Hardware Heaven
Gemini
» MANUFACTURER: Coleco » YEAR: 1983 » COST: $59.99 (launch), £50+ (today, boxed), £20+ (today, unboxed)
The ColecoVision was a pretty exciting console in 1982, especially since it offered one thing that the competing Atari 5200 didn’t – an adapter that enabled backwards compatibility with the Atari 2600 library. Atari quickly launched legal action, which was settled out of court when Coleco became an Atari patent licensee. This not only allowed Coleco to continue to make the Expansion Module No 1, the device that started the argument, but enabled the company to market a standalone Atari 2600 clone called Gemini.