MiniRPG

Targ by Exidy? Edit: Never mind. Targ is the predecessor to Spectar.

I'll take an open source platform any day over the politics surrounding the Super Game Module.

Agreed. If it's in good working condition,it should easily hold its value. You might even make a profit if you change your mind and sell it.

Spoke to my dad today and we discovered that a few of his designs are missing, including the 32K cartridge board. UGH! He says that he has it backed up somewhere, but most of his stuff is back at his house in Tucson, Arizona. He's presently in Maryland with my mom caring for my grandfather who is 93. So it looks like the hardware side of things is going to have to wait while I kick off development. He did say one interesting thing, though. He mentioned that it would be helpful if the Coleco ADAM had a USB port, but he never developed it. Of course, I agreed. Right now I'm just planting the seeds. If he sees that I'm making good progress I might be able to get him involved again. I will continue to keep you updated as the situation evolves.

Thanks to Electric Adventures for your informative Let's Make A Retro Game series.

Classic game development is a throwback to a time when a single programmer could design and code a game. That's what I'm going for here--a personal challenge. Other aspects such as testing I'll certainly need help with. Then there's production, marketing, etc. which could involve many more people.

I will not be supporting Opcode's SGM. The Ultimate SD Wafer Drive is a possibility, but I need to research it further. I'd like the game to be able to run on ColecoVision, Coleco Adam and CollectorVision/ColecoVision HD consoles. Modded consoles/emulators should also work fine since little of the OS7 BIOS will be relied upon.

The thumbnails look amazing! Sierra Online was a huge inspiration for the type of games I wanted to make back in the day. King's Quest is another I'd love to see ported.

Yes, the very one. It started out as a Coleco ADAM project, but considering the intended audience, it would probably work better as a (multi/mega) cartridge release. In addition, a minimal 32K RPG is also in the works for ColecoVision. (Call it the ColecoVision 32K challenge, if you will.) I will see dad/Mark/pops on Saturday to discuss my plans. I suspect it will take multiple attempts to get him to warm up to the project. We'll see. If you have any questions for him (within reason), I'll pass them along during my visit. And yes, politics shouldn't prevent developers from gaining access to vital components to release their games.

That's exactly the idea, but focused on new challenges. I can't promise anything, but I can at least make use of his unused cartridge board design. It would be nice to have brand new Micro Innovations products once again, especially cartridge boards that are readily available and don't get caught up in politics. Again, this is a starting point, which may lead to bigger things. We'll see.

Not ideal, but yes I support CollectorVision in this matter.

There are other features I'd like to add, but I'd really like to brainstorm with him to see how far we could take it. If the MegaCart PCB does everything I'd need, then by all means. This project was something I discussed with him off and on for many years to support a cartridge-only version of my work-in-progress Dragonmaster, which I am reviving after a long hiatus.

Sorry, duplicate post.

My father also designed a 32K cartridge board that never went into production. Nothing groundbreaking, just a cartridge that I might use for a future project. 6-8 months ago I asked him if he'd be interested in creating a new design to accommodate larger capacity chips via bankswitching. He said he'd think about it. I haven't followed up with him, but it wasn't a stern "no." He's retired now, so he might be interested in doing some tinkering--if he doesn't have to put up the money for it, of course.

I would certainly pay a few extra bucks for the CIB experience.

Congratulations and great job! I'll try to squeeze it in my schedule once it's released.

Correction: I went off to college (Ringling School of Art & Design) while he was working on the AdamNet hard drive. I remember him giving up on the project, saying that he couldn't quite get it working right. Little did I know that while I was studying, he got it to work. Last time I saw him I asked him about this, and he said, "Oh, yeah. I eventually got it working." That was a big surprise to me. I thought it was no more than a temperamental prototype that never made it to production. So glad to be wrong about this.

I will proudly support the ColecoVision™ HD Video Game System and pending Kickstarter.

I just wanted to add that Byte Knight upgraded two Flashback units for me and the quality of the work is exceptional.

Is it really so unlikely that someone browsing the Atari Age forum might one day develop an Atari Jaguar game?

If I ever developed an Atari Jaguar game, I'd definitely use these.

Fascinating. I'll definitely have to get one. From a developer POV, I'm curious about how the bank switching works within a game. I'm sure there's documentation about this somewhere on the Atari Age forums.

ADAMCon IV was the only ADAMCon that I attended with my father. I remember being blown away by Chris Braymen's MIDI demo and later asking him to create music for my game. Truly a fantastic experience.

Micro Innovations was my father's company. The last project he worked on was the AdamNet hard drive, which he could never get working quite right. I remember when he was thinking of designing interface cards for computers that did not yet have hard drive support. I begged him to do one for the Coleco ADAM, and I guess you could say, the rest is history.

Great thread! That reminds me...I've got a couple unopened copies of Zaxxon Supergame Pack in original packing (the cardboard arcade box) that I should probably put up on eBay. EDIT: The game I would have loved to have seen made into a Supergame is Fortune Builder, though Spy Hunter would have been awesome, too.