Pixelboy Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Hello, ColecoVision fanatics! I'd like to start this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin with some happy news: Yours truly just found himself a new job! I'll be starting at my new company next Tuesday, and since I expect the training period to be grueling, I'll probably have to slow down my activities related to Team Pixelboy, at least for a couple of weeks. Not a complete shutdown of activities, just a slowdown while I get used to my new job. But before next Tuesday, I want to get the ball rolling on a special project! Read on for all the details! THE NEW BUDGET SERIES Many of you know Óscar Toledo Gutiérrez, also known as nanochess on these forums. He's been hanging around these parts for several years, and I was honored to publish some of his games, namely Princess Quest, Mecha-8 and Mecha-9 under my Team Pixelboy label. He's also the author of the CoolCV emulator, and he's been a great help and all-around nice guy to the ColecoVision homebrew community. Óscar's wife received some very bad news recently: She has stage-4 lung cancer (it has started spreading out of her lungs) and she had to give birth to her daughter prematurely so she could receive chemotherapy treatments. The baby is currently in intensive care. I've decided to help Óscar with the medical bills by starting a new budget-priced series of Team Pixelboy games. These games are mostly ColecoVision ports of MSX homebrew games that were submitted to the MSXdev contests in recent years, and there are a few games coded from scratch as well. All the games of this series will be priced at 29.95$US, and some of the money from each copy sold will be sent to Óscar. This budget series will be composed of 17 games. Each game cartridge will come in a sturdy two-piece box (similar to the boxes used by Parker Bros back in the day) and a 4-page manual will also be included. As you can guess, a 4-page manual implies that these games will be rather simple in nature, but still quite fun to play. Most (but not all) of the games will require the Super Game Module to function. I will provide more details about SGM dependency at a future date. This "budget" project has barely started. As I write this, only a small number of games in this new series have actually been completed and are ready for beta-testing, and the rest will probably be completed over the next couple of months. If you want to help with beta-testing, by the way, please send me a private message on AtariAge. But even though the games are nowhere ready yet, the pre-order period needs to start right away, because Óscar needs all the money he can get as soon as possible, and I also need to determine how many boxes of each game I need to order from the printer company. So here's how pre-ordering is going to work: People will need to pay 9$US for each game pre-ordered, and all the money collected will go directly and immediately to Óscar. This implies that these initial pre-order payments will be NON-REFUNDABLE. When the pre-ordered games will be actually ready to ship, buyers will pay the remaining 20.95$US per game, plus shipping fees. Over the next few days, I will contact (by e-mail) all the people listed in my Team Pixelboy customer records about this new budget series. So if you have purchased Team Pixelboy games from me in the past, please wait for the e-mail I will send you, don't e-mail me about pre-ordering these new budget games. I have a lot of people to contact, so this may take a while, but rest assured I will get around to contacting everyone. So without further ado, here are the 17 games of the budget series, in alphabetical order, with currently available videos/pictures. Caverns of Titan (by Jose Luis Tur) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2NnuSVaGM Cold Blood (by Juan Luis Martinez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_tomZDNjvc Danger Tower (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hTbXmnZMj4 Deep Dungeon Adventure (by Arturo Ragozini) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1hToQu3sqE Frostbite (designed by Steve Cartwright, ColecoVision version coded by Antoni Burguera.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGH_6d0T7as (This trailer video was prepared by Antoni Burguera) NOTE: The video above mentions an "amazing soundtrack", but that soundtrack is actually still under development. But the point is, there will be background music in this game to add a little ambiance. NOTE 2: The entire game itself is still under development. Some graphics and features may change between now and release day, but what you see in the video is essentially what you will get. Heroes Arena (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e2NtUbIP0w J.E.T.P.A.C. (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HQ691DwtfE Kaboom! (designed by Larry Kaplan, ColecoVision version coded by Armando Pérez Abad) (No media currently available) Pretty much the same game as on the Atari 2600, but with prettier graphics. Roller Controller support will likely be included. Kralizec Tetris (by Armando Pérez Abad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWctbVYxODI NOTE: The video above does not show the two-player battle mode, but that versus mode will definately be included. Remember the Flag (new game designed by Luc Miron, programmed by Armando Pérez Abad) (No media currently available) This is a memory-match game very similar to the board game Match II, with some added bells and whistles. One-player-versus-CPU and two-player modes will be included. SHMUP! (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsYB9Q3iFGE Shouganai (by Juan Luis Martinez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0m1PlWfO3E Stray Cat (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-5G5zCrmUA Sudoku (by Daniel Vik) Click here for Generation-MSX entry of Sudoku for MSX Traffic Jam (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltHvRujTe0 Txupinazo! (by David Fernandez) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfakxLvx2xo Yar's Revenge (designed by Howard Scott Warshaw, ColecoVision version coded by Armando Pérez Abad) (No media currently available) It will be the same game as on the Atari 2600, but we're currently discussing possible minor enhancements, both in graphics and gameplay, just to add something new to the formula. Nothing too fancy, don't worry. The people working on these games for Team Pixelboy will do their