The Colecovision was a state-of-the-art game console back in 1983. Based around the Z-80, it was almost a personal computer (and, with the Adam add-on, it could serve that function, complete with a daisy wheel printer for output). [Kernelcrash] set out to recreate the Colecovision on a breadboard and kept notes of the process.

His earlier project was building a Funvision (a rebranded VTech Creativision) on a breadboard, so he started with the parts he had from that project. He did make some design changes (for example, generating separate clocks instead of using the original design’s method for producing the different frequencies needed).

Of course, a modern ROM is larger than the original designers had available. [Kernelcrash’s] build originally held 8 games in one ROM, but later enhancements upped that number even further. The redesign is interesting, but it is also illustrative to read about the stages of development and the troubleshooting it took to get it all working.

We’ve covered some retro console builds before. We’ve also had quite a few Z-80 projects on and off breadboards. If you want an overview of the Colecovision, along with some retro commercials, check out the video below.

Thanks for the tip [bunsenh].