newcoleco

Got confirmation that the pre-released versions of Flora for you guys in US are delivered and should be received either monday or the day after. Deeply sorry for the long wait, at least it's getting solved now

When I drew Flora I asked first Gabi to send me samples of female shamans (at first Flora was supposed to be a shaman, not a fairy) and she sent me pictures of fairies and one of the pictures reminded me of an old tv commercial (Olay?, Neet (now called Veet)?). So I mixed the two ideas and I made Flora the way she looks now. One of the fairies Gabi sent me, you can see some similarities already. When it was time to make a label and poster, I asked Tobi to help me out and he made the hi-res pictures

Objection! If it was really safe at any time, then how can you explain my video showing that it isn't?

The eprom burner I'm using during years now is a Batronix and still working after all these different Windows versions I've been using so far. The price today is quite similar to what I've paid back then. http://www.batronix.com/shop/programmer/eprom-programmer.html

I never said it was locked but instead safe to update video at a specific moment which is, for programmers, right at the catch of the NMI, right at the start of the NMI routine... it is also safe if the screen is set to be off (screen_off), but during a game better not use that second option, only for displaying bitmap splash screens.

I have recorded a few presentations... maybe one can be watchable on Youtube later this week.

Now I see what you want to do and I would say that it's not something that is predictable on ColecoVision... and keep in mind that you might get some slight variations between Coleco and clones like the Dina or the Coleco ADAM computer. You may argue that it's part of demoscene and can be used as a neat trick to add some magical effects and I would love to say "go for it" but I see it as a potential unpredicatble nitemare. Krew who made WATERLINE for ColecoVision blamed the poor way ColecoVision was built to explain some glitches... will you claim the same when you'll notice these glitches going on in your project? When you try to modify the video RAM or just play with video registers while the videochip is busy rendering the screen it's running into trouble... it's the nitemare of corruption that every Coleco programmer wants to avoid and sadly no emulator simulates that; they all instead assume that no data is lost. On the real console, the result is partial lost of data who can either be the instruction telling which video register number you want to deal with, the data to set that video register to, or any part of the data you send to the video chip. For example, it happenned to me in the GhostBlaster project where I could see missing "characters" at the bottom of the game screen (last part of my graphic engine rendering) causing some shifting and so nasty video corruptions. http://youtu.be/hSXVwCF5_ws

As a programmer, this is basicaly the only part that will gives you predictable results : clearing yourself the memory before doing anything, which is something my devkit does. A software reset by jumping to $0000 is the only reset I can trust to keep the RAM information not being corrupted. There seems to be zero to slight corruption after each pressing of the reset button because it's physical and imperfect electronicaly speaking and you don't get everytime the same result. So, I will never trust pressing the reset button as a feature, and so should you, to get the memory in a wanted a state (garbage or not). I would rather prefer considerably something like the time a user takes to make a selection as something random enough to satisfy my high randomless wishes -or- the software reset by a "jp $0000" to restart my game cartridge while running and be sure the memory is untouched... minus the typical calls in Coleco bios which set a couple of values in RAM or course.

While pressing the reset switch on a ColecoVision, the RAM doesn't resets to 00 or even FF, but instead seems to show partialy recognizable data in RAM from a previous run (the data used just before the reset). You can see this happenning on many 8bits systems like the Commodore 64 computer if you play around with them instead of just playing videogames. And if you just do reset after reset the memory seems to "delete" the previous content of the RAM. If you turn off the system then you sure lost information from a previous time. Now if your question regards the difference between real ColecoVision and an emualtion I will say to never trust an emulator to show what the real console will do, and even worst you can have different results depending if you run a cartridge on a ColecoVision, a clone ColecoVision, a Coleco ADAM, etc.

ld a,r ; r is a value you can use to add up in the randomness, its usage for the Z80 CPU has to do with poking the memory otherwise it corrupts Try this to randomize your values in 16 bits HL or in 8 bits A, L .... or make your own routine. call $1FFD ; pseudo random -> HL ld a,r ; get the R value xor l ; apply XOR with L ld l,a ; Now HL is slightly better randomized ret True, the memory isn't filled with zero or one but it's not a trusty way to get a random value as you want.

After talking to Dale, he said that some mails received in his mailbox tend to be filtered as spam. To avoid this send him a second time an email but this time at : dmwick AT yahoo DOT com I've seen the boxes for Flora and they are looking GREAT!

You can order the final version for sure, you've to go to ADAMCON.ORG and write to Dale Wick (web master) who is releasing the game in dark-blue cartridges.

