Did colecovision or intellivision get much market share against the 2600?

[Anthony1]

Most of us are pretty familar with the video game wars of recent era's. We all know who won the PS2, Xbox, GameCube and Dreamcast era, who lost and why. Same thing with the PS1, Saturn, 3DO, Nintendo 64 era. Same thing with Genesis, Super Nintendo era, etc, etc. But when it comes to the earliest era's in home consoles, I'm not sure if alot of us really know all that much about the battle that when on back then. Back in the late 70's and early 80's, I had an Atari 2600, and I did have some friends that owned colecovision or intellivision, but I never had one personally, so I don't really know all that much about them.

I'm wondering, when those systems released, did they sell all that many of them? Did they make any inroads against the 2600 juggernaut? I think the Intellivision came out first, and then Colecovision followed, and I'm not really sure how much they retailed for when they first came out, and everything else that goes along with it, but maybe if somebody here is very well versed on this original video game battle, they can relate the Intellivision and Colecovision in comparison to other more recent systems that we are familar with. Like the Intellivision was about as successful as the 3DO, or something like that. In terms we can understand, with more recent video game battles. Or if there is an article on the net that speaks to this exact battle, I would be interested in reading about it.


On the same note, I'd also be interested in knowing more about the systems that competed with the NES early on. I mean, I know it was just pretty much the Atari 7800 and Sega Master System, and both didn't fare well at all, especially the 7800, but I still don't know that much about it. I mean, I know the NES absolutely dominated, but I'm sure there was a few years where the other systems had a slight chance before they got totally demolished, and I haven't heard much about that.

I've done some searches on the internets for this info, and there is lots of info out there, but they are more talking about the specific history of each console, and not so much in terms of market share and the battle between eachother.

[diskoboy]

I believe the Colecovision began outselling the VCS in 1983, up until the ADAM debacle.

Remember - Atari began it's downfall in 1982. Mattel virtually fell off the map in mid-83.

Enter Commodore and Apple....

[ubersaurus]

Long story short, the NES crushed the competition in the US, no contest. It had a head start on the other two's launch, it had nearly all the 3rd party support due to Nintendo's policies, and both the SMS and 7800 had other factors contributing to their downfall. I hear SMS did much better in Europe, and it's a well known fact that the Famicom ruled Japan through the 80s.

The intellivision had a bit of headway against the 2600, but it never came close to the market share. It was still the number two console, but there was a reason every major system of the day had a 2600 adaptor. The Colecovision WAS on the road to surpass the 2600, until the market crashed.

[YoshiM]

On the same note, I'd also be interested in knowing more about the systems that competed with the NES early on. I mean, I know it was just pretty much the Atari 7800 and Sega Master System, and both didn't fare well at all, especially the 7800, but I still don't know that much about it. I mean, I know the NES absolutely dominated, but I'm sure there was a few years where the other systems had a slight chance before they got totally demolished, and I haven't heard much about that.

Can't forget the system with the "real hip joystick"- the 2600 from A-TAR-EE. When the NES first arrived in my neck o' the woods stores also carried the Atari 2600 and games but usually relocated them to the toy department. The system truly was "under fifty bucks" and the games usually sold for about $15 for older like Centipede or Dig Dug to I think $20 for newer games like Solaris or Dark Chambers. The K-Mart where I lived carried very few Atari carts (and even fewer NES-the electronics department was basically one long wood paneled kiosk-maybe 10 to 15' with about 8' of wall space devoted to a handful of televisions and a row or two of boom boxes and other parts. They relocated the camera/electronics to the other side of the Eatery and expanded) and Kohls only had NES, SMS and Nintendo Game and Watch. You could go to Radio Shack and order Atari games or contact Atari direct where they still had a library of carts available for all the Atari systems at the time.

As for the 7800, I never saw one until I went to a Toys R Us in Milwaukee in 1988/1989. None of the stores in my home county even carried the games. My family would go out to Fond du Lac every so often in the early 90's (finally could afford a better car) and places like Kay Bee only had NES and SMS.

NES was everywhere. Even a place like Fleet Farm (think a Menards or Lowe's but geared a bit more toward farm and hunting) carried NES games on a regular basis, which was odd at the time as their electronics department was dinky. If the Atari 7800 or even the SMS had more store exposure they might have done better but it's hard to say.

