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Hello ColecoVision lovers! First of all, I'd like to wish everyone here a wonderful New Year. May you be spared the atrocious calamities which inevitably besiege mankind every year, like war, disease, climate disasters, economic woes, etc. But above all that, may your ColecoVision console (or ADAM computer) keep running smoothly throughout 2015 and beyond. Like, it's important to have your priorities straight, you know... So what does Team Pixelboy have in store for your beloved ColecoVision/ADAM this year? Well, one thing you have to know about me is that I'm not the kind of guy who makes New Year resolutions. Such resolutions are just a way to boost one's ego just long enough to make a good impression among family and friends, and then sweep such "life-changing" decisions under the rug when no one's looking. I'm more into making New Year commitments. Where Team Pixelboy is concerned, I am hereby publicly making one single commitment: To have all ongoing projects finished and behind me before 2015 is over. If the software of any ongoing Team Pixelboy project is not finalized by the end of December 2015, that project will be cancelled, pure and simple. If anything happens in 2016 with Team Pixelboy, it will be related to sales and customer service only. The truth is, I don't even want to think about what I'll be doing in 2016, I just want to focus on what I need to do to fulfill this year's commitment of final closure. What are these "ongoing" projects, you ask? They're all listed on teampixelboy.com, and I'm going to list them below as well, but before I do that, I need to mention that the situation with Eduardo Mello being what it is, there's no telling what's going to happen this year with the second run of Super Game Modules. I'm certainly not going to start making promises on Eduardo's behalf, nor am I holding my breath for whatever Opcode Games has in store for us unsuspecting ColecoVision fans. The first day of the New Year is all about making wishes of good will, and I do wish that Eduardo finally delivers what many have already paid for, but just between you and me, I think the guy's just fed up and that's why we hardly ever hear from him anymore. There, I said it. I think it needed to be said. BOXXLE Mystery Man finished the software of Boxxle last summer, but neither me or him have been able to find sufficient time to beta-test it fully, and that's why the release of Boxxle was pushed back to 2015. Since puzzles are structured in groups of ten and the player cannot move on to the next group until all puzzles in the current group have been solved, you can understand how a single error in the puzzle data could prevent the player from completing a puzzle, and thus prevent him from finishing the game. Thorough beta-testing of this game is therefore essential, and it's something I want to do myself, with Mystery Man's help of course. I'll be spending all my free time in January and February beta-testing Boxxle. JEWEL PANIC I made some good progress on Jewel Panic last spring, but I haven't touched that project in several months. Daniel Bienvenu created some awesome background music for the game last summer, after I showed him a work-in-progress version of the game, and with the Jewel Panic boxes already printed, I definately intend to finish that project. But it won't be easy: Not only do I have to code the remainder of the game's features and find a way to compile the source code (in C language) to produce a bankswitched ROM that works with my Activision PCB, I also have to make sure the EEPROM feature works (to save the high score tables) and I also have to fix some graphic glitches that started popping up at runtime after the last modifications I made to the code. After Boxxle's beta-testing phase is done, I will turn my full attention to Jewel Panic, probably in March and April. FRONT LINE - STANDARD CONTROLLER EDITION Almost two months ago, Eduardo Mello gave me a ROM of Front Line hacked to work with standard controllers, just as I requested, and I have to say the game is surprisingly fun to play! Unfortunately, while I was playing this hack I encountered some graphic glitches which Eduardo has yet to fix. So if we choose to look at it in a glass-half-full kind of way, we can say that a simple graphic bug is all that's standing in the way of Front Line SCE's release. Hopefully this will finally be resolved some time this year. GHOSTBUSTERS, THE STONE OF WISDOM AND SPELUNKER Eduardo made a public comment last summer about having made decisive progress with the MSX port of Ghostbusters, but to this day, he still hasn't shared with me a single beta ROM file of the ColecoVision version. If you're reading this, Eduardo, I don't doubt that you've done a lot of work on it, and that you want to finish the job once and for all, but you should know that the clock is ticking... Eduardo is also supposed to do the MSX ports of The Stone of Wisdom and Spelunker, and as far as I know, he hasn't started working on those ports yet. The boxes for those two games are already printed, and since communications between me and Eduardo are so lacking, I'm currently exploring alternatives to make sure that those boxes will not go to waste. SPACE SHUTTLE - A JOURNEY INTO SPACE You didn't see that one coming, did you? Well, maybe you did because I've mentioned my intention to publish this game several times in the past. Publishing a ColecoVision version of Space Shuttle has been a pet project of mine ever since I discovered the existence of the MSX version. And now, I can say with confidence that's it's finally going to happen, because Mystery Man has graciously accepted to tackle the challenge of porting the MSX game to the ColecoVision. You've seen what Mystery Man can do, and I have full confidence in his programming abilities, so barring any unfortunate real-life incident, the only reason Space Shuttle will not get released on ColecoVision will be because of a technical issue for which Mystery Man can't find a workaround. And by the way, for those who are interested in this game, it's pretty much 100% certain that it will require the Super Game Module to function, because the MSX version requires more than 1K of RAM. It's unknown yet whether it will run on an ADAM without the SGM. Each copy of the game will also come with a controller overlay, but that much is obvious. KNIGHTMARE To make a long story short, Eduardo Mello decided to take Knightmare away from Team Pixelboy and release it under his own Opcode Games label. This is kind of a drag considering all the money I spent on the box art, the PDF box template and the actual printing of the boxes. But you know Eduardo, he could change his mind again, and I'll keep those Knightmare boxes in storage just in case he does (until the end of 2015, that is). For now, I have removed Knightmare from the projects listed on teampixelboy.com. OTHER SECONDARY PROJECTS I have some other projects I want to see done this year, the first of which is putting 5 prototype cartridges of Champion Ice Hockey up for auction on eBay. The game hasn't gone through rigorous testing, so the carts will indeed be prototypes, but in order to avoid eBay's seek-and-destroy protocols towards homebrews, I will avoid using the term "prototype" or "homebrew" in the auction description. I'm not sure when these eBay auctions will happen, but it could be as early as March. Another project of mine is producing more copies of past SGM games (Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, etc.) but this will only happen once Eduardo Mello ships the second run of SGMs. I've said this many times in the past to many people, but it bears repeating. By the way, I haven't given up on the ColecoVision trading cards project, but looking at how much I'll have on my plate between now and next December with the final roundup of Team Pixelboy games, I don't think I'll have any time to put on even a single series of trading cards. It's a pitty too, because I definately still want to do it. On a final note, I have arcade posters of SubRoc 3D and Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom, which I used for the box art of SubRoc Super Game and Buck Rogers Super Game. I no longer have any use for these posters, so if you would like to have them, or if you know anyone who would like to have them, please send me a PM. If no one steps forward, I will simply throw them away, as I don't think it's worth the trouble of trying to sell such posters on eBay just to find them a good home. This concludes this Team Pixelboy news bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities. Happy New Year!

