Coleco made its own ColecoVision console, and it also published games for the Atari 2600. It held home rights to a long list of arcade games, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong among them, and many of its 2600 cartridges were versions of games it also released for the ColecoVision. Much of the 2600 work was done by outside programmers and studios: Garry Kitchen made Donkey Kong, and companies such as Individeo, Wickstead Design, Woodside Design Associates and CommaVid handled other conversions. By late 1984 Coleco had stopped making 2600 games, and Atari later reissued several of its cartridges under its own label.
The site has 14 Coleco games. Some places to start:
Donkey Kong (1982): two of the arcade’s screens, with the barrel-jumping intact.
Donkey Kong Junior (1983): play Kong’s son and climb vines to free his father.
Venture: explore a dungeon of treasure rooms, converted for Coleco by CommaVid.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle (1983): a side-scrolling jumping game that won an Arkie Award for its audiovisual effects.
Mr. Do! (1983): dig tunnels, pick cherries and drop apples on your pursuers.
Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park: a finished but unreleased 1984 game, found on chips at a flea market in 2008.
Pick a game below and play it in your browser.
In “Carnival” for the Atari 2600, players aim to hit moving targets while managing a finite supply of bullets. The game features both a firing button and left/right controls, with the arcade version offering a two-way joystick for movement. Targets move across the screen in three horizontal rows, each scrolling in alternate directions. These targets … Read more
Front Line is the 1984 Atari 2600 version of Taito’s 1982 arcade game, published by Coleco and developed by Individeo, with programming credited to Ed Temple. You lead a lone soldier up a battlefield seen from above, fighting infantry and tanks on the way to an enemy fort. The arcade original was one of the first overhead run-and-gun games, and this cartridge keeps its mix of foot combat and tank battles. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Mouse Trap is Coleco’s 1982 Atari 2600 version of Exidy’s 1981 arcade maze game. It was developed by Wickstead Design, with programming by Sylvia Day and Henry Will IV. You are a mouse eating cheese in a maze, chased by cats, but you can move the maze’s doors and turn into a dog for a few seconds to bite back. Those two tricks make it more than a simple Pac-Man clone. You can play it here in your browser.
Zaxxon for the Atari 2600 is Coleco’s home version of Sega’s arcade shooter, released in 1983. You fly a fighter over heavily armed asteroid fortresses, battle enemy planes in open space and finally face the robot Zaxxon itself. The arcade game was famous for its angled, isometric view, which the 2600 could not reproduce, so this cartridge puts the camera directly behind your ship instead. That makes it a very different game from the arcade original and an interesting look at how publishers squeezed big arcade hits onto the console. You can play it here in your browser.
Venture is Coleco’s 1982 Atari 2600 version of Exidy’s 1981 arcade game. You guide Winky, a small hero armed with a bow, through a dungeon of treasure rooms while unkillable monsters patrol the halls outside. Switching between an overview map and zoomed-in rooms gives the game a real sense of exploring. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Time Pilot is Coleco’s 1983 Atari 2600 version of Konami’s arcade shooter, licensed from Konami. You fly a “Timeship” through five periods of aviation history, from wooden biplanes in 1910 to flying saucers in 2001, and in each era you must shoot down a squadron of enemies before its giant boss aircraft shows up. According to AtariAge, the 2600 cartridge was programmed by Harley H. Puthuff, Jr. It is a quick-to-learn dogfighting game, and you can play it here in your browser with nothing to install.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle is a side-scrolling jumping game based on the Smurfs cartoon. Coleco released it first for its own ColecoVision console in 1982 and then for the Atari 2600 in 1983. You guide a Smurf from the village through woods, fields, mountains and caverns to Gargamel’s castle, where Smurfette is held prisoner. Its screens are full of colour and detail, and its jump timing is easy to learn but hard to master. You can play it here in your browser.
Smurfs Save the Day is an educational game for young children, published by Coleco in 1983 and programmed by Rob Harris. It was one of only two cartridges made for the Kid Vid Voice Module, a cassette player that plugged into the Atari 2600 and played spoken instructions and songs in step with the game. Three Smurfs each host a small activity about music, colours or sorting shapes. You can load it here in your browser, but please read the note below first.
Roc ‘N Rope is Coleco’s 1984 Atari 2600 version of Konami’s 1983 arcade game Roc’n Rope. As an explorer in a prehistoric world, you climb from ledge to ledge by firing a rope upward, while dinosaurs and cavemen try to stop you. Your goal is the Golden Roc, a legendary bird waiting at the top. The rope-swinging idea later grew into Capcom’s Bionic Commando. You can play it here in your browser.
Mr. Do! is Coleco’s 1983 Atari 2600 version of Universal’s arcade maze game from 1982. You play a clown who digs tunnels through an orchard, picks cherries and fights off the creatures chasing him with falling apples and a bouncing Power Ball. The 2600 cartridge was developed by Individeo and programmed by Ed English. It leaves out some details of the arcade game, but the digging, apple-dropping and ball-throwing that make Mr. Do! fun are all still there. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.