Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:12:28 -0500
From: Tom Bonner <cbonner@llion.org>
Subject: Super Module

Dennis,

I'm a collector of the old Video Games (including Colecovision) and
thought your write-ups on the systems was great. I've been collecting
and playing games since 1975. (which is a long story). I attended just
about every CES Show ever done in Chicago and went through very game
display involved through the years. I just wanted to add that the Super
Module was in fact pretty well perfected and on display in one of the
shows. It was the Credit card design and had in it a very narrow tape
that loaded into the Colecovision. I played Donkey Kong for almost an
hour with one of the rep's. The difference was in the quality of the
colors and the fact that they had added the fourth level. I talked to
the rep for some time and soon found out that Coleco had decided not to
bring the Super Module out and that they were going to instead push the
Adam Computer (at that time they didn't know the name of it) . . . . I
worked at a Video and GAme store in Shaumburg Illinois (part time job)
and it was quite a blow to us. We had anticipated the Super Module and
had customers looking forward to it. I told the Coleco Rep (and he
agreed with me) that this was going to be a major mistake. Little did I
know how big of a mistake it would be . . . .
  He explained that Coleco felt they could do a lot more with the
Computer and that since the Mini Cassettes on the Super Module were
still limited, it wouldn't be that big of a difference. He was more
worried about cost, and how the people would respond. At the time (no
matter what you have heard), most people were not that enthused about
computers . . . . The capabilities were nothing above a game machine.
The main difference was the Keyboard. The cost was not worth the
difference, and most games were pretty lame. The store I worked at
jumped into computers because of the media saying it was the future of
Video Games (Ten years later it was, but not then). Between the
Computers bombing, the Game companies flooding an already saturated
field with Video Game clones, and the Beta Video systems dying, it was
only a matter of time that everything would crash. . . . and it did.
The place that I was working, went bankrupt, and at the time, it was one
of the Top Ten in the Chicagoland area.
The CES in 1984 was one of the loneliest places in the world for Video
games. No one showed up except for a few computer companies.
Of course (as you know) the following year, Nintendo changed all of that
. . .

Tom Bonner

P.S. By the way, could you tell me how rare the Colecovision Super
Crossforce is? I just found one and was wondering what kind of trade
value I could get out of it . . . I only save boxed (complete games) and
this one was loose. Thanks