The ColecoVision is the home console launched by Coleco in August 1982, right in the middle of the battle between the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision. Built around a Z80 paired with the Texas Instruments TMS9928A video processor and SN76489 sound chip, it shares its technical foundation with Sega's SG-1000 and the MSX standard — which is why several emulation cores are shared between these machines.
Its selling point was the accuracy of its arcade conversions: the console shipped with Donkey Kong under licence from Nintendo, and its library quickly welcomed Zaxxon, Ladybug, Venture, Q*bert and Mr. Do!. Coleco also sold expansion modules, including Expansion Module #1, which allowed Atari 2600 cartridges to be played, and the steering wheel and pedal module for racing games.
The original controller is recognisable by its 12-key numeric keypad topped with a small stick: many games use it to pick a level, a difficulty setting or an in-game action, with the help of cardboard overlays slid onto the controller.
After a very successful launch — several million consoles sold in a single year — the ColecoVision was swept away by the 1983 video game crash and the failure of the Coleco Adam home computer. Production stopped in 1985, with around 145 official games in the catalogue, since complemented by a still active homebrew scene.
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro bluemsx | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro gearcoleco | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro fbneo | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The default emulator is bluemsx, the general-purpose core for Z80/TMS9918 machines, and the only one supporting CRT output on this system. gearcoleco is a dedicated ColecoVision core and the only one handling softpatching. fbneo emulates the ColecoVision through its own romsets, in the FinalBurn Neo archive format.
All three cores are available on every board and all support netplay. RetroAchievements are available on this system; light guns are not supported. A controller is mandatory.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
Machines/COL - ColecoVision/coleco.rom |
ColecoVision BIOS (mandatory) | 2c66f5911e5b42b8ebe113403548eee7 | bluemsx |
Machines/COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension/coleco.rom |
ColecoVision BIOS with Opcode memory extension (mandatory) | 2c66f5911e5b42b8ebe113403548eee7 | bluemsx |
Machines/COL - Bit Corporation Dina/czz50-1.rom |
Bit Corporation Dina clone BIOS, part 1 (mandatory) | 1de922acdd742d31349c2801e9768c35 | bluemsx |
Machines/COL - Bit Corporation Dina/czz50-2.rom |
Bit Corporation Dina clone BIOS, part 2 (mandatory) | 72b089dc55b7fe7ffb5028f365e8c045 | bluemsx |
Machines/COL - Spectravideo SVI-603 Coleco/SVI603.ROM |
Spectravideo SVI-603 adapter BIOS (mandatory) | c60a2e85572c0ccb69505a7646d5c1b6 | bluemsx |
coleco/boot.rom |
ColecoVision BIOS (mandatory) | 2c66f5911e5b42b8ebe113403548eee7 | gearcoleco |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/
├── Machines/
│ ├── COL - Bit Corporation Dina/
│ │ ├── czz50-1.rom
│ │ └── czz50-2.rom
│ ├── COL - ColecoVision/
│ │ └── coleco.rom
│ ├── COL - ColecoVision with Opcode Memory Extension/
│ │ └── coleco.rom
│ └── COL - Spectravideo SVI-603 Coleco/
│ └── SVI603.ROM
└── coleco/
└── boot.rom
The files in the
Machines/folder follow the blueMSX layout and are shared with the MSX systems; they come from the official blueMSX distribution (blueMSXv282full.zip). Reproduce the folder names character for character, spaces and dashes included.
coleco/boot.romandMachines/COL - ColecoVision/coleco.romare the same file (same MD5): simply copy it to both locations.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/colecovision/
Supported extensions per emulator:
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| bluemsx | .col .zip .7z |
| gearcoleco | .bin .col .cv .rom .zip .7z |
| fbneo | .zip .7z |
The standard extension is .col: it is the one used by No-Intro romsets, the reference for this system. The .bin, .cv and .rom files are only recognised by gearcoleco; if a game refuses to start, switch emulator from the game menu.
.zipand.7zarchives must stay compressed: do not unzip them and do not rename them, especially for fbneo, which expects MAME-style romsets.
Recalbox ships with the MazezaM Challenge homebrew, already present in the roms folder on first boot. See the Included games page.