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RetroMo: The Coleco Handhelds
Written by Robert Falcon on Thursday, June 15, 2006
Coleco made handheld gaming in the 80's interesting. We look as to how.
In the early 80's, handheld gaming was minimal at best, only because the arcade scene was still popular at the time and the Atari 2600 was starting to run into the problem that would eventually become the Video Game Crash of 1983. However, Coleco was undeterred in their quest to get some quality handheld gaming on the market, and they did so through the guise of not one but two different types of games that flooded the market and actually found their niche audience pretty easily.
The first came in the form of little, wide versus games that enabled two players to jump into a game at once. These were the original Coleco handhelds, consisting of four sporting activities- Football, Soccer, Baseball and Basketball- and putting them into a simple graphic display. They were pedestrian to be sure, even compared to the likes of the Atari 2600 sports games at the time, but many found them to be just as entertaining as the real thing, and, most importantly, able to take them anywhere they wanted to play against themselves or a friend. Like, say, a sporting event such as a baseball game.
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The handhelds were a great success, although they eventually faded away into obscurity in the mid-80's at a time when gaming wasn't exactly at a peak...until the Nintendo Entertainment System came along. However, nostalgic fans can now cheer as they have the option of rediscovering the gaming handhelds all over again. A few dedicated hardcore parties have allowed the Coleco handhelds to re-enter manufacturing and distribution, and they can now be found at speciality stores for a decent price (around $15-$20). It's worth it just for a few plays with some friends, and definitely an idea piece for the collectors out there who have worn out their Blip game so long, long ago.
The second revolution in Coleco handheld gaming came in the form of bigger minature game machines that resembled arcade games. They were tabletop games that featured a screen, a control mechanism that was a minature facsimile of an arcade unit, and a video display made up of pre-rendered little figures. Such arcade games that were produced included Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and the more complex Zaxxon.
Zaxxon was an interesting piece of design for the folks at Coleco because the game had the representation that it almost looked 3-D, giving players the illusion that they were really flying in and out of the screen, rising over walls and lowering themselves to shoot out ground targets (like the original arcade game), But, in fact, the game used a mirror and dual displays to create the illusion, and that made Zaxxon the quirkiest of the Capcom tabletop releases. It was even quirkier than Nintendo's attempts to get into the tabletop market, with such releases as Popeye and Donkey Kong Junior.
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Yes, the handheld market has evolved greatly now, but looking back at Coleco's handhelds, it's interesting to see how gaming was back in the old day, and how simple entertainment was to kill the hours. I still remember being just a kid and visiting my Aunt Babe's house, playing Pac-Man and Donkey Kong until the batteries went dead....and then getting new ones and playing all over again. Ahh, simplicity.
