Publisher: Coleco
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.
Front Line
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…
Play ▸Mouse Trap
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,…
Play ▸Time Pilot
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…
Play ▸Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle
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…
Play ▸The Smurfs Save the Day
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…
Play ▸Roc ‘N Rope
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…
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