Colecovision Flashback Review

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VideoGameCritic
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Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 16th, 2014, 8:37 pm

I posted my review of the Colecovision Flashback.

Comments are welcome.

Astrosmasher1
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Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby Astrosmasher1 » December 17th, 2014, 2:16 am

I want one but I looked on Amazon and it has not been released in Europe.[frown]

PinMike86661
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby PinMike86661 » December 17th, 2014, 12:10 pm

I bought mine, along with the Intellivision Flashback for $60 total at Dollar General (which both include a marginal exclusive game) during Thanksgiving. The feel of the controller is better than the incredibly stiff original. I love the game selection here and is easily the best lineup I've seen for a Flashback console; Frenzy, Jumpman Junior, Montezuma's Revenge, and Pepper II easily justifies the $30 spent. I haven't tried all the hombrews yet, but Mecha-8 is an okay homebrew STG and Princess Quest is a really good Ghosts N Goblins clone that falls short due to the button placements (feels reversed). The Heist is confirmed to play much slower than the original cart. Other than that, the other games play well enough. The all-time greatest Flashback is still the Atari Flashback 2, though, as it can be hacked into a makeshift Atari 2600; these are far more cheaply made in comparison to that one, so they can't be hacked into makeshift consoles.

The Intellivision Flashback is okay, but it lacks hombrew titles, which the console has been getting really good ones; still, the controllers are solid and has classics like Astrosmash, Shark! Shark!, Thunder Castle, and Thin Ice.

Honestly, I got these on impulse since they were expensive online and $30 is a decent price for these. My main reason, though, was to use the controllers for my Vision-Daptor, a USB plugin control port that supports Colecovision, Intellivision, Sega Master System, and Genesis controllers, to play Intellivision ROMs on my PC; it was recently upgraded to handle the Flashback controllers.

Reminder for those getting these consoles: The controllers do not work on actual consoles; however there are a couple people working to make them compatible via a cable extension. There is a podcast called The Intellivisionaries, which the people behind that podcast are making Flashback adapters for the actual consoles.

goldenband1
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby goldenband1 » December 17th, 2014, 6:49 pm

Something really weird happened to the link in the OP -- it's badly broken. The sidebar link is fine, though.

If only the controllers were pin-compatible with the originals, especially the CV controllers! What a shame.

LS6501
Posts: 119
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby LS6501 » December 21st, 2014, 2:27 pm

I was thinking of buying one... but there is no vendor in Canada that I'm aware of, so to get one, I'm stuck with the likes of eBay or Amazon plus exorbitant shipping rates to Canada.

With shipping, the cheapest one I can find on eBay is $60 US.

LS6501
Posts: 119
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby LS6501 » January 16th, 2015, 1:24 am

I received my Colecovision Flashback today, and have spent a couple of hours playing games on it so far.
 
I'm reasonably impressed with it. It has some flaws (I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars) - but it is a lot of fun. I used to own a 'real' 80s Colecovision with a fair number of cartridges, so I can compare the two.  The new Flashback controllers are fairly close to the originals in both look and feel - but not exact.  The joystick itself has a clicky, snappy feel to it that I don't think the original had. The video output on my LCD flatscreen is decent enough, but the sound in some games is off, some games much more so than others.
 
The selection of 60 games includes some classics such as Zaxxon, Space Panic, Frenzy, Space Fury, Pepper II (my fave!), Venture, Cosmic Avenger, etc.  Of course, Nintendo would not licence them Donkey Kong, but where are Ladybug or Mousetrap?
 
The quality of the emulation is fairly good: not as precise as the newer Windows emulators, but decent enough. Honestly, I have to say that playing most of these games really doesn't look or feel much different than on my original system. Even the plastic keyboard overlays look like the 1980s originals!
 
So... what's not to like? Well, frankly, the selection of games is seriously lacking!  I understand that it's hard to get some of these licences without having deep pockets, but there is quite a lot of 'shovelware' included.  I would say that perhaps 15 or 20 of the games are good, decent games, but some of the remaining 40 games....  yikes!  
 
I think that because the Intellivision Flashback has 60 games included, AtGames felt they had to do the same with the Colecovision version - and ended up padding out the included library.  A good twenty or more of the games are from lesser known 80s publishers such as Spectravideo, Eclipse, or Interphase.  There's a reason these companies are largely unknown - most of their games were not that good!  And there are many mediocre 'homebrew' games included too.
 
Honestly, I think they should have skipped some of the included games, and just stuck to 20 or 30 of the better games.  Including the crummy games only weakens the overall product.
 
I really hope that in the future version, some more of the top tier games are included. I realize that there are licencing issues and that may not even be legally possible, but I have my fingers crossed.
 
Overall, I am really pleased with my purchase. However, if you can't decide between the Intellivision or the Coleco version, I'd have to point to the Intellivision one as the better machine.

scotland171
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby scotland171 » January 16th, 2015, 8:28 am

I feel the other way.

I prefer to C-vision flashback for its easier play mechanics. I also appreciate the lesser titles, even educational ones. Educational titles were important from a marketing and cultural view in ways they are not now. Thats a thread for another day.

Compare the Jakks Pacific Atari plug and play with a few select popular games to the At Games atari flashbacks with close to a hundred. Which do you prefer? I prefer the bigger libraries.

BorntoRun1
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Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Colecovision Flashback Review

Postby BorntoRun1 » January 17th, 2015, 12:11 pm

I'm definitely a fan of the Colecovision Flashback.It's got some really fun games, including some lesser known titles which are fun in their own right, such as Evolution, Fathom, and Wing War. It's also nice to now be able to play some rarer titles on a regular tv instead of my PSP emulator, such as Sammy Lightfoot, Tomarc the Barbarian (OK, this one sucks), and Sir Lancelot.


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