ColecoVision v IntelliVision

I was an Atari 2600 guy back in the day, so didn't have either of these.

I see there are some of these 'games bundled in' units and I'm thinking I might want one to throw in the garage.

Do F:ATties here have a preference between these two systems? Which had the better games?

www.amazon.com/ColecoVision-AtGames-Flas...tronic/dp/B00NM9R6GW
www.amazon.com/IntelliVision-Flashback-C...ellivision+flashback

I think definitely the Intellivision option.

It includes Frog Bog, which ought to be enough for you. If not, it also has (don't quote me, but apparently) genericized versions of the AD&D games in the form of "Crown of Kings" and "Minotaur." No version of Utopia, unfortunately.

The Colecovision lineup isn't all that great, it doesn't seem to me. Donkey Kong is an unsurprising but obvious miss. Zaxxon is a decent implementation but relatively shallow, as I remember. Venture is quite good. The Coleco controls rather suck, and I say that as a onetime owner.

The best thing about the colecovision back in the day was the sweet controller joystick that you could get for it. The games were so, so. The intellivision had about that same games as the atari did. But the controller never felt right. I am still partial to the Atari. We had all three at one time or another. Funny how much video gaming I had when I was a kid, but after high school, I have hardly played any videogames. I still enjoy a good game of galaga over anything on the PS3.

This topic is timely for me.

I just passed on the Colecovision unit. Despite the superior system, the game selection for this collection is pretty weak. Further, some hard core, vintage game reviewers complain that the controller isn't terribly responsive.

I'll be waiting for a second iteration of the Colecovision (fingers crossed).

Coleco Vision is where I played Jumpman Junior one of the best platformers of all time... I still play it on my computer (emulator) and it has aged very well. It had other good games too... Gorf, Ladybug, Looping (with cool Bach music), Mr. Doo, Burgertime, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr, Sub Hunt... Intellivision was better at the sports titles if I recall correctly. I liked both systems well enough but never explored them the way we do these days so it's tough to make a statement about which one is better. I had a blast on my Coleco though.

Intellivision is far superior. Honestly I only look back fondly on one Colecovision title: Looping. It is fantastic.

Great Intellivision titles:
Burger Time
AD&D - the first game... the minotaur one is not so great
Bomb Squad
Night Stalker
AstroSmash
Pitfall

Intellivison.

My house was an Intellivision house growing up, and while I agree that the Atari stick felt better to use, the games on the Intellivision were creative and fun. Also note that the retro unit above DOES include Utopia, which was the first civ-like video game that I can remember playing if you don't count Hammurabi on the TRS-80. Utopia made this California boy learn to fear the power of the hurricane.

Utopia error corrected. I don't know how I missed it when I was looking specifically for it. I'll admit to not having played the game for probably 30 years, but it was a great experience at the time. Seems like I read an article not that long ago about how much thought went into it, including how the rainfall patterns were determined.

Intellivision all the way.

Utopia was my favourite video game for years.
Sea Battle was fun too.
Baseball was a blast.
There were other good ones too.

Another vote for Intellivision here. As noted above, the sports titles were top-notch. My brother and I got so good at defense in baseball, that nobody could ever score. I can still hear the digitized umpire, "YER OUT!" And in basketball, there was a secret spot, about three pixels to the left of the free throw line, where I could drain jumpers all day long. Used to drive my brother nuts.

Also ... TRON Deadly Discs! I played the shit out of that one.

I would probably go for Colecovision given the choice here, as their DONKEY KONG version was just so stunning to me as a kid. Arcade games were awesome, and home video games on the Atari or Odyssey² (respect) were good, but Colecovision let you play that arcade game at home. My mind was blown. Didn't they have Popeye too? It was coin-op good, goddamn.

Hahaha..Donkey Kong! Damn that Donkey Kong...

I did play DK at a friend's house and he had a coleco. I remember being blown away by it. A few days later some other buddy told me they had DK for the Atari up at the PX (Post Exchange - like a small Kmart for servicemen). When I came home from school, I told my mom who let me call my dad at work so he could pick up one of the copies on the way home. This was back in the early 80s while living in Germany and you never knew when the PX would be able to restock from stateside. When he brought it home I thought we hit the jackpot! I mean, check out the box and cartridge. It's by the original makers, Nintendo, but for the Atari through Coleco. This checked everything!




Imagine the disappointment when this is what fired up:




Wow, is DK actually frowning here? How sad.
I wanna say it was those two 'stages' over and over...

Yeah, the colecovision was an 8bit console, while the 2600 and intellivision was still 4bit. I think the colecovision came out about the same as the Atari 5200 which were I believe both 8bit.

Colecovision graphics were much better than the intellivision.

Intellivision has better games, Coleco had better graphics.

I don't disagree with that at all, but Coleco hardly had time to develop anything much more than launch games before it bit the dust, whereas Intellivision had a decent lifespan.

Intellivision was really a contemporary of the 2600. Colecovision was more next-gen.