i have fondness for the vision because its the original although get the version 2 vision shouldn't be to hard to find given they were made in Connecticut just a 40 min drive over the NY border go with yard sales and cregslist
The Colecovision only has RF out, and it's not great RF out at that (lots of sound crackles). The ADAM actually has composite out, and although it's not the best composite, it's miles better than the regular Colecovision RF. The only downside of using an ADAM over a regular Colecovision is the size. Not only is the ADAM fairly large, but the power supply is in the printer so you'll always need to have that out. There are no really good ADAM titles to speak of other that the 'expanded' versions of DK, DKjr, and Zaxxon. Dragons Lair is also available, but it's a very different version from the arcade game. Personally I'd go with the regular Colecovision unless you're just dying to play some of those ADAM games. My friend is working on a VGA out chip for the Colecovision/ADAM/TI-99 and anything else that uses that video chip (such as the MSX). I've seen it working and it's beautiful!
I looked for a Colecovision for YEARS and YEARS and never got one, until a very good friend of mine gave me his whole setup. It made me really happy. I fixed the controllers, as the inner pieces were broken - and it still works like a charm. Quite an interesting little system. Many obscure and interesting early 80's gems in it. Tempest's chip sounds sexy as hell. But isn't there also an AV Mod like can be done for the Atari and Intellivision?
It is 'teh sex', that's for sure. You can read about it over on AtariAge (http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/168968-f18a/). He's pretty close to finalizing it, at the moment he's adding extra options. There is a Composite mod for the Colecovision that can be done, it's cheap to do and works fairly well. The Intellivision version never works right and has bad ghosting problems, I don't think that has ever been fixed.
If you can find on a Spectravideo SVI-318 with the Coleco expansion module will give you quite a nice Composite video picture (better then the Adam). The French version had RGB SCART as standard...
Good luck with that. I have a SV-328 and I only know of one person who owns the Coleco expansion module. Those things are rarer than hens teeth! BTW That VGA board I mentioned earlier also works in the SV-318/328.
I currently tempted to get a ColecoVision with the Adam (Expansion No. 3) add-on rather than an Adam.
Vision. I've done the AV mod on them before and its pretty darned easy. Drilling the holes for the RCA jacks was the hardest part. More concerning is the terrible terrible controllers. Games are pretty darn good though.
I know someone with three of them. However without converting anything then using the Spectravideo will give you the best picture. There is also a quickshot joystick (if you can find that...) that does have a coleco number pad built in and these are much better then the horrible pads that came with the coleco...
Fixing Coleco pads is quite easy, though. Even I, technologically retarded and clumsy as fuck, have done something moderately serviceable. I used neat little round bubble-shaped stickers and pasted them over the plastic circle that receives the stick's input. It did the trick. I still just use Atari or Genesis pads, though.
I love my ADAM. I've had far more problems with original CV systems. I've never had a Vision though. Only problem I've had with my ADAM is some homebrew games require me to hold cartridge switch while turning on the system, and it will make a loud noise while doing this.
