Pixelboy Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to another Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. Today's edition is all about the budget games! GENERAL STATUS REPORT In terms of software, most of the budget games are complete and have passed the beta-testing phase. Kaboom! was completed this past week and is now under beta-testing. Same goes for Frostbite, which received some tweaks this past week and is also under beta-testing at the moment. The only games which are still in development are Remember the Flag and Yars' Revenge. Our friend Armando was supposed to program both those games from scratch, but as I mentioned in the previous News Bulletin, his life has changed significantly these past few months, and he was forced to back out of coding Remember The Flag. Fortunately, Oscar (a.k.a. nanochess) stepped in to pick up the project, and Remember The Flag is currently roughly 50% complete. Armando is working on Yars' Revenge, and both games should be done by the end of November, if all goes well. As for the boxes, as you can see in the pictures attached below, I received the first set of boxes (for Caverns of Titan) a few days ago. Wait, boxes for only one game? Yeah, that's kind of the bad news that comes with the good news: The people in charge of printing and assembling these two-piece boxes are a bit slow, compared to what I'm used to anyway. It takes a couple of weeks to complete a run of 100 boxes, since there's a lot of manual work involved. After they printed and shipped the Caverns of Titan boxes, the printer company asked for two more box templates, which suggests that they've streamlined their production facilities and they'll work a little faster from this point on. But it's still going to take a LOT longer than I had anticipated for me to receive the boxes for all 17 budget games. At least the boxes are ready to use straight out of the shipping box (no glueing required on my part) and they look really nice, so it's worth the wait. On a more positive note, I've done a lot of work on the manuals lately, and the contents of most of these manuals should be finalized by the end of October, if all goes well. I will also be ordering the cartridge PCBs for the first group of budget games later today (more details about these "groups" are given below) and I will assemble the carts for this first group as soon as possible (probably in December). PLANS FOR 2016 and 2017 Given that printing the budget game boxes will be a lengthy process, it seems clear to me that I should ship these games in groups of six, like I mentioned in the previous News Bulletin: First group: - Caverns of Titan - Cold Blood - Danger Tower - Kralizec Tetris - Shmup! - Sudoku Second group: - Heroes Arena - J.E.T.P.A.C. - Shouganai - Stray Cat - Traffic Jam - Txupinazo! Third group: - Deep Dungeon Adventure - Frostbite - Kaboom! - Remember The Flag - Yars' Revenge Some people said they are willing to wait until all 17 budget games are ready in order to have them all shipped together in a single shipping box, while some other people want the games shipped in small lots as they become ready to ship. Many others have ordered only a few of the budget games. In any case, the main problem here is that most people pre-ordered Yars' Revenge and Frostbite, and those are part of the third group. I expect that the printer company will have shipped all the boxes for the first group of games by mid-December. I'm still pondering my options, but for this first group, I will probably contact everyone listed in my pre-order records (probably near Christmas, according to my long-term agenda) at some point in December) and offer to ship the games that are ready. So these shipments will be processed case-by-case. With all this said, my objectives for the remainder of 2016 is: - Prepare the texts of the manuals for all 17 budget games (October) - Prepare the printable templates for the manuals of the first group of six budget games (October) - Prepare the cart labels for all 17 budget games (November) - Assemble the carts for the first group of six budget games (November+December) - Ship the first group of budget games as soon as I receive the sixth order of boxes from the printer (December) 2017 is still far away (from my point of view) so I prefer not to plan too far ahead. All I can say for now is that I will work to get the remainder of the manuals printed (starting in January) and I will also assemble the carts the the second and third group as soon as humanly possible. By the way, I would like to mention that the greater majority of people have now paid in full for their pre-orders of budget games, and I really want to thank everyone involved for their prompt payments. This has helped Oscar's family tremendously. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Great update as always! Not worried about any delays and I'm always appreciative about the work that goes into all these games. Any update on how Oscar's wife is doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 By the way, I would like to mention that the greater majority of people have now paid in full for their pre-orders of budget games, and I really want to thank everyone involved for their prompt payments. This has helped Oscar's family tremendously. I just wanted to say that I'm really grateful for all the help I've received for my family Also apologies for the delay in Remember the Flag, it was an unexpected last minute game and I stepped in to help Luc, unfortunately I've been going almost 3 times per week to hospital with my wife, the cancer stays and keeps size, and the head one is there, last and not least my work computer suddenly failed and I almost lost the source code. The good news is that the baby is growing and I'm back and running and the game is pretty advanced, without sound at this time and other bells&whistles. I hope to finish it in one month. I can say the project description by Luc turned on an impressive game. