New ColecoVision game soon - Jetpack!

[+5-11under]

A few years ago, when I was programming Squares!, I created a 4K version of the game for the Minigame Competition. I also spent a couple of days making another game for the competition, Jetpack, or JETP4K as I called it. It was a fairly simple side-scrolling game, where you had to evade the scrolling rocks to stay alive, and gather the diamonds to gain lives (if I recall correctly!!). Press the button to accelerate upwards; release the button to gravitate downwards. Hitting the "ceiling" or floor made you bounce, while losing some kinetic energy. The control works quite nicely, I think. You can probably find this game somewhere on the internet.

 

Unfortunately, the game was plagued with a bug. The collision detection didn't work, unless you used a simple emulator like Virtual ColecoVision. Sometime after the competition, I changed the player and rock sprites to blocks, and called the game Jet... block! A couple people out there have this game, including quite possibly a mailman in Italy... but that's another story. For this version (once again, if I recall correctly!!), I added a smart bomb feature (credits added when "hitting" the diamonds; joystick right to activate), and enhanced the difficulty over time.

 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I was assembling some PCBs for Team Pixelboy and putting them in Activision Tennis and Motocross casings. I was left with a pile of orphaned Tennis and Motocross game PCBs. I was thinking of desoldering the ROM chips and putting some Jet... block! games on there, and selling them for a handful of dollars. Later I changed my mind, because it'd be a bit of a pain to desolder the chips, and also to modify them to fit a regular Coleco cart (the PCBs are a bit different). I do have my own PCBs, of course, which would be easy to use, so I thought maybe I'd sell these with just the assembled PCB and a label. The buyer could grab an extra Donkey Kong cartridge, pull the label off, replace the PCB, and put the new label on. Then I thought that maybe some people would rather just play it on their USB/SD multicarts, or have a full package. So I've created a poll, which will at least help me decide how to proceed.

 

When you're voting, keep in mind the game is not too complex. I think there's enough there to have lots of fun... otherwise I wouldn't sell it. I've spent a few evenings working on the game, and will spend some more at least until my current to-do list is complete. The game is called Jetpack! again, as the blocks have been replaced with a newly redesigned jetpack player and variety of rocks. A couple of bugs have been fixed, the gameplay has been improved, a pause feature has been added (joystick left), collision detection has been fixed, and the graphics have been updated. Things to do include tweaking the difficulty ramping, adding difficulty levels, adding visual effects for number of lives and number of bombs on hand, improving collision detection so very minor hits won't hurt, fixing up the opening screen, and adding additional sound effects.

 

So, the question is, how do you think I should release the game? Download only, PCB plus label only, complete cartridge, complete-in-box, or none of the above? I haven't mentioned a manual, but one would be provided in the CIB option and possibly for the complete cartridge. Otherwise, it'd be available for download, most likely.

 

Thanks,

5-11under

 

edit: grammar fix

Edited January 6, 2011 by 5-11under

[+GroovyBee]

Any screenshots?

[Yurkie]

I voted for the pcb and label with download.

 

Looking forward to this. Thanks!

[+5-11under]

Old version screen shot: http://www.colecovision.dk/dekleine.htm

Old version ROM, although I still don't think it works properly: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/92909-fixed-jetpack-colecovision-4k/

[Pixelboy]

If you had some spare Activision-style casings, perhaps you could still use the Motocross/Tennis PCBs. Albert still has plenty of them, so I think we could arrange something... I don't know exactly how much work it is to desolder the EPROMs from the boards though...

[ColecoDan]

What is this last vote option?

--- We don't need any new ColecoVision games right now

 

 

That is just crazy talk.

[+5-11under]

If you had some spare Activision-style casings, perhaps you could still use the Motocross/Tennis PCBs. Albert still has plenty of them, so I think we could arrange something... I don't know exactly how much work it is to desolder the EPROMs from the boards though...

I've got about 20 Activision casings, but they belong to you. I sold most of my Coleco casings to classics last year (for a good cause ), so I'd need to purchase some new (or used ones) from you, retroillucid, or someone else. I'll get back to you when the time comes.

[+5-11under]

What is this last vote option?

--- We don't need any new ColecoVision games right now

 

 

That is just crazy talk.

A little humour... or the fact that some of you have probably purchased/ordered 8 or 9 new ColocoVision games over the past month or two.

[Reinhardt]

I'm looking forward to it.

[+evg2000]

In regard to desoldering, have you tried a heat gun? I've never been able to remove an IC successfully. I tried solder wick, solder sucker, etc but then I saw Harbor Freight Tools had a heat gun on sale for like $12. I used it with an xclamp kit to fix my busted xbox360, then just for the heck of it I took an atari cart and tried to remove the ic with the heat gun, piece of cake. Next I did a bios swap on a CV and it went pretty smooth, seem like a quick and easy way to remove IC. Just be careful were you direct the heat, can screw up other components, and let the MB cool for at least 30 minutes.

[+5-11under]

In regard to desoldering, have you tried a heat gun? I've never been able to remove an IC successfully. I tried solder wick, solder sucker, etc but then I saw Harbor Freight Tools had a heat gun on sale for like $12. I used it with an xclamp kit to fix my busted xbox360, then just for the heck of it I took an atari cart and tried to remove the ic with the heat gun, piece of cake. Next I did a bios swap on a CV and it went pretty smooth, seem like a quick and easy way to remove IC. Just be careful were you direct the heat, can screw up other components, and let the MB cool for at least 30 minutes.

I haven't tried these yet, but I'd definitely use a heat gun. Clamp either the chip or the PCB, apply heat, and hopefully whatever's not clamped will fall to the floor.

[+evg2000]

In regard to desoldering, have you tried a heat gun? I've never been able to remove an IC successfully. I tried solder wick, solder sucker, etc but then I saw Harbor Freight Tools had a heat gun on sale for like $12. I used it with an xclamp kit to fix my busted xbox360, then just for the heck of it I took an atari cart and tried to remove the ic with the heat gun, piece of cake. Next I did a bios swap on a CV and it went pretty smooth, seem like a quick and easy way to remove IC. Just be careful were you direct the heat, can screw up other components, and let the MB cool for at least 30 minutes.

I haven't tried these yet, but I'd definitely use a heat gun. Clamp either the chip or the PCB, apply heat, and hopefully whatever's not clamped will fall to the floor.

I used a vise on my workbench with a piece of wood on either side of the PCB where there was no component to damage, and I used a chip puller I had in a cheap PC toolkits, looks kinda like a big pair of tweezers with the tips bent in. If you are putting in a socket I'm guess you could push it in right after pulling the old chip, while the solder is still melted. I would then do a touch up on all of the pins.

[SlowCoder]

I voted Complete Cartridge w/ download ... Because I don't particularly need CIB, and I don't have extra carts I can just give up for a new PCB board.

 

The size of a game isn't so important, as how well it plays. Come to think about it, that same concept can be applied to other things ... joysticks, swords ...

[NIAD]

 

The size of a game isn't so important, as how well it plays. Come to think about it, that same concept can be applied to other things ... joysticks, swords ...

When women say that, they really don't mean it! What they are really saying is bigger is better!

[King_Salamon]

I like the idea of getting a pcb and a label... would be fun to gut a trashed label cart and 'make' myself a new game! I don't need boxes for my games... I like having carts though with cool labels!

[Murph74]

I voted Download for $3... but didn't see that the other options had a download as well! Doh! I like ALL the options in that case!

[Trent555]

This sounds great, i'd be up for a simple PCB plus label, if it keeps costs lower rather than outsourcing CV casings. If casings are available, then a simple cartridge would also be good.