Mike Harris

Why is it that when it comes to socialist countries their inspiration for computer games are so lackluster. As a good party member make sure that your farming to feed the masses is as dreary as your personal life.

Just received my in quotes "NEVER USED" in quotes"CIB" Colecovision from Ebay. I swear I need to start buying my collector items from actual collectors. This thing came in an old DVD player box, Newspaper for packing and smelled of cigarette smoke. Even the Styrofoam inside the Coleco packaging as well as the console wreaked of cigarette smoke. Scratches all over, prongs on the Power Supply bent. Clearly parts of this unit has been used but not all of it used so I guess he can get away with never been used. Yes it was complete but I think it is complete from multiple systems. The documents seemed in great quality but this will be the last thing I buy off Ebay because I seem to get burned. Or maybe, my expectations of what CIB and Never Used is higher than what the sellers of Ebay believe them to be. Also, it seems I am not allowed to give a negative review of my experience until 7 days later which is disingenuous. So I guess my next move will be a collectorvision so I can continue to develop games. https://www.ebay.com/usr/br4430?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754 Just sharing my experience with this seller. Not saying he's evil.

Holy crap...That's awesome.

Is this a fake Mr. Turtle or did someone actually do a remake of never released titles. https://www.ebay.com/itm/MR-TURTLE-for-Colecovision-ADAM-Cartridge-NEW-CIB-no-SGM-needed/333120943271?hash=item4d8f8e34a7:g:rGIAAOSw0bpcXQaQ

You have to wonder why it was never released when it falls under other great Canadian software classics such as the Pine Syrup Tester 1.3 and The Official Salmon Cleaning Simulator.

Never Mind...Just picked one up. Now if there is a mint, never opened, never used, museum quality then pm me please.

Beware and always be suspicious. The person selling this clearly displays the ADAM Disk drive manual, labels and write protect as well as the power supply giving the "Impression" that it comes with the unit but alas the drive itself is not in the picture or any real type of description at the bottom. An email and several days later, several emails to him in in fact, comes up with vague excuses about a brother being sick and ultimately oh yea, we have a second ADAM at his shop. Never buy anything on EBAY without getting confirmation of what is included and condition. If the disk drive was included I would have hit the buy now because I thought that would have been worth the price even for parts and a working Disk Drive despite the damaged power supply. https://www.ebay.com/itm/ADAM-THE-COLECOVISION-FAMILY-COMPUTER-SYSTEM-WITH-MANUALS/283413533256?hash=item41fcc35248:g:voMAAOSwTHlchX0F So, maybe he's legit but maybe not so I thought I would give the community a heads up. I certainly am not buying from this guy, Fuds Gaming and anyone else that is deceptively silent then falls back on...Well if you didn't see it in the picture... A direct copy from my email. "As a matter of fact he has another Adam at the shop I will be there tomorrow afternoon I will see if in fact it has a drive I'm assuming the drive looks like the photo that I seen that he has I will check for that" This guy, in my opinion, purposely showed everything about the Disk Drive and would have sold the unit and screamed It was not in the pictures when confronted. I know it and he knows it.

Speaking of, I need to get some blank eproms, circuit boards, cartridge cases and an eprom writer. Someone point me to the right direction.

I sent a pm to someone names MysteryMan2000 so I can only suspect that's him. If you have an alternate can someone send that to me that would be cool too.

That is a great idea. I should contact him sometime but what I am making now is 100% free to the community.

Here I am 2 years later. It was going to be the RCA Selectavision CED which is different than a Laser disk player and much cheaper. The basic player was around $150 or so dollars MONO no screen buffer for seek or pause. I know I read about it in one of those magazines around 1983 and it was supposed to be able to use dragons lair. Dates may be slightly off but that's what me and my friend did all day. Hang at the mall bookstore and read far side, computer magazines then use smashed up pennies at Bally's Aladdin's Castle. 25 cents worth of pennies, smash with a hammer gives you 25 games.

Team Pixelboy and Pixelboy confused me like The Father, The Son and The Holey Ghost are 3 but 1... It's an awesome game. The dude knows his &&it

I went to OpenEmu looking around for more efficient assembler routines just to find QFTGC sitting there. I went to the directory, low and behold it was just the rom. A couple of questions come to mind. 1) was the source in C or Assembly 2) is it available for review and learning and 3) is it available for review and learning.... All my snags in developing spawns, of course, from lack of knowledge and as a reminder I have no desire to steal code and once I release my first PD game all help will be mentioned in the credits. Things I can learn from this particular source is collision between background tiles and sprites. My current routine has a bug in it that if I if I hit a corner I can go through some walls. Other things are animation and memory management and all kinds of things. Hey, if they are trade secrets then so be it but at least write a Coleco Assembly guide with examples that I can purchase if you don't want to release any source code. Many thanks to everyone who has helped me so far. My game is 80% done as of last month, just been busy with other things. TIA

Beware of Ebay because so far I have bought 2 and both have severe issues because the owners have no clue and description can be accurate AND misleading at the same time. One was "Never Used" but the guy forgot to mention that it did not come with the manuals and I will never buy anything from Fuds Gaming ever again. It WAS never used but when I tested it the capacitors blew up in my face upon first use. The second one I bought as a development unit and has two Digital Data Drives both with the wheels melted and frozen. So in reality, save your desk space and emulate...Buy from a collector on Atari Age or wait for a device like Collectorvision but then again I have no clue if Collectorvision will even use ADAM images.