Sunday July 21, 2013... It's the 3rd day of Coleco convention and it's time for my presentation. After 30 minutes of talk and open discussions on the subject, I was thinking of doing a simple survey here about the potential videogame genres you might be interested to see entering the Coleco games library. Sadly, nobody recorded my presentation, but you can find my slides in this message. List of video game genres identified so far Action (reflex, timing) Adventure (no action, find and use items, talk to people ) Action-Adventure Role Playing (RPG) Strategy (plan your next move for victory) Puzzle Sport Educational Board, card, dice, etc... (with or without gambling) Simulation Serious (job training) Party (challenge of minigames with friends) Microgames (challenge in time of tiny tasks) Trivia Music Exercise Programming (set a list of instructions to accomplish a goal) Sandbox Advergame (cheap game/hack for advertisement purpose) Adult Religious Art (unconventional look, may not be considered game) Action genre includes an incredible number of sub-genres (First Person Shooter, SHMUP, Plateformer, Ball and Paddle, Dot-Eaters, etc.) Two genres I didn't considered from the Wikipedia page : "Casual" and "Electronic Sport". Nobody agrees on a definition for a casual game and for some people an arcade game like PacMan can be considered a casual game but it's not generaly accepted. And as for an electronic sport, it is simply a professional gamer who plays a game to win competitions, it's not a game genre but a way to play a game. Based on my "long research", half of these video game genres aren't exploited or under exploited on ColecoVision. I was thinking about it and I came out with my personal list of potential unconvential ColecoVision games that might be fun to make. 2D Portal/Portal 2 (adventure) 2D Minecraft (sandbox) Physics Sandbox (sandbox) Monopoly (board game) Risk (board game) Party Time (party, microgames) Touristic Sites Simulator (simulator) Shopping Mall (simulator) Dance Mania (music, exercise) Charlie the Unicorn (Joke) Magic Flower Kingdom (role playing) Pirates Adventure (action-adventure) Presentation - Adamcon 25 - Missing CV Games.zip

Hello again Some news about Flora and the Ghost Mirror game Final version is finaly available in cartridges. I'm at the Coleco convention and about to sign them. Manual still has to be printed for the final version fixed last night during the convention. As for the pre-released cartridges, I still have the cartridges with me and about to ship them (finaly) with the help of Coleco friends here at the convention. So sorry for the extreme long delay

After a few days of thinking about the last messages, I've decided to edit a little more the final version as the last modification I'm doing of it so the game should be ready for next month in cartridge. As for the pre-released versions, shipping the first carts next week, so don't worry if you didn't get any cartridge yet... it's normal.

Final version is easier/harder than the pre-released version depending on the difficulty you decide in the options. Looping back at harder levels post boss... that's good for trying to beat a high-score but this game doesn't have a score system. Sadly, I couldn't find a score system that works with the fact that we can stay on the first level almost forever. An idea, if you really want to challenge yourself with this game, try to beat it in less time as possible.

In the final version, the game itself isn't changed... only things around the game has changed like a menu screen to select the difficulty and the voices changed too. So if you had difficulties to beat the demo rom file I gave here, you might be able to beat the final version in easy mode.

Errr... the ROM version inside the cartridge might not be the same version as the one you found in the Internet. Let me explain... I've worked with Serge-Eric Tremblay during the entire game development. From time to time, he gave me a ROM file to test. I remember that near the end of the project, I've published a ROM file in my good old Coleco web site on Geocities but Serge-Eric continued the project and sent the up-to-date version to John Dondzila, not me. John Dondzila then started to publish cartridges of Amazing Snake in 2001 and stopped around 2005 to concentrate on his own games. So, to answer the question "how many Amazing Snake cartridges exist?" you have to ask John Dondzila who might not remember now.

Dale Wick username in AtariAge : hardhat email : can be found at the bottom of the ADAMCon.org web site

You can order one from Dale Wick, but I'm warning you that he still didn't get the final version because I'm still trying to improve this version a little so you guys can have the best gaming experience possible for this game. I'm taking this opportunity to tell you guys that I'm gonna ship the pre-released cartridges hopefully next week, maybe the week after. This delay regards a printing issue for manuals and posters. And just to be sure... does everyone gave me their shipping information? is your address from paypal account accurate? I saw one private message in here giving me an address, so I'm worrying about that possibility to send to a no-more valid address, and if it happens because of the confusion, I'm sorry. Last thing I want to mention about Flora is that, like the ending suggests, Gabriela and I are planning to make a second Flora game. We are actively brainstorming on what Flora 2 could be and we hope to make it as good if not better than Flora and the Ghost Mirror. I can't give you any information about it since it's still too early.

Picture of the cartridges before being signed. Note : The 2 cartridges different from the others are for me and my love.

This is what looks like the pre-released version. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5agX2DlLI

Sorry NIAD, I do mistakes ... still human after all. And since it's my mistake, Gabriela and I decided that it will be just to choose another number from the list. So, the lucky number is : 7. Congratulations! And Merry Christmas again! - Gabriela and Daniel

Good news! I've the labels for the pre-release cartridges! List of people interested to get Flora and The Ghost Mirror for ColecoVision : Darrin9999 * san-d-2000 ColecoDan * Pixelboy Ikrananka * evg2000 * coleco_master * scobb UberArcade retrogmr cmart604 * cvga retroillucid * TMOSteel * NIAD * rpgcollector RayXambeR Troy_Whelan * phattyboombatty * JEFF31 * jirkoo * grips03 * jeffgamer * dano lucifershalo superogue harlock76 Bill_Loguidice RelliK111 * skosh bennybingo * reiiel1 * cmart604 AtariBrian * the.golden.ax UberArcade DoctorTom zodiacprime XavierGames ACrystal2011 chocotaco InfraMan RGDiRocco Please note that all the names with an asterix (or star?) are those who specificaly asked for a pre-release cartridge. From this list, Gabriela selected randomly the winners of the very limited release in black cartridges : 23, 5, 11, 3, 15, 32 and 1. You probably noticed that there are 7 numbers, not only 5 like mentioned before, and it's simply because 7 is a nice lucky number here in America. The winners should contact me by private message as soon as possible to get the ordering details. Please note that I will not be able to ship the cartrides right away, but be assured that you will get your parcel in January. Happy holidays! Wish you goodies and merry christmas!

Holy... this looks amazing!