"We can make Donkey Kong the best on ColecoVision. Now it's time to translate the arcade sequel hit Donkey Kong Junior into a ColecoVision exclusive, and translating four of these into the card input on the first expansion module, as well as doing originals on the card adapter for the ColecoVision. We can complicate and more advanced, but cartridges are better, but games running on card input is forever cheaper than the cartridges. Now ColecoVision II is unveiled with a gold case."
-Coleco president Arnold C. Greenberg, announcing a new ColecoVision model on the Winter CES 1983
"It's much plain. It's simple. It's garbage. Gamers are going to hype too much on the Mindvision, just in time for 1981, and discussions to feature the Mindvision was a joystick that hardly resembled the Intellivision. It's the most powerful thing he ever created"
-Atari President Ray Kassar, discussing the Hasbro Mindvision in an interview with Time magazine hyping the Atari 5200, January 24, 1983
"We know that the Atari 5200 is more powerful than the Hasbro Mindvision. It had much higher processors than the original Atari 2600 Video Computer System. The Atari 5200 was faster than the Hasbro Mindvision, they were 1.79 MHz and we were about 1.25. But, don't be worried about the console and Atari, Inc. did not take software publishers' needs onto consideration, like Activision. They put out a very nice piece of hardware that was easy to develop for, while at Hasbro we had licensees from companies including Activision, 20th Century-Fox, Parker Brothers, MGM/UA, Family Home Entertainment and Imagic, we can listen to them and creating a platform that making games for. The 5200 SuperSystem had the power that no one has been taken for."
-Stephen D. Hassenfeld in an interview with Laser Focus World, January 1987
"We can paid taxes for our partners. We can pay games that will coming out for both Atari Cosmos portable game system. We can think people is going to love and have pleasure working with third party developers like Activision and Parker Bros. looking forward to us to work at Cosmos in the future."
-Atari Co-CEO Manny Gerrard, from an interview with Wall Street Week at the Winter CES 1983
January 6, 1983 - Winter CES 1983
Whenever, Atari had the best selling world's game company of all time. It made too many video game cartridges for the Atari 2600 Video Computer System, the Atari Cosmos, and the Atari 5200 video game systems, as well as world's most popular arcade games of all time and hit Atari 8-bit home computer systems. Atari CEO Ray Kassar said that the E.T. game is completed by programmer Howard Scott Warshaw and excepted to ship by 1983. (ITTL, IOTL E.T. was rushed for Christmas and it was a major factor in the video game crash of 1983.) We hope to accomplish the Atari 5200 had a mission of goal that reached your target limitation of the home game console and a big slate of games being available for the Atari 5200 SuperSystem. At the Winter CES, Atari 5200 showed off Jungle Hunt, in hopes to compete with a Hasbro Mindvision hit Voyage of the Safari. Kassar had promised that the Atari Cosmos Adapter for the Atari 5200 is in the works. So only mind that the 2600 Video Computer System is continuing production, so that the Atari 5200 is a new version of the original Atari 2600.
We've also seen promising that there are new games in the works for a new portable system Vectrex, a new powerful console but with vector display and a separate controller with a high price tag but sales for the Atari Cosmos portable system remained slow.
The greatest splashes of the Winter CES was always made been by rivals Magnavox, Coleco, Hasbro, Atari and Mattel, who showed them off cartridges at the show, but only Coleco managed to have a card input, and both promoting home console ports of hit arcade games by the year of 1983. Since Parker Brothers already made cartridges, LJN Toys rolling out his own cartridges on every system. Coleco is promoting the sequel Donkey Kong Jr. that was intended to be a major hit with some of the system's younger players that the same way Donkey Kong made a few months ago. Coleco had been making sports games, with a basketball title ColecoVision Basketball which was to ship at the summer of the year, on the ColecoVision video game system.
On the Atari side, Atari showed off a few months ago by pushing E.T. out of Christmas 1982 to its highly anticipated Spring date (this was done ITTL in November, IOTL this wasn't done), since Atari 2600's developers had too much time to develop it for six months to develop this video game. Atari is promising a lineup of sports games, including Activision's new lineup of sports titles including a sequel to Ice Hockey, Pro Ice Hockey '84. Atari was promoting a pair of new arcade conversions, mostly the ones licensed from Bally/Midway Manufacturing Company, NamcoAmerica, Inc., Williams Electronics, Inc. and Taito America Corporation. These weren't much as focus this year, as Atari had its renewed commitment for Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 and consumers say Atari had a better bet to buy.
