Pixelboy

Not sure the AtariAge forums are the best place to discuss NES homebrews, as it's more geared towards pre-NES systems (Atari 2600, ColecoVision, etc.) so I would recommend checking out YouTube videos like this one:

I just stumbled upon this video from 2018 showcasing a GBA 100-in-1 multicart of SMS and Game Gear games: I noticed that "Wonder Boy in Monster Land" and "Wonder Boy III - Dragon's Trap" are included in this multicart (see at 4:50 in the video) which made it interesting to me, so I tried to get one on eBay. Turns out that the only SMS multicarts for GBA available nowadays are the 106-in-1 and the "NES versus SMS" combos, and none of those contain those two Wonder Boy games. So John, if you still have your SMS/GG multicart, better hold onto it as it's actually a bit more valuable than the more recent versions, at least in my opinion. If I can find this multi-cart, I'll surely buy it, since I'd love to be able to play Dragon's Trap on my GBA.

Heed my advice: Stay away from Madonna Mark II (or whatever he likes to call himself these days) and his games. I tried working with him and I got burned.

And then follow it up with Jet Set Willy.

Well, although it's not a game I would publish (or even buy as a gamer), I think it would be neat to see this SG-1000 game ported: Translate all the little parts of Japanese text and make other little graphical touch-ups, rework the controls to make good use of the Super Action Controllers, and this could be renamed "Super Action Golf".

No, it's indeed rare, but if you're willing to settle for a homebrew port of the SG-1000 version, why not just try to get a repro of the ColecoVision version?

I believe this is the first time I've seen a programmer use "game over" music as the main background tune of his game.

Just a quick question that just crossed my mind: If Coleco had released a mouse for the ADAM back in the day, how would one connect it to the ADAM memory console? Via the ADAMNet connector, or perhaps using a "T" adaptor on the connector used for the keyboard (if that makes any sense)? I know that the joystick ports would not have been a good option, considering the Roller Controller requires external power, and an ADAM mouse would probably generate the same kind of interrupts as the Roller Controller.

Why? Rock'n Bolt was released on ColecoVision by Telegames back in the 80s, and it's a very nice version too.

That looks quite impressive indeed. With this said, I should point out that I'm down to five Team Pixelboy games I want to release, namely Asteroids, Star Castle, Space Shuttle, Utopia and Arabian. I have no plans to take on any other project after this. So if any other CV homebrewer wants to port this game to the ColecoVision, you don't have to worry about lil' old me.

Small update for those who are interested: After giving it some thought, I've decided to drop the Armor Attack project. I think I have enough on my plate for the remainder of the year without adding a new last-minute project to it. If anyone out there wants to make his own version of Armor Attack, you'll get no objections from me.

Star Castle will likely be released on Christmas Day 2021. That's the plan for now anyhow. To pre-order a copy, just send me an e-mail at pixelboy at teampixelboy dot com.

I'm sorry to say that the pre-order period for the Asteroids Controller is long past. Also, I've reached my limit of pre-orders for the Asteroids game. But anyhow, you can see pictures of the controller here:

The goal is always to find the hidden lamp as quickly as possible, and picking up the least number of "?" symbols. That's how you rack up the points in this game. It's both a challenge and sometimes dumb luck. It's actually my favorite game of the Mystery Man Collection.

Nope, but I can recommend monitoring eBay and also Good Deal Games.

I may be overthinking this, but their bad GBA support may be done slightly on purpose, because it's visibly so bad that people who will buy the Retron Sq will definitely go through the trouble of tracking down and downloading the latest firmware. The guys at Hyperkin are perfectly aware that their GBA emulation leaves much to be desired and they know that they need to fix it otherwise their product is going to go to the same landfill where they buried those E.T. Atari 2600 carts all those years ago. In fact, I would expect that new firmware with slightly better GBA support will be available right on release day, or not long after. And once people get used to installing new firmware, they will release firmware updates as they work out the kinks in their GBA support. Anyway, I'm so glad I bought a GBA Consolizer a few months ago. It's one of the later models with the better power switch button. It was pricy, but looking at the price of the Analogue Pocket (and the Dock device sold separately) I feel it was worth it because with the Consolizer, I don't have to worry about game compatibility, since it's an actual Game Boy Advance under the hood. Anyway, thanks for the video, Metal Jesus, it was very informative.