Hello fellow ColecoVision fans. This is my 6000th post on AtariAge, and the timing is just right for me to deliver another news bulletin, which is really just a quick update on last month's bulletin. RELEASE SCHEDULE CHANGES I have decided to do some minor changes to my release schedule: October 2014: - SubRoc Super Game - The Goonies - TwinBee - Joust Christmas 2014: - Knightmare - Ghostbusters - Boxxle You may notice that Jewel Panic has been bumped off the 2014 schedule, and I think the reason should be obvious: Seven games to release between now and Christmas is already a lot, and with me going back to school this fall (to get a university certificate) there's just no way I'll be able to get any work done on Jewel Panic any time soon. So it seemed logical to replace Jewel Panic with Boxxle for a Christmas release. October's exact release date is still undertermined, but I can say that I'll be preparing 100 copies of SubRoc Super Game, The Goonies and TwinBee towards that date. The situation with Joust is a little nebulous right now, because I'm waiting to see how many unsold copies of the game there will be after the Classic Gaming Expo. If the game sells out completely (I guess it's possible, although I don't know the attendance numbers CGE usually gets) I'll try to produce more copies of Joust towards the official October release. If there are many unsold copies left, I'll just tell my loyal customers to buy a copy from those unsold stocks (directly from Sean Kelly) and I'll prepare fewer new copies on my end. Whatever happens, I'll make sure to make enough copies for everyone. ABOUT THE OLDER TEAM PIXELBOY TITLES The pre-order operation for the older Team Pixelboy games has been going pretty well over the last month. I have roughly 10 copies of each game reserved so far, give or take a few. I won't have time to prepare all these copies by October, but I'll work to get them all ready by Christmas 2014. There's still time to reserve copies, so just drop me a PM if you want in on the action. Check the forum thread of the August 1st news bulletin to see what's available. A LITTLE SURPRISE! In last month's news bulletin, I indicated that I found many leftover boxes for many of my old games, but there is one detail I deliberately didn't mention: I also found a couple of unused boxes of Quest for the Golden Chalice! Even better, I happen to have a couple of golden QftGC cartridges which I had made in error last year, so I'll have two CIB copies of the game ready very soon! I have decided to auction off these last two copies on eBay, so keep an eye out for them! A LITTLE GIFT TO THE COMMUNITY FOR MY 6000TH POST... Recently, I was in the mood to do some preliminary graphic work for a potential port of the TRS-80 game "Downland". I've got the background graphics all figured out, and today, as part of my 6000th post, I am making these graphics available below, together with the general map of the game. I have no intention of programming the game myself, or even publishing it if another homebrewer decides to tackle the project, but if this game gets made on ColecoVision by someone, I would just like to be credited for the graphics. I didn't have time to prepare any sprite graphics, but if you look at the various character tiles I prepared, you will notice that falling water drops are meant to be implemented with tiles, except while a water drop passes in front of an object like a jewel or a money bag, then it is drawn using a sprite. This helps to reduce sprite flicker to a minimum. So the actual sprite work left to do is minimal (the player's character, the bouncing ball, the bird, and maybe other game elements I didn't think of). The information bars at the top and bottom of the screen are also left undone. Easy stuff to complete, really. As for the gameplay itself, this YouTube playthrough of the TRS-80 version will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about Downland (this video is only part 1, be sure to check out part 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6qUWRARws This concludes this news bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to another juicy Team Pixelboy News Bulletin! Without further ado, let's get to it! NEXT RELEASES As I indicated a couple of months ago in a previous news bulletin, Joust will be released at the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, in September. The boxes, manuals and cart labels are ready, all I'm missing is the cartridge electronics. I should remind everyone that this version of Joust has all the sound effects and also a proper title screen, so it's a full-featured release, same as all other Team Pixelboy releases. Those who will not attend the Classic Gaming Expo will not have to wait very long to get their copy of Joust, as I will release the game in October, along with Subroc Super Game and The Goonies. I'm not certain of the exact date yet (it depends on several manufacturing factors) but I'm aiming for October. Three more games will be released on Christmas Day, namely Knightmare, TwinBee and Jewel Panic. I'm hoping to release Front Line SCE as well during that time frame (if not October, then Christmas). Ghostbusters and Boxxle will be released in March 2015, if all goes well. Eduardo Mello has not started the work on porting The Stone of Wisdom and Spelunker yet, so for now I prefer not to place a tentative release date on those two games. They will likely be released in 2015, that much is fairly certain. Quick note: I updated teampixelboy.com will the latest status updates for all the upcoming games. ABOUT THE SECOND RUN OF SUPER GAME MODULES A couple of days ago, Eduardo Mello announced that November was his target month for shipping the second run of Super Game Modules. This works out well for me, because if Eduardo ships the new batch of SGMs in November and most of the customers receive their order in early December, then these people will likely contact me to order some SGM games, including my past games like Dragon's Lair. What I will do is build up a list of pre-orders for those games, and in January 2015, I will get the ball rolling on making new copies of all the SGM games according to the demand. I should also mention that for the October and Christmas releases which I outlined above, I will only produce 100 copies of each game initially. But don't worry, I will produce more copies of all these games in early 2015, together with new copies of the older SGM games. THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH GOOD DEAL GAMES I would like to use this opportunity to inform everyone that I recently shipped a new batch of Battle of Hoth to Good Deal Games. This is the last batch I will ever produce for this game, but I should also mention that I have two available copies of Battle of Hoth for sale on my end. Once those two copies are sold, Battle of Hoth will be permanently sold out, and Good Deal Games will be the only place (aside from the occasional eBay auction) where you can purchase the game. I also have one single copy left of The Black Onyx, if anyone here is interested. This game will be permanently sold out as well after this last copy has been sold. ENTER THE COLECOVISION FLASHBACK It's with great pleasure that I can now announce that four Team Pixelboy games will be part of the lineup of AtGames' ColecoVision Flashback console: Princess Quest, Mecha-8, Module Man, and also Destructor SCE. It should be noted that the version of Mecha-8 included in the CV Flashback does not offer SGM-enhanced sounds, but it's really no big deal, as the "standard" music and sound effects are very good. NEW COPIES OF OLD GAMES...? I was browsing through my stuff today, and I found a handful of unused Girl's Garden boxes, 10 of them to be exact. I also found a few remaining boxes for other games like Bank Panic, Konami's Ping-Pong, etc. and it seems like a waste to just throw them away. I'm wondering if there's any potential demand for these. For Girl's Garden, I would be using standard black cartridges, not light pink ones. If you'd be interested in any past Team Pixelboy games, please post your interest in this forum thread, and I will consider your request. No promises though, right now I'm just considering the possibility... This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forums activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! With winter finally behind us (well, for the most part) it's time for an update on what Team Pixelboy is up to this year. I have some extra juicy news bits for you today, some you are likely already aware of, and others being special surprises! THE SUPER GAME MODULE IS BACK ON TRACK With Eduardo Mello back from his extended break (or self-imposed exile, whatever you want to call it), the rest of the first run of SGMs having been recently shipped to customers, and Eduardo working towards the second run of SGMs for release this summer, I think it's safe to say that the future of the SGM is looking much brighter than it did just a couple of months ago. Of course, the SGM is just a paperweight without some games to make good use of it, and I have to start by saying that I am currently out of SGM games. I really have nothing left in stock. I plan to make more copies of Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, King's Valley, Thexder, Buck Rogers Super Game and Mecha-8 next summer but it would help if I knew how many copies of each game I should manufacture. Some of the people who pre-ordered a SGM from the second run already bought some SGM games in advance, some others aren't really interested in Team Pixelboy's SGM offerings (as they are essentially just waiting for the release of Opcode's DK Arcade) and so it's hard for me to guess how many orders I will get for SGM games once the people on the second-run waiting list start receiving their SGM in the mail. All this to say that I have begun managing a waiting list for each individual SGM game, and there are already several names on these lists. If you are on Opcode's list for the second run of SGMs and haven't contacted me yet about your future purchases of SGM games, you should really take a few minutes to write me an e-mail and let me know which SGM games you plan on purchasing later this year. This will help to reduce the time you will have to wait between the day you receive your SGM and the day you receive your Team Pixelboy SGM games to play with. As always, I am not taking pre-orders, I will accept payment for these SGM games only once they are actually ready to ship, but it's still in your best interest to contact me right away so that I may add you to the waiting lists. MORE SGM GAMES ON THE WAY! Eduardo's return has also caused the "reactivation" of certain SGM game projects which had fallen into limbo. This year, I am planning to release The Goonies and Knightmare, in addition to TwinBee, all of which are MSX games ported to the ColecoVision by Eduardo. But that's not all! 2014 will also see the release of another SGM game, namely (...drum roll please...) Subroc Super Game! Mystery Man worked feverishly to convert this ADAM Super Game prototype to cartridge format, and let me tell you, this was no easy job! The way the ADAM game was coded really made Mystery Man's head spin, and you should all congratulate and thank him for succeeding in converting it to standard MegaCart format. In 2015, I will release a few more SGM titles, namely Ghostbusters, The Stone of Wisdom and Spelunker. Actually, Ghostbusters may be released in 2014, I haven't made up my mind about that just yet. I also haven't decided exactly when I will release 2014's lineup. I will probably release a few next fall, and the rest on Christmas Day 2014, but really, that's still up in the air right now. My immediate concern is finishing all the box templates so that I may have the boxes printed as soon as possible, and I may need your help with this. More on that later in this news bulletin... WHAT ABOUT NON-SGM GAMES? Team Pixelboy will be releasing quite a few SGM games this year and next year, but some ColecoVision titles that do not require the SGM will also be released. I have updated the official Team Pixelboy web site (http://teampixelboy.com) with information on all the new upcoming releases, and I invite you to drop by and take a gander. The first non-SGM game on