See the video that was years in the making! Well, months anyway. CLICK HERE to see it HI-REZ at BLIP.tv! CLICK HERE to see it at DOOKIE-POO.com smaller size. or click below for the YOUTUBE version! Don't forget to rate it! BONUS: First person to correctly name all of the video games that appear, in order, will win an official FAN CLUB PATCH! E-MAIL your list to dookiepoofans[@]gmail.com SUBJECT LINE: "ARCADE GAME LIST" If you win we'll e-mail you back! xo-Chorocco Tofu
dead brands aren't dead if they live in your head Interesting article on brand revival in the NY Times Magazine yesterday about a guy who acquires brands that are dead everywhere but in the consumer's mind, then sells them to companies who bring them back to life. Paul Earle bought the brand name for a discontinued line of ibuprofen painkillers and sold it to CVS, which is why it's the only place you can still find ("Nupe it") Nuprin. And convinced drugstore.com to buy (and sell) Salon Sele
I’m noticing a bit of a theme among some of the early video game commercials, they like to feature one nerdy kid and one kinda-cool-yet-still-approachable kid. Anyway, this spot is for Coleco’s Head-To-Head Football game. These must look like ancient relics to todays teens.
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Coleco (1932 - 1989) was a company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and, to a lesser extent, its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and ColecoVision.
History
Coleco originally sold leather supplies to shoemakers. This led to a business in leather craft kits in the 1950s which led to the sale of plastic wading pools in the 1960s. The leather part of the business was then sold off.
Under CEO Arnold Greenberg, the company entered the video game console business with the Telstar in 1976. Dozens of companies were introducing game systems that year after Atari's successful Pong console. Nearly all of these new games were based on General Instrument's "Pong-on-a-chip". However, General Instrument had underestimated demand, and there were severe shortages. Coleco had been one of the first to place an order, and was one of the few companies to receive an order in full. Though dedicated game consoles did not last long on the market, their early order enabled Coleco to break even.
Coleco continued to do well in electronics. They transitioned next into handheld electronic games, a market popularized by Mattel. Coleco produced two very popular lines of games, the "head to head" series of two player sports games, (Football, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Hockey) and the mini-arcade series of licensed video arcade titles such as Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman.
Coleco returned to the video game console market in 1982 with the launch of the ColecoVision. While the system was quite popular, Coleco hedged their bet on video games by introducing a line of cartridges for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. They also introduced the Coleco Gemini, a clone of the popular Atari 2600.
When the video game business began to implode in 1983, it seemed clear that video game consoles were being supplanted by home computers. Coleco's strategy was to introduce the Coleco Adam home computer, both as a stand-alone system and as an expansion module to the ColecoVision. This effort failed, in large part because Adams were often unreliable. The Adam flopped; Coleco withdrew from electronics early in 1985.
Also in 1983, Coleco released the Cabbage Patch Kids series of dolls which were wildly successful. In 1986, they introduced an ALF plush based on the furry alien character who had his own television series at the time, as well as a talking version and a cassette-playing "Storytelling ALF" doll. The staggering success of the dolls could not stem the tide of red ink that had begun with the launch of the Adam computer. In 1988, the company filed for bankruptcy.
The reorganized Coleco sold off all of its North American assets and outsourced thousands of jobs to foreign countries, closing plants in Amsterdam, New York and other cities. In 1989, Hasbro purchased Coleco's assets.
In 2005, River West Brands, a Chicago-based brand revitalization company, re-introduced Coleco to the marketplace. In late 2006, they introduced the Coleco Sonic, a handheld system containing twenty Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear games.
Coleco in popular culture
On The Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an "A"", the ever unsuccessful salesman Gil tries to unload all his old Coleco Adams on Springfield Elementary School, before exclaiming "Now, let's talk rust-proofing. These Colecos'll rust up on ya like that! Shut up, Gil, close the deal!".
During the South Park episode "Chickenpox", Kenny's father states, "We got a ColecoVision hooked up to the black and white"; to the puzzlement of his friends. Kyle went far enough as to say: "Oh my god, this is like a third-world country."
A track is named "Coleco Vision" on the album Man Overboard by Canadian rapper Buck 65.
The name of Gameavision, the game company featured in the G4 animated series Code Monkeys, was inspired by Coleco's name combination and former business, originally standing for Georgia Meat Division. Corporate rival Bellecovision is committed only to profit at the expense of its harried staff.
See also
Electronic Quarterback
Sectaurs
Starcom: The U.S. Space Force
Telstar Combat!
References
^ Hasbro's Purchase Of Coleco's Assets. New York Times (1989). Retrieved on November 13, 2006.
^ http://www.g4tv.com/gameavision/aboutus.html history page
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Coleco
www.coleco.com River West Brands' Coleco product page
Article at The Dot Eaters, a history of Coleco and the ColecoVision products