... or Frenzy. Although in both cases, the cabinets I see of those games on YouTube have "regular" arcade joysticks, so no wonder it's hard to associate that large joystick to anything.

I recall having similar problems with the SG-1000 port of Pitfall II a decade ago. Essentially, the programmer who did the port needed to do something specific (like inserting a couple of NO-OPs somewhere in the joystick read routine, or something of the sort) in order to make it work properly on the ADAM. Otherwise, it works on the ColecoVision but not on the ADAM. Hope this helps...

I don't think you understood what I was talking about. Please go back and read the other posts around the one you quoted.

Mega Man on PC. Mega Man III on PC was a tiny bit better, but not by much.

Ah, the Gemini... I remember falling in love with its controllers. They were light and comfortable to hold, and the integrated paddle was a nice bonus. From what I've heard lately, they seem to age terribly and are prone to failure, which is a shame because if I had an Atari, I'd track down a couple of Gemini controllers to plug into it.

I meant that they are not the target audience of Pocket-carts.

Well, releasing homebrew games from other systems (ColecoVision, Atari 2600, NES, etc.) can be seen as as a bonus outlet for homebrewers. Tons of Atari 2600 homebrews were released over the last decade or so, and I think it would be cool to have many of them on GameBoy-sized carts. Just the Champ Games would be great, but there are many worthy others. My thoughts are grounded in the idea of physical carts, and there are many out there who love to collect such novelty items, especially if they're not too expensive. Of course, Analogue Pocket owners who prefer to play games via SD card are not the target audience. But my sentiment is that the real potential of the Pocket lies in becoming an FPGA version of MAME, and I think arcade games on GameBoy-sized carts would be hot items, especially if they're officially-licensed products. The Pocket may not be able to run more recent arcade machines, but without knowing the technical limits of the Pocket, I like to believe it could replicate many "relatively early" arcade games from the 80s, and personally, I'd like to own "real" arcade games on carts. I realize this may be far easier said than done, but hey, if you're going to make a platform open to homebrew game programmers, may as well set up the community with ways to make hard work shine in a rewarding way.

And then there's the question of NES mappers, which is a can of worms all by itself. Still, if just the most-used mappers could be supported, I suppose it would be enough for most NES homebrewers. Some could even go out of their way to release Pocket-cart versions of existing commercial NES games, but that could be a difficult technical endeavor depending on the game, and also be risky legally if done without proper licensing, although licensing deals are never impossible. Anyway, if this could be made to work as intended, then the community could be more easily split between those who make FPGA cores for the Pocket, and those who just want to make games for the handheld: If an FPGA core designer makes a core for a specific Pocket-cart PCB, then homebrewers just craft their games around that PCB's given architecture and features. Then you don't need to be a jack-of-all-trades (knowing both FPGA core programming and game programming) to make cool stuff on the Analogue Pocket, people with specific expertise can just get together and make things happen.

There is another possible quality-driven option: Make GB-like cartridges designed specifically for the Pocket (i.e. carts that do not fit in a GB/GBC/GBA, but do fit in the Pocket's cart slot). If a generic cartridge casing could be designed, produced, and offered to the community, then all that remains is designing PCBs with 32 edge pins that are designed to be associated with custom FPGA cores. For example, one could do a PCB that contains a ColecoVision game (following the ColecoVision's cartridge pinout) and a custom ColecoVision FPGA core could be designed so that the Pocket properly interacts with the inserted cartridge. When you have those kinds of homebrew product solutions (like actual cartridges that can be sold) homebrewers tend to put more efforts into their projects. This brings up some questions though: 1) Could the Pocket be somehow configured to automatically switch to the proper FPGA core if I switch cartridges of different types? For example, playing a ColecoVision cart right after a regular GB cart? Could the FPGA core be integrated into the cart itself and installed automatically at boot? 2) Could an NES/Famicom game (designed for carts with 72/60 pins) be shoehorned into a 32-pin setup? Given that Turbografx-16 HuCards have more than 32 pins and Analogue actually created an adaptor for such HuCards, perhaps it's possible to do the same with NES games. Or maybe not, I dunno. EDIT: Another possible use for Pocket-only cartridges: Arcade games! Imagine playing the actual Moon Patrol arcade game on your Pocket, thanks to a custom FPGA core and the arcade ROM set loaded on the cart!