Overview
Coleco entered the Atari-Mattel console wars with their own system in 1982 with their own console, christened the "Colecovision". Superior in every respect to the Atari VCS (2600) and Mattel's Intellivision, this machine was a force to be reckoned with. Near-arcade perfect graphics and sound, and the mother of all licenses - Nintendo's Donkey Kong - meant that this machine was on many a gamer's shopping list. Indeed, it soon was outselling the VCS and Intellivision, selling over a million consoles in record time.

Coleco's strategy of licensing the current hottest arcade games paid off, with the system's library boasting plenty of hits, unlike the Atari's (which was filled with more than a few slightly questionable ports). Soon the console's library was second only to the 2600 - and with the release of an adaptor that Atari were not very happy at all with, the machine had more game cartridges that could be played on it that any other system, a title it holds to this day.

Sadly, the system wasn't strong enough to survive The Great Videogame Crash of 1984, and neither was Coleco. Not even the Cabbage Patch Dolls could save the poor company, who died a few short years later. The irony of this? Arch-rivals Mattel bought the rights to the dolls...

Models
From its inception to the console's death in 1984, There Was Only One™. The Colecovision, unlike the Atari 2600/VCS or Intellivision, was but one model, unchanged throughout its life. In 1988, however, Telegames (who bought a lot of Coleco stock) released a clone under the name "Personal Arcade".

It's a Colecovision!

Technical Specifications
CPU: An 8-bit Zilog-80A running at 3.58Mhz provided ample power for the system to work with - indeed, more than either the 2600 or Intellivision.
Memory: 8K internal RAM, plus 16k video RAM
Video processor: A Texas Instruments TMS9928A
Sound processor: A Texas Instruments SN76489AN (You get the feeling they liked these guys)
Maximum sprites: 32
Maximum colours: 16
Sounc channels: 3 tone, plus one noise

Accessories
The Colecovision was designed as the basis for the ill-fated "Adam" computer, also by Coleco, and yet another keyboard attachment was released in order to turn the Colecovision into this. (ADAM was also available as a stand-alone unit). There were other expansions, including:

Expansion #1: The Atari 2600 Converter - With this device, gamers only needed one system to play both the leading manufacturer's games. Whether it would be simpler to have a 2600 and a Colecovision is besides the point. (An Intellivision adaptor was supposedly prototyped, but never saw launch, which was a shame.)
Expansion #2: The Racing Controller - Vrooom! A steering wheel and an accelerator pedal, years before those released for newer consoles. Ah, just like the arcades...
Expansion #3 was the ADAM expansion.