I mentioned my CBS Colecovision console in my previous post on Donkey Kong. Check out the pics above. Time was, joypads did not exist. Instead, we got joysticks that looked like mobile-phones or walkie-talkies. Also, we did not have DVD-ROMS. Instead we had to buy expensive ROM-cartridges just to play a game (cost more than a hundred bucks per game, if I remembered rightly). Notice the slot at the side-bottom of the machine? That allows you to hook up with another console to play compatible games. I bought the Atari compatible and was so excited when I could start playing Atari classics like "Space Invaders" on my machine.
What set the Colecovision apart from all other consoles in the early 1980s was that it was classy. It had great sounds and graphics. Possibly that led to its downfall as well because Colecovision games were very expensive as a result. But for a 9-year old kid like me then, it was the closest you got to owning your own arcade machine at home... especially as I could spend days playing my favourite arcade game - no, not Donkey Kong, but ZAXXON!
Basically, Zaxxon was a game that allowed you to fly a fighter jet through a small opening in a wall and enter into a world where you're allowed to shoot everything you see. It's also the first 3D shoot-em-up game for players who have gotten sick of the flat-2D screens of Space Invaders. You could control how high the jet was flying and if you flew too high, a missile will come flying at you. At the end of each level, you had to destroy floating twin ice-cream cones (well, that was what the boss looked like to me as a 9-year old, ok?). How much more fun can a 9-year old boy ask for?
