The ColecoVision Junior

One thing that I've always disliked about the ColecoVision is that it's so big. Unnecessarily big. Do you know what lives inside the unit left of the power switch? Nothing! If not for the controller storage pockets, it could have been a nice tidy little system.

I happen to hate the standard CV controllers, so I rigged up an adapter to use a Jaguar pad with the CV. Since I no longer needed a place to store the controllers, the pockets became even more of a thorn in my side. Dwindling shelf space sure didn't elevate my opinion.

So one day I busted out the Dremel and hacked out six inches of width, epoxied the endcap back on, relocated the power supply jack, and mounted the controller jacks on the outside shell.

The tough part was making the top pieces of the shell mate together as seamlessly as possible. Since the front would be covered by the faceplate, and the bottom and back aren't usually visible, mating the parts there was not so important, and a certain sloppiness could be afforded without affecting the final look much.

Here you can see the relocated controller jacks, which protrude from the shell now. I like this much more than the way they were originally recessed into the pockets.

I also hated the way the Coleco has no way to get power to an external accessory except through some ridiculous device like the extra plug on the roller controller. For my own accessories, I kludged my way around this by mounting a headphone jack that is connected to +5V inside the unit. That's it in between the controller jacks.

See that gaping hole next the the front controller jack? That's a mistake. I originally wanted to put a controller jack there, but it wasn't until after I'd cut that hole that I realized it would bang into the power switch inside. Fuck.

Finally, a shot comparing the sizes of the CVjr and an unmodified CV.

Not shown is the power supply jack, which I relocated to the right side on the back. This only required mounting two posts inside to hold it in place and cutting away some of the internal shielding. No sweat.

In the final evaluation, I'm immensely pleased with the results. The total time investment was about ten hours, not including the periods when the epoxy was curing.

Jay Tilton
01/21/98