Hi folks,
Many of you knows about the Coleco mini-arcade tabletops released in the beginning of the 80's and after four decades, these are mostly treasure memories as these are now pretty desired by retro games and collectors (like many of us) and prices can go easily from $75 to $500 (and more) depending on the rarety (like Zaxxon & Ms.Pac-Man), complete or not and on the condition (from "what happened to this game ?" to "near mint").
And recently, we have now the possibility to play the real arcade game on these tabletops IF it's modded with an Raspberry PI and a LCD screen (and other parts too) and back then, how many of us was dreaming to do this and with technology today, it's sure is possible!
Ok now back to the subject: Coleco evolved tabletops.
First time i saw these, i said "What the hell ?!! These are NOT arcade games!". But after that i was wondering why choose Rainbow Brite & Robotech as new Coleco tabletop games ? I can understand that both Rainbow Brite & Robotech are part of good memories for some few of us (adults in their 40-50's) but all the retro gamers and game collectors i know never mentioned these toys as their favorites back then. Now if we ask some kids between 8 to 16, ,ore than 85% of them never heard of Robotech and Rainbow Brite.
So my question is: Why the heck they released these games in the first place if only a very small part of retro games and game collectors will buy these instead of a Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, etc ? One answer is that many companies has already brought the rights to our favorite golden age arcade games but either Namco, Taito, Sega, etc...have not given their rights exclusively to one company. So who the bloody hell chose Rainbow Brite & Robotech ?
I simply don't wanna know. It took quite some time (2 years i think) before these two game became available on the market and prices varies from $75 to $200 on different web sites (especially UPay). After that, Coleco decided to released two other mini arcade tabletops:
Berzerk and Berzerk/Frenzy. AHH!! Finally Golden Age Arcade Games!
But wait...err..why Berzerk (as a sole game) and Berzerk/Frenzy (two games) ??!!????? What the ?$%$%%$ ??!! I don't get it....if they would ask me which one i would buy, the question is so easy: Berzerk/Frenzy! You would get 2-games instead of one and to make matter worse, Berzerk/Frenzy was supposed to be at $79 regular price and Berzerk (solo) priced regular at $89.
Say what ??! $10 more for only one game ?? But they state on kickstarter "Special Edition" shell...errr...i compared both tabletops and i don't see a damn difference (joysticks, buttons, LED, etc), especially the shell. Somebody at Coleco didn't drank a coffee that day.
This second kickstarter project was unsuccessful as they wanted to raise $90,652 in Canadian funds but only raised $27,732 in CND funds. So is it the end of Coleco evolved ? I don't want to be rude or mean but i would say: hopefully! Especially with the Coleco Chameleon fiasco, the person/partners who owns should have sold the Coleco (and Colecovision) brand names to other investors.
I know, i know...i'm bitching but they are pulling both brand names into the mud and i'm not the only one who has a bad tooth against them. Anyhow....looks like at least they did something good as they did replicate (exactly ??) the good old tabletops shell. But t buy a "evolved" tabletop, it's at least $75 whch is about (more or less) the same price to buy a decent Coleco Pac-Man tabletop (sometime a Donkey Kong or Frogger).
In a very near future (few months at the most, hopefully), Arcade1Up (yup, those big arcade games) will sell three new mini tabletops:
Mega Man, Frogger and Ducktales
Mega Man will contain 2 games: Mega Man1 & Mega Man 2 (both NES versions), Frogger will also contain 2 games: Frogger and Time Pilot (OH Yeah!!) (both Game Boy Advance versions) and finally Ducktales which also will have two games (Ducktales 1 & 2)(both NES versions).
BTW, if really the Frogger tabletop will contain both Frogger & Time Pilot version of the Game Boy Advance, maybe they will be a way to hack/mod to get four other games: Yie Ar Kung Fu, rush 'N Attack, Gyruss and Scramble. This is just a speculation as Robotech IS the GBA version and Since Frogger & Time Pilot are Konami, these two games were released on the GBA as the Konami Collector's Series Arcade Advanced
Like i've wrote, this is ONLY a speculation but i hope i'm right. And in an interview, someone from Arcade1Up said that these three tabletops may be under $50 but that's not official yet. But what if Arcade1Up sold these between $40 to $50 each ? Now this would be great to buy for the shell and make your own MAME/Pi tabletop.
Think of it, cost less than buying an original 80's tabletop and won't be painful to scrap a new game than an old game, and finally we would preserve more original Coleco tabletops!
Oh and Arcade1Up IS..yup...IS using the same shell as the Coleco evolved shell, take a look:
"PENDING LICENSOR APPROVAL"
Ok, that's it for today. Until next time, take care and keep in touch! :)
--- Sly "pissed off by new Coleco owner/partners" DC ---
