Elsewhere: Colecovision Has More Peripherals Than Atari

I'm not sure this was really a selling point -- certainly any modern gamer with a room full of plastic guitars, skateboard controllers and dance mats might beg to differ -- but Coleco took Atari on directly with this vintage TV commercial, promoting the Colecovision's plethora of add-on controllers and the ADAM computer module:



With historical hindsight, I think the most telling comparison actually shows up, unremarked, in the early part of the ad.  The Atari 5200 owner on the right appears to be fiddling with the system's floppy analog joystick, trying to get it to work properly.  Coleco could have spent the entire 30 seconds comparing the controllers, even given the standard Colecovision unit's stiff and stubby little stick, and come out ahead.

I also like to imagine Nolan Bushnell slapping his forehead in dismay when these ads aired -- Atari was a great company name when there was no real competition, but I'd bet he never foresaw the day when a new challenger would use Sorry, Atari! as an ad tagline.