Coleco Gemini
it looks better than it is.
This is the Coleco Gemini. Now, you'd think that this is some kind of Colecovision thing, but it isn't. Coleco made their own Atari 2600. Atari was the early 80’s equivalent of Nintendo, and the Colecovision was like the early 80’s equivalent of the Xbox or Playstation. Far more powerful, but sold poorly compared to Atari’s gear. Since no precedent existed, Coleco thought it would be “pretty corking” to build and distribute their own Atari 2600 hardware. Turns out, patents are a thing, and Atari sued Coleco. Suddenly, this random leather company that for whatever reason decided to create a video game console was being sued for patent infringement by the largest computer company in the world at that point. It gets even stupider, Coleco and Atari ~~SETTLED OUT OF COURT~~ and Coleco got the patent rights to continue making their 2600. I don’t even want to know how that happened, and honestly I don’t care.
This isn't really a historical thing, I'm here to tell you about what playing a Gemini is actually like.
The Coleco Gemini is kinda like the Sega Game Gear in that it's very hard to find a working model. People I’ve talked to about it will tell me incredulously that they’ve never seen a working one. I honestly don't know what to make of that.
Mine was not that hard to repair. All I had to do was reflow some solder joints on the power jack and controller ports. If that last sentence was gibberish to you, then you’re probably better off avoiding this thing. As mentioned above, apparently all of them are like this. The cartridge connector is junk. Games that work perfectly in my actual Atari refuse to run on the Gemini. I can’t imagine Donkey Kong, which was bundled with the console would be incompatible. It simply doesn’t work, and never has. Ms. Pac-Man and River Raid will only work for a few minutes before crashing. It definitely feels a fair bit looser than the 2600 in terms of grip strength. I've considered reflowing the cartridge port pins, but the idea of working on this thing, even for the 3-5 minutes that would take, fills me with dread. I don't care enough to bother.
The console is nicely designed, has its own cute little switches, and looks far more modern than the Atari 2600. This thing actually resembles a console rather than some kind of grill. It weighs less than the 2600 too, which makes it more reasonable to keep on your lap as you play. The controller ports are in the front now, which is nice, and the cartridge port isn’t at that awkward angle it is on the 2600. Since it’s a direct hardware clone, it uses the exact same power adapter as the 2600, and it has a removable RF cable, making storage less of a hassle.
as fun to hold as it looks
Perhaps I'm being too hard on the Gemini. Perhaps I should give it a break. You know, for it's time, it was a vaguely budget way to play games that were already on the way out. The industry wasn't established in the way that it'd later be. Maybe some kid got his hands on one of these and enjoyed the hell out of that. If you're that kid, don't let me suck the fun out of your childhood memories. I'm judging this with profound hindsight.
I've handled a variety of retro hardware in my day, and i feel like my previous Game Gear comparison was apt. The Gemini has no place in this world beyond being a fascinating oddity. A machine that would not, could not exist today in any capacity. It's build quality is horrific and it's a poor version of something that already existed. I can't recommend it, and I can promise you that you're not missing out on anything if you're a collector and you skip this. I bought it as a curiousity, and using it these last few weeks was definitely an interesting experience. Would I do it again? Probably.