my release schedule is Jewel Panic. I have made some very nice progress on this game over the last few months, but there's still a lot of work to do on it, so I'm not sure when it will be released. I'm hoping to release it in 2014. Front Line - Standard Controller Edition is another title I'm looking to release in all deliberate speed. All I'm really waiting for is for Eduardo Mello to finish the hack of the original game, and the rest of the project (in terms of packaging) should fall into place rather quickly. Joust. Yes, the arcade game. With all sound effects included. On the ColecoVision. Wait a few seconds to let that piece of news sink in... Yep, it's no hoax! I was able to score a publishing deal with Sean Kelly, who owns the prototype of Joust with sound. The only thing missing from this prototype is a proper title screen, and Mystery Man is currently working on disassembling the ROM and adding a title screen according to my specifications. The game will be officially released on cartridge, with box and manual, at the Classic Gaming Expo next September and that's the only place you will find the game at first. After CGE, the game will become available for purchase online. Oh, and did I mention the game will feature actual sounds? The fourth non-SGM game actually migrated from the "Personal Projects" section of the Team Pixelboy web site to the "Outsourced Projects" section. Last Monday, as a birthday gift, Mystery Man offered to program Boxxle for me. This is great news indeed and I am very grateful, because with his enviable programming expertise, Mystery Man will be able to make Boxxle exactly the way I've always wanted it to be done: It will be a 64K game packed with all the levels (and cut-scenes) from Boxxle and Boxxle II on Game Boy (and perhaps even more levels if there's any room left on the cartridge). There will also be a level editor, and the player will be able to save his creations on the cartridge thanks to an 8-kilobyte EEPROM included in the cartridge. The EEPROM will also allow us to replace the password system (used in the Game Boy games) with an instant savegame feature. TRADING CARDS? With all the great news presented above, you can guess there's a small dark cloud to go along with it. Since all these newly announced game releases will take up quite a bit of my free time, I'm pretty much forced to put the ColecoVision trading card project on hold until next year. But what would you rather have? Trading cards or actual new ColecoVision games to play? PLEDGE DRIVE TO GET THE BOXES PRINTED The trouble with not having a job is, well, the absence of income. My financial situation is far from critical, but I have to watch my spending until I am once again employed, so I came up with a way to control my expenses for my upcoming homebrew games: If I haven't found myself a new job by mid-May, I will start a basic pledge drive. The idea is simple: People will be able to pledge 5$ for every game they intend to purchase among Goonies, Knightmare, Ghostbusters, Subroc Super Game, The Stone of Wisdom, Spelunker, Joust and Boxxle. All the money collected will go directly to getting all the boxes printed. If a person pledges 5$ for all 8 games, this will amount to a 40$ pledge. Once the games are released, those people who pledged money will get a 5$ rebate on the games they placed a pledge on. So it will be like a partial pre-order. I will contact everyone on my customers records via e-mail, and also post a special News Bulletin on AtariAge, if and when I decide to go ahead with the pledge drive. Of course, if I can find some interested investors who would be willing to lend me some money, I can go down that route as well. My general policy in that case would be to reimburse the money entrusted to my care in full once the games are released and sold. As you all know, I've never been into this hobby for profit, so for me, it's money in, money back. And in the end we all get some new games for our beloved ColecoVision consoles. Anyway, I just wanted to bring this up today as a plain possibility. If something happens regarding a pledge drive, it's going to happen next month, not now. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Season's Greetings, ColecoVisionaries! It's that day of the year again, where the kids are playing with the new toys Santa gave them, while the grown-ups wait patiently for the traditional morning e-mail from Team Pixelboy! NEW GAMES FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN! This year's releases are: - Buck Rogers Super Game (SGM required, except if playing on ADAM computer) - Module Man - Battle of Hoth - Mecha-8 (SGM not required, but recommended for improved music and sound FX) - The Black Onyx The official Team Pixelboy web site has been updated, and as I write this, all my past customers have been notified by e-mail, but I haven't begun processing any orders yet. I will reply to as many e-mails as possible today before leaving for a Christmas party tonight, and then I will resume processing orders tomorrow morning. There are a few things I need to mention: 1) I currently have in stock 100 copies of Buck Rogers Super Game, 100 copies of Mecha-8, 75 copies of Battle of Hoth and 75 copies of Module Man. That should be enough to cover most of the initial demand, but I will not be able to produce more copies of those games for a while. 2) The Black Onyx will be limited to a single run of 75 copies. No more copies of that particular game will be produced afterwards. 3) I bought some 12x9x4-inch boxes earlier this month, so I will be able to ship the orders of customers who order all five games relatively quickly. For the rest, I will process orders in all deliberate speed, but it may take a while before I start dropping off packages at the post office. Whatever happens, you can be sure I'll work as quickly as I can, just like I do every year. GOOD BYE, REMINDER SERVICE I would like to inform everyone that the Team Pixelboy reminder service is no longer active. All remaining pre-orders registered under the reminder service are now cancelled, and as a result I currently have one copy of each of these games available: - Destructor SCE - Konami's Ping-Pong Furthermore, there will be no Team Pixelboy reminder service offered as we move forward into 2014. If I run out of stocks of a particular game, I will set up a waiting list, but nothing as elaborate as the reminder service that was offered in 2013. Allow me to be clear on this: I will NOT keep a list of people who want to buy games later if those games are available right now. If you want to buy one or more Team Pixelboy games later in 2014, just contact me once you are ready to order, and that is all. WHAT ABOUT PAST RELEASES? Wonder Boy and Mopiranger are now permanently sold out. I have 9 copies left of Princess Quest and 8 copies left of Quest for the Golden Chalice, and once they are gone, those two games will be permanently sold out as well. As for the SGM games, I have a few copies in stock of all four (namely Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, King's Valley and Thexder) and I'm not sure when I will be able to make more copies. For the copies available now, I will work on a first-come-first-served basis. VIRTUAL GIFTS UNDER THE VIRTUAL CHRISTMAS TREE You will find attached to this news bulletin the ROMs of all my 2010 and 2011 releases, including a few which I previously released, but I thought it would be best to have all downloads in the same place. I'm also including Super Action Soccer just for kicks (it's just a very minor hack of the original ROM already available on the net). Happy Holidays to all! This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities. gulkave_cv.zip girls_garden_cv.zip peekaboo_cv.zip track_and_field_cv.zip destructor_sce_cv.zip pitfall_2_arcade_cv.zip circus_charlie_cv.zip star_force_cv.zip golgo_13_cv.zip ninja_princess_cv.zip bank_panic_cv.zip konami_ping_pong_cv.zip super_action_soccer_tp_cv.zip

Hello ColecoVision fans. First of all, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year! May 2014 bring you loads of new ColecoVision games to play! 2014 begins for me (and by extension for Team Pixelboy) under the shadow of uncertainty. I quit my job a couple of weeks ago just before Christmas (long story short, I could no longer tolerate the general climate within the company that employed me, and after 17 years working there, it was time for me to move on) and it may take several months before I find another job. So without a steady source of income, I have to put a lid on my Team Pixelboy activities, but not completely... NEW GAMES FOR 2014 I removed Front Line SCE and TwinBee from the Team Pixelboy web site (I don't know if and when they will ever return) but I kept Jewel Panic. I want to finalize the software for that game this winter, and this is the only game I am committed to releasing this year. ABOUT THE 2013 RELEASES Sales of the 2013 releases have been very good over the last week. Battle of Hoth and Module Man are now currently sold out, and I have already begun the process of making 20 more copies of each game. Considering my job situation, you can understand that there will be no more copies produced after those 20 extra copies of Module Man and Battle of Hoth are gone. The Black Onyx is another title that sold out rather quickly, and I was quite surprised by this. I limited the release to 75 copies because I expected the game to be harder to sell. Not everyone is into old-school RPGs, so my expectations were to sell about 50 copies right away (mostly to collectors) and then clear the remaining 25 copies slowly over the following months. Instead I found myself having to start a waiting list for new copies of the game, even though I haven't actually decided yet if I'm going to produce more copies. One idea I am contemplating is offering new copies of The Black Onyx on the release day of Jewel Panic. We'll see how things evolve over the next few months. As for Buck Rogers Super Game and Mecha-8, I still have several copies of those two games in stock, and given my situation, I am unsure if and when I will produce more copies afterwards. The same thing applies for other SGM games (Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, King's Valley and Thexder) and I only have a few copies left of those games (King's Valley is actually sold out at the moment, but I will make 5 more copies in January) so now would be a good time for you to purchase those games while you still can, if you haven't already. I would like to take a moment to point out that I am not in communication with Eduardo Mello. He doesn't reply to my e-mails, I don't know what he's up to these days, and I don't have any insider information to share. Hopefully the second run of SGMs will arrive in 2014, together with the game everyone is waiting for, namely Donkey Kong Arcade. That's my main wish for all ColecoVision fans in 2014. THE COLECOVISION TRADING CARD PROJECT IS BACK ON! Alright, I have to come clean: I've never really given up on the idea of making my own series of ColecoVision trading cards, even if Phil Boland released some awesome CV cards a while ago, and this will keep eating away at me until I do something about it. The main thing that kept me from going ahead full-steam with my own trading card project is that I couldn't find a printer for the cards. Companies who print custom trading cards in North-America have a clause in their terms of service where they refuse to print trading cards that contain any copyrighted logos, characters or images, so I was pretty much out of luck. But all this changed recently, when someone told me about a custom trading card printer in Germany that will do the job. The main objective of my project is to produce a trading card for EVERYTHING: All box variants of commercial games (American, European, Australian, Taiwan Cooper, etc.), all boxed homebrew games, all custom homebrew boxes for commercial games (released and unreleased), and all hardware add-ons and controllers that came in a box. I have estimated the total number of cards at roughly 430, and this number will likely increase as new homebrew games are released in 2014 and beyond. The german card printer takes orders in groups of 55 distinct cards, so that means 8 series to cover everything. Each set