On the Mattel side, a home computer system is unveiled, called Aquarius, which was created by Radofin, and may be included in the System Changer with a keyboard input (ITTL, , as well as that a brand-new Intellivision III was unveiled as an upgraded version of the Intellivision in order to compete with hit consoles Hasbro Mindvision, Atari 5200 and ColecoVision, setting up the "third generation of game consoles". The Intellivision III was to be shipped by the fall of 1983, after the spring release of a much cheaper Intellivision II, which is going to be a flop.
On the Magnavox side, an upgraded version of the Odyssey 2, Magnavox Odyssey 3 was shipped by the fall of 1983, and its much more advanced than the original Odyssey and Odysssey 2, both of these were major hits from Magnavox, and it's much an improvement.
On the Hasbro side, Hasbro shipped a new sequel to Mindvision Baseball, Mindvision Baseball 1984, which was to ship on the Mindvision during the 1983 baseball season, as well as add-on accessories to Hasbro Mindvision, a mousepad, and a paint game planned, called Mindpaint, which was to be shipped by the summer of 1983, and it was excepted to be a Mindvision bestseller.
-from a Nightly Business Report on the 1983 Winter Consumer Electronics Show.
What's New to Games at the Winter CES!
Japanese company Konami, following a success on arcade games, launched a video game cartridge console system called "Konami System I" which was set to came out on July 15, 1983 in Japan, which also alongside Sega's "SG-1000" and Nintendo's "Family Computer" called it "Japanese Video Game Day" and came in a gold packaging because Sega already used the blue color in the logo, and Konami chose the yellow color to replace blue to avoid color similarity. Similarity, Takara was managed to import the Hasbro Mindvision and released its Japanese counterpart "Takara System I" which was also came out on July 15, 1983. Also Coleco and Sega of Japan reached an agreement to import all ColecoVision cartridges to the Japanese SG-1000 consoles, which may came out on July 15, 1983, because ColecoVision and SG-100 had the same technical specifications, which in exchange all imported Japanese SG-1000 cartridges will appear on the international ColecoVision. Namco which had its success with Pac-Man and Galaga had plans for a home console, which came out later that year as "Namco Home Game I".
On the American side, Greg Fischbach formed a video game company Acclaim Entertainment as a subsidiary of firm Fischbach & Fischbach (ITTL, IOTL Acclaim didn't form until 1987 as Fischbach worked on Activision International (1983-1986) and RCA Records International (1986-1987) by the period). The company was interested in porting domestic and foreign arcade and home computer games into video game cartridges for the U.S.A. and Canada market, as well that the company farming out the creation of video games to indie developers. These Acclaim games will be available exclusively for Atari systems. It was picked alphabetically above Activision. Similarity, LJN Toys Ltd. entered the gaming industry by distributing game cartridges exclusively for Atari 5200 and not for the Atari 2600 or its rivals, including sports titles with real endorsement (unlike Activision or Atari). (ITTL, IOTL LJN Toys didn't make cartridges until 1987 when it distributed cartridges exclusively for NES.)
Hasbro signed on to work on a home computer system Mindalpha, which was to ship in the Summer of 1983, and it competed against Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64.
-from an article at "What's New" on Electronic Games on the January 1983 issue.
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There were tons of games came out in 1983, and we have the first scoop as the biggest game industry leader at the Winter CES 1983. Both booths at Magnavox, Hasbro, Atari, Coleco and Mattel were jamming with their latest offerings and we had to fight serious crowds to play one of the biggest games of all time, and we have juicy details every time at the single stage of the show.
Atari's booth was primary consisted of two video game systems, the Atari 2600 and the Atari 5200, plus the Remote Control 2700. Its lineup of 1983 was entirely new, and the biggest game of all was Dig Dug, a new game for the Atari 5200, which was excepted to come out this Spring. It follows the formula of the original arcade game, which was the underground to eliminate monsters and will be able to dig tunnels through the dirt. We also got a look at Atari 5200's new basketball game which is due to ship during the 1983 basketball season and it plays one-by-one with basketball players, and will be able to dribble. Also on the Atari 5200, we introduced an adapter which allowed to play Atari Cosmos games and holograms in full color, and it was enhanced and on TV, and it was named "Cosmos5200". We've also had the really fun Pole Position, a conversion of the arcade game, which should be available in stores. There's the really fun Jungle Hunt, an arcade game by Taito, and we got to play Tennis as well. Tennis, was however an enhanced version of the 1972 arcade game Pong, made for Atari 5200's capacity and bringing enhanced sound and graphics to the table. We also got to a new Atari 2600 game RealSports Basketball, which was also shipped during the 1983 basketball season and like the original Basketball Atari 2600 game, followed players who can manage to shoot the ball and dribble and it plays a bit like the original Basketball for the Atari 2600 with a RealSports twist to it. It's a really fun sports game and it's really excited to release during the 1983 basketball season. A game we've been excited about is Ms. Pac-Man, which was originally intended to be a hack of Pac-Man, and it follows the titular character going through a maze. Then there's the SwordQuest line of series. It plays a lot like the orignal role-playing Atari 2600 games, but with great gameplay and the first one is already completed, but there's three more entries.
