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So anyway, Russ, you said you could be interested in doing either a Zelda-style mini-RPG, or a faithful arcade conversion, so here are my suggestions:
Suggestion #1: Quest for the Rings
I think a ColecoVision remake of the Odyssey2 game "Quest for the Rings" would be right up your alley. You could do it like the fake screenshots on my Team Pixelboy web site, or you could do it differently, doesn't matter as long as it gets done. One cool idea would be to have two modes of play: In mode #1 (i.e. the regular game) everything happens on the screen (overworld map, dungeons, status screen, etc.) and mode #2 would be designed to be used with the original Odyssey2 "Quest for the Rings" board game. Essentially, you would use the ColecoVision instead of the Odyssey2 when playing the video game portions of the board game. Better yet, a brand new edition of the board game could be created with cards instead of little plastic game pieces.
Suggestion #2: Riddle of the Sphynx
From the above YouTube footage of the original Atari 2600 game, this game may seem slow and cumbersome to play, but that's the beauty of my suggestion: In the CV version, you wouldn't be confined to moving up and down slowly on a vertical scrolling field, the game could be a true Zelda clone, like Zelda on NES! And it wouldn't need to be overly complex either, just a fun multi-screen mini-RPG with items to collect, people to meet, critters to kill and riddles to solve. I see real potential here for a cool ColecoVision remake.
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Aside from the suggestions above, I think you should just design your own Zelda-style mini-RPG. There are many adventure games you could draw inspiration from, including the Zelda series itself. Anyway, the rest of my suggestions below are arcade ports.
Suggestion #3: Vanguard
The ColecoVision could reproduce the arcade version quite faithfully (minus the voices). You could offer several control setups, but I think the best would be one fire button for vertical fire (shoot up and down at the same time) and the other for horizontal fire (shoot forward and backward at the same time), so you could shoot in four directions simultaneously by pressing both fire buttons. On the plus side, the graphics are simple and enemy ships have very simple AI. On the minus side, different scrolling engines would need to be created for horizontal, diagonal and vertical scrolling segments. But I think it would be more than worth the effort.
Suggestion #4: Bubble Bobble
This game needs no introduction, you know CV fans would really eat it up. Two-player action would also be a blast! The game has simple graphics, but it would require the best flicker management algorithm you can come up with. Enemy AI could be a bit difficult to reproduce faithfully, but it shouldn't be a terribly hard challenge for you.
Suggestion #5: Kangaroo
Here's a classic platformer that would be cool to play on the ColecoVision. The CV could reproduce the arcade graphics and sounds without any problem. You'd have sprite flicker to worry about, but that's about it.
Suggestion #6: Phoenix
Gotta love a game that gives you a big boss ship to destroy! And the other levels of the game are pretty cool too! Having a scrolling star field with tile-based alien attackers could pose a certain programming challenge, but nothing that hasn't been done before on the CV.
Suggestion #3: Zookeeper
A cult classic, if there was ever one. It could actually be quite a programming challenge on the ColecoVision, with all that activity on the TV screen.
Well, that's about it. I hope you have enjoyed my little presentation.