of 55 cards costs roughly 20 euros, and if you add 15 euros to cover various shipping fees, you get a total of 35 euros, so roughly 50$US at current exchange rates. So the cost per individual card is about 1$US, which isn't too bad for custom trading cards such as these, I think. "But Luc, how are you going to pay for this? You're currently unemployed!" you may be whispering right now. It's true that I cannot justify the expense with regards to my current situation, so my plan is to prepare the card templates for the first set of 55 cards, and then organize a pre-order period. Once I reach my quota of pre-orders, I will use the money from pre-orders to pay for the print order. Of course, those who know me know that I'm not a fan of pre-ordering. I would much rather pay things out of my own pocket to have the cards printed first and then put them on sale once the cards are actually in my hands and ready to ship. But I have to work with the "real life" situation that I am into right now. The one nice thing about having no job is that I suddently have lots of free time. I haven't started looking for another job yet, and I want to take at least a month of vacation before I do. Call it a small sabbatical if you will. During that month, I want to scan all the boxes in my CIB collection and assemble as much material as I can towards my goal of producing the 430+ trading cards. I will also set up a new section on the Team Pixelboy web site specifically for that project, and I will start a dedicated thread on the AtariAge forums to discuss details and provide progress reports. EDIT: By the way, I discussed my project with Phil Boland and he's fine with me going ahead with my own trading cards, just in case you're wondering. WHAT ABOUT BASICVISION? To put it simply, I'm not in the mood to code anything during my "small sabbatical", but I may start the BasicVision project officially later in 2014. Right now I just want to relax and occupy my time with easy activities, such as the trading card project. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVisionites. Welcome to another quick-and-dirty edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. I have some minor news to report, and I really needed to post this today. Keep reading to find out why. BUCK ROGERS HAS LEFT THE SPACE DOCK! Beta-testing of Buck Rogers Super Game officially ended today, and I'm happy to report that the game is ready to be put on cartridge. Within the next few weeks, I will probably ask Harvey deKleine to solder together 100 MegaCarts for this game, to get a head start on tackling the workload of the next Christmas lineup. I just hope he's not too busy at the moment. BETA-TESTERS NEEDED Next up on the beta-testing to-do list is Module Man, and I need a beta-tester ASAP, in addition to Troy_Whelan who is already onboard. Module Man is a regular 32K game that doesn't require the Super Game Module, so anyone with a 128-in-1 AtariMax cart (or SD cart) can perform these tests on real hardware. I need someone who is available to play this game A LOT between now and early September, so if your job tends to keep you super busy, or if you have kids (school will start in just a few weeks!) better think twice before offering your services as beta-tester. I cannot afford to have beta-testing last longer than a month. The selected beta-tester will receive a free copy of the game once it's released next Christmas, so if you are interested, please send me a PM right away. But be warned: This game is an old-school platformer, which means it's rather difficult and you need to spend time with the game to really get good at it. Watch this video of the Dragon 32 version if you want a good idea of what to expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7AyPGWlvMc WEB SITE UPDATE! I added a section for Front Line SCE to teampixelboy.com, and I also updated the project status of several upcoming games. Do drop by and take a gander, if you have the time. In conclusion, you will find below a picture of the overlays that will be included with Front Line SCE and Buck Rogers Super Game. Enjoy! This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans, and welcome to another Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. As the summer of 2013 is about to start (May has always been firmly part of spring for me, even if the weather gets a little hotter towards the end of the month) now seems like a good time to post a couple of news tidbits. HIBERNATING DURING THE SUMMER, BUT NOT REALLY Early this morning, I sent the latest round of reminder service e-mails to all my customers with pending pre-orders. I'm glad to say that I recently finished preparing a new lot of the 2012 games (many thanks to 5-11under for meeting my end-of-month deadline) and I can finally honor ALL remaining pre-orders starting today. However, all my ready-to-ship copies of Wonder Boy and Mopiranger are already spoken for, so I will need to produce a few more copies of those two games eventually. Anyway, after all paid orders will have been shipped (over the next week or so) all Team Pixelboy sales activities and reminder service activities will be suspended until August 30th 2013. This break is necessary to allow me to work on the box templates of the new games to be released next Christmas. Furthermore, my stocks of SGM games is limited at the moment (and it will be even more so after all pre-orders will have been taken care of) and I will not prepare more copies of those games until September. If you've recently ordered a Super Game Module from Opcode Games (as part of the second run of SGMs) but haven't contacted me yet about ordering one or more of the 4 SGM launch games, it would be wise to let me know right away which games you plan on buying, so that I'll know how many copies of each SGM game to produce next September. So please send me an e-mail to help me build the waiting list for the next batch. NEW SECRET PROJECT REVEALED! Many of you will remember my (very) limited release of Super Action Soccer on eBay, late last year. I was left with many unused plastic boxes (I had to buy a bunch of them from ULine in order to use just a few) and I recently had an idea for using them: I'm going to release a new limited-edition hack, namely "FrontLine - Standard Controller Edition"! The game itself will be the same, the only difference will be that it will be playable with regular stock controllers, unlike the original retail version which forced players to use Super Action Controllers. 75 copies of this new version will be produced, and each copy will include a black mini-cartridge, a keypad overlay and a mini-manual. The whole package will look a lot like last year's Super Action Soccer package. Aside from ordering a supply of mini-cart homebrew kits from PkK recently, I haven't really started working on this project yet, but I will do so this summer. Eduardo Mello will be in charge of hacking the original ROM, and he told me it should take him "just a couple of days", so it's only a matter of him sitting down and doing it. Once the ROM hack is done and ready, I will get the cartridges, manuals, overlays and cart labels done ASAP, and I will release FrontLine SCE soon after (so you won't have to wait until next Christmas to see it released). I will post some pictures of the overlay, cart label and manual once they are done. Since the release will be limited to 75 copies, and I'm pretty sure many collectors will want to snatch them up, I am contemplating releasing the ROM online. It's only a small and simple ROM hack, after all, and I don't really have a problem with people playing FrontLine SCE on their AtariMax 128-in-1 or SD carts. The mini-cart package will be for ColecoVision collectors first and foremost. ADAMCON, HERE I CON! ERR... COME! I'd like to use this opportunity to confirm that I will be attending AdamCon 25 in Kingston, Ontario this summer. According to the latest information, the convention will be held between July 18th and 21st 2013. I will do a small presentation of all upcoming Team Pixelboy games, namely Mecha-8, Module Man, Buck Rogers Super Game, Battle of Hoth, and also TwinBee if Eduardo finishes the MSX port in time. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to the I-just-returned-from-AdamCon summer edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin! Last Saturday, during my presentation at AdamCon 25, I showed release-candidate versions of the games that will be coming to a ColecoVision near you next Christmas, namely Battle of Hoth, Module Man, Mecha-8 and Buck Rogers Super Game. Sadly, since Eduardo Mello has been M.I.A. for several weeks now, I had no version of TwinBee to show. Same goes for Front Line SCE. But there was another project which I presented to the AdamCon attendees, and I think now is the proper time to disclose it on AtariAge... THE FLIP-CART PROJECT Internally, I like to refer to this as the H.D.E.C. project (Homebrew Double-Ender Cartridge) but the public name of this new product is "Flip-Cart". I had a meeting with Sylvia at Moldex last Wednesday (the day before leaving for AdamCom) and I officially got the ball rolling with Moldex to alter the existing metal mold in order to produce these Flip-Carts. Don't worry, the metal mold will still be able to produce regular Coleco cart casings after everything is said and done. So as you can plainly deduce from the paragraph above, I'm talking about a cartridge with two openings (so two PCBs inside the cart) but Flip-Carts differ slightly from Xonox double-enders in the sense that they are smaller, and they are also designed to have one label on each side, so you need to flip them around (hence the name) instead of just turning them around like Xonox double-enders. Flip-Carts will be specifically designed to house 5-11under's 32K PCBs. The interesting thing is that the Flip-Cart casing will actually be composed of two plastic parts which are identical, and are designed to interlock with each other to form a complete casing. This design idea will help to drive the price down, where modyfying the metal mold is concerned. But this new project will still cost several thousand dollars, and to help finance this endeavour, I am planning to create "Twin Packs" of legacy games. The first of these Twin Packs will be the "ADAM-compatible Twin Pack", which will unite the versions of Defender and Super Cobra which were hacked by nanochess earlier this year to work properly on the ADAM computer. Here's a tentative list of other possible Twin Packs I came up with: 02 - "Donkey Kong Twin Pack" (Donkey Kong + Donkey Kong Jr.) 03 - "Mr. Do! Twin Pack" (Mr. Do! + Mr. Do's Castle) 04 - "Q*bert Twin Pack" (Q*bert + Q*bert Qubes) 05 - "Frogger Twin Pack" (Frogger + Frogger II Threeedeep!) 