At Games Colecovision, Intellivision, 2600 Flashbacks Pre-order

[InsaneDavid]

Bad news? Toys R Us is no longer showing the Colecovision, Intellivision, or Sega Genesis Flashback units as available for pre-order, presumably because they're sold out. If you want one, you'll have to wait until October 1st, which fortunately is right around the corner.

Here's what I can say: The internal break date for these is 9/22. Granted that can be moved up or down but as things are currently, 9/22 is the hard-coded release.

These are being pulled from store shelves because of the 9/22 break date, no other reason, and this is nothing new or specific to this item. It's just something with a hard break date that doesn't have dated "DO NOT STOCK" labels on the carton, no big deal.

Inventory pulled from the floor until 9/22 will not be utilized for outstanding online pre-orders. That inventory comes direct from the distribution centers or vendor warehouse supply, as it is with every big box retailer. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the reason why these were removed from the website is so that people can't attempt to purchase them online for in-store pick up due to the 9/22 break date. Again, all standard policy pretty much everywhere these days.

Allocation seems to be four pieces of each at present for most stores but these will continue to be stocked through the holidays. Packaging is absolute shit with these, with many of them having the little round box tape seal peel or fall off in the shipping carton. That means many of these will be "open" brand new or will be taped shut by the store. Overlays are simply tossed in the bottom of the box under the console with a little paper band around them and the instruction booklet is simply tossed atop the console in the box - nothing is bagged. The included overlays are in no way up to the quality of originals and are film-thin. This is all typical AtGames cheap-ass manufacturing and shouldn't be surprising. I'll have to say that I'm not too impressed with the feel of the controllers but that's not the draw with the Colecovision plug-and-play here, is it? A reliable clone system with a bunch of built in games is the draw. I would pop the box open to make sure everything is in there before purchase but keep in mind nothing is "sealed" inside, so a new system may look used if you're expecting things to be bagged and packed nicely - that's just how they come.

Also a blanket statement, not directed at anyone what so ever: Don't be pricks to people in-store moving these off the floor due to the break date. They're just doing their job and on the bright side, at this point these will be available a week before we originally assumed. What I would like to see is a report of how good the actual emulation is from those who have strong-armed one of these away from a retailer.