The Coleco Chameleon will apparently be releasing ColecoVision and Intellivision compilation carts with custom USB controllers.  This answers a question that many have had about the future of this platform.  Supporting ColecoVision and Intellivision games has been repeatedly mentioned by the management team of the Chameleon.  Apparently, early on only compilation carts for ColecoVision and Intellivision games will be made available.  The inclusion of custom USB controllers for each console will alleviate concerns of fans as to how multi button games will be played on the Coleco Chameleon.

Mike Kennedy, founder of RETRO Video Game Systems Inc who are launching the Coleco Chameleon, stated that in the future they may release adapters.  Mention of the adapters was centered on the ColecoVision and Intellivision games of yesteryear.  In an interview with me here at Retro Gaming Magazine, Mike Kennedy and his, then, team were confident in releasing adapters for many different platforms.  There was no mention of these other adapters in the short interview done with SEO Toy Review on Youtube (video below).

Presumably the controllers for ColecoVision and Intellivision will be made available separately.  This is ideal if there is to be more than one compilation release for each of these classic consoles.  This does raise the problem of having two skews for stores to stock- one with the custom controller and one without it (for those that own a previous compilation).

Also there is no word on whether only one controller will be included or if each compilation release will feature two controllers (for the many two player games on each console).

Considering the controller that RETRO Video Game Systems plans on including with the Coleco Chameleon I wonder if they will offer compilations for other platforms with USB controllers too?  From the NES to the Genesis, button layouts are usually unique to each console.  The pack-in controller is only ideal for Playstation and Super Nintendo gaming.  Consoles such as the Turbo Grafx-16, Sega Genesis, NES, Atari 2600, etc (all mentioned as seeing potential support previously) have unique button layouts that simply don’t “fit” the pack-in controller.

The Coleco Chameleon is currently on display at the New York Toy Fair, as covered here on RGM.  As news is made available, I will make sure to cover it.

Carl Williams

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