newcoleco

Good morning everyone! No, this is not clickbait... it's real. To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the ColecoVision game system To show my music composing talent And to show how I don't care about drama, about being imposed restrictions in my hobby. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN RAINBOW BRITEtm JUKEBOX MUSIC FOR THE ADAM COMPUTER, COLECOVISION AND COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS BY NEWCOLECO AKA DANIEL BIENVENU Please leave a like and comment! Enjoy! ROM FILE : RAINBOW BRITE JUKEBOX 2017.zip SOURCE FILE : RAINBOW BRITE JUKEBOX 2017 (SRC FILES).zip FAQ Q: Software to make the music? A: My own software CVSoundGen.zip and 2 days of patience and listening the theme song in chunks with Audacity. Q: Development kit? A: My own kit based on Marcel deKogel's devkit released in 1998 and adapted to work with SDCC compiler. Q: Can I use this music and sounds for my own projects? A: No, unless I tell you otherwise. Q: Will there be a playable game Rainbow Brite for the ColecoVision? A: Maybe, maybe not. Q: Why you decided to make a jukebox with the Rainbow Brite theme song? A: For fun. First time ever I've heard the music and I quite like how catchy and groovy it sounds as a chiptune.

Here's my chance to react before this thread closes again. Friends, This drama caused a rollercoaster of emotions for me. At first, I felt terrible that an amazing fan page was in trouble partially because my video games for adults were mentioned. And then, I felt better with your nice words. This thread is warning us that: WE are being used, abused, and this has to stop. It's great to see the massive positive feedback and support from everyone, homebrewers and retro gaming fans together, stronger than ever. And, like a cherry on top, I've received messages from people interested to know more about my work and programming new games. It's fun to explore as if the video game crash never happened, and I wish our hobby continue for a long time. I hope to see you in a convention or gaming expo. At the moment I'm writing this message, you can find me at the ADAMCon 29, July 20-24, 2017; it will be a pleasure to sign boxes and carts of my games. I will take the "don't be fooled" advice and move on with my life and my passion. I wish nice summer vacations to Robb and his family, and to all my friends! Thanks to AtariAge, Albert, for letting us say the last words and not deleting any of this. Best regards, Daniel Bienvenu aka NewColeco Twitter: @DanielBienvenu

Even after all these days, I see a lot more pages here and my name mentionned again and I think "OMG when it's gonna stop?". Thanks for the link. After a first read, I don't understand it all; legal documents tend to make me feel dizzy and I just click OK when installing software. I'll read it again later, with more care, not in diagonal. ... We all like to be happy, so do I. And I love sharing my work but this drama made me feel terrible. - the attention toward these particular games which in my case are refered as more sexual than they are. - a brand that is part of my childhood memories being now so childish and upset toward the same fans and people that keep the name alive. - this forums thread is huge, must be a record on AtariAge. - the rollercoaster of emotions; it made me cry, depressed, questioning if I really want to come back in the active scene in these circonstances. Seeing homebrewers and fans together, the community is stronger than ever, makes me happy. I'm confused but I like the spirit of continuing our passion of making videogames so... I'm back. I know, some of you already told me that I should not feel bad or say sorry. I've let this drama affects me more than it should. Thanks everyone and let's enjoy videogames Best regards, Daniel

Great! Do I understand it well? Please, someone, tell me that I'm wrong! So, he capitalizes on at least one homebrew game to make a name for himself, without any effort put in it nor making a donation to the homebrew scene, with no apology for DMCA attacking fans. And on top of that, trying to demonize the homebrew scene who made the Coleco scene alive for 2 decades, and making ColecoVision label the "must not be printed" name. All this to gain credits and profit for work he never does, and get the attention, visibility, and publicity for his gaming expo and future Coleco products for parents and "true fans". Isn't it by definition the actions of a "super vilain" in movies? I think so, yes. It sure is a way to deal with the situation and I don't see another solution at the moment. Not printing any trademark word is a way to "be safe" until something else happen.

It was the original plan, but it was changed to make it possible for most of us to be at the convention this year.

There are easter eggs in some my CV games. I wished to see someone figuring out the Easter Eggs in Flora without me telling any. I'm sure at least one had the question: "why clothes has bonus points?" ... well now you know why.