06 - "Pitfall Twin Pack" (Pitfall! + Pitfall II - Lost Caverns) 07 - "B.C. Twin Pack" (B.C.'s Quest for Tires + B.C. II - Grog's Revenge) 08 - "Smurfs Twin Pack" (Rescue in Gargamel's Castle + Paint & Play Workshop) 09 - "Cabbage Patch Kids Twin Pack" (Adventures in the Park + Picture Show) 10 - "Super Action Sports Pack" (Super Action Football + Super Action Soccer) 11 - "Xonox Repro Doubler-Ender #1" (Artillery Duel + Chuck Norris Superkicks) 12 - "Xonox Repro Doubler-Ender #2" (Robin Hood + Sir Lancelot) 13 - "Xonox Repro Doubler-Ender #3" (Tomarc The Barbarian + Motocross Racer) 14 - "Xonox Repro Doubler-Ender #4" (Word Feud + It's Only Rock & Roll) 15 - "Interphase Sam's Adventure Pack" (Sewer Sam + Squish 'Em Featuring Sam) 16 - "Imagic Fantasy Pack" (Fathom + Wing War) 17 - "Imagic Space Pack" (Moonsweeper + Nova Blast) 18 - "Sega Space Pack" (Buck Rogers + Zaxxon) 19 - "Fisher Price Logic Pack" (Linking Logic + Logic Levels) 20 - "SierraVision Twin Pack" (Oil's Well + Sammy Lightfoot) 21 - "Parker Brothers Arcade Twin Pack" (Gyruss + Popeye) 22 - "Parker Brothers Adventure Pack" (Montezuma's Revenge + Tutankham) 23 - "Paddle & Ball Twin Pack" (Strike It + Flipper Slipper) Note that I am fully aware that I'm trying to sell games which many CV fans already have in their collection. I'm only doing these Twin Packs to help finance the Flip-Cart mold. If I add 5$ to the end price of the Twin Packs listed above, and manage to sell just 30 copies of each Twin Pack, then the metal mold alteration will be fully paid for. Of course, I'll be including a custom box and manual with each Twin Pack, while doing my best to keep costs down, so these Twin Packs will be affordable AND worthwhile for CV collectors, even if they already own these games. When I presented the Flip-Cart project at AdamCon, some of the comments I received indirectly gave me a neat idea for additional legacy Flip-Carts: N.K.R. games! N.K.R. stands for "No Keypad Required". Imagine if you played hacks of such games as Venture, Time Pilot, Lady Bug or Pepper II in which you would select your skill level by moving a cursor on the blue skill-select screen and pressing a trigger button to select a skill level, instead of using a keypad key. And when the "GAME OVER" message is displayed, you would press the left or right buttons instead of the [*] and [#] keys to either restart at the same skill level or return to the blue skill-select screen. Then you could play these games with any third-party controller equipped with two fire buttons but no keypad. I think such hacks would make great Flip-Carts, but someone would have to sit down, disassemble each ROM and implement the hack, and they probably could only be done with a handful of early 16K Coleco games (I figure the new cursor-based skill select screen would be coded in the second 16K of a 32K ROM). If I could find someone who would be willing to perform these hacks, I would take care of all the rest... Beyond these proposed legacy Twin-Packs, I'm thinking some CV homebrewers could be interested in using Flip-Carts for some of their projects. I know CollectorVision is already interested, and I'm hoping I can get others interested as well. THE BLACK ONYX IS COMING! Earlier today, when I returned home from AdamCon, I found an e-mail from Mystery Man in my inbox, and he had some really good news for me: He got the savegame function working in The Black Onyx, on real hardware! He was having some trouble with it before, but after some hard work, he ironed out the bugs and now the player can save his progress on the EEPROM inside the cartridge! So that means the release of The Black Onyx in the first half of 2014 is pretty much a done deal! RPG fans rejoyce! This concludes this edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to yet another edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin! Alright, now it's time to come clean, so I'll just come out and say it: Quest for The Golden Chalice II - Riddle of the Sphinx was a complete, utter HOAX! There's no such game in development, and I must say I have no plans to develop - and no real interest in creating - such a game in the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean Mystery Man isn't busy with Team Pixelboy projects this year! Allow me to reiterate yesterday's news bits, just to put yesterday's news bulletin to rest for good. Everything that follows below is completely true, with no hoax in sight! Please note that I updated the Team Pixelboy web site to reflect the information presented below. THE NEW BATCH OF OLDER GAMES ARE FINALLY READY March will have been a very long month for me, with the preparation of all those new copies of my older releases, in addition to several new copies of my 2012 releases. But I'm pleased to say that all these games are now resting in their boxes, and I will contact everyone registered on the Team Pixelboy reminder service this coming Wednesday (April 3rd) to let them know in a personalized manner. I guess I'll be busy packing shipping boxes for the next two weeks! I have a couple of unreserved copies of each game in stock, so if you missed the January 31st deadline for pre-ordering these, you still have a small chance to get some of them if you act quickly. After these few extra copies are gone, all these games will be sold out forever! First come, first served! Also, I would like to point out that I will have only a few new copies of Princess Quest to offer in the short term. I want to make more, but I'm missing the MegaCart PCBs to get the job done. Rest assured that I will produce more copies as soon as possible (as the back-order waiting list for this game is quite long) but it's going to take a while. RELEASE SCHEDULE REWORKED As you may have heard recently, Eduardo Mello will be releasing The Goonies and Knightmare under his own Opcode Games label later this year. This list will also include Spelunker, The Stone of Wisdom, Zanac, Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 and Ghostbusters. So Team Pixelboy will not be publishing any of these titles, and it's up to Eduardo to decide if and when he will release them. With him concentrating on Goonies, Knightmare and Donkey Kong Arcade this year (as well as the second batch of Super Game Modules for those who missed the first pre-order period last year) you can expect the other games to be released by Opcode Games in 2014, presumably. In the case of Stone of Wisdom and Ghostbusters (and perhaps some others) I believe it's a good thing that Eduardo will be releasing them himself, because then he will be able to use his new Super Game Cartridge PCB to implement game saves on the carts. No emulator supports the SGC format and the AtariMax SD cart doesn't support it either, so beta-testing of these games should be left to Eduardo's care. So now the Team Pixelboy release schedule looks like this: - Mecha-8 - Battle of Hoth - Jewel Panic - TwinBee - Module Man - Buck Rogers Super Game - The Black Onyx You'll certainly notice TwinBee as a new entry in my release schedule, which will be the last MSX port done by Eduardo Mello for Team Pixelboy, but there's another title in the list that you probably were not expecting: Buck Rogers Super Game! BIDI-BIDI! YOU'RE THE BEST, BUCK! Yes people, it's absolutely true! The cartridge version of the ADAM Super Game will be released next Christmas, thanks to Mystery Man. The game is almost ready for beta-testing as I write this, there's just a couple of issues with the software which Mystery Man wants to investigate before he provides me with the first official beta. While he was working on the conversion, I asked Mystery Man to rework the controls to match those of the arcade game: Now you will be able to fire lasers with both fire buttons on the controller, and increase/decrease the game's speed via the [1] and [3] keys on the keypad. After testing this new control scheme, I can tell you that it makes the game much more fun. But purists shouldn't worry, the old control scheme will be restored if you press [*] while the game's title screen is displayed. The Hall of Fame will still be present, but all recorded scores will be lost when you turn the console off, just like with Dragon's Lair and Zaxxon Super Game. ONE LESS MYSTERY FROM THE MYSTERY MAN There's one small detail that was true in yesterday's hoax bulletin: Mystery Man did indeed deliver an early ROM of an upcoming game two days ago, but it wasn't Riddle of the Sphinx. Rather, it was an early build of Module Man! He is currently working on the game and it should be ready in time for next Christmas. ONE THING I FORGOT TO MENTION... There's one important piece of news I forgot to mention in yesterday's news bulletin: While the first batch of 100 carts of Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, King's Valley and Thexder featured colored transparent cartridges, all new copies of these games from this point on will feature uncolored transparent carts (same as the Ghostblaster carts). This is because I couldn't get more colored casings from Moldex without paying an exagerated amount of money, so this solution allows me to continue to offer transparent casings at no extra cost, aside from Moldex's usual setup and production fees. In case you're wondering, the first 100 copies of Buck Rogers Super Game will feature transparent brown cartridges, and Mecha-8 and TwinBee will both have transparent dark blue carts (same as Thexder). After the first 100 copies of those three games, the other copies produced afterwards will use uncolored transparent cart casings. This concludes this edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We (once again) return you to your regular forum activities.

Good day, ColecoVisionites! Welcome to another edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin! I've got some juicy news for you today, so let's get right to it! THE NEW BATCH OF OLDER GAMES ARE FINALLY READY March will have been a very long month for me, with the preparation of all those new copies of my older releases, in addition to several new copies of my 2012 releases. But I'm pleased to say that all these games are now resting in their boxes, and I will contact everyone registered on the Team Pixelboy reminder service this coming Wednesday (April 3rd) to let them know in a personalized manner. I guess I'll be busy packing shipping boxes for the next two weeks! I have a couple of unreserved copies of each game in stock, so if you missed the January 31st deadline for pre-ordering these, you still have a small chance to get some of them if you act quickly. After these few extra copies are gone, all these games will be sold out forever! First come, first served! Also, I would like to point out that I will have only a few new copies of Princess Quest to offer in the short term. I want to make more, but I'm missing the MegaCart PCBs to get the job done. Rest assured that I will produce more copies as soon as possible (as the back-order waiting list for this game is quite long) but it's going to take a while. RELEASE SCHEDULE REWORKED As you may have heard recently, Eduardo Mello will be releasing The Goonies and Knightmare under his own Opcode Games label later this year. This list will also include Spelunker, The Stone of Wisdom, Zanac, Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 and Ghostbusters. So Team Pixelboy will not be publishing any of these titles, and it's up to Eduardo to decide if and when he will release them. With him concentrating on Goonies, Knightmare and Donkey Kong Arcade this year (as well as the second batch of Super Game Modules for those who missed the first pre-order period last year) you can expect the other games to be released by Opcode Games in 2014, presumably. In the case of Stone of Wisdom and Ghostbusters (and perhaps some others) I believe it's a good thing that Eduardo will be releasing them himself, because then he will be able to use his new Super Game Cartridge PCB to implement game saves on the carts. No emulator supports the SGC format and the AtariMax SD cart doesn't support it either, so beta-testing of these games should be left to Eduardo's care. So now the Team Pixelboy release schedule looks like this: - Mecha-8 - Battle of Hoth - Jewel Panic - TwinBee - The Black Onyx - Riddle of the Sphinx You'll certainly notice TwinBee as a new entry in my release schedule, which will be the last MSX port done by Eduardo Mello for Team Pixelboy, but the real exciting news is found at the very end of the list! Riddle of the Sphinx??? Where did that one come from? Read on below! RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN! A couple of days ago, I received an early work-in-progress ROM from Mystery Man for a game that we're developing together, and which will be released in 2014: Quest for the Golden Chalice II : Riddle of the Sphinx! I didn't have time to add the game to the Team Pixelboy web site on such short notice, but I found it interesting to announce it today, on April 1st. Is this a real game truly in development, or a complete April Fool's hoax? I'll leave you all guessing for now, but just to make you cross your collective fingers a little harder, allow me to reveal a few details about the game. First of all, you will find some screenshots of the game attached below. Now before you get too excited, I need to mention that the title screen image is a mockup (for now anyway, the real title screen will probably look the same) and the other screenshots are from the demo ROM provided by Mystery Man. The demo ROM only contain a few screens used to test the new display engine which he is working on, as well as the menu system. There's also a short conversation with the goddess Isis, which occurs when you approach the pool of water from below. Here's the story of the game in a nutshell: After the Prince returned the Golden Chalice to the Yellow Castle in the first game (and more importantly, after it was discovered that Mardok's dragons could be defeated with a single strike of a sword) the royal guards and the other inhabitants of Larosia returned and kicked Mardok out of the kingdom. But Mardok once again vowed revenge on the royal family of Larosia, and after just a few short months, Mardok put his mischievous new plan into motion: He secretly placed a curse on the Golden Chalice, which would take effect upon the first person to touch the Chalice with his bare hands. The victim was none other than the Prince, who was magically transported to the middle of the desert, in Egypt! With nothing more than the Golden Chalice in his hands, the Prince must now find a way home. The game is a remake of the Atari 2600 game Riddle of the Sphinx (released by Imagic in 1982) but it's more than what you may expect. I mean, let's face it, Quest for the Golden Chalice was simply Adventure with a fresh coat of "Zelda paint", but the sequel will have a LOT more to offer. This will be a 128K MegaCart game, and it's going to be much, much larger than the previous game. You'll be travelling across the vast deserts of Egypt, entering pyramids and other various temples, and also a couple of villages. Most of the items found in the original Atari 2600 game will be used in this ColecoVision remake, and the pyramids and temples will feature elaborate underground mazes filled with dangers and puzzles, in the vein of the first Legend of Zelda game on NES. Fact is, I want to make this game a true Zelda clone. However, at the same time, the game will stay true to its Adventure roots: You will carry only one "main" object at a time (two main objects once you find the "bag" item during your adventure) and you will need to solve puzzles with this important inventory limitation. As you can see in the "inventory menu" screenshot, you will be able to carry up to 12 "auxiliary" items (which are distinct from "main" objects). There will also be a "randomized" variant of the game (same as Quest #3 in Quest for the Golden Chalice) which will give the game ample replay value. Some of the key elements from the original 2600 game will also return, such as the Prince slowing down and growing weaker when he gets thirsty. During your journey, you will meet such characters as Isis, Anubis and a few other egyptian gods, as well as merchants, thieves, the Pharaoh, the Son of Pharaoh, and also the Astrologer (which is proheminently featured in the instruction manual of the original 2600 game). Some will help you, some will work to terminate your life in short order if you give them half a chance. The game's intriguing storyline will unfold via dialogues with these characters. As I mentioned before, the game will be released some time next year. I plan to release the other five games listed above on Christmas Day 2013 (December 25th). This concludes this edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular AtariAge forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to another edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. This bulletin will be relatively short because I want to dedicate it to a single topic, namely the re-issue of my 2010 and 2011 releases. Between December 25th 2012 and January 31st 2013, I let people pre-order new copies of my older releases which were all sold out. The plan was to make just enough new copies of these games in February 2013 to cater to this short-term demand. I was expecting to get something like 4 or 5 pre-orders for each game... I got at least 25 orders for each game, a couple of them even received over 30 pre-orders. Ooof!! Luckily, I have enough boxes to meet this unexpected demand (the bulk of these boxes are being shipped by UPS by my contact in Germany as I write this, and I should receive them in about a week) and I can get manuals and cartridge labels printed locally on short notice. I gave 5-11under the mandate to solder together the cart electronics, and I have all the styrofoam inserts and almost all the cartridge shells I need. My only real problem is time: It's going to take me all of February just to glue together all these boxes, so I won't have time to assemble the cartridges before the next reminder service e-mail (set for February 27th). The cart assembly+testing will therefore happen in early March, and the games will likely be ready to ship somewhere around mid-March. I'm glad to provide new copies of my older titles to so many people, but gosh, this is going to be a brutal amount of work for me (and for 5-11under too, I might add). And that's in addition to preparing new copies of Thexder (if Moldex can finally deliver those transparent dark blue casings to me, with them it's always "they'll be ready next week, next week...") and also a few new copies of Wonder Boy, Princess Quest, Quest for the Golden Chalice and King's Valley to help alleviate the issue of back-orders. Beyond this, there's also a more long-term price to pay for this "successful" re-issue of my older titles. Once I've assembled, sold and shipped all these games, I'm going to be so tired and fed up that I will want to take at least a month of vacation away from Team Pixelboy activities. Heck, I could use that month of vacation right now, to be perfectly honest. If I take this vacation in April/May, that means I will not be able to release any of the new games from my upcoming lineup (such as Mecha-8 or Battle of Hoth) in May or even September. So yes, my friends, I'll have to return to my same old modus operandi of releasing all my games on Christmas. Hey, don't blame me, blame all those perps who ordered so many of my old releases!! Anyway, I will be using this forum thread to post any and all news concerning the re-release of my older titles. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Good day, Colecovision fanatics! I'd like to begin this news bulletin by wishing you all a Happy New Year! May 2013 bring you all good furtune and good health for you and your loved ones. And also lots of new ColecoVision games, but that's an understatement. ORDER PROCESSING REPORT As I write this, no package has been shipped yet. The e-mail processing rush is now mostly behind me, although roughly 50 customers still haven't replied to the Christmas e-mail, so I may have more work ahead of me there. In any case, I will begin preparing packages today, and I will drop them off at the post office as quickly as I can. I have roughly 55 packages to prepare, and probably a few more will be added to that total over the next few days, so this is definately going to take a while. Thanks in advance for your patience. The first packages that will be shipped with be those where customers paid for XpressPost. Considering the price of that shipping option, I think giving those packages priority is the right thing to do. Fortunately, I only have about a dozen XpressPost packages to ship, and I'll ship the rest as quickly as I can afterwards. Quite a few people have taken advantage of my offer to produce more copies of my past releases. Some of you may recall that I only had 9 unglued Gulkave boxes left. Well, those are now all spoken for, so you can consider Gulkave to be permanently sold out, same as Girl's Garden and Peek-a-boo. I also have 15 pre-orders for Pitfall II Arcade recorded so far, and somewhere between 10 and 15 pre-orders for each of the other games. This is quite a bit more than I was expecting! WEB SITE UPDATES If you visit teampixelboy.com, you may notice a few updates. First of all, I added a section in the "completed projects" section for Super Action Soccer. It's an official Team Pixelboy product, after all, and I thought it would be nice to tell the project's story. Sadly, you may also notice that Champion Ice Hockey is no longer on my release schedule. The hockey players on the screen felt more like bumper cars than human skaters, and I just wasn't confortable releasing the SG-1000 port as-is. So I had asked Eduardo Mello to fix the skating physics of the game within the software, to make the action more crisp and exciting, but that turned out to be too complicated to do, so we both agreed to drop the game entirely. There are also three new games added to the "outsourced projects" section, and they are described in the other paragraphs below. MECHA-8 Yes my friends, our good friend nanochess strikes again! Following the awesome work he did with the recently-released Princess Quest, he's coming back in 2013 with a brand new shooter game called Mecha-8! Originally conceived and programmed for the MSX, the game came in fifth place in the MSXdev'11 homebrew contest. Since then, nanochess has improved the game tremendously while porting it to the ColecoVision. Everything from the smooth scrolling, great graphics and perfect difficulty curve make this an awesome entry in the ColecoVision's homebrew library. And here's the cherry on the sunday: While the game does NOT require the Super Game Module, if the SGM is detected, the game will automatically take advantage of the auxiliary sound chip inside the SGM to improve the background music! Mecha-8 will be a 128K MegaCart game. Check out the video below, prepared by nanochess himself and graciously posted on YouTube by opcode! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsAUDZpJc0A BATTLE OF HOTH Okay, it's time to come clean! Many of you will recall this strange commercial that was "uncovered" on YouTube a couple of weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6asEANQh3xc The culprit behind this fake commercial is none other than another high-profile resident ColecoVision homebrewer, youki! While the video commercial may be fake, the game it features definately is not! youki has been working on Battle of Hoth for the past year, and it's getting close to completion. The game features smooth parallax scrolling, cool background music curtesy of Mystery Man, and a few nice additions like the occasional attacking TIE Fighter, and also the Snowspeeder grappling hook that the player can use as a last resort against the AT-ATs! I'm planning an initial release of 75 copies, each of which will feature a white cartridge, and if there's any additional demand for the game (like I expect there will be) I will likely produce more copies. And before you ask, this game will NOT require the Super Game Module. GHOSTBUSTERS This one is the result of a recently "renewed" agreement between myself and Eduardo Mello. The MSX port of this classic game will require the Super Game Module, and will likely not be released this year. Eduardo has many other projects to finish in 2013 before he tackles this port. Ghostbusters is definately one game that should have been released on the ColecoVision back in the early eighties, and Team Pixelboy is proud to correct that unfortunate oversight, albeit over 30 years later! RELEASE SCHEDULE FOR 2013 AND 2014 Many of you have expressed dissatisfaction at the fact that I release all my games on Christmas Day every year. I agree it's a burden on the ol' wallet, so this year, I'm going to try something different. Here's my tentative release schedule for the next two years: May 2013: - Mecha-8 - Battle of Hoth September 2013: - The Goonies - Knightmare Christmas 2013: - Jewel Panic - The Stone of Wisdom May 2014: - The Black Onyx - Spelunker September 2014: - Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 - Zanac Christmas 2014: - Ghostbusters - Module Man This schedule is of course subject to change along the way, especially considering there are several factors, over which I have no real control, which may induce delays. Module Man is also not a sure thing yet, so that's why I'm placing it at the very end of the schedule. I may shift games around the schedule as these various projects progress over time. Releasing a couple of games every few months implies totally different development and production logistics, compared to releasing all the games at the end of the year, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to make it all work out as planned. ABOUT THE BLACK ONYX It's been sitting in a corner for a couple of years, without seing much progress, but now, thanks to my good friend Mystery Man, it seems the Black Onyx project is finally going to take off for real! Mystery Man has already done a lot of the work which I outlined in the