[Arcade Antics]

Short version: Nintendo didn't crush anyone, they were just in the right place at the right time. By the time other folks tried to get back in the game (Atari, Sega) it was too late.

1984

- Atari 7800 was finished in 1984, but it didn't wind up shipping. See also: Tramiels.

- NES showed at the 1984 CES. It didn't do well, and still had more of a traditional "video game" system name.

1985

- Nintendo changed the name and all the terms to downplay video game console links. "Cartridges = GAME PAKS," "Console = ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM," etc.

- Nintendo starts to - very gently - feel out the marketplace. 1985 saw the release of the NES in the US in 2 cities: LA and NYC.

After the die hards bought into it, within about a year the NES exploded. People were "ready to play videogames again." Or something. You know the rest.

[y-bot]

Intellivision is to Atari 2600 as Gamecube is to Playstation 2. Maybe slightly less. I don't remember the Colecovision selling that well and I never saw a Vectrex, Odyssey 2 or Arcadia 2001 until I started collecting video games in the mid 90's. I had an Intellivision and so did one friend of mine, the rest all had Atari 2600.

y-bot

[Ze_ro]

From what I remember, the ColecoVision was at least as popular as the Intellivision when I was a kid. Both were far less popular than the Atari though. I had no idea the O^2, Vectrex, and Arcadia even existed until 20 years later.

--Zero

[davepesc]

From my experience, everyone had a 2600 growing up. I had one friend with an Intelly, and I thought it was cool, but never saw any others. I never knew anyone with a ColecoVision back then, but it turns out that my wife had one, so I picked one up about a year ago so she could play Ladybug again

I had a SMS when they came out and still have it. I think it was a fantastic system and knew a handful of other people with one, but NES ruled the day. I never even heard of the 7800 until I got into collecting!

After that, I had a Genny, but Genny/SNES seemed pretty close with maybe a slight edge to the Genny. I did have one friend with too much money to spend who had TurboGrafx 16 and a couple other "minor" consoles, but that was it.

Then, PS1 came and dominated everything until PS2 came out. N64, Saturn, Dreamcast... none of them made a blip. Finally, PS2 came out and picked up right where PS1 left off in terms of dominance.

Now... well I can't wait to pick up a Wii!

[j_factor]

According to a book I read years ago, Colecovision was the #1 selling console for a while. Although its user base never came too close to the 2600's, its then-current sales were higher than any other system for most of its life. This was mainly thanks to every system coming with Donkey Kong, although it was also helped by high-quality graphics, an add-on that let it play 2600 carts, and a reasonable price point (when it debuted, it was less expensive than the Intellivision at that time and not that much more than the 2600).

Colecovision died an abrupt death mainly due to Coleco sinking all of their money into the ADAM and going bankrupt. The other big factor was that Coleco's main strategy was to go after arcade licenses -- a sound strategy when they started, but as time marched on, fewer and fewer new arcade games were appearing and fewer still were achieving any level of popularity, and many arcades went out of business. At that point, every videogame company was having a hard time, and no one was around to make big Coleco games anymore.

Coleco the company went completely bankrupt, and unlike what happened with Intellivision, nobody bought the rights to it or continued making games. Telegames bought out Coleco's stock of games and produced a clone unit, though.

[Poofta!]

From my experience, everyone had a 2600 growing up. I had one friend with an Intelly, and I thought it was cool, but never saw any others. I never knew anyone with a ColecoVision back then, but it turns out that my wife had one, so I picked one up about a year ago so she could play Ladybug again

I had a SMS when they came out and still have it. I think it was a fantastic system and knew a handful of other people with one, but NES ruled the day. I never even heard of the 7800 until I got into collecting!

After that, I had a Genny, but Genny/SNES seemed pretty close with maybe a slight edge to the Genny. I did have one friend with too much money to spend who had TurboGrafx 16 and a couple other "minor" consoles, but that was it.

Then, PS1 came and dominated everything until PS2 came out. N64, Saturn, Dreamcast... none of them made a blip. Finally, PS2 came out and picked up right where PS1 left off in terms of dominance.

Now... well I can't wait to pick up a Wii!

id say snes was ahead of the genny by a few miles, no matter how much everyone didnt wanna admit it. but it was obvious and still is. check out the top games.

also while i agree that the saturn made no blip at all, the n64 was huge, selling as i recall 1 million units in first day of release or something, and mario 64 jump started the 3d platformer we know today (not to mention analog controls).