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted October 15, 2016 Share Posted October 15, 2016 Oscar I think it should go without saying that you certainly don't need to apologize to us for anything. Taking care of your family is all that matters, not some silly game being delayed. Great to hear your little one is doing well and we're all praying for your wife's health to improve. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValkerieSilk Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Outstanding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Darrin9999 Posted October 16, 2016 Share Posted October 16, 2016 Thanks for the update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Thanks for the update Luc. Those boxes look nice! Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 I'm working on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4cIZdgrb5E 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 So close to finish Remember the Flag working with this music background for the final details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0xi0XIsBBY&list=PLsjQ0uDKkHUGWEToofiqu2oBzHTFgA4Nz&index=38 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Game finished, ROM sent to Luc, video published, enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca5EJTnFKa0 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 (edited) As noted on Twitter, you might want to revise all the national anthems for rhythm in particular, but perhaps also melody. I don't know all by heart, but I can tell that the Swedish one grinds to an unexpected halt and the Spanish one sounds like at least one note rest is missing near the last few bars. Some of the other soungs also sound a bit peculiar. Normally you would call that artistic freedom in covering a song, but when it comes to national anthems, I think one should avoid artistic freedom unless you do it on purpose. Edited October 20, 2016 by carlsson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyuundere Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 As noted on Twitter, you might want to revise all the national anthems for rhythm in particular, but perhaps also melody. I don't know all by heart, but I can tell that the Swedish one grinds to an unexpected halt and the Spanish one sounds like at least one note rest is missing near the last few bars. Some of the other soungs also sound a bit peculiar. Normally you would call that artistic freedom in covering a song, but when it comes to national anthems, I think one should avoid artistic freedom unless you do it on purpose. Your comment is really appreciated. I would check again the rhythm and time of all anthems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Good luck! Probably it is just some simple paste or translation error, depending on which format you have used to compose the music. The ones I would in particular double check are Chile, Sweden, Spain, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Peru, India plus any countries not showcased in the demo video. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Ok. Just finished rewriting/modifying/checking 68 different anthems I've deleted the old and embarrassing video and the new video has replaced it, check post #10 Thanks carlsson! Your comments were very helpful! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 It was a pure joy to being able to help! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 Just a quick update in the progress of my wife's health, she went thru 6 chemotheraphies (thanks to your donations!), losing 8 pounds and after a checkup the cancer stays with same size. The last chemo was pretty devastating for her stomach and health. Now physician wants to keep chemotherapy for life (apparently he thinks she will resist forever and that we're swimming in money) and to do full-brain radiotherapy because a single metastasis in brain. She isn't fond of taking radiotherapy after reading the benefits are minimal for her life-expectancy and the 6-month late effects in brain damage. We will have to take a decision soon. The good news, our daughter Myriam Sofia is growing healthy and even though the drugs my wife is growing hair. This picture is from my birthday, one week ago, my wife only departed a few minutes because she keep vomiting in the bathroom, she has fighted so hard and keeps smiling. Thanks everyone! We are in deep gratitude. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEFF31 Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Just a quick update in the progress of my wife's health, she went thru 6 chemotheraphies (thanks to your donations!), losing 8 pounds and after a checkup the cancer stays with same size. The last chemo was pretty devastating for her stomach and health. Now physician wants to keep chemotherapy for life (apparently he thinks she will resist forever and that we're swimming in money) and to do full-brain radiotherapy because a single metastasis in brain. She isn't fond of taking radiotherapy after reading the benefits are minimal for her life-expectancy and the 6-month late effects in brain damage. We will have to take a decision soon. The good news, our daughter Myriam Sofia is growing healthy and even though the drugs my wife is growing hair. This picture is from my birthday, one week ago, my wife only departed a few minutes because she keep vomiting in the bathroom, she has fighted so hard and keeps smiling. Thanks everyone! We are in deep gratitude. family.jpg Ms. Nanochess, Keep fighting! Can't imagine how hard it is for you - but DO NOT GIVE UP! A bunch of us are hoping that you get thru this OK! Best to you and your new daughter. Enjoy her - she will grow up so fast! "Coleco Atariage members" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Ms. Nanochess, Keep fighting! Can't imagine how hard it is for you - but DO NOT GIVE UP! A bunch of us are hoping that you get thru this OK! Best to you and your new daughter. Enjoy her - she will grow up so fast! "Coleco Atariage members" She sends thanks and hugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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