Warning: the following is my opinion and my opinion only. Hello again, I've read the tweets, I've watched Pat's video, and I could not believe my eyes. I may not word things well enough to express myself fully, but I assure you that I'm giving here my honnest reaction. ... This situation is mental, beyond surreal, and I won't be surprised to see it eventually get the attention of the mainstream media. Some may not like Pat's vlog, but perhaps it's not a good idea to go after him and try to censor his free speech. I won't suggest to fill DMCA claims about his video either. Going after a video blog, when you think about it, is overreacting and may cause more reputation damage than anything else. The only reason why we see the ColecoVision scene active is because WE MADE IT ! We are fans, we have nostalgia, we dreamed about "what if the videogame crash never occured?" and we made it possible. Every talent, resource, and time spent (more than 2 decades) to make all this possible is precious and should be appreciated, cherished, not in peril. To the world, the ColecoVision market is long dead; the brand has a place in videogame history and in the heart of the fans, and I don't know what the heck the actual brand owner is trying to accomplish. Wanna use Coleco brand for something new? something big? Go for it! I would love to see a new generation of Coleco products. I do understand some concerns and legal terms, and the fan page is fair use and should get an apology. And if you think about it, perhaps it wasn't a good idea for anyone to acquire a brand name refering to a vintage videogame system without any prior research, plan or respect to the fans. Do you realise that some ColecoVision homebrew games refered in the complains were made way before 2005, the year RWB acquired the Coleco brand? All this could have been avoided easily, and I really hope I'm not the only one to see it. ... To Chris aka "Coleco Holding": You are not, in any way, representing the fans and the company and games that we love. In life, especially in the Internet, we are exposed to positive and negative feedbacks. And the way we react to the feedbacks shows what we are as a person. You can do your expo with any brand name, but you selected this one and try to capitalize on the effort of the homebrew scene while putting it in jeopardy. Please, don't fk with us anymore; you are not giving yourself a favor by doing so. This situation shouldn't have occured and I hope you acknowledge it. Regards, Daniel Bienvenu ... My friends, We might not like or do the same things but friendship and respect was forged through time in this community, and that's beautiful. I have my views about what should be done for our beloved vintage game system, and I think I've contributed positively to the games library and the homebrew scene in general, sharing my work for us to enjoy. It's with regrets that I've decided to stop my ColecoVision activities during this turmoil time. I will focus on the ADAMCon convention (still time to register for it), and my life. Continue to make our vision the ColecoVision that we want it to be, with our love and dreams! I'm just a dreamer. I'm tired of this crap, feeling my energy sucked out of me the more I read about this, I'm going to bed. Thank you so much to keep us informed, I really appreciate it. Sincerely, Daniel Bienvenu aka NewColeco aka The GodFather Coleco

Thank you! Merci! Ça fait plaisir d'être de retour!

Hello Swami, Many of my Youtube videos do show my best performance, so it looks easier than it is. Sorry about that! My gameplay is the result of many hours testing the game through the entire development process. Side note: One big problem when making an original game is tweaking it to make it a pleasant, nice difficulty curve, with a good challenge, without being insanely hard. When I created GhostBlaster and went back to design the "tutorial" 1st level, it felt too easy and useless. But in reality, many players can't even pass the first level because of their tv screen (new but slow) and the controllers not top notch (unresponsive fire button and direction) and also they never played the game before. My reasoning: I really want the player to do the action of helping the flowers, but I don't want to do a numpad key press or even a secondary fire action to try to keep the game playable with "compatible controllers". So, I've made the two actions into the fire button based on Flora+flower relation, making the game slightly more challenging. Side note: During one ADAMCon (a Coleco convention), Dale Wick did a presentation about ways that controls can be exploited in videogames to do various actions like buttons combinaisons and he tried to integrate this idea into one of his ColecoVision projects. What he forgot to mention was that sometimes the same controls can have different effects in relation to what is happening on screen, or he mentionned it in another presentation and I missed it. Anyway, it was interesting and it's nice to open up to various ideas about controls and gameplay and physics and all kind of possible ways to make a videogame fun. Happy to hear you had a lot of fun playing this game. Yes, I see what you mean. This game is not for hardcore gamers, it's short and would be even better with more levels, elements to discover and enjoy. Flora's universe can be expended in the future and that's the beauty of a small original game leaving space for many possible sequels. More levels, more challenges, perhaps also an elaborated storyline... I'll try to keep that in mind for my next game. Flora and the Ghost Mirror means a lot to me. It's my attempt to do an original casual minigame based on Gabriela. Gabriela and I were in love when I coded this game, but the distant relationship didn't last a year; we are still in contact, but we moved on. During this period, I've suggested to Gabriela to do a videogame together. After a few brainstorming, Flora the fairy was born. "With our power combined" (cliché) Flora and The Ghost Mirror videogame was created with my experience in ColecoVision programming and Gabriela's love and interests which includes: nature, living plants and flowers, spiritual world, energy healing, horoscope (title screen made of horoscope signs constellations), pretty clothing and accessories, music style, ingame music is based on one of Gabriela's favorite music, Flora's voice is Gabriela's voice, addictive gameplay of online casual games, and of course a happy celebration ending. I have considered to do a sequel, even a trilogy based on Flora's universe; I think it's an interesting world to explore. I drew some sketches, but I've not started coding anything yet. Will I make Flora 2 anytime soon? No, but I'm thinking about it and see the evolution of Flora. Thanks Daniel

And again, my work is mentionned. I'm omnipresent. XD And (like a broken record) I just do it for fun... with hope it's still possible.