Yea...The more I dig. I posted my thoughts, dreams and expectations in another post so I don't need to repeat it here. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265739-coleco-strong-arming-homebrew-publishers-and-fan-sites/page-107

Yea, I just looked it up. They hold the TRADE MARK according to https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/coleco-holdings-llc-1382196/ Now that does not be necessarily mean they own the patents of which I have not been able to find. So in reality, if that is the case, no one can use the Coleco trademark. The Colecovision and ADAM hardware can be used all day long but who would want to when you can do a better job. That would also not stop using the design shell of the product. So unless they own an actual patent on those handhelds then even those are up for grabs but I'm not interested in all of that. So, unless they forget to renew or sell me their TM license then I will have to create my own device and just have it backwards compatible. I'll design, write or hire someone to write, an new operating system with a sandbox to run old Coleco Carts. Being that I am sure they could make more money selling me their trademark than off those handhelds in MY opinion. That falls every day because I can make my own system and just don't use the Coleco TM. There is also nothing saying that I have to put the Coleco TM in any title that is written and hell, if push comes to shove I can use code to blank over the Coleco title in old games emulated. So far they have yet to respond to me emails so the jokes on them. As far as calling them trolls, I mean I guess...but anyone could have bought that trademark and defended it. I'm not calling out anyone...I just want to make my dream come true while I still have my health. And the older I get...

Because I am not going to read all 107 pages has anyone discovered who actually owns the Coleco Trademark? Doing a little research brings me to the same links that started this page and I have a very great desire to buy the Coleco/ADAM trademark because I want to build new machines. I'm old, retired and want to create something I am passionate about but my personal beliefs is that Collectorvision, as brilliant as it is, is too small. I want to go next gen for homebrewers and the like. I am certainly under no aspirations that this will be the money making sleeper of the century but there is a market and it's not about the money. This is my childhood, this is a lost art, this is history and defending the Coleco ADAM which I believed in. Besides, 8 bit gaming is hot among the retro crowd and you see that in games like Minecraft and so many indie games across the net and look what those other guys are doing with the Coleco name. Raspberry Pi? Rainbow Bright TableTop? Really? So someone throw me a bone here.

Someone clarify because I am a dunce at these things. I looked this up for **its and giggles. https://trademark.trademarkia.com/colecovision-73458232.html This says that the Coleco Trademark is open yet those other guys that are releasing the handheld's says they own it.

In my case is that I am a newbie with zero experience which makes me bug you guys on how to do it. When I was in the military it was teach you once, you do then teach others. I need source code to show me the way or I will spend the next year trying to figure it out. I get the concepts of page flipping, buffering and scrolling but at the end of the day there is a formula that is taught as gospel so you don't have to pound your way through it. Most of these guys like Pixelboy or whomever I can find articles of homebrew going back over 10 years so I know that THEY know what's what but getting info these days is pulling teeth. Example of opcode starting a course in z80 on this very website and never got past the first class that I could find. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193683-z80-assembly-module-1-basic-z80-programming/ http://www.colecovision.dk/cv-z80-assembly.htm I am on fire to make games for the Coleco mainly for my benefit, not to take business away from anyone.

The issue that I have found is boiling down to a format that will work in a Coleco setting. TNIASM is another one. What I gather is that this is using compressed data, expanded into VRAM then page flipping... I take it that this is also the reason why Rally X is for the SGM because of the expanded memory. Being as Destructor, Zaxxon and a few others work on stock Colecovision I suspect that they used other formulas. They also are choppy in execution. If someone out there with z80 code for 8 way scrolling in Coleco format is reading could you post it please.

Create the tools. Can't say that these geniuses have created these awesome machines can't write a bios and some tools? There is no way because I would assume that they know more than just porting MSX games.

BTW, my first couple games are PD learning curve for me and freely available when ready. Once I start selling something I can assure you I have legal means to protect my investment. It wouldn't be fair to those who paid and limits the quality of my future games. As a matter of fact, can someone PM me if there are any "inside" literature for sale or programing guides for the SGM, Collectorvision and what not.

To give foundation to your statement you guys don't know the loyalty of this community so I will share that. I have yet to find in any of my searches, forums, usenet, torrent or any other ANY collectorvision or homebrew game that has not been released to the community through PD means. That is not saying someone makes a personal copy then sells their games on ebay but people collect these things for more than just the game, the box, the instructions so locking down the system would be a slap in the face.

As a businessman and a consumer I will be very blunt that removing your SD Card, or as a hypothetical, block running of roms, your are going to kill this project and limit the sales. I never understood outside of a licensing aspect why producers such as Sony, Western Digital and others lock features of their products only to find someone hacks them to work again. As I am not the author of this machine I can not dictate it's direction but if I did I would be in a parallel direction but design bigger with USB ports, Wifi access, advanced graphics and sound. Make it the next generation ADAM but unfortunately you do not hold the license to Coleco which is unfortunate because we have an opportunity. Then again, I am just some guy that has a deep passion for the Colecovision over all other consoles that ever hit the market and if I had the smarts I would use my capital to finance the next gen retro console that anyone can use, create games and share them freely. We are here to have fun guys and when you lose that passion then why bother.