Page 21 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

2600 version. Frogger, on the other Kong Jr. This final game showed
hand, was as close to perfect as any some intriguing indications of where
of the mini-arcades got - bright, Coleco might have gone with the
colorful graphics, music that was as mini-arcade machines: a skylight-
close to the arcade game's jaunty style panel in the top of the game's
opening tune as you could get, and "hood" provided some of the light for
decent game play. the LED display, and an alarm clock
Ms. Pac-Man was the next game was built into the machine. The
to receive the mini-arcade treatment. game was an adequate translation of
Like her beau, Ms. Pac-Man sported its source material, if one took the
the head-to-head and "Eat and Run" ver- limitations of portable games of that
*only* sions of the game, though this game era into account. (At least it was bet-
home wasn't vastly different from its prede- ter than the Donkey Kong mini-
version of cessor. arcade.)
Galaxian on Around the same time as Ms. Other companies followed
the market until Pac-Man hit the shelves, Coleco Coleco's lead. Entex licensed some
Atari's cartridge ver- sion unleashed a miniature version of rather obscure arcade titles, such as
hit the shelves around 1983. Like possibly the *last* game, next only to “Spiders," and turned them into table-
Pac-Man, there was a head-to-head Dragon's Lair, that anyone expected top LED games that were vaguely
version of Galaxian in which the ob- to see as a mini-arcade: Zaxxon. similar in shape to the Coleco mini-
ject of the game was for both players Zaxxon was crammed into a larger- arcades. Parker Brothers' Q*Bert
to become terminally confused as to than-usual mini-arcade cabinet, but tabletop shared Coleco's trend of
which of the ships they're controlling. with good reason. In order to even putting stickers with colorful arcade
Galaxian is generally regarded as come within a artwork on the top and
the hardest-to-find (and therefore thousand side panels of the
most valuable) of the Coleco mini- miles of the game's "screen." And
arcades, with eBay auctions for Gal- arcade of course, Nintendo
axians sometimes climbing into the game's then- later created the
steep hundreds for specimens in ex- eye-popping Game & Watch line,
cellent condition. graphics, the which reinvented
The following year, Coleco fol- Zaxxon ta- the handheld as a
lowed its first two mini-arcades with bletop util- medium based
three additional games. The first pair ized on liquid crystal
had sold reasonably well, given that *two* LED displays.
their price tag of $45 to $70 per screens At the time,
game put them almost in direct com- whose dis- Coleco had a good
petition with the average $200 con- plays were thing going. LED
sole (to which additional games combined displays could
could be added). And with the next- with the use never hope
generation consoles on the horizon, of mirrors. to capture
the price of a new Atari 2600 was (Needless to say, a the fluidity
starting to drop well below the $200 Zaxxon mini-arcade of graphics
mark. Why spend $70 on a machine that has been dropped that gamers
that could only play one game? has probably become in- could get even with
The first two games clearly sup- credibly difficult to play!) Atari 2600 cartridges. But
ported the notion that the public was Unlike the previous units, Coleco wisely added the cabinet
demanding more Zaxxon traded in four C-cell batter- art from the original arcade games,
mini-arcades. ies for four D-cells to drive its twin and the result was a series of table-
The next hits to displays. top games, which in some cases,
be miniaturized Oddly enough, Zaxxon also traded off gameplay for atmosphere.
were Donkey turned the boxy end-of-level killer In 2000, it will still cost you several
Kong and Frog- robot into something resembling a hundred dollars to buy or build a fully
ger. Coleco rock-'em-sock-'em robot with an working arcade classic, but when
held the overall outstretched fist, rather than a Coleco's mini-arcades were new
license for giant missile. items in toy stores, working arcade
home versions Coleco's final entry in the machines had price tags in the low to
of Donkey handheld arena (a line of mid thousands. The mini-arcades
Kong, and games it abandoned about the were the closest you could get to the
though the big time the company also di- "feel" of the arcade - you could turn
ape's mini- verted all of its other re- out the lights and see a colorful glow
arcade was very sources toward the ill- from the hooded screens. And, the
nicely packaged, fated ADAM com- biggest relief of all, once you paid for
the game play puter/console system) a roomful of Coleco mini-arcades,
was lower on the was another larger- you didn't have to beg Mom and Dad
evolutionary ladder than-usual mini-arcade for another batch of quarters.
than even the Atari of Nintendo's Donkey
Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 21