Pixelboy

Doesn't Pitstop support it too...? I'm not sure... And by the way, did you know you can play Turbo with the Roller Controller? I'm guessing it also works with the other DC-compatible games. I like it too, although it's a profoundly flawed game: Since your main goal is to collect crystals, there's little incentive to travel far away from the ship and explore the landscape. Once you find a teleporter, you can just stay on it until a red bug comes along. On the other hand, I love hunting for Destructor eggs and destroying them with a carefully launched crystal! That's what kept me playing for hours and hours!

The Metroid-style Castlevanias immediately come to mind. Blaster Master on NES (or Game Boy Color) could also be regarded as a Metroid clone.

Missed one: Kid Icraus (Kid Icarus).

The CV has a 16x8 sprite mode? I didn't know that... I also didn't know the number of displayable sprites per scanline doubles when you use 8x8 mode... I'll go to sleep a little less ignorant tonight, so thanks!

We're talking about the company that didn't even bother to release the second series of Super Mario Bros 4 e-Cards in the US. I ceased having any kind of positive expectation from Nintendo a long time ago. Harrison has no real decision-making power. All the real decisions about new releases are made by the mother company in Japan, and the folks at Nintendo of America are just a group of PR yes-men. So whatever Harisson says to the gaming press is just his own opinion. He knows there's money to be made on the VC with certain games like Earthbound that were translated to english but were never released states-side. That doesn't mean the shirts-and-ties in Japan see it that way. I wouldn't even be surprised if someone close to Itawa in Japan contacted Harrison and gave him heat for getting people's hopes up with that kind of public declaration.

Is it just me or is Capcom strangely absent from the VC scene? Street Fighter II is really nice and there's Super Ghouls and Ghosts on the release horizon, but I would expect Capcom to be all over the VC with their NES games: Bionic Commando, Little Nemo, 1942, 1943, Commando, Gargoyle's Quest 2, Legendary Wings... Perhaps even their lesser-known titles like Trojan, Section Z or Codename Viper... and of course there's the Mega Man series. Some of their Disney licenses would be great on the VC, like Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, Talespin. It just seems like a wasted opportunity on Capcom's part.

It's 4 sprites per line, BTW. That makes sprite-stacking unrecommendable on the CV, unless you have a good flicker management system.

That "Canadian friend" being me. Hi Luca!

Allow me to correct that for you: PMC will look really cool in a yellow case.

We're aiming for a price between 100$ and 125$. And no, there won't be any profit margin at that price. Everything dollar will go into production (PCB, various chips and other electronic components, plastic casing, Opsave cartridge, Opsave Manager software cartridge, box and manual). Eduardo and I are contemplating offering the OpSound system and the V9958 video chip as an upgrade kit which would be sold separately. You just remove the screws, open up the casing, plug the daughter PCB into the main board, screw the casing back together, and you're done. Eduardo will concentrate on the prototype after Pac-Man Collection has been released, and then we'll have a better understanding of everything related to the OM project.

AtariAge has been one of our distributors. However, Eduardo's games have a way of flying off the shelves.

They're all sold out, unfortunately, but they pop up on eBay from time to time. I distinctly recall something about a new batch of Space Invaders Collection carts being released in the very near future...

Thanks for the tip, but is it possible to play a WAV sample through the native CV audio without the game slowing down or stalling? It seems to me like playing a WAV sample is a pretty CPU-intensive process for the CV's poor old Z80... Eduardo? We need your input here...

Yeah, but you'll notice Wizard of Wor is at the bottom of the list in the sidebar, so please don't hold your breath. One positive thing I can mention is that with the enhanced sound capabilities of the Opgrade Module, we might be able to include the voice samples from the arcade game. It's one of the thing we'll examine and evaluate when we get around to converting WoW for the ColecoVision.

Thanks! We considered doing a PHP-based version of the site, in order to not use frames, but both Eduardo and I agree that having the sidebar equiped with a scrollbar is more functional. We haven't given up on doing the OpController, but there's really nothing interesting to say about it right now. We'd just like to concentrate on the Opgrade Module this year, and then release several games for the OM next year, so the OpController is a long-term project any way you look at it. Also, you might wonder what happened to Donkey Kong Deluxe. Eduardo hasn't decided yet if he's going to do Deluxe, or just do a straight port of the arcade game. So for now, the project is marked as "Donkey Kong Arcade". Rest assured that Deluxe is still under serious consideration though.

