💾 Archived View for gem.librehacker.com › gemlog › tech › 20220524-0.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 12:29:31. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-06-11)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I found this 2005 hand-held game at a 2nd-hand store, tried it out, and also took it apart. Frankly, I don't know if this cheap product deserves any notice in history, but I wanted to have some record of what I learned.
Coleco Video Game System (Front)
This handheld uses composite video output with mono sound. I have one television in the house that has all the composite connectors, so I gave it a try. Unfortunately I don't have a composite video capture device at the moment, but am in the process of getting one.
The main menu gives you 5 sports games to choose from, all of which have primitive graphics and non-intuitive controls. I wondered if these games were copies of old Calecovision sports games, but after looking at online screenshots, these are definitely different games, and much lower quality than the Calecovision equivalents. However, I feel like if I had the user manual explaining the controls, the games might be fun to play, at least as a brief diversion.
Coleco Video Game System (Inside)
I took it apart, but sadly the two most interesting chips (CPU and video/audio processing) are buried under hard black epoxy. I hate that. The only visible chip is the RAM chip, which is a UM6264BM-10LL chip, which according to online data sheets, is a 8kx8 CMOS SRAM chip (8KB of memory).
The back side of the unit states that it is a Techno Source product, copyright 2005. Also there is a note: "COLECO IS A TRADEMARK OF RIVER WEST BRANDS LLC". So this was one of the owners of the Coleco trademark after Coleco went bankrupt.
