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opcode

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Posts posted by opcode

  1. Posted

    I know this is circular discussion, and I believe I have already said that, but I think the SGM would have failed anyways. Just think, you are asking CV owners to basically buy this expensive (for 1983 standards) expansion, just to play slightly improved arcade ports. You see, yes, DK Super Game had all 4 screens, and some intermissions, but it wasn't a huge leap IMHO, nor even "arcade perfect", since they mostly used the original port as the starting point. They needed new exclusive material to sell the SGM, and didn't have it. So I guess it would have sold a few thousand units and died with the rest of the crash. Look what Nintendo did in Japan, they created new exclusive stuff to launch the Disk System (Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus). 

     

    Instead Coleco should have invested in improving their in-house teams. Get some programmers the same caliber as Atarisoft, created more original material, things like that. Also focused all their resources on the CV instead of scattering it thin between CV and ADAM.

  2. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Geoff Oltmans said:

    I was trying to find it, but I think it's lost to the sands of time... You've seen the email exchange I shared with Bill Rose, and that didn't encompass everything that he told me. I was thinking that he had said that but I can't find that exchange. Either him or Howard Eglowstein. I suppose we could rattle their cages again and see if they can confirm if what I'm saying is accurate.

    I just find that estrange that AFAIK, Coleco was doing good until Q4 1983, the quarter the ADAM got released. I don’t know any specific numbers for the CV, but then which other major product did they have? So I assume that because of the crash CV sales may have taken a hit, I just wonder if it is that bad. 

  4. Posted

    So here is the status of things. We are working on a new cartridge shell tooling. That will be done before the end of this year. Once it is done, we will have unlimited supply of cases again. Which means most of our games (at least non limited editions) will be back in stock. Some advancements in cartridge PCB will also make things easier. :)

    • Like 4
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  7. Posted

    Sorry, working on that. Was moving stuff and deleted the website by mistake. In fact that took down emails as well. Emails are now fixed, but still working on website. Should take a couple of weeks though. On the other hand we also got a new domain name, Opcode Electronics.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. Posted

    4 minutes ago, CartridgeStealer said:

    But a game system was so much cheaper than a computer. My mom almost bought me an Adam. I couldn't believe it because it was so expensive but they were sold out by the time she wanted to get me one. But I was always in toys r us looking for the newest game for coleco. I hated the computer games on coleco because they were just boring to me.

    You are thinking in terms of an Adam. By late 1983 you could get a C64 for $200, basically state of art in terms of game hardware (in the US at least) at that point. 

  9. Posted

    2 minutes ago, CartridgeStealer said:

    I don't believe that. Yes computers started getting popular but home video games were still huge. Coleco games ceased to exist in 85 because of a no demand then why did nintendo blow up when it hit america the next year? I call bullshit on the death of the video game craze. I am defiant on this. Prove me wrong!

    The crash was something with the retailer channels, not consumers. Consumers were still there, but the distribution channels were cloaged with unsold stuff. Nintendo succeeded because they waited long enough until retail had got rid of most unsold stuff and made room for new stuff.

     

    The other problem was value as Robb mentioned. Computers had the best gaming hardware at that point. C64, as much as I don't care about the machine, was THE best gaming hardware available. So it wasn't until the NES that we got a hardware that was better than the C64 at a very reasonable price point. 

     

    But yeah, this discussion is circular at this point...

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    I’m a little confused. I think I may be on the DKA list since I bought the DKA box. I don’t seem to remember a pac man dx pre-order email, although I am on the gradius  list. Are any of these limited to orders from years ago?

    No. I don’t plan to have any preorder with games. We will sell when they are ready, or at least ready for manufacturing.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  11. Posted

    Ok, some explanation is due. Indeed, Gradius was supposed to be a simple re-release. In fact we even started the manufacturing process. Boxes were printed. But then I decided to add a new video mode supporting advanced tech like F18A and Phoenix. So because of that I moved the game to the end of my 4 games list to give me enough time to implement everything. Truth is, all games are receiving the same upgraded video mode options, but that didn't affect their schedule much. DKA had to be delayed for a different reason, that being that I decided to redo the sound engine from scratch after 3 generations of patches. But even that should be in beta very soon. Anyway, new video mode didn't affect other games much, but affects Gradius because of the complexity of that game and the many required changes. So in order to keep the pipeline flowing, I moved that to the end of the line, with DKA being the first in line, followed by Pac-Man DX, Moon Cresta/Eagle, and finally Gradius in early 2021. But for those with the hardware, the improvements should be worth the waiting.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    Ah yes, forgot about those. Again, overlays will do the trick.   

    The SAC uses a questionable scheme to map the two extra buttons. Buttons are mapped as extra keys, which has two main side effects:
    1) pressing both extra buttons at the same time will be identified as pressing a different key in the keypad (and no button pressing)
    2) pressing a key in the keypad and one of the extra buttons results in a 3rd different key being identified as pressed (and no button pressing again)

    So yeah, whoever come up with that dropped the ball to say at least.

    While there is the option to add a switch somewhere to select between schemes, I can say that I am definitively not going with the SAC scheme as my default scheme, as that ruins the usefulness of those extra buttons.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  21. Posted

    Just now, zyzzle said:

    Please give a super-quick list of the modes.

     

    I think they're 256x192, 64x48 and 40x24 (text mode). Is this correct?

     

    Well, TMS9918 is a tile based video. So even 256x192 is 32x24 tiles. You get two variations of that mode. One is 256 tiles max, two colors per tile, but each group of 8 tiles share the same 2 colors. The mode most used in games is a little more complex. 256 tiles per screen "third", so 3 sets of 256 tiles per screen. Also, each tile can use two colors per pixe row, and since a tile is 8x8 pixels, that means 8 pixel rows, or 16 colors per tile. 

  23. Posted

    9 hours ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

    Aww, no Color Line re-releases at all? There's a few I missed out on and was hoping to scoop up at some point. 😕

     

    25 minutes ago, mufla said:

    Ed - hope you will reconsider taking a vote on some color line re-releases.  Many longtime collectors missed the boat on a few.  Happy to preorder.

     

    Guys, we will restock the Color Line, early next year, once we have our new cartridge tooling. Right now we are cartridge shell constrained. 

    • Like 2
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  24. Posted

    36 minutes ago, Ikrananka said:

    I think Coleco's point was that it was the ColecoVision that was upgradeable with a keyboard and printer to make it an ADAM computer.  Why would having to buy a ColecoVision AND an SGM to have the same upgrade path been better or more attractive to consumers?

    It was probably simpler than that. By early 1983 it was clear that the console market was crashing, Wall Street was panicking, and everybody was moving to home computers. So they quickly adapted  from “you can upgrade your CV to become an entry level home computer” to “we offer a home computer that can play CV games btw”. 

  25. Posted

    I would like to know if the limited (40 pcs) Color Line games also become available then. I sure have a wishlist!

    Unfortunately those were limited editions, so I don’t think it would be right for us to make any more. Sorry :(


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    • Thanks 1
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