Coleco Sonic Handheld debuts: take home 20 Sega 8-bit games for $50

Our good pals at Joystiq have just spotted the new Coleco Sonic Handheld, available now for pre-order at Target's website for the price of a single piece of paper with U.S. Grant's gorgeous bearded visage on it. It doesn't appear to be the retro-cool system that Coleco alluded to late last year, but rather an all-in-one device loaded with 20 orginal Sega 8-bit games that include Sonic Triple Trouble, Fantasy Zone, Super Columns, Alex Kidd in High Tech World, Ecco the Dolphin and a whole bunch of others that Joystiq has listed over on their site. So Coleco fanboys, slide on over there to get the full list.

[Via Joystiq]

[Rod Oracheski @ Oct 27th 2006 7:46PM]

Man, I'd forgotten all about Columns.

[Richard @ Oct 27th 2006 8:10PM]

Wow... I might just buy this.
Being one of the only 2 kids in my small town who had an SMS (everyone else was an NES owner), I hated that everyone told me their NES was "better"... even though the SMS was hands-down technologically superior.

I had to go check the gamelist, to make sure some of my favorite games were there, and they are!

Sonic Drift 2
Sonic Triple Trouble
Alex Kidd in High Tech World
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Altered Beast
Assault City
Astro Warrior
Aztec Adventure
Bomber Raid
Columns
Ecco II: The Tides of Time
Fantasy Zone
Fantasy Zone: The Maze
Global Defense
Kung Fu Kid
The Ninja
Penguin Land
Quartet
Snail Maze
Super Columns

Alex Kidd in Miracle World was an awesome game, and The Ninja was great, too. I tried playing it a little while ago, and I had no idea how hard it was... I used to be able to FLY through that game as a kid... found all the hidden scrolls and everything.

Okay, I digress. I'll pay for one of these right now.

[Cosmos @ Oct 27th 2006 8:13PM]

Doesn't Nintendo hold a patent on the cross-shaped directional-pad?

[ronnie @ Oct 27th 2006 8:27PM]

The patent expired in 2005 according to wikipedia's entry on D-Pad.

Pretty interesting, I never knew they patented that.

[jbulava @ Oct 27th 2006 8:38PM]

Where's the C button???

[Eric @ Oct 27th 2006 8:45PM]

That would be for the Genesis. This is old school 8-bit SMS.

[jbulava @ Oct 27th 2006 9:42PM]

Ah, very true...that's what I get for skimming articles and then commenting on them!

[Zachary Hinchliffe @ Oct 27th 2006 8:46PM]

Sonic Triple Trouble owned. No question.

[BobbyW @ Oct 27th 2006 8:54PM]

This was the best product Coleco ever made. I loved this thing. Way better than Mattel.

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/EQB.htm

[Colin @ Oct 27th 2006 9:05PM]

This is NOT made by Coleco. It is REBRANDED as a Coleco.

All ready for sale by Playpalworld.com

This has been out in Canada for over a month...not sure why it would be 'pre sale' in the US as you usually get the goods first off the boat.

BTW it has TV out on it too!

Here is the manual http://playpalworld.com/manuals/portable/ppp_manual_english.pdf

[rick @ Oct 27th 2006 9:12PM]

Wow its truly amazing how far Coleco has come since its classic handheld football game... isn't it?

Rick
http://moresupertips.blogspot.com

[GioNYC @ Oct 27th 2006 9:16PM]

Holy F BobbyW I forgot I had one of those. Ahh memories.

Did anyone have TOTAL CONTROL 4 ?

[GioNYC @ Oct 27th 2006 9:20PM]

This is the one i had:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Coleco/Frogger.htm

When I was 8. I remember using the wrong a/c power adapter, and i blew the fuse and smoke came out of it. It was fried. :(

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 27th 2006 10:47PM]

I loved Alex Kidd in Miracle World!

I'm in.

[John Sinshack @ Oct 28th 2006 8:11AM]

Oh man, i can't wait untill the xb360 and ps3 are rerealeased into inexpensive handhelds as vintage games in like 20 years.

[zparsons @ Oct 28th 2006 2:26AM]

Now, lets talk rust-proofing. The Coleco will rust up on you like that!

[david @ Oct 28th 2006 3:09PM]

Anyone want to play a climactic game of "Janken"? That's paper, rock, scissors to you n00bs.

[David S @ Oct 28th 2006 4:58PM]

how did this company get away with branding as "coleco"--somebody in a legal department needs to be fired and replaced with a competent crew.

this is totally a different COLECO than Coleco Industries, right?

[MMM @ Oct 30th 2006 4:59PM]

Whoever designed the A-B buttons that way never play console games. How do you press 2 buttons simultaneously? Did you ever play Mario? :(