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Coleco Telstar Marksman General Maintenance

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Coleco Telstar Marksman gun socket
The Marksman's left-hand panel: RESET, the left knob and the keyed socket for the gun cable.

Routine care for the Coleco Telstar Marksman (model 6136), Coleco's 1978 colour Pong console with a 3-in-1 light gun.[1][2] No Coleco owner's guide for the Marksman itself has been found; the guide for the Sears Gunslinger II, which Coleco made for Sears with the same games, controls and gun, is used here where the two agree.[3][4] The points to look after are the batteries and adapter jack, the buttons and slide switch, the knobs, the gun and its socket, and the television set-up for the shooting games. Faults are covered in Coleco Telstar Marksman Troubleshooting Guide.

Before you start

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  • Take out the batteries and unplug any adapter. Coleco's catalogue gives the Marksman two 9 V batteries; the Sears version takes one.[2][3]
  • Switch the console off before plugging the gun in or out, as Coleco instructs.[5]
  • Use an analogue colour television on channel 3 or 4, matching the selector on the back.[6][7]

Batteries

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In the Gunslinger II the 9 V battery sits behind a slide-out door in the base, snapped onto a clip, with a foam pad in the bottom of the compartment.[3][6] Coleco's catalogue specifies two 9 V batteries for the Marksman, but no picture of a Marksman battery compartment has been published.[2]

  1. Open the battery door or doors and remove the batteries.
  2. Inspect each snap clip and its leads for cracks, corrosion and breaks at the clip. A standard 9 V snap connector replaces a damaged one.
  3. Clean light corrosion with isopropyl alcohol; for worse damage see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.
  4. Refit or replace the foam pad so that the battery cannot move.
  5. Store the console with the batteries out.[6]

Rear jacks and adapter

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Two jacks at the back are soldered straight onto the edge of the circuit board and show through notches in the case; the right-hand one is marked J2 on the board.[8] Coleco's catalogue offers a Coleco battery eliminator/AC adapter for the Marksman without giving its model number, rating or polarity.[2]

  • A plug pushed in at an angle loads the jack's solder joints directly. If power or picture cuts out when a plug is moved, reflow those joints when the case is open.
  • Measure any adapter before use and find the polarity of the power jack by tracing it to the battery clip.

Buttons and the power switch

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GAME SELECT and RESET are push buttons. The INTERMEDIATE/PRO/OFF slide switch is both the power switch and the speed control.[9][7]

  1. With the batteries out, work contact cleaner into the slide switch and run it through all three positions many times.
  2. Press GAME SELECT and RESET repeatedly; a button that needs a hard press has a dirty contact inside the case.
  3. Test: GAME SELECT must step through all six games, and the game must not drop out when the switch moves between INTERMEDIATE and PRO.[7]

Paddle knobs

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Each knob is a push fit on its post, with a flat inside the knob lined up with a flat on the post.[6] Pull knobs straight off. If a paddle jumps or covers only part of the screen, clean the control behind the knob with contact cleaner and turn it end to end several times.

Light gun

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The gun is a pistol with a rifle barrel that slides over the pistol's barrel and a rifle butt that locks into a slot in the back of the pistol; a push button on the pistol releases the butt.[5]

  1. Check the butt's locking tab and the pistol's push button. A broken tab leaves the butt loose but does not affect the electronics.
  2. Check that the barrel still slides on and can be twisted to line up the sight.[5]
  3. Work the trigger. Coleco advised pulling and releasing it about twelve times before first use to clear a protective coating in the mechanism.[10] A trigger that sticks after decades in storage needs the pistol opened and the mechanism cleaned.
  4. Inspect the cable along its length, especially where it leaves the pistol grip and at the connector.
  5. Look into the connector for bent or pushed-back pins. Coleco's instruction is to line the connector up with its key and never force it.[5]

The gun is photo-electric: it responds to light from the screen.[2][10] No published source shows where its sensor sits, so before suspecting the electronics check that nothing blocks the open end of the pistol and the barrel.

Gun socket

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The socket is a round keyed connector on the left-hand panel, below the left knob.[11] Clean its contacts with contact cleaner and check that none is bent or recessed. The Gunslinger II chart traces missing Target and Skeet numerals to a gun connector that is not seated on its key.[12]

Channel switch and RF lead

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The channel 3 or 4 selector and the game cable are at the back.[7] Coleco tells owners to move the selector carefully, and to use channel 4 only where channel 3 carries a strong local station.[6] Check the game cable and the switch box terminals; Coleco sold the No. 6111 switch kit as a spare.[4]

Television set-up

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  • For the ball games, adjust colour, and hue or tint if needed, and turn off automatic colour control.[7]
  • For Target and Skeet, set brightness for normal viewing and contrast for a slightly grey background, and remove any sunscreen filter from the screen.[10][12]
  • Switch the game off when not in use; Coleco warns that a game left on can burn its pattern into the screen.[10]

Preventive maintenance checklist

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  1. Remove the batteries; inspect clips, leads, doors and foam.
  2. Check the rear jacks for loose joints.
  3. Clean the slide switch and test both buttons.
  4. Check both paddles over their full travel.
  5. Inspect the gun: butt lock, barrel, trigger, cable and connector.
  6. Clean the gun socket.
  7. Play all six games, and score hits in Target and Skeet with the television set up as above.
  8. Store with the batteries out and the gun unplugged.
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References

