ColecoVision Super Game Module

Sadly, this was a failed prototype

The **Super Game Module** (**SGM** for short) is an unreleased peripheral for the ColecoVision console.

## Overview

The Super Game Module was designed to enhance the ColecoVision console's performance to make it closer to the actual arcade games of the day, adding 30 KB of RAM, more detailed graphics, and games run off of 128 KB continuous-loop Super Game Wafer tapes (based on the Entrepo Quick Data Drive microwafer developed by Exatron), which are larger in capacity than the standard ColecoVision cartridges. The wafers allowed for more levels, intermissions, and high scores, complete with the ability to enter the player's initials. It was rumored that the user could play their older ColecoVision cartridges while the module is connected. The plan was for "Super" versions of previous titles to be released for the module.

## Planned Titles

* *Super Donkey Kong*
* *Super Donkey Kong Junior*
* *Super Front Line*
* *Super Gorf*
* *Super Smurf*
* *Super Zaxxon*
* *Super Turbo*
* *Super Subroc*
* *Super Buck Rogers*

## History

Originally planned to become Expansion Module #3 for the ColecoVision, the Super Game Module was first showcased at the North American International Toy Fair in February 1983. It was then showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show, though with difficulties, especially with the demonstrator screwing up in front of the press. The Super Game Module was cancelled at the last moment, with Coleco's accounts put forward, and around $34 Million were lost.

Coleco then had an idea to develop another version of the Super Game Module that used RCA's CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc) video disc format that could have made it both a state-of-the-art video game and a video disc player all in one. However, just as Coleco started development on it, RCA discontinued CED player production but continued making video discs, and, by 1986, lost around $600 Million in the process. Coleco cancelled the CED-based SGM project as a result.

## Why was it Cancelled

1. Microwafers in general, with the ColecoVision Super Game Wafers being no exception, though capable of reading data at high speeds were too slow and more prone to errors than floppy disks. In short, unreliable.
	* Because of that, and according to former Coleco employee Bill Rose, the unit presented at CES had to use ROM'd games "under the covers", with the Super Game Wafers only having held the ROM bank select number to be repeated over and over again. Coleco read the ROM bank code off the wafer, delay starting the game for a period of time, then play it from the ROM.
2. The project proved too expensive for Coleco to bring into reality.
3. Along with RCA discontinuing the production of CED players, the CED-based SGM was cancelled due to several reasons, those being, and according to Bill Rose;
	* The games were very poor.
	* The games attempted to use branching based on the player's actions.
	* The seek times were slow that one had to wait a few seconds to see the next branch.
	* The CED discs were also not as reliable as floppy disks due to being a video format, not a data format.

## Legacy

With the Super Game Module project cancelled, Coleco focused their efforts on the Adam home computer, releasing it as both a standalone system and as Expansion Module #3 in place of the Super Game Module. Some of the planned Super Games, such as *Super Donkey Kong* and *Super Buck Rogers*, were later released as Digital Data Pack cassette games for the Adam.

The North American Video Game Crash of 1983, coupled with the Adam's commercial failure due to problems that the system faced plus heavy opposition from competing computer systems, lead Coleco to leave the video game market for good.

Prior to Coleco bowing out of the video game industry, and according to Bill Rose, there were other projects in the works that never made it past the prototype stage;

One was a three-chip Apple II clone that used the GUI (Graphical User Interface) concept before the Macintosh's introduction, along with having a 2400 baud dial-up modem with a phone. The modem would have allowed the user to play head-to-head games in real time against opponents across their telephone lines, download and upload files, and the like. When the user picks up the phone, a contact list pops up in the middle of a game and make a call by pushing a button or dialing and then resuming play. The system also featured a calculator keypad, where a push of the button would bring a calculator up on the screen, with a case designed by Porsche.

Also developed as a next-generation game console that had 32 sprites per line (four times as that of the original ColecoVision), and better graphics, colors, and sound capabilities. It also featured four vector engines that used the graphics engine for background visuals, and is believed to be capable of handling 2K vectors at 30 frames per second. It had an integral dial-up modem that would allow the user to play games against opponents in real time over their phone lines, with each player putting up their own background graphics and simply send very compact vector information over the phone.

In late 2013, Opcode Games released their own version of the Super Game Module, officially licensed by Coleco Industries. This new Super Game Module, which is a markedly different beast than the unreleased original, expanded the ColecoVision's base memory to 32 KB and doubled its sound capabilities. It is also usable on the Adam. For the new module, Opcode manufactured special Super Game cartridges, which have a 1 MB data capacity and provide a crisper and more complex gaming experience on the console. Titles include arcade classics such as *Donkey Kong* and *Dig-Dug*, as well as new aftermarket titles, both made by developer Team Pixelboy.   In short, it did what the original SGM promised and failed to do; enhance the ColecoVision's capabilities to make it closer to the arcade.

In the late 2010s, Opcode Games started development of a new version of the SGM, the Super Game Module 2, that would use its own proprietary cartridges, as well as cartridges for a new retro console, the OMNI, which is being developed concurrently. Sign-ups for the SGM 2 began in 2019.

## Gallery

ColecoVision console with Super Game Module and games*Super Donkey Kong Junior* Super Game WaferDitto, held in a person's handSuper Game Wafers of *Super Smurf*, *Super Donkey Kong*, and *Super Donkey Kong Junior*, plus packaging for *Super Buck Rogers**Super Zaxxon* CED gameOpcode Games' Super Game Module, fifth run (NOTE: Opcode's SGM is a product that saw actual release)
## External Links

* SGM The Unreleased Coleco Version @ ColecoVision.dk

## References

1. ↑ https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/video-game-accessory-colecovision-super-game-module-opcode-games/zQHwBJKdv8uVIQ?hl=en
2. ↑ https://www.teampixelboy.com/
3. ↑ http://www.colecovision.dk/sem.htm?refreshed
4. ↑ https://8-bitcentral.com/blog/2019/sgmEvolution.html