[Bronty-2]

According to a book I read years ago, Colecovision was the #1 selling console for a while. Although its user base never came too close to the 2600's, its then-current sales were higher than any other system for most of its life. This was mainly thanks to every system coming with Donkey Kong, although it was also helped by high-quality graphics, an add-on that let it play 2600 carts, and a reasonable price point (when it debuted, it was less expensive than the Intellivision at that time and not that much more than the 2600).

Colecovision died an abrupt death mainly due to Coleco sinking all of their money into the ADAM and going bankrupt. The other big factor was that Coleco's main strategy was to go after arcade licenses -- a sound strategy when they started, but as time marched on, fewer and fewer new arcade games were appearing and fewer still were achieving any level of popularity, and many arcades went out of business. At that point, every videogame company was having a hard time, and no one was around to make big Coleco games anymore.

Coleco the company went completely bankrupt, and unlike what happened with Intellivision, nobody bought the rights to it or continued making games. Telegames bought out Coleco's stock of games and produced a clone unit, though.

Just to add to that. My older brother bought a coleco during this period for $250 Canadian. It was a lot of paper route money at the time... hehe. The funny thing is I don't think we even realized coleco went bankrupt at the time, just kept on playing the games we had and occasionally buying new ones here and there.

[Iron Draggon]

well it went something like this:

in the beginning, there was only the Atari 2600... at some point, Sears started selling a clone unit, which as far as I know was identical to the 2600... sort of like a generic version for those too poor to afford the name brand version... not sure how this was even possible, since it would never happen today, but that's the way it was... then along came the Intellivision...

Intellivision enjoyed a fair degree of popularity, mainly because of its more realistic sports titles and a D&D game... but it was no match for the mighty 2600, which by then was fully entrenched and had become synonymous with video games... you didn't play video games at home, you played Atari...

somewhere in there was the Odyssey 2, but few people cared... it was even more of a rebel system than the Intellivision was, and it mostly only sold to owners of Magnavox televisions who were sold on the brand, and the few geeks who thought that it's keyboard was the wave of the future... it did have some pretty cool hybrid games that made use of its keyboard, but overall it was seen as a system that only the weirdest of geeks would own...

also somewhere in there was the Vectrex... this was the system that everybody really wanted to own, but its high price prevented that from happening... a few lucky people were rich enough to get one, but mostly everyone just drooled over it in the store and wished... we played it every chance we got, and wished we knew someone who owned one, but mostly it was one of those things that you fiddled with in the store when you went...

finally, Atari felt enough pressure from the still growing popularity of the Intellivision to announce that it had a new system in development... the Atari 5200... this was the system that was designed to kill off the Intellivision... there was just one small problem... Coleco had the same idea of killing off the Intellivision, while simultaneously attempting to kill off the Atari 2600 too...

so we had the Atari 5200 VS the Colecovision... this was the only true battle of this era, as these two systems were the only two systems that were capable of competing with each other on equal ground... they were called the Third Wave systems, as they were supposedly the third generation of home consoles at this point... Pong systems were the First Wave, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision were the Second Wave, and now we were feeling the effects of the arrival of the Third Wave... the first generation of consoles that were roughly equivalent in power to the home computers of the time...

Atrai sold the 5200 as the home gamer's alternative to its Atari 400 and 800 series of computers... Coleco sold the Colecovision as the home gamer's alternative to the Atari 5200... and they did a great job of it... mainly because of its backwards compatibility with Atari 2600 carts, and the 5200's notoriously unreliable controllers... had the 5200 been able to play 2600 carts and had reliable controllers, it likely would've destroyed the Colecovision, but instead the Colecovision dominated because it had everything that the 5200 should've had, and then some... Colecovision was the Sega Genesis of the time... and it had even more addon gadgets for it than the Genesis ever did... there were at least 4 different official controllers for it... I think it even had a karaoke addon, but I'm not sure... if it didn't, it certainly should've...