Might need 2 beers this time, they updated Pokemon Go.

All this is very exciting. I don't have a Coleco Flashback, but I would love to have one modded too. I would love to get my hands on this game system, or at least try it for myself, how it feels to play with the controls and navigate the menus. My opinion of this system are only from pictures and Youtube videos. :-( Talking about Youtube videos, I've heard the sound emulation of a Flashback unit in a Youtube video and it's incorrect; the periodic noise is emulated as a white noise, and this cause differences in sounds of some games like Rocky, Destructor, and games I've done music for. So my question: is the issue from an early version or it's really the sound emulation of this product?

I will be there. Just need to get my plane tickets and some extra cash to have some nice meals.

I'm wondering what is happening. Every day, this thread gets about 2-3 more pages to read. I'm shocked. Some posts are related to the topic Coleco strong-arming fans sites and homebrew publishers. What I'm reading in the late posts are more distractions and "concerns" about each others. I've read the hack-a-day article and its comments section. Again, thanks to some people on Twitter who gave the link to the article. And, I will not suggest to post pictures, Northcoastgamer, but if you do, I promise to not tell your wife as you wished.

You are not alone to feel that way. Maybe someone will do a podcast on the subject. Sometimes, the copyrights laws baffled me. Have you heard this case of the song Happy Birthday that many won't sing anymore, especially in restaurants? It's ridiculous. (fun fact?) I remember John Dondzila in the year 2000 told me that DACMAN wasn't my game and I shouldn't put a copyrights symbol on it. At first, I was angry because I felt being told that my codes are not mine. But, that's why the fixed version ( DACMAN v1.3 ) do not have the copyrights symbol. My games, files and cartridges, can be found for all the fans to enjoy. I've even said in my letter a few weeks ago that I'm ok with people making their own cartridges, but not to exploit others. And if what I do or say is damaging the homebrew scene or damaging the video game market somehow, I want to know. I wish all companies understand that we are not rivals or competitors, but fans who just like to have a bit of fun. And I wish all issues get resolved nicely, for the entire CV homebrew scene, and forever... not just for these particular games in this particular conflict. Contact me on Twitter @DanielBienvenu Note: Somehow, I'm having issues loading the forums properly.

Every page here invoking subjects somewhat related to games I've coded, I'm shocked. All the legal text is very interesting, a bit confusing to me, but hopefully, I do understand the main part of it. This thread sure is insane. Me too. So many great talents. It's nice to see artists changing the look of some cartoon characters. For some, yes it's considered inappropriate to have any exposed; I personally don't care, mines are hairy too. Very interesting. And I'm too hoping for a pleasant result after all this. This is a rollercoaster of emotions for me; every day I'm anxious to see what is next and hope for positive results.

No idea. Reminds me an old email I had from Telegames who replied "no" to my question if they knew who owns the rights on the BIOS. Only my opinion (and I may be rambling at this point)... I don't see why taking down a fan site was necessary in the first place even after reading private messages leaked here; but I do see why "not desired to see these games promoted" was brought up. It's a kind of dangerous slope that may lead to absurd things such as deny a "wack-a-mole" game because it promotes "animal cruelty" and it's bad for the brand. Because they are games for adults that I've coded, I do feel bad that even the mention of these games for adults caused such drama and trouble. And I hope everyone gets their sites back and the issues resolved. I just came back in the active homebrew scene (as explained in another post) and still want to release something this year to say "I'm still around folks!" I have so many projects on hold, and some files are lost forever, so I try to enjoy what I can do when it's still possible. And I'm coding games for fun; it's my hobby, my passion. But if it's no more possible, then the fun is gone. I won't claim to know what could be the end goals, but I do see why some talks occurred. I'm glad to have been noticed about this situation; thanks again for the message(s) on Twitter. If need to be, I might recycle myself as a MSX developer, or go back toying with the devkit for DS and PSP games, or even Android. ... will not have the same deep connection as with my first videogame system (special place in my heart), but I think I will survive. Daniel B.

