red-knobbed joystick crowning it all.

Combine this with the futuristic look of a gaudy black space gauntlet that literally engulfs your hand, and you’ve got the ColecoVision Super Action Controller.

This marvel of controlling technology came in sets of two with a “Super Action Game” included — Super Action Baseball or Rocky Super Action Boxing.

source: vintagecomputing.com

Cartridges list:

• Fathom by Imagic.
• Rocky Super Action Boxing by United Artists Corporation + Joystick Sticker.

click here for the CBS Coleco Vision category.

Autopsy:

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from Wikipedia:

Expansion modules, from its introduction, Coleco had touted a hardware add-on called the Expansion Module #1 which made the ColecoVision compatible with the industry-leading Atari 2600. Functionally, this gave the ColecoVision the largest software library of any console of its day.

The expansion module prompted legal action from Atari, but Atari was unable to stop sales of the module because the 2600 could be reproduced with standard parts. Coleco was also able to design and market the Gemini game system which was an exact clone of the 2600, but with combined joystick/paddle controllers.

source: wikipedia