but Coleco got too greedy with trying to sell addon gadgets for it, and what they hoped would be the ultimate addon instead became its downfall... and that addon of course was the Adam computer... Coleco's attempt to take a big bite out of the growing home computer market for itself, and another big bite out of Atari's ass... but it backfired on them horribly... because by now everybody and his little brother, including Coleco, was making games for the Atari 2600... they were sold at gas stations, convenience stores, you name it... and it had become impossible to keep up with all the games on the market... add to that all the new systems like the Colecovision selling more addons for themselves than anyone knew what to do with, and basically everybody was fed up with "me too" marketing... we were sick and tired of being clubbed over the head with the latest thing, only to have it become the latest dud within a few months... and finally, the market crashed...

the Atari 7800 had been announced before this happened, but to most it was seen as even more evidence that the industry had gone too far... they seemed to be pushing us to become a throwaway tech society, and we simply weren't ready for it at the time... tech was still a relatively new thing to most people, and the perception was that if all tech was gonna become obsolete within a few months of of its debut, then we didn't really need it in the first place, much less an endless chain of it constantly being replaced...

so we had the dark ages, and it seemed that video games had died just as quickly as they were born... until Nintendo showed up with the NES... and so began the Fouth Wave, which thankfully revived the industry... as most of us all know, Nintendo did everything right, and their smartest maneuver was to enact and ensure very strict quality control standards for NES games... the NES thrived, and by the time the rest of the industry realized that Nintendo had just successfully revived it, it was too late for anyone else to compete with them successfully... Sega released the Master System, which was probably the closest thing to competition that Nintendo ever felt during that era, and Atari finally released the Atari 7800... but Atari had already shot itself in the foot, in the eyes of most consumers, so it died a pretty quick death... the NES was basically the Sega Genesis of this era... rising above the ashes of all that came before it, like a phoenix, and it dominated all...

most of you know the rest...

[diskoboy]

well it went something like this:

in the beginning, there was only the Atari 2600... at some point, Sears started selling a clone unit, which as far as I know was identical to the 2600... sort of like a generic version for those too poor to afford the name brand version... not sure how this was even possible, since it would never happen today, but that's the way it was... then along came the Intellivision...

The reason for this is Sears had exclusivity to Atari consoles during the Pong console days. This carried over until the market crashed in 84. During the Pong days, Atari needed a little help with manufacturing and promotion. Sears was exactly what the doctor ordered. Sears just got lucky that they still had the rights to manufacture Atari compatible consoles when the VCS came along, and the video game market shot into the stratosphere around this time.

The same story with the Inty. Except they used Radio Shack, too.

somewhere in there was the Odyssey 2, but few people cared... it was even more of a rebel system than the Intellivision was, and it mostly only sold to owners of Magnavox televisions who were sold on the brand, and the few geeks who thought that it's keyboard was the wave of the future... it did have some pretty cool hybrid games that made use of its keyboard, but overall it was seen as a system that only the weirdest of geeks would own...

The Odyssey 2 was the first console I ever owned. And I still have it to this day. Of course, it's almost 30 years old, and has seen better days. But I think you were right about the Magnavox thing. The only reason we got it is because my dad had a friend who worked at a Magnavox store, when I was young. I wanted a VCS.

[y-bot]

Sears versions of Atari 2600 and Intellivision did not cost any less, correct?

y-bot

[davepesc]

id say snes was ahead of the genny by a few miles, no matter how much everyone didnt wanna admit it. but it was obvious and still is. check out the top games.

also while i agree that the saturn made no blip at all, the n64 was huge, selling as i recall 1 million units in first day of release or something, and mario 64 jump started the 3d platformer we know today (not to mention analog controls).

I was speaking purely from my experience... what I played in people's living rooms, not which was the "better" system.

[Arcade Antics]

Sears versions of Atari 2600 and Intellivision did not cost any less, correct?

y-bot

Correct.

[Leo_A]

Sears required products sold in their stores at that time to have their branding on it, Atari still manufactured the consoles. I don't know where the information above came from, but it's not true.

[y-bot]

I knew it was something like that, not that they were cheaper or anything. Sears had exclusive versions of toys made for them for years. Some of the mos collectible toys of the 60's-80's are Sears exclusives.

y-bot

[Arcade Antics]

I don't know where the information above came from, but it's not true.

What information?

[y-bot]

I think this:

in the beginning, there was only the Atari 2600... at some point, Sears started selling a clone unit, which as far as I know was identical to the 2600... sort of like a generic version for those too poor to afford the name brand version... not sure how this was even possible, since it would never happen today, but that's the way it was... then along came the Intellivision...


But maybe they meant something else.

y-bot