On the Coleco front, we REALLY liked what we saw from Donkey Kong Junior, though which intended to came out in spring, and its loosely based on the original arcade follow-up of the original Donkey Kong, under license from Nintendo of America, Inc., a subsidiary of Japanese company Nintendo Co., Ltd. We trust Coleco though, and we know that it's going to be worth it when we finally get to play, the parts of the port that looked playable at the CES looked amazing. Coleco had their own port of Konami's Time Lord to show off as well, which the gameplay will be really played just like the arcade game. Coleco also showed off a great version of Bally Midway's Omega Race as an ColecoVision exclusive title, which also plays like the original arcade game.
On the Mattel front, it introduced a new handheld portable console that was a companion to Intellivision, Intelliheld and it competed against the Vectrex and the Atari Cosmos portable systems, and it was a full color portable game system. And we would be really exciting for a new home computer system Aquarius, which can compete with Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers as well. Mattel had its focus on a BMX title for the Intellivision, which is excepted to ship by the Spring of 1983. Mattel however held the rights to the arcade game BurgerTime, and had a Centipede-like game Buzz Bombers, as well as planned new line of sports games to compete with Atari's RealSports line, as well as a line of extreme sports titles.
On the Hasbro front, it gained a Centipede-like game Hornet Attack!, which was shipped as a Mindvision exclusive title, and a horse simulator based on My Little Pony, which was also shipped as a Mindvision exclusive. We also had plans for a home computer system, called and branded Mindalpha, and a paint game planned for the Mindvision, which users can draw through a joystick, called Mindpaint, which the software of the game will be shipped by the spring of 1983, as well as a planned second installment in the AstroHeroes series. It also confirmed a new series of toys were planned.
On the Magnavox front, a handheld portable system, which was also full color called Odyssey Portable, which also competed with Vectrex and Atari Cosmos, and a planned successor to Magnavox Odyssey 2, Magnavox Odyssey 3 Command Center, and third-party developers started accepting the Odyssey. It also had a home computer system that was slated to ship for spring 1983.
-from the Winter 1983 CES article in the March 1983 issue of Electronic Games
January 7, 1983
At the Alexis Park Hotel in Las Vegas, Alfred Kahn sat with some at his partners at ColecoVision, discussing his company's latest strategy with Coleco CEO Arnold Greenberg. Greenberg, along with some of the executives of Coleco Industries felt that they need time to work on a new ColecoVision II model, sporting over a new design gold case, with the same graphics and a new joypad, that felt they copied from one of Game & Watch's LCD games (e.g. Donkey Kong), and two face buttons, which will be the first time the controller is not a joystick, and the controllers were stored to be designed on the sides of the ColecoVision II console when not in used, and it will lead to some discomfort during play. Ultimately, it had two factors for making the ColecoVision II new model.
The first factor was the model's proposed technical specifications. The model would be more powerful than the Hasbro Mindvision, with a faster processor and better capabilities... but it wouldn't be significantly more powerful, but the gold and lighter case is the model for the ColecoVision II will going to be better than the dark and black case ColecoVision model. The second factor that was Coleco Industries had a good start with making toys which was so powerful with tabletop games, then by 1982, the original ColecoVision model, but with the sense that Coleco were struggling together, but to speak, Greenberg was able to convince his fellow ColecoVision executives that Kahn was "the man with plans on the ColecoVision" that there's no need for anyway.
"I bring your time to our gold case." said Greenberg, as the new model is finally here. "But the old suits of the ColecoVision, but there's a big brand new gold case then not continuing the original ColecoVision model, but what...?"
"Well, that's the thing" said Kahn, a smile crossing his face. "A new model for ColecoVision was unveiled with a lighter and golden case, but we've had been on Donkey Kong Junior and other ColecoVision projects" as well.
"Something else they're happy at Coleco", Greenberg replied.
"We need to do something with our new ColecoVision model. But now, it was in a gold case, and the feeling and fun of ColecoVision was upgraded, to make sure that Donkey Kong Jr. will be epic to Coleco, that model is a search of a problem. I think we've could found our problem."