original outsourced project contract (like replacing the password system with an EEPROM-based instant savegame feature) but some loose ends need to be tied up before we can go ahead with actual beta-testing. While these details are being resolved, I can tell you about my general beta-testing plan. Beta-testing will happen in two phases, both of which will hopefully be completed in 2013 so that the game may be released as soon as possible in 2014. The first phase will be done under emulation only. I will be needing at least three or four beta-testers to test The Black Onyx beta ROM using blueMSX, and unlike other beta-testing efforts of other past games where just a few weeks of testing was usually sufficient, this one will be much more demanding. Beta-testers will not be testing the software just to find bugs and problems, they will be required to explore every nook and cranny of the game, and offer a report of their gaming experience. This will allow us to discuss the key features of the software and determine if the game should be tweaked for the target audience. For example, does it take forever to earn enough money from battles to buy equipment at the shops? Since players will be full-grown adults with less free time to play the game, perhaps some kind of adjustment to speed up money-gathering would be a good idea. This is not the kind of question that can be answered after just a few minutes of play. So I'll be looking for beta-testers with lots of free time on their hands. Once the first phase of beta-testing is passed, the second phase of testing will be done on real hardware. This will be somewhat tricky, because neither the AtariMax 128-in-1 USB cart nor the AtariMax SD cartridge provide support for the EEPROM-based savegame feature of my Activision PCB. So I will be providing socketed Activision PCBs to selected beta-testers, who will be required to own an EPROM burner so that they can reprogram the main 32K EPROM with new revisions of the game ROM, whenever necessary. Testing on real hardware will continue until everyone involved (including me) is satisfied that the game functions properly. Once the first phase of beta-testing will be ready to commence, I will start a new thread on these forums to recruit beta-testers. This may take a couple of months to work out. Again, Happy New Year! This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Season's Greetings, people of the ColecoVision persuasion! As I write this, I just finished sending the notoriously anticipated Christmas e-mail to everyone listed in my customer records. Aside from a few people with e-mail problems, I haven't replied to anyone yet (or in other words, I haven't begun processing any orders), and I'm taking a break for a couple of hours. It took me over 2.5 hours to send over 150 personalized e-mails, which is nothing to sneeze at (which is ironic for me to say, since I happen to have a cold at the moment!). I sent the e-mails one by one as fast as I could, so of course, the customers at the bottom of my customer list were at a disadvantage compared to the ones nearer to the top. But hey, that's life. Although I haven't started processing orders yet, I have already received enough e-mail replies to say without a doubt that practically all of my initial stocks of games are already spoken for. Most people placed an order for all 8 games, which makes me doubt whether there's really a recession going on in the US! Just kidding of course, I know times are tough for many. Now I have two immediate concerns: 1) I'll be using 12x12x6-inch boxes to ship groups of 8 games, and I only have 7 of those boxes at home right now. Of course, I'll want to use those few boxes to ship games to the usual suspects (opcode, nanochess, this year's beta-testers, etc.) which means regular orders won't be shipped out until I get more of those boxes. Problem is, Staples seems to be low on stocks of these boxes (and many other sizes as well) so that may complicate things for me. The bottom line: Better put your "zen" hat on, because this is likely to take a while to get sorted out. 2) My funds are rather low at the moment, so I have to be careful not to overspend at the post office, to ship all those orders out. Fortunately, the funds I earned from the Super Action Soccer auctions will help, and those funds are currently being transfered to my bank account, but that transaction will likely be slowed down by "Holiday interference". So I'll probably get the money late next week. With this said, since I won't be able to ship games in all deliberate speed like I usually do, I'm going to take my time to manage orders, pre-orders and waiting lists carefully over the next few days. I'll be processing orders in the order they arrived in my e-mail inbox, so it doesn't matter how long I take to reply to all e-mails, because it won't matter in terms of game availability. So again, please put you "zen" hat on, relax, and enjoy the Holidays. I'll get around to each of your orders soon. On a final note, I invite you to visit teampixelboy.com to behold the sizeable update I uploaded this morning. The new 8 games were moved to the "completed" section of the sidebar, and I added Goonies, Knightmare, Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 and Zanac to the "outsourced" section. Module Man has been moved back to the "personal" section because the programmer attached to the project has gone MIA. I should mention that, one week from now, on January 1st, I'll be posting another Team Pixelboy News Bulletin which will outline my plans for 2013, and also include a few surprises! Happy Holidays to you all! This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello, individuals of the ColecoVision persuasion! I've returned from AdamCon 24, where I was able to showcase all my past and upcoming Team Pixelboy releases. It was quite a memorable three-day event, and I would like to take a moment to thank Daniel Bienvenu for organizing the convention this year. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was hard for him to keep his head above the proverbial water! So thanks, newcoleco! This is going to be quite a memorable news bulletin as well, my dear friends, as I am ready to announce publicly on this forum the two surprises that I showed last Saturday to the people who attended AdamCon! But just before that, I would like to give you a quick update on my Team Pixelboy release schedule. SEVERAL GAMES PUSHED BACK TO 2013 The following games are sure to be released this year: - Wonder Boy - Mopiranger - Princess Quest - King's Valley - Thexder And I've decided to release the following games in 2013: - Champion Ice Hockey - Jewel Panic - The Black Onyx - Spelunker - The Stone of Wisdom I don't know yet whether Module Man will be released this year or in 2013. The box template is done, but as I write this, the software is definately far from ready. So we'll see. The way I figure it, most ColecoVision fans will want to purchase a Super Game Module from Opcode, and will likely purchase King's Valley and Thexder to go with it (along with CollectorVision's Rollerball) and perhaps a few more ColecoVision games during the December holidays. So I believe Champion Ice Hockey will probably be low on everybody's wish list, and the same can be said of Jewel Panic, so I may as well push both games back to 2013, and give everyone a breather, financially-speaking. About The Black Onyx, I want to do extensive beta-testing on this game and I won't be able to do that this year, so it will be one more for 2013 as well. As I've stated in the previous news bulletin, Spelunker and The Stone of Wisdom will be released next year as well, to give Eduardo Mello the time he needs to port these two MSX games to the ColecoVision. But wait, I did mention something about a couple of surprises, didn't I? The two games presented below will be released on Christmas Day, along with my other 2012 releases. They have also been added to the official Team Pixelboy web site. QUEST FOR THE GOLDEN CHALICE Programmed by a newcomer to the CV homebrew scene who prefers to remain anonymous, Quest for the Golden Chalice is none other than the ColecoVision remake of Adventure on the Atari 2600! It features improved graphics and animation, some nice music and sound effects, and even extra features not found in the original Atari game! I have attached some screenshots below, which were taken from the final build of the game with blueMSX. As one who spent weeks privately beta-testing it, I can tell you that this game ROCKS! And the cherry on the sunday: This game will be offered in special gold cartridges! DRAGON'S LAIR Yes, my friends, this is no joke! The Adam DDP game has been converted into a 256K MegaCart cartridge, and contains all levels from the original game! The Super Game Module will be required to play this game on a ColecoVision console, but ADAM owners will be able to play it without the SGM plugged in! I've attached some screenshots below, which were also snapped using blueMSX. This conversion job was done by the same anonymous guy who did Quest for the Golden Chalice, just in case you're wondering. COLLECTOR MINI-CARTS : SUPER ACTION SOCCER! Here is a piece of news which I totally forgot to mention at AdamCon: To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ColecoVision, I will be releasing a new type of Team Pixelboy product this fall: Collector Mini-Carts! The first of these releases will be Super Action Soccer. Only five copies of this re-release will be produced and they will all be put on auction on eBay, in a similar way to Opcode's prototypes from a few years ago, so it will definately be a product for serious collectors first and foremost! Each copy will include a red mini-cart (CV homebrew fans will recognize PkK's cart format), a high-quality manual, a professionally-printed Super Action Controller overlay, and will be stored in a special transparent hinged plastic box. So this will be a high-quality offering. I attached some pictures of the manual and plastic box below. I wish I could show you more, but I'm not able to at the moment. By the way, I'm considering doing another Collector Mini-Cart, namely Spy Hunter Arcade. If it becomes reality, this special hack of Spy Hunter will be played with the Expansion Module #2 (a.k.a. the Coleco steering wheel). As you may recall, the original Spy Hunter game for CV was designed to be played with a regular Coleco stock controller or a Super Action Controller, but since the arcade game itself uses a steering wheel, this proposed altered version seems appropriate. It's not a sure thing yet, but I do hope this proposed hack will become reality, and I'm hoping to release it in 2013. CLOSING WORDS It's been quite a while since I gave my order of Coleco cartridge casings to Moldex, and all I've gotten so far from my contact at the company are delays, excuses and empty promises. Honestly, with such bad customer service, I don't know how Moldex manages to stay in business. Anyway, for those who placed an order of casings with me, I just don't know when the casings will be manufactured. But I'll keep in touch with Moldex, just to make sure they don't casually forget about me... I would also like to mention that I brought a few copies of my Team Pixelboy games to AdamCon, and while Ninja Princess, Pitfall II Arcade and Golgo 13 are now sold out, my other games did not manage to find buyers. So if you're looking to purchase a copy of Circus Charlie, Bank Panic, Star Force, Konami's Ping-Pong, Gulkave or Girl's Garden, now's your chance! I only have a couple of copies left of most of these games, and once they're sold, they'll be permanently sold out! This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

