Team Pixelboy news bulletin - December 20th 2009

[Pixelboy]

Hello retro-people!

 

I passed a milestone in my projects today, and I updated my official Team Pixelboy web site as a result. I thought this would be a good time to post news on the AA forum as well.

 

First of all, this past week-end I finished the box templates and cartridge label templates for Girl's Garden and Gulkave. I attached some images below for your viewing pleasure.

 

Girl's Garden has passed the beta-testing phase and is now ready for cart production. I've reached a deal with 5-11under to buy, solder and ship the electronics to me, but I'm not sure when it will be done. I also need to get the box and cart label printed, and I've barely started working on the manual, so it's safe to say that the release of Girl's Garden is still well over a month away.

 

As for Gulkave, Eduardo still hasn't delivered the final release candidate for beta-testing. For the rest, the story is the same as Girl's Garden, so Gulkave is also over a month away from being released.

 

If you check out the web site, you will notice a new game under the "outsourced" section, namely Peek-a-boo by Dvik & Joyrex. It's a game for toddlers, so anyone over the age of 5 will probably get tired of this game within 20 seconds, but it's a nice quality game nonetheless. Only 50 copies will be produced, and it will be a cart-only release (no box, just the cart and a one-page manual), but all carts will be dark pink!

 

A couple of weeks ago, Eduardo Mello managed to finish the ColecoVision port of the MSX version of Track & Field 1. I'm happy to report that it works perfectly. The actual plan is to have both Track & Field 1 and 2 together on the same cart, and I trust Eduardo will be able to get it done, but even if it doesn't happen for whatever unfortunate reason, Track & Field will definately be released on the ColecoVision in some form, some time in the future.

 

Finally, when I launched my web site last October, I contacted Dutchman2000 to reiterate my interest in the sound data that he has for the ColecoVision prototype of Joust. He never replied, so if things do not work out soon, I'll just remove "Joust - Complete Edition" from the list of projects on my Team Pixelboy web site, since I do not want to get people's hopes up for nothing.

 

This concludes this news bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities.

[youki]

Does Gulkave is a port of the MSX version or the SG 1000 version?

 

Or a "made from scratch" ?

[Pixelboy]

Does Gulkave is a port of the MSX version or the SG 1000 version?

 

Or a "made from scratch" ?

It's a port of the SG-1000 version.

[Bruce Tomlin]

You didn't post a picture of the pink casings! (Note: the pinker ones are going to be used.)

Edited December 21, 2009 by Bruce Tomlin

[Pixelboy]

You didn't post a picture of the pink casings! (Note: the pinker ones are going to be used.)

Oh, good thinking! Thanks Bruce!

 

Yeah, the light pink casings will be used for Girl's Garden. I've got 100 of them waiting in a box at my place.

 

The dark pinks will be used for Peek-a-boo.

[Arjak]

Gulkave looks awesome. I'll definitely buy a copy when it comes out if I can get my hands on a ColecoVision by then!

[Pixelboy]

Gulkave looks awesome. I'll definitely buy a copy when it comes out if I can get my hands on a ColecoVision by then!

If you aren't already on my waiting list for Gulkave, you should send me an e-mail to place your pre-order. Visit my web site for the e-mail address you need to use.

[ten-four]

Hi Luc

 

nice that now is a breakthrough with Gulkave.

 

I look forward to the year 2010.

[JEFF31]

Pretty sure I'm on the list for Gulkave. Heck put me on the list for ALL the others also! Would love to see Track and Field on my coleco...

 

Thanks Luc

 

(And hey give Eduardo a small break... those 1 and 3 am feedings are murder!... well they were for me 15-20 year ago )

[Pixelboy]

Pretty sure I'm on the list for Gulkave. Heck put me on the list for ALL the others also! Would love to see Track and Field on my coleco...

 

Thanks Luc

No problem.

 

(And hey give Eduardo a small break... those 1 and 3 am feedings are murder!... well they were for me 15-20 year ago )

I don't really mind the wait, because even if he gave me the ROM now, I still have to prepare the manual, get the boxes, manuals and cart labels printed, etc., etc.. So Eduardo can take his time... for now anyway.

[JEFF31]

OK - ROM next week, Manual and box the next, produce the cart the next... end of January release! ----- Fantastic!!!... :lust: LOL in my dreams!!

 

Honestly I can wait, a little while I'm getting old..., for new releases.

 

Thanks to Luc, Eduardo, newcoleco, retroillucid, Scott, Dvik and many others who have kept the COLECO alive!

[Pixelboy]

OK - ROM next week, Manual and box the next, produce the cart the next... end of January release! ----- Fantastic!!!... :lust: LOL in my dreams!!

Seriously, it's a long process because of all the dependencies:

 

Once the raw material for the manual is ready, I'll hand it over to my friend Dale Crum who will make a PDF out of it (he's a busy guy, so that might take a little while to get done), which I will later take to a local print shop for printing in the required quantities.

 

The electronic parts will be sourced and soldered together by 5-11under, and that's bound to take several weeks too. Once they have been shipped to me, I will briefly test each of the soldered PCBs myself, and then screw the casings onto them and apply the label.

 

The boxes could also take a while. First retroillucid has to hand over my template to his local printer company,

and once they're printed on cardboard, I have to take them to another local company for proper die-cutting. Then I have to fold and glue all the boxes together, and put a styrofoam insert into each box, together with a copy of

the manual and a game cartridge.

