Author Topic: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::  (Read 18515 times)

DarthNuno

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:: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« on: October 18, 2011, 07:36:44 AM »
Got a new toy...



It's the official Sega's ZAXXON, made by Coleco in 1982.

Box is damaged, but not too much fortunately  8)









Damn' That game is really huge!





Lovely condition! And sell all the details  :-*



Maybe that side art would be the perfect starting point for a scan, and a vecto  ::) ;)  :arrow:



The 'official' ...it's written on the marquee   8)



Really well made! I I wanted to have it back in the days  :P



Coleco did it very well... the artworks are very similar than the arcade cabinet  :-*



Here's a description (stolen from handheldmuseum.com) :

One of the coolest handheld arcade conversion, Coleco's Zaxxon uses a unique combination of mirrors and 2 different VFD displays to get a 3-D affect. Your ship appears to be flying above the surface of the planet and actually flies over walls and other VFD generated images (not possible with just one VFD display). The planet's surface and ground based enemies are created by one VFD, while you and air-based enemies are created by the VFD reflected off a mirror. (See the Guts section for an interior view of this machine.) This is also the only game I've seen with a true 8-way joystick. If you look at the internal pictures in the Guts section you will see that there are 8 metal squares around the center of the joystick, not 4 like in other games. This game is also huge, probably one of the biggest of the handhelds listed on the webiste (also, one of the few that run on D size batteries! (and 4 of them no less, makes for a damn heavy game!) I have seen these forsale with the joystick missing (it's still there, but just a little, straight stick, not what appears in the pictures here, it must come off fairly easily).
Holding down the fire button while turning the machine on will start a graphics test, and then enter into a demo mode. Holding down the joystick while turning it on does the graphics test only.


Damn' That one has a 8 way joysticks  :shock: ...Impressive!

It works perfectly! There's a nice 3D effects  :-*


Now I can play both  ;D  :arrow:



 :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:

Belike

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2011, 08:24:52 AM »
Super cool pics, thanks for sharing. :D

Q*ris

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2011, 11:16:50 AM »
Indeed, great pics! Love that tiny joystick too, really cool looking handheld. :spaceace:

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2011, 12:26:10 PM »
Maybe that side art would be the perfect starting point for a scan, and a vecto  ::) ;)  :arrow:

You know where to find me  ;)

DarthNuno

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2011, 01:40:47 PM »
You know where to find me  ;)

Yeps Etienne, as soon as I can move it in order have access to the side, I'll scan it and ask your valuable and generous help  :)

Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2011, 07:31:42 PM »
Fun to see you have a French version. I thought Coleco only had the Zaxxon licence for North America, and the French were given Zaxxon by Bandai.
I have the latter. The Bandai FL Zaxxon is not having an isometric display, but more a 1-point perspective like the Intellivision version was. The Coleco is said to be super-hard.

Superully

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2011, 07:38:05 PM »
great bruno! i love those colecovision mini arcades, definitely on my WANT LIST. unfortunately, there's always "something bigger" coming first ;)
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

DarthNuno

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2011, 08:44:51 PM »
Fun to see you have a French version. I thought Coleco only had the Zaxxon licence for North America, and the French were given Zaxxon by Bandai.

That model has been imported by Coleco Canada  :arrow:



That probably explains why that model was sold in Europe long time ago and why there's French text on it? I got that model from a girl who (I'm 99.99%) has it since since her childhood.
Yes, the game is hard as hell!  :twisted:

great bruno! i love those colecovision mini arcades, definitely on my WANT LIST. unfortunately, there's always "something bigger" coming first ;)

Yeps! But sometime it's good to buy things 'less expensive' but still part of the Arcade 'expanded universe'  :)

Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2011, 08:58:52 PM »
A! Poutine French. Forget that option....  ;D

Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2012, 08:20:17 PM »
How is your highscore doing? It is said to be pretty hard.
BTW, it is from 1983. Found out that almost the whole net is wrong about this (and on most other Coleco's too). If you look at the manual, it says 1983. The 1982 is the date of the SEGA Zaxxon Arcade. Coleco mentioned all these original arcade dates on the mini-cabs instead of the dates Coleco released the games.
Question: what colours does the VFD have? Is it light-blue (the cd-player VFD colour) with red, or also dark deep blue?
Another question: if you open it some time: can you make some pics of the PCB to identify the microcontrollers?

Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2012, 05:59:11 PM »
Just ordered one myself. I'm not getting it for the game, but the inside must be very cool. I'm too curious to skip it. I think it belongs in the upcoming book. I have to include enough for the American fans, and Coleco was the big deal there with Entex. So now Coleco is well covered with Zaxxon, Ms.Pac, DK, Bowlatronic, Alien Attack and 2P baseball.

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2012, 10:47:29 PM »
Can't wait to see all the stuff in the upcoming book!  :-* Any estimation for its release date?

Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2012, 09:34:55 PM »
Early 2013 I hope. I have 100Gb of stuff now. 200 professional photo's, FullHD gameplay movies, schematics (including the Zaxxon as it was one of the more interesting tech-wise), cutaway drawings, 500 pages of text with many new research and facts. Here is a sample shot: http://vimeo.com/53517651
« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 09:37:01 PM by Blanka »

DarthNuno

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2012, 09:40:08 PM »
Early 2013 I hope. I have 100Gb of stuff now. 200 professional photo's, FullHD gameplay movies, schematics (including the Zaxxon as it was one of the more interesting tech-wise), cutaway drawings, 500 pages of text with many new research and facts. Here is a sample shot: http://vimeo.com/53517651


Blanka

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Re: :: ZAXXON by Coleco ::
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2012, 08:28:36 PM »
Just a thought: What about buying a few sheets of underlayment, make a box of 1.5x1.5x1.5 meter or so, with 2 little doors on each side, two shelves on each side, roughly 60cm above the ground, paint it purple on the inside with a little black and yellow decoration, add a blacklight, and put this zaxxon and your other handheldgames on the shelves.
Nuninolair 1.0 is born.