A Coleco and retrogaming convention, sounds like a good idea, and I've already that with the ADAMCon group. Shameless plug: The Coleco ADAM users group called ADAMCon do annual conventions and I've participated to it for nearly 15 years already. July 20-23, 2017, Guelph (or Milton?) in Ontario, Canada. And next year the ADAMCon convention will celebrate their 30th anniversary in New York state, with a key moment of visiting what's left of a Coleco facility. You can contact Dale Wick and visit ADAMCon official websites for more informations.

hello everyone, My first attempt to reply got "time out, you must enter a post" message. I won't claim that I do understand all since I just got here; thanks everyone on Twitter to let me know. My first reaction was "WHAT?" and here's my reply. 1st - DMCA against a fan based website? Fair use allow to show our passion for a lot of things including incredible homemade things for a vintage game system abandonned by Coleco Industries more than 30 years ago. 2nd - Profit is null, just the time and energy put into making these games cannot be possible if being paid to do it. And if you want to play my games, go ahead and find them in the Internet for free, please enjoy! 3rd - Games for adults is not the same as pornographic games, like not all fingers are toes. There is no sex action, not even in silhouette in these games. There is a shower scene in the prototype Porky's that was supposed to be released back in the 80s for the ColecoVision if you really want to argue that no adult videogames are supposed to be associated with Coleco brand. 4th - Call me naive but all this would have been easily avoided with trust, talk and understanding. I do not see a respect for the homebrew scene who revived the passion for the ColecoVision game system. And who am I to say this? Just a guy who happens to be part of the ColecoVision scene for about 20 years. Goodnight everyone! Sincerely, Daniel B.

Hi Troy, I'm glad to be back as well with a brighter view on life, especially by seeing the reaction here, warming inside. My return might be official after releasing something fans can appreciate, even tho I've kinda released some tools earlier this year that might become handy. I'm not sure why myself, but it looks like you're right. So many friends I've lost contact with, some ended up alright, some with health complications, some in depression, it's crazy... like life is telling us that we are not invincible. I don't know if it's appropriate but I want to publically thank a friend named Eric Hamel, a friend I've lost contact for years, had a stroke and is dealing with complications and moves using a wheelchair. I've met him again during summer 2016 and he said to me with his deep voice: "one day at a time". I hope you will like whatever I finish first to make my come back. Juggling with ideas and making progress is irregular these days, and I've things to do in real life. Story time: In 1997, I had a 1-2 years old website at Laval University, I'm sure you guys can still find it on the time machine archive dot org somewhere. Back then I published ICVGM for DOS with mouse support and included 2 colors sprites editor if you openned it with John Dondzila's Purple Dinosaur Massacre ROM file and that's why many ColecoVision ROM Collections has weird things like Killer Instinct (PDM rom hack). Another tool back then was VOIROM to see game in hexadecial and binary, with data displayed in a way to make it easy to see characters and sprites in various ROM files used for some ROM hacks like ELDCDBPAPP Q*BERT and Winky Trap. In 1999, I coded my real first ColecoVision game from scratch, it was a Breakout clone named simply Breakout and was entirely in french, using all my tools to convert bitmaps for ColecoVision and Marcel de Kogel's devkit. And I kinda remember you sent me an email back then, yes. I'm not sure what was the message anymore, that's kinda lost into oblivion, but I recall receiving an email from someone named Troy back in the 90s. Daniel

I've also replied to your private message. I hope it's what you asked for. My mailbox is full again, I need to clean up.

Thanks and I hope for better too.

It feels nice to see all the messages here. It means a lot to me to see all the support, good words. I know there are some expectations. No promise, but I am giving it a try for sure and celebrate ColecoVision 35 years too.

Hello Leonardo, Nice to meet you. Happy to see you part of this fun and active community. During years actively coding new games for the ColecoVision, I tried to bring others to make CV games too, using my knowledge and tools, giving support by Messenger (for chat and file sharing capability during my dial-up Internet time). Some results of this period were: 421, Amazing Snake, Battle Ship (incomplete), and Maze Maniac. When I started making my own CV games, there was nothing organized like now, everything needed to be discovered, software to be developed, ways to make cartridges and published in a professional way was still to come. Now, one makes a box art, one makes a manual, one does beta testing, one does level design, one publish and distributes,... it is more team effort coming from a more mature homebrew scene. For me, I am very happy to see this very active CV homebrew scene that evolved so quickly and in a time I was mostly inactive myself, dealing with personal and financial issues. I know it's not the case, but it's as if I needed to go to let others shine and give their vision to it. I love seeing so many new CV gurus around and newcomers giving the homebrew community a chance; playing the games, forging a friendship, and coding new games. There is still a lot to discover, I'm sure of that. And the visit of CollectorVision at my door this Sunday, Easter time, really warms my heart and boost my energy, my enthusiasm even more. Huge thank you to everyone, yes everyone! Daniel aka NewColeco

Technically, the trackball (roller controller module) can be used in joystick mode, but it makes the game even harder to play. As for a paddle version, I was thinking an Atari 2600 simplified version of Jeepers Creepers can be done for paddles, but I'm not a Atari 2600 guru.