 

Quite a long process indeed... I wish I could speed things up, but I can't.

[ozma wars]

Jeff31 is crazy

January for releases is clearly impossible.

But February is the right month.

Isn't it ???

 

Pls book all the 2 titles for me

 

Kind regards from Milano...

[rpgcollector]

E-mail sent. Would like to get on the lists for all three games. Thanks!!

[Pixelboy]

E-mail sent. Would like to get on the lists for all three games. Thanks!!

E-mail received, and replied to.

 

I would like to reiterate a point I have mentioned before: When someone is added to my waiting list for any Team Pixelboy game, he/she is on my list for ALL my games, and everyone on my customer list will be contacted whenever a new game is released. People who aren't interested in a certain game can always simply say 'no thanks'.

[Pixelboy]

Jeff31 is crazy

January for releases is clearly impossible.

Clearly, but I believe he was just kidding.

 

But February is the right month.

Isn't it ???

February is my goal, but the truth is I don't have a lot of control over when each part gets done, and I can't release a game until everything comes together (cart, box and manual).

 

One piece of good news I can give right now is that I received some samples of the styrofoam insert I ordered from a supplier, and I'm happy to report that it fits perfectly in the box (I used the box of CollectorVision's Fireman for my test, since that box is of the exact same design and dimensions). So now I can order them in large quantities, and those styrofoam inserts will be ready when the games are ready to ship.

 

Pls book all the 2 titles for me

You're already on my list for Gulkave, Max. And you're now on my list for Girl's Garden too.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I should probably mention here that despite its girly exterior, Girl's Garden is really a pretty good game. And it gets hard fast, too. It's hard to make it past level 8 or so, partly because extra lives and honey are so hard to get.

 

It also pushes the limits of the TMS9918 by using "background sprites", which is just my way of saying that the bears are background tiles because of the limited sprites and sprite colors.

 

As the box says: This game was originally designed and programmed by Yuji Naka, the main guy behind Sonic the Hedgehog! More specifically, this was his first commercially released game.

[Pixelboy]

I should probably mention here that despite its girly exterior, Girl's Garden is really a pretty good game. And it gets hard fast, too. It's hard to make it past level 8 or so, partly because extra lives and honey are so hard to get.

Yep, and the game also rewards players who play strategically. For example, bears cannot go through flowers, so flowers can be used as effective barriers to keep bears at bay, as long as they aren't picked up.

 

It also pushes the limits of the TMS9918 by using "background sprites", which is just my way of saying that the bears are background tiles because of the limited sprites and sprite colors.

Yeah, the way "background sprites" and horizontal screen scrolling were implemented together was a pretty impressive feat. Add to that the AI for controlling each flower's state, and the little wave animation in the ponds, and you've got quite a technical marvel. The roaming bee feature and the bear-leaping bonus stages are just icing on the cake.

 

Also, I have to say that Bruce did a terrific job on the CV port!

 

As the box says: This game was originally designed and programmed by Yuji Naka, the main guy behind Sonic the Hedgehog! More specifically, this was his first commercially released game.

Yeah, I should mention that somewhere... Well, I think I'll mention that fact (that it was Naka's first commercial game) in the manual, and just leave the box as-is.

[youki]

which is just my way of saying that the bears are background tiles because of the limited sprites and sprite colors.

 

Are saying that bears are not sprites in that game? Because looking video of the SG 1000 version , i would bet Bears are sprite. (mainly because when they are crossing a bridge you can see the bridge by transparence where sprite bits are not set ).

[Pixelboy]

Are saying that bears are not sprites in that game? Because looking video of the SG 1000 version , i would bet Bears are sprite. (mainly because when they are crossing a bridge you can see the bridge by transparence where sprite bits are not set ).

The bears are represented by tiles at all times. Notice that the bridges are nothing more that horizontal lines of color, so applying black pixels to the bridge tiles never breaks the two-color-per-tile-line rule.

[youki]

Effectivly you'r right.

 

But when the bear is sit down with a blue ball(?) in the hands the 2 colors rules is broken. It would mean that at least the Ball is a sprite in that case.

 

It seems it uses software sprites technics for the bear. Like it is done on lot of ZX spectrum game.

[Pixelboy]

But when the bear is sit down with a blue ball(?) in the hands the 2 colors rules is broken. It would mean that at least the Ball is a sprite in that case.

Look more closely, and you will see that the bear sitting down with a pot of honey is exactly 16 pixels wide, so there are only blue and black pixels along those scanlines. The 2-color rule is therefore not broken.

 

It seems it uses software sprites technics for the bear. Like it is done on lot of ZX spectrum game.

Only the girl and the bee are done with sprites in this game, so there's never any flicker. Well, there's also the large heart that floats up from the corner when you lose a life, but the bee is removed during such segments.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Effectivly you'r right.

 

But when the bear is sit down with a blue ball(?) in the hands the 2 colors rules is broken. It would mean that at least the Ball is a sprite in that case.

That's the bear eating honey. And look more carefully. The rule is never broken. Each 8-pixel horizontal line gets its own two colors. Don't forget that they don't have to be the same colors as the other lines.

 

 

Note that the bears are NOT centered within their 16-pixel area.

[Pixelboy]

Note that the bears are NOT centered within their 16-pixel area.

Ah, I stand corrected. I thought the black pixels in the bear took up all 16 pixels on the scanlines with blue in them. Actually, the blue+black is only used on the left side of the 16x16 tile.