noob adventures in Colecovision
So just for the heck of it, I decided something cool to do every Thursday, is to stop by the local Value Village and see what kind of stuff popped in there.
Was pretty happy to see a filth-covered ColecoVision this last time, since I'd never seen one in my life, I grabbed it.
I've never been big into the pre-NES stuffs, having only ever had an original VCS, the games, while I love em, don't really hook me into wanting to play for very long, and the only time it ever got hooked up was when someone stopped by was really interested in just checking out an old Atari in action once. Can't say I've ever had much experience outside of that system, so all the older stuff kinda blurred together for me.
Long story short, Value Village likes to take every item from a console, separate it, and leave it strewn across the store. So, after not knowing anything about the machines from back then, In hopes of assembling a full setup from what I could dig up out of their random piles and bundles, I've ended up with this hardware:
Colecovision system with its GIANT power brick.
Two Wico Command Controller sticks
Two Intellivision pads
A six switch tele-games 2600 clone
A Gemstik 2600 stick
(These were all kinda bundled randomly)
Here's where I'm stuck:
The Coleco came with one Intv. pad, and not knowing any better, found a matching pad and picked it up with it (Sure, systems black, the pads are cream, but what the hell do I know, all the old-old machines had weird design ideas
I picked up the 3 games they had that were obviously Coleco games: Zaxxon, Donkey Kong, and Carnival.
Not knowing any better, Intv. controllers plugged in, system powers up, game boots to selection screen, all the numbers on the pad seem to work, get into Zaxxon, and I can fire with the upper left side button, but the control disc doesn't work. Look it up, and, okay, these are Intv. pads. So, I went back and bought what they had for old hardware.
With the Wico sticks, I get full number pad, full directional control, and no 'fire' functionality. More testing shows No jumping in Donkey Kong and no firing in Carnival as well. One of the sticks seems to respond better than the other. This was trying the side buttons, as well as the button on top of the stick.
As these things could all use a good cleaning (Read: Sandblasting or acid bath), I'm going to take em apart and see if it helps.
So, I guess the big questions are:
Did I fry something using an Intv. pad on this? Should they have worked?(Like, I always used genesis pads on my VCS, but had heard never use em on a 3D0 and vice-versa)
I'd try a Genesis pad, but the only one I have an easy time getting to at the moment is my Laseractive pad, and if that thing dies, I'm gonna cry like a punched baby.
If there is something wrong with the sticks, or the controller ports, what should I look for, and what kind of fixes are there for this stuff?
Any things to NOT do while cleaning this stuff up?
I have to say, I'm fairly impressed by the machine, and understand the reason people really dig it still. With a direct coaxial connection, it has a really bright clear screen, sounds good.
Carnival doesn't seem like much of a change from 2600 stuffs, Zaxxon seems to be almost early nes quality, and Donkey Kong blew my mind, didn't expect that to be such a huge jump from it's 2600 version. I'd love to play it, game's kinda hard to play without jumping, hehe.
Any ideas?
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