ColecoVision Championship - Actual TV Footage from 1982

[vcoleiro1]

When I was 14 I was lucky enough to win a regional ColecoVision championship, then then the State Championship and finally the Australian National ColecoVision Championship which was held in Sydney.

The event was covered and Broadcast on TWT (Terry Willisee Tonight) which was a current affair TV program.

CBS Told me that they fly me to New York for the World ColecoVision championship but then the Video game crash happened and it all fell through

The National championship was determined by the highest aggregate score from 3 games which were each played one after another for 8 minutes each.
1st Donkey Kong, 2nd Zaxxon and finally Time Pilot.

CBS had told everyone that we would play three games, Donkey Kong and Zaxxon and a third mystery game which turned out to be Time Pilot. Lucky for me Time Pilot was one of my favourite games at the Arcade.

I remember leading after Donkey Kong, Bombing badly on Zaxxon but still narrowly leading the comp, and then kicking ass on Time Pilot to win .

I have held this video from anyones eyes for almost 30 years as I feel a bit embarrassed by it. Oh well, at least I didnt come off as bad as the Gold Caped self proclaimed "Super Hero of Video Games"

Apologise for the video quality, it was off an old (almost 30 years) VHS tape.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1B12BHrycY

[Greg2600]

Very cool video. How come you win the tournament, and they give you about 1.5 seconds of screen time?

[vcoleiro1]

Very cool video. How come you win the tournament, and they give you about 1.5 seconds of screen time?

Exactly !!, Ive been trying to work that one out for 30 years.

They actually had interviewed me for about 10 minutes and all they ended up using was that few seconds, What The !!.

I remember they actually interviewed me after I had won. They asked questions like, how do you think you will go. They had told me to answer as if it was before the comp. I remember thinking, this is stupid.

The kid they showed the most in the interviews was the Sydney entrant. Given the comp and TV program was in Sydney, its not hard to tell why he got the screen time.

[Matt-El]

I think they just wanted to go out of their way to reference Star Wars and Star Trek enough. Can't forget old "CAPTAIN Spock". (I guess that's accurate, since it's the same year that Star Trek II came out.) He loved to play them vidya games.

I bet half the people watching that went, "WTF is he on about?"

[boatofcar]

Looks like Australia has a Billy Mitchell of its own, in both word and deed.

[allyourblood]

Rad video, thanks for sharing! What a cool little bit of history.

[madman77]

Very cool, that guy in the cape is classic.

[Drixxel]

It's awesome that you got to be part of (and win!) a genuine gaming competition like that. What's sort of weird about the video itself, though, is that this exact VHS recording seems to have been uploaded in its entirety by someone else back in March 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5C2eifTSCg&feature=related

[Galbalan]

I find this kind of amusing, and nostalgic. Tell me, was it anything like the douchebag "pro gaming" scene as it is today with the MLG and all that, or was there a measure of respect and humility at the competition?

[boatofcar]

I find this kind of amusing, and nostalgic. Tell me, was it anything like the douchebag "pro gaming" scene as it is today with the MLG and all that, or was there a measure of respect and humility at the competition?

Most of the competitors were teenagers, so I assume they had about as much respect and humility as teenagers have exhibited since the beginning of time.

[alec006]

That was actually pretty interesting, the cape guy was just wow XP

[stonic]

Cool stuff, thanks for posting. Do you have any information about Australia's first video game "superhero", Jim Welch, and the 18 world records he claimed to have?

[vcoleiro1]

It's awesome that you got to be part of (and win!) a genuine gaming competition like that. What's sort of weird about the video itself, though, is that this exact VHS recording seems to have been uploaded in its entirety by someone else back in March 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5C2eifTSCg&feature=related

Yes, every contestant got a video from TWT of the comp, the vid you have indicated is the South Australian entrants vid (Good guy, have spoken to him several times). Seems like none of the other entrants posted their vid, they were probably as embarrassed as me.

[vcoleiro1]

Cool stuff, thanks for posting. Do you have any information about Australia's first video game "superhero", Jim Welch, and the 18 world records he claimed to have?

Funny you should ask that, because I spent an hour trying to google him recently but couldnt find him.

[stonic]

I posted over at Twin Galaxies to see if anyone knows of him.

[Greg2600]

There was no authority back then to verify his claims, other than maybe Guinness, which I doubt he made it in.