I would like to start this News Bulletin by saying that this is my 4000th post on the AtariAge forums! Wow! What a milestone! And it's also the right time to share all the latest Team Pixelboy news with all of you ColecoVision fans! THE 2012 RELEASE LINEUP I would like to remind everyone that my next lineup of ColecoVision games will be released on December 25th 2012. I still don't know what the pricetag will be on each of these games, but I'm pretty sure this will be settled in early December. Anyhow, in terms of how I operate, this year will be no different than previous years: On Christmas morning, I will be sending an e-mail to everyone listed in my customer records, and from that moment on, I will operate on a first-come-first-served basis. So if you want your copies of these games, better not wait too long to reply to that Christmas e-mail once you receive it! (And please don't send me an e-mail 24 hours in advance to try to get ahead of everyone else, such e-mails will be ignored.) I won't have time to glue together a full supply of boxes between now and Christmas, so initial stocks available on release day will be limited: - Wonder Boy (40 copies out of a total of 75) - Mopiranger (40 copies out of a total of 75) - Princess Quest (40 copies out of a total of 75) - Quest for the Golden Chalice (40 copies out of a total of 100) - Dragon's Lair (SGM required) (80 copies out of a total of 100) - Zaxxon Super Game (SGM required) (60 copies out of a total of 100) - King's Valley (SGM required) (50 copies out of a total of 100) - Thexder (SGM required) (50 copies out of a total of 100) After the holiday sales rush is mostly behind me, I will glue together the remaining boxes and honor as many orders as I can with the "remainder" lot of copies. Considering that Opcode currently has close to 200 paid pre-orders for the SGM (I expect he will reach at least 220 pre-orders by next December) I can say with absolute certainty that 100 copies of Dragon's Lair and the other SGM games won't be enough to satisfy the immediate demand. You can rest assured that I will waste no time in January to order more transparent cartridge casings (and the electronics that go inside them) and prepare more copies of all the games as soon as possible, but I'm afraid a good number of you will have to be patient. I'm just a lone and humble CV homebrew publisher trying to keep his head above water, and I do have a day job. MORE COPIES OF PAST RELEASES Speaking of preparing more copies of my games, the e-mail I will send to my customers on Christmas morning will also include an offer to pre-order new copies of some of my old games which are currently sold out, namely: - Pitfall II Arcade - Track & Field - Destructor SCE - Circus Charlie - Star Force - Ninja Princess - Golgo 13 - Bank Panic - Konami's Ping-Pong I still have several copies of Gulkave in stock, and also 3 copies of Girl's Garden left, so that's why they are not listed above. I will not produce any more copies of Girl's Garden (after those last 3 copies have been sold) or Peek-a-boo because I don't have any light pink and dark pink cartridge casings left, and I have no plans to produce more. For the other games, I will produce only enough new copies to satisfy the immediate demand, so you should all consider this as a limited-time offer. If my total initial stocks of Wonder Boy, Mopiranger, Princess Quest and Quest for the Golden Chalice are not sufficient to satisfy the demand, I may produce more copies of those games as well, but it's not a sure thing yet. I'll make my decision about that in January or February, depending on demand. THE REMINDER SERVICE There is yet another item that will be included in the Christmas e-mail: I understand that I will be releasing a lot of games on the same day this year, and not everyone has pockets deep enough to buy them all on release day, especially not in this economy. Last year, I ran a layaway plan, which a lot of people used, but in the end, I had enough copies of my games for mostly everyone. This showed me that a layaway plan, with hard payment deadlines, is not really necessary. So this year, I'm going to offer a simple reminder service: I will send customers an e-mail at the end of each month, to remind them of the Team Pixelboy games that they want but haven't bought yet, and they can choose exactly when they want to buy them, even if it takes them months to come up with the money. This reminder service will NOT be a way to reserve copies of the games, however. I will still operate on a first-payed-first-served basis at all times, so if you wait too long, the games you want may be sold out by the time you're ready to pay for your order. A little discipline in your gaming budget next winter will go a long way, if you really want these games in your collection. The reminder service will be tied into the offer to buy new copies of my past games (Pitfall II Arcade, Track & Field, etc.), and also into the release of supplementary copies of the SGM-dependent games (Dragon's Lair, etc.) so the e-mail customers will receive at the end of each month will be more like a customized newsletter. LATEST NEWS CONCERNING THE SUPER ACTION SOCCER COLLECTOR MINI-CARTS I'm getting close to receiving the last couple of parts I need to complete the packaging for my Super Action Soccer Collector Mini-Carts! The overlays are printed and I attached a picture below to show you what they look like. Aside from that, I'm missing the filler piece that will be placed inside the clear plastic box, and this should be done by next Monday, if all goes well. It was supposed to be a wooden filler, but it will actually be a metal piece with a very cool feature! I'm not sure yet on exactly what date these Collector Mini-Carts will be put under auction on eBay, but I think it's safe to say that it's going to happen sometime in November. A GLIMPSE INTO NEXT YEAR If you've been keeping up with the threads devoted to the SGM in the Opcode sub-forum, you know that Eduardo and I recently reached a tentative agreement for Team Pixelboy to publish The Goonies, Knightmare, Yie Ar Kung-Fu II and Zanac for ColecoVision. All four games will require the SGM. While I'm very happy and glad to be publishing these games, it will however force me to change my plans drastically for 2013. I can't say for sure when these four new games will be released. What I wanted to do was to get all the boxes printed in mid-March, so that I could release games throughout the year instead of making people wait until Christmas 2013. I still intend to do this, but how I'm going to pull it off with these four new additions to my outsourced lineup (and the few other games that I have in the pipeline which will be announced on January 1st) is anyone's guess. I'll do my best to make it all come together. WHAT ABOUT BASICVISION? I don't even want to think about it until late next year. Besides, what would you rather have? A bunch of new games to play on your CV, or a programming language that only a select few among us will bother to use? The answer is pretty obvious, and I have to put my efforts where it counts. So I'm sending BasicVision back into its little cave and it will hibernate for another year at least. If I find the time in 2013, I'll try to do preliminary work on BV, but I expect that I'll have my hands full over the entire course of next year with the next lineup of Team Pixelboy releases. So 2013 will be a repeat of 2012, it seems... Oh joy... This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello ColecoVision fans! Welcome to another edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. This edition certainly won't match the awesomeness of the previous one, but I do have some interesting tidbits to share today which you'll definately want to know about. NEW GAME ADDED TO 2012 LINEUP: ZAXXON SUPER GAME! After Quest for the Golden Chalice and Dragon's Lair, Mystery Man strikes again! He completed the conversion of the Coleco Adam version of Zaxxon to cartridge format, and mostly everything is in place to allow me to release it this year, along with the other games in the 2012 lineup. I added Zaxxon Super Game to the official Team Pixelboy web site (and I also updated a few details in other sections of the site). PURCHASE SURVEY UNDERWAY This week-end, I will be contacting everyone listed in my customer records, to ask them if they plan to purchase the SGM games which I will be releasing over the next couple of years, namely King's Valley, Thexder, Dragon's Lair, Zaxxon Super Game, Spelunker and The Stone of Wisdom. Getting a good idea of the demand for these games is important, because I need to know how many boxes I should have printed for each game, and how many cartridge casings I will be needing. So if and when you receive this survey e-mail, please reply to it. If you are not currently listed in my customer records, and plan to purchase the Super Game Module and some of the games I will be offering, send me a PM to let me know, so that your purchase intents may be noted in my survey response data. STILL LOOKING FOR A TRANSLATOR I'm still looking for a japanese-to-english translator for the in-game texts and manual texts of The Stone of Wisdom. If you know of anyone who may be able to help me out, please PM me. This concludes this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

Hello guys and gals of the ColecoVision universe, and welcome to another edition of the Team Pixelboy News Bulletin! EASTER AT THE MELLO'S I visited Eduardo Mello on Easter week-end, a week and a half ago. Played some games, watched some Star Trek stuff, had an overdose of Pocoyo (because his son Victor loves it to death), I had a great time. Eduardo and I also discussed our various ColecoVision projects currently in the works, and this led to a few changes in our game plans. Eduardo has a lot of work left to do on the Super Game Module, Donkey Kong Arcade and other projects, and so he isn't sure he will be able to have all his ports ready for Team Pixelboy by the end of October. Therefore, where the games dependent on the Super Game Module are concerned, we agreed to segment the releases into two waves: King's Valley and Thexder will be released in 2012, and Spelunker and The Stone of Wisdom will be released in spring 2013. I will still get the boxes for all those games printed in the fall of 2012, so I will be able to release the last two games (in 2013) as soon as the software is completed. With this change in the release schedule, I am hopeful that Eduardo will be able to complete the work on Champion Ice Hockey and The Black Onyx in time for a Christmas 2012 release. There's not that much to do on either games, but it's still several hours of tedious work. By the way, Daniel Vik added support in blueMSX for the bankswitching and EEPROM features of my Activision PCB, which means that Eduardo will be able to test the final alterations to The Black Onyx under emulation before the final tests on real hardware. Same goes for Jewel Panic, which is a game I'm working on myself, and which also requires the Activision PCB. That's really good news right there. JAPANESE TRANSLATOR WANTED! The Stone of Wisdom may be released next year, but there's a lot of preliminary work to do on this game right away. In particular, the game contains some texts in japanese which need to be properly translated. The manual of the game is also in japanese, and I would like to have certain pages of that manual translated, to make sure that there's nothing important missing from the manual of the ColecoVision version. So if you can help with this translation effort, please send me a PM. NEED SOME CARTRIDGE CASINGS? The main reason for my recent visit at Eduardo Mello's place was to pick up the mold for making new ColecoVision cartridge casings, and bring it back home with me. The mold is now in the custody of Moldex, which is the plastics company in Montreal that handled the casing production last time. So if you're a ColecoVision homebrewer in need of some cartridge casings, feel free to contact me. Most of those who have already expressed an interest in purchasing casings seem interested in "regular" black casings only, but I can also get some done in other colors, like green, red, and maybe blue. Transparent (colored or uncolored) casings are also a possibility. I'll post more info in this thread later, if the need arises. TEAM PIXELBOY GAMES ON EBAY I currently have a few copies of my games up on eBay right now. You can find them easely by searching for all items for sale by "darzilot", which is my eBay username. The eBay selling period ends on April 23rd. MORE TO COME... I have several other tantalizing tidbits of news to share with you, but now is not the appropriate time to reveal them. Expect another news bulletin in late July, right after I return from Adamcon 24! This concludes this news bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.