And don't forget the blog section! I'll try to update it from time to time, although right now I'm working on other stuff, so it's not a big priority... So you're still stuck on the title of "producer", huh? ALRIGHT THEN! I'm a frickin' PRODUCER! By the way, you're great. (*pats Eduardo on the back while rolling his eyes *) (* Corny announcer voice *) Thank you Eduardo! Well, we've got some special treats for you later this year, folks! Coming up in April 2007 is Pac-Man Collection (for which I can take very little personal credit, as most of the work is already done). Later in the year, we will release Road Fighter, and then, near the end of the year, we'll have yet another game for you, Konami Sports Collection Vol. 1, which is actually seven complete games in one ColecoVision MegaCart cartridge! Please visit our web site for more details! Also, many of you may remember that we were planning to start a consortium to fund the production of our Opgrade Module. I will resume working on getting that ball rolling again later this month, after discussing certain details with Eduardo. I will probably start a new thread in this forum for that, so watch for it! As far as the OM goes, Eduardo's priority will be to build a full prototype of the unit with all the bells and whistles this summer (after Pac-Man Collection is done and released, probably), so that we can test it and make sure it's not going to explode when you pop it into your ColecoVision console. There's not much more to say at this point, but if you have some questions about the contents of the new web site, feel free to post them here. P.S.: It's about time I got myself an avatar...

I can't remember which was the first, but I wrote Basic programs on a variety of early home computers, including the VIC-20, the ZX-81, the TRS-80, the TI99/4A, the first generations of IBM PCs, the Commodore 64... and of course SmartBASIC on the Adam computer. Once I started leaning Pascal and C in college I never went back to Basic.

Too much of a collector, actually. Most of those promotional flyers were destroyed after their intended use, so they're quite rare today. Rarity = collector interest.

Some ColecoVision corrections: - You have Pac-Man Collection for ColecoVision listed twice (it's still WIP). - Zanac is still a WIP. - Search of the Stolen Crown Jewels is complete and released (I own a cart). - Bruce Tomlin's ColecoVision PRG has been converted into a Sega Genesis game project, and I don't think it will ever go back to the CV. - I can confirm that Knightmare is still WIP. - Maze Maniac is complete (I own a cart). - I don't think this has been mentionned anywhere on these forums, but a ColecoVision conversion of Mr Do's Wild Ride already exists. It's an MSX port done by Steve Begin. I played it briefly at the last Arcadia Festival in Montreal, at it played pretty well. I think it's still a WIP though. BTW, I've been told Time-Bandit hit a wall with Gulkave (something related to interrupt handling or something of the sort) so that project may be stalled indefinately. This info needs to be confimed, however. Nice job on the list, vdub_bobby!

Um... Gargoyle's Quest is a spinoff from Ghost 'n Goblins... I agree with everything else you said. About Kirby's DreamLand, I feel it's far too easy. I liked the sequel (Dream Land 2) much more. And how could I have forgetten about Duck Tales!! Shame on me!

In no particular order: Mega Man GB series Gargoyle's Quest Batman Super Mario Land series Final Fantasy series Bionic Commando Castlevania 2 Donkey Kong 94 Zelda - Link's Awakening Metroid II Pokemon Red & Blue I'm sure I'm forgetting several...

Hmmm... The idea of a 64K CV cart sounds nice, and as a collector, I'll buy it myself no question, but a group of mini-games doesn't sound like enough of a big seller to me to warrant the creation of a 64K PCB for that purpose. Does that 64K PCB even exist yet? I do have a question: There is enough space in the big plastic cases AtariAge uses to fit two CV cartridges, so what would be more expensive? Using a 64K cart, or putting two 32K carts in the same box? If we're going to pay more, might as well make it interesting, as a twin-cartridge release would be a first in the CV homebrew scene...

Word Feud is one of the rarer Xonox CV games. I've only seen a couple on eBay over the last year. I see double-enders all the time on eBay, so while I agree that they are somewhat rare, I think they fetch too high a price, especially considering most of them don't even come with the box or manual.

I know MADrigal made a simulator for the Donkey Kong tabletop (I should know, I'm the one who supplied him with the real thing so he could study it!). The Pac-Man tabletop simulator also exists somewhere out there. I tried it some years ago, and it was pretty faithful to the original.

Wrong title. Whoops Looks like I screwed up. Sorry man, I thought you were talking about a mini DK. My mistake It's okay. Looking more closely at the prototype's game screen, it seems like a sticker that was applied over the screen area, to simulate a game being played. So while the prototype for the casing may exist, the actual electronics under the hood may not. I'd love to be wrong though, because from the looks of it, I'd say the screen design encompases both the jungle level (level 1) and the level with the key chains from the arcade game. If there is no playable prototype, I would enjoy examining the design documents of the game, at least. If such documents were made available, I know a certain MADrigal who would jump at the chance to make a simulator...