Coleco Super Controller & Atari 2600 Adapter Unit
By bohus
We're only a few short weeks away from another bitter war between video game consoles. The marketeers are slinging around facts and figures about polygon counts & online connectivity, but there are a few new issues on the table this time around - controllers and playing retro games.
One of the nuttiest controllers for any system ever is the Coleco Super Action Controller. Ya got yer joystick, yer numeric keypad (with easy-to-lose overlays), yer free-spinning wheel, and yer four trigger buttons - all housed in a cutlass-like package. Some people still breathlessly refer to the Super Controller as the best controller for any system ever. Not sure about that - I've got big gorilla hands, and it still seems a bit big.
Another unusual aspect of ColecoVision was its expansion port that was host to an unprecedented piece of hardware; a module that played all of the Atari 2600's library of cartridges. Never before had one company's system played the games of another. There was some legal wrangling of course, but in the end Coleco won out (and as a sideline was able to develop the Gemini 2600 clone that we've discussed before).
I'm certain that there will be a lot of internet static about the new consoles once they are in people's hands. There will be many a forum meltdown over which controller is best, which system plays the most classic games. I just want to stake our Retro Thing flag, pointing out that some of us already lived through these battles twenty years ago.
