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Uh, what's the problem with the obvious way of just having the barcode reader interface in the I/O or memory space of the system? You'd access it like any other peripheral hardware (sound chip, graphics chip, whatever). Philipp

These are the current (october 2012) prices: The homebrew kit CV (material to make 2 cartridges) is at 10 euro + shipping, the homebrew kit CV 24 (materials for 24 cartridges) is at 96euro + shipping. Philipp P.S.: I intend to offer a solderless kit in the near future, too.

I will consider this, but want to play the game on a console before I decide. Done. No. This is beyond the graphical capabilities of the ColecoVision. This is planned. Philipp Ȼi̅x̅a.rom.gz

I sell these homebrew kits: http://colecovision....ebrew kit.shtml which contain all the components needed to make a ColecoVision cartridge. However, I'll be travelling in Asia until mid-october before I return to Europe. Philipp

Just a small update, with a fix for the second line bug reported by nanochess. For the difficulty screen I did not center the lines (as opposed to the other screens), since I wanted the numbers aligned. Is this reset issue really important? The controller cables are not that long, so on a real ColecoVision the reset button is easily within reach all the time. Philipp Ȼi̅x̅9.rom.gz

Well, the ideas in my original post do not rely on game quality, only game quantity. Game quality was able to contribute to the original crash partially due to a lack of ways for games to get information about games before buying. This is no longer the case today. If there is a reenactment of the crash it will have to do without that. Philipp

The error message is unrelated to the cause of the problem here: It happens the moment Qix touches a line that should not be. What were you doing the moment the line appeared? Philipp

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "on the same team", but the game "Cye" has cooperative multiplayer levels. The games "Schlange CV" and "Monster Masher" have simultanous multiplayer modes, and can be played more cooperatively or more competitively. The unreleased games "Bankruptcy Builder" and "Ȼi̅x̅" are like that, too. Philipp

Sorry, my words were unclear; I was referring to stores that do sell homebrew games (and after all ColecoVision homebrews are mostly a form of retrogaming); there is some overlap with stores selling old games, so I just called them retrogame stores. Philipp

Why not just use the reset button? This is planned. I'll look into a mechanism that detects the case of two Sparx on an edge going the same direction, and has a small chance of making one of them changing direction. Thanks. This seems like a good idea. I'll implement it. Philipp

There is a relatively large number of homebrews in development to be released this year, but the number of ColecoVision gamers AFAIK hasn't increased. Will this lead to a reenactment of the videogame crash within the ColecoVision scene? So far demand has always been greater than supply, due to the limited time of homebrew programmers. Maybe it will be different for the first time at the ned of this year. It might become harder to sell homebre games, and as a result, retrogame stores might become reluctant to stock ColecoVision games after that. I'd consider it possible, though not very likely. If it happens it would make for an interesting way to celebrate the ColecoVision's 30th anniversary. Philipp

I'll have to try on a real ColecoVision, with the original controllers to see if 50% is too easy, but I will consider adding another difficulty level at at 65%. Philipp

Another update. The multiplayer mode should work now, and there's a simple game end screen. Philipp Ȼix8.rom.gz

So far I just went with something that was easy to do on the ColecoVision. The ColecoVision neither has a vector capability for line-drawing, now has it the unlimited-height sprites of the Atari 5200. I might revisit this later. I'll have to test on a real cosnole, before deciding this. That will take time, as I am travelling until mid-october. Well, just tell about the other things now; they might be harder to change later (should I decide to do so). Philipp

Why? Philipp

The aracde version could be set to 50%, 75% (the factory default) and 90%. I use these for easy, normal and hard mode (and that is the only difference between the modes). Philipp

Here's anpother update: 1) The line bug just reported should be fixed now. 2) Edge storage has been moved into VRAM. Getting an "out of edge memory" error is far more unlikely now. The game can now handle up to 200 edges. Initially I was considering detecting the presence of the Adam or SGM to allow even more edges using their 24K RAM, but when no one gets any "out of edge memory" errors, I might leave it at the 200 that I managed to put into VRAM. Next I'll want to complete multiplayer mode, then multiple lives. 'Haven't decided about sound and music yet. Philipp Edit: I also plan to allow the Sparx to move onto the Stix in higher levels. Ȼix7.rom.gz

Does anyone know of a useable Adam emulator (or knows how to get mess Adam emulation to work)? Philipp

Another update, including the beginnings of a multiplayer-mode. Also, there were lots of internal changes, in the edge memory handling. Philipp Ȼix6.rom.gz

How did you get it to work? I get a list of missing ROMS in mess 0.146: alf #1 rev 57 e3d5.u8 NOT FOUND alf #2 rev 57 ae6a.u20 NOT FOUND alf #3 rev 57 8534.u21 NOT FOUND eos 6 rev 57 08dd.u22 NOT FOUND wp_r80.rom ROM NEEDS REDUMP master rev a 174b.u6 NOT FOUND keyboard.u2 NOT FOUND tape rev a 8865.u24 NOT FOUND printer.u2 NOT FOUND floppy disk drive NOT FOUND (NO GOOD DUMP KNOWN) spi.bin NOT FOUND ERROR: required files are missing, the system cannot be run. I suppose this means I need these ROMs to get the emulator to work. And the list includes a ROM, for which there is no known good dump? How am I supposed to use this thing short of dumping the ROMS myself? Philipp

How will the SGM behave wrt. RAM when the game does no SGM/Adam-specific things? Will there be 24K of RAM, mapped as in the Adam, or will the SGM RAM be disabled, with the game only seeing the 1K mapped into 8K RAM of the ColecoVision? Philipp

Ok, this bug is fixed now. There's probably more, though. Which parts are (or were) missing in MESS in the ColecoVision emulation? Philipp Ȼix5.rom.gz

Here's a version that's twice as fast. Which speed do you prefer? Philipp Ȼix4.rom.gz

Which emulator are you using? I see that there are two vertical black bars in your image, one in the upper right, isolated from the rest of the black area. The other in the upper left, attached to the black main area. The latter is what probably causes this bug: The black bar is drawn over part of the border, which means the Qix can pass through the border and reach a non-black pixel that is not part of the border (and concludes that it is part of the Stix). I do not see these two black bars (I use mess 0.146 on Debian GNU/Linux). Philipp Edit: I now also tried Meka 0.70, and couldn't reproduce the issue there either.

In the level where you defend the radio installations in "Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels 2" they make it possible to fire from the gun towers in the back row, even when the front row towers are not destroyed yet. Philipp