"New ColecoVision Model", said Bill Rose, reaching into a briefcase and put into a manilla folder. He placed it on the table for Greenberg and other Coleco employees to peruse.
"It's a new model with a gold case and carried out a new format on the vision.", said Kahn, "as many we can get into a new $50 model, and hook it up to Donkey Kong Junior or any other ColecoVision game, and pumping the ColecoVision power up, like the Hasbro Mindvision chip, and used it to play all ColecoVision carts, make them run faster, and stored in internal memory, games from the new ColecoVision model would be much faster... and better than anything Hasbro, Atari, Magnavox and Mattel can produce. It's not quite we've gotten to the new ColecoVision model, but it will be ready when Donkey Kong Junior came out."
Greenberg looked over to the contents of the ColecoVision II, and seemed intrigued and other executives looked skeptical.
"You say that they would have bought out ColecoVision II, what makes you will they purchase this?" asked one of them.
"We'll pack it in with many games. We can pack in with Donkey Kong Junior, not at the game's launch, but it pack in with the gold case model later that year. Or that Omega Race game that's coming out. I think we can port our original arcade and home computer games with this too." Kahn's mind with racing with ideas, but he got so inspired when he had a good that that Coleco had to take Atari, Mattel, Magnavox or Hasbro down and he was convinced that both the Super Game Module and the new ColecoVision gold case the winning edge. He was just hoped the Coleco brass would be convinced.
"We'll..program a gold model and discuss this." said Greenberg. "In the meantime, you need to make sure that Donkey Kong Junior came out later this year. We're losing ground to Atari with every passing day."
Kahn already knew that, and he was already working to make sure that the ColecoVision port of Donkey Kong Junior was a success. It would take a lot of things to be ready by this spring, but he had located every resource to make it happen. Spring was the month Coleco is bringing side-by-side with efforts from Mattel Electronics and Atari, Inc., like BurgerTime and Galaga, and planning to blow both right out of the water.
Winter 1983 CES had been, by all accounts, a success for Arnold Greenberg. And he hoped that it meant to be a success for Coleco as well.
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Kozmik Krooz'r
Genre: Shooter
Bill: 7
Joyce: 9
Arnie: 5
Quote: A direct port of Midway's arcade game, the players guide Kap't.
Kings!
Genre: Platformer
Bill: 6
Joyce: 8
Arnie: 7
Quote: This king of the crown walks and jumps but it's much of madness.
Brass Monkey
Genre: Platformer
Bill: 5
Joyce: 8
Arnie: 6
Quote: A clone of Donkey Kong, except with more brass looking elements.
The Pit
Genre: Strategy
Bill: 7
Joyce: 9
Arnie: 6
Quote: A port of Taito's hit arcade game, it follows a pit can land in a spaceship.
Mass Flight
Genre: Shooter
Bill: 5
Joyce: 4
Arnie: 6
Quote: In WWII, a mass flight however can be occured.
-Electronic Games reviewing this month's Hasbro Mindvision titles, January 1983 and March 1983
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"The biggest month of us is January 1983. We sell a lot of toys, plus a series of video games for branded game consoles, like Atari and Hasbro. Now we're concentrating on to publish software for the Mattel, Magnavox and Coleco systems, plus we can be comparable to our minds. Its interactive product consisted of arcade licensees, plus a group of licenses from Marvel Comics Group. Now January 1983 is important, so a title can be released this month. That was Star Wars: Jedi Arena. It can be comparable to other top downs for the Hasbro Mindvision, as well as top downs for the Intellivision. Parker Brothers was soon to become a strong major game company, so that Monopoly video game will be coming out for Atari, Mattel, Coleco, Magnavox and Hasbro systems by the end of the year.
We equally mind that Parker Brothers can had strong enough to obtain licenses based on TV shows which was expected to come out on Atari video game systems and we got approached to do an idea of porting an arcade game to home video game systems. We can enjoy it, but now that's another story and we all know that arcade ports are important to us and not lots of people know working on us.
-Robert B.M. Barton, "The Parker Brothers Story (Part 5 of 10)", EGM, January 1990
Hasbro Mindvision Top 10 Charts - January 1983
1. Jump Bug
2. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
3. Frogger
4. Lost in Space
5. The Secret of NIMH
6. Mindvision Soccer
7. Romper Room
8. AstroHeroes: The Power
9. Alien
10. The Greatest American Hero
NOTE: The System Changer on Intellivision II got butterflied away, leaving a stop-gap space with a new add-on called Enhanced Intelligent until TTL's Intellivision III is ready, as did the deathas of Karen Carpenter and Billy Fury.