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  1. ↑ Arcade-History, "Telstar Marksman [Model 6136"] (retrieved 2026-10-19): model 6136, 1978; "Basically it's a Telstar Ranger [Model 6046] but with color graphics and a larger light gun"; games jai-alai (squash), hockey, handball, tennis, skeet and target; CPU AY-3-8512; on/off and game selector buttons; Beginner/Intermediate/Pro difficulty switch; built-in speaker; on-screen score; the light gun is a pistol with an attachable stock and barrel and a simple sight; two paddle controllers built into the console.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Coleco Industries, Coleco Toys and Games '80: We're the One (dealer catalogue, 1980), p. 20, scanned at digitize.textfiles.com (retrieved 2026-10-19): "6136 - Telstar Marksman"; two pistol games, Target and Skeet, and four sports games, Tennis, Hockey, Handball and Jai Alai; the Marksman photo electric rifle, "a 3-in-1 combo", usable as a regular pistol, a machine pistol or a marksman rifle; brilliant colour (plays black and white on black-and-white sets); electronic sound effects; on-screen digital display scoring; variable skill control; "The GX-10, a custom chip made for Coleco"; "Requires two 9 volt batteries or Coleco Battery Eliminator/AC Adapter (neither included)"; FCC approved; ages 8 to adult; Pack: 6, Weight: 21.0 lb, Cube: 2.9 ft (the shipping carton of six units).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Coleco Industries, Gunslinger II Installation Instructions and Game Rules (Sears Tele-Games), Model No. 6137SR, Guide No. 76872, 1981, p. 1, File:Sears Tele-Games Gunslinger II Installation Instructions (Guide 76872).pdf: six video games in colour, two target and four sports games (tennis, hockey, handball, jai alai); 3-in-1 gun (pistol, target pistol and rifle); digital display scoring; variable speed control; "Requires one 9 volt alkaline battery"; two rubber bumpers pressed and twisted into holes in the bottom ("Do not press too hard so as to damage front of the unit"); a foam pad in the bottom of the battery compartment; bottom view with a slide-out door and the battery snapped onto a clip.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, pp. 7-8: Sears 90-day warranty, with service at any Sears store; order form for the No. 6111 switch kit ($7.20) and a replacement rifle ($12.60) from Coleco Industries, P.O. Box 460, Amsterdam, N.Y.; "Manufactured for Sears, Roebuck and Co. by Coleco Industries, Inc."
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, p. 4: rules for hockey, jai alai and handball; the photo-electric rifle as a 3-in-1 combo: the rifle barrel slides into the pistol barrel and is twisted to align the sight; the rifle butt slides into a slot in the back of the pistol, locking tab on the same side as the push button, and is released by the push button; turn the ON/OFF switch to OFF before connecting the rifle cable; align the connector with its key and do not force it into the rifle receptacle on the face of the console.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, p. 2: one 9 V alkaline battery behind a slide-out door; avoid leaving the battery in the unit, and replace it first if the game does not work; decals; knobs placed on their posts with the flat on the knob aligned with the flat on the post; switch box connections; factory set for channel 3, with the channel selector moved carefully to channel 4 where channel 3 is a strong local station.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, p. 3: panel diagram (channel 3 or 4 selector switch and game cable at the back, reset button, left paddle control, rifle receptacle, game select switch, right paddle control, on-off switch combined with the speed control, Intermediate and Pro); any one of the six games can come on at power-on, and if only the score appears the reset button must be pushed; GAME SELECT advances one game per push; hue or tint adjustment and automatic colour control off; Intermediate is the slowest speed and Pro the fastest; after 15 points the ball passes through the paddle without scoring and after two seconds the score bounces and the boundaries disappear; on black-and-white sets do not set brightness and contrast to maximum.
  8. ↑ Photograph by Sintegrity, File:Coleco Telstar Marksman rear jacks.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons), read at full size: two jacks mounted on the edge of a brown circuit board show through notches in the back of the case; the silkscreen beside the right-hand jack reads J2.
  9. ↑ Photograph by Sintegrity, File:Coleco Telstar Marksman right-hand panel.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons): GAME SELECT with the list 1 TENNIS, 2 HOCKEY, 3 JAI ALAI, 4 HANDBALL, 5 TARGET, 6 SKEET; right knob; INTERMEDIATE/PRO/OFF slide switch.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, p. 5: firing range depends on TV size and control settings; set brightness for normal viewing and contrast for a slightly grey background; in Target the target bounces at random, in Skeet it crosses from left to right; a hit makes the target disappear and the score shows for 2 seconds; the left number counts shots fired and the right number hits; a game left on for a long time may burn its pattern into the TV screen; the pistol has a protective internal coating on its trigger mechanism, and the trigger should be pulled and released about 12 times before first use; FCC Part 15 notice.
  11. ↑ Photograph by Sintegrity, File:Coleco Telstar Marksman gun socket.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons): RESET, the left knob and a round keyed multi-pin socket for the gun cable on the left-hand panel.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Coleco, Guide No. 76872, p. 6: trouble shooting guide ("Replace battery first before trouble shooting. DO NOT OPEN. THIS DEVICE DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY SERVICEABLE PARTS. Warranty is voided if opened or tampered with."); ball-game symptoms and remedies (no game or faint picture; stripes or dots; rolling, flutter or buzzing; a line moving across the screen; no ball, erratic ball or score not 0-0, for which the remedies are a fresh battery, letting the game cool away from the top of the TV, and pressing Reset rapidly); Target and Skeet: if the score does not appear, push Reset more than once; if the numerals do not appear, the rifle connector is not mated correctly and must be aligned with its key and seated firmly; if shots fired count but hits do not, adjust the TV brightness and test by firing close to the screen at the numbers; if hits score continually without hitting the target, lower the brightness until the background is grey; remove any sunscreen from the TV.


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