Archived from groups: rec.games.video.classic (
More info?)
It's not extremely rare, as Coleco sold quite a few of these. It was
also sold by Columbia House under the name "Columbia Home Arcade". The
Gemini is essentially an Atari 2600 clone. It plays all Atari 2600
games. Did yours come with the controllers which have the joystick on
top and the paddle on the bottom? If the paddles are jittery, you will
have to open the controller (by removing the bottom plastic part of the
controller), get a spray cleaner at Radio Shack called
Cleaner/Degreaser (I got a spray cleaner last week, but it was called
"Non-Flammable Contact/Control Cleaner & Lubricant"...it still worked),
spray a little bit into the paddle's pot, twist the paddle knob back
and forth a few times, and replace the bottom plastic part. My paddles
(the original Atari CX-30 paddles) were very jittery, but one
application of the spray that I mentioned made them seem like brand
new.
A little bit of history : Coleco made an Atari 2600 adapter (using
off-the-shelf parts) for their Colecovision system. Atari sued for
patent infringement, but a judge ruled that since Coleco used
off-the-shelf parts (instead of Atari parts) to make it, they were not
liable for damages and were allowed to still sell the adapter. This
judgement gave Coleco the opportunity to make a standalone Atari 2600
clone by, once again, using off-the-shelf parts.
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