best to get them ready as soon as possible, but at this time, I am not in a position to set an actual release date for any of these games. It's way too early for that, and there are several unknown variables that keep me from setting such a release date. My general plan is to ship these games to customers in groups of 4 as the software is completed and put on cartridges, but that plan is easely subject to change. But in whichever fashion these budget-priced games will make their way to customers, my end goal is to have ALL orders shipped by the end of September. Releasing 17 complete-in-box ColecoVision games in such a short amount of time is quite a challenge, but certain marketing decisions have been taken that make this challenge doable. In particular, I'm going to prepare the box templates myself for all 17 games, and once these templates are ready, I will show them in this forum thread, and also on teampixelboy.com. I'm hoping people will pre-order as many games as they can, to help our friend Óscar in his hour of need. I would like to take a moment to thank the people who have made this budget series possible in such a short amount of time: - Armando Pérez Abad (who has been a tremendous help in securing most of these 17 budget-priced games, and will be porting several MSX games and coding several new games from scratch) - David Fernandez (also known as Imanok in the MSX homebrew scene, donated a lot of his MSX creations for this project) - Juan Luis Martinez (creator of Shouganai and Cold Blood) - Jose Luis Tur (creator of Caverns of Titan) - Arturo Ragozini (main coder of Deep Dungeon Adventure) - John Hassink (collaborator on Deep Dungeon Adventure) - Richard Cornelisse (collaborator on Deep Dungeon Adventure) - Daniel Vik (creator of Sudoku on MSX, and is also porting the game to ColecoVision) - Vincent Van Dam (collaborator on Sudoku) - Antoni Burguera (main coder for Frostbite, and providing technical assistance for the ColecoVision port of Sudoku) - Carlo Bandini (music composer behind several of these games) - And last but certainly not least, Óscar Toledo Gutiérrez (who is porting some of these MSX homebrew games to ColecoVision) I hope I didn't forget anyone... Apologies if I did. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER TEAM PIXELBOY GAMES? It's rather obvious that the new budget series is going to take up all my free time this summer, so the release of the "regular" set of upcoming Team Pixelboy titles (Ghostbusters, Space Shuttle, Secret of the Moai, C-So!, King & Balloon, Children of the Night, Wizard of Wor, Utopia, Jewel Panic and Gauntlet) will be pushed back to Christmas 2016. Antoni Burguera graciously prepared a new trailer for Children of the Night, which you can watch below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKMeeItFtN0 FOOT NOTE I unsuccessfully tried selling an empty homebrew Super Action Baseball box on eBay last week. If anyone wants it, please let me know. Just pay 5$, shipping is free. Pictures of this homebrew box are attached below. This conclude this Team Pixelboy News Bulletin. We now return you to your regular forum activities. 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamshaft Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Very cool and thoughtful. Hope Oscar and family pull through! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Thoughts and prayers. I'll order some of these games for sure. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I've decided to help Óscar with the medical bills by starting a new budget-priced series of Team Pixelboy games. These games are mostly ColecoVision ports of MSX homebrew games that were submitted to the MSXdev contests in recent years, and there are a few games coded from scratch as well. All the games of this series will be priced at 29.95$US, and some of the money from each copy sold will be sent to Óscar. Wait, so let me get this straight. You're tell me that you're making available 17 different games, mostly original titles (although originally written for MSX) and all the profits go to help Oscar whose CoolCV emulator I use EVERY SINGLE DAY? Put me down for two copies of each! Happy to help out! Best wishes and thoughts to Oscar and the family. Hope everyone pulls through ok! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grips03 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Thoughts and prayers to Oscar and family. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogjo Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Sorry to hear about Oscar's wife. Prayers go out to them. I will pick up a few of these bad boys myself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Congratulations on the new job - well deserved I'm sure. Fantastic idea regarding the budget titles - my thoughts are very much with Oscar and his family at this time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted May 19, 2016 Author Share Posted May 19, 2016 Wait, so let me get this straight. You're tell me that you're making available 17 different games, mostly original titles (although originally written for MSX) and all the profits go to help Oscar whose CoolCV emulator I use EVERY SINGLE DAY? Put me down for two copies of each! Happy to help out! Thanks dude! We'll talk again via e-mail soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Wow, so very sorry to hear this about Óscar's familia, but thoughts going towards the recovery of his esposa y niñito. I would be very proud to contribute 100% of my share. I'm often very reserved in making "good cause" contributions, but this is so close to my heart and my hobbies. Óscar was and is the most gifted original programmer to come into the CV scene. When he bounced into the scene with MECHA 8 and Princess Quest a few years ago, I was simply blown away by the expert coding and professional game designs. The quality of these games had—at the time—been matched only by Opcode Games, and by a few mystery CV programmers. Anyone who recognizes the limits of the CV hardware can see that Óscar has the abilities to take it to unforeseen levels, and he is truly a master coder. My thoughts and prayers are with la familia de Óscar, and may these contributions go toward the healing of his wife and family. Sign me up, I'm all in! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slab0meat Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I will be buying these as well, happy to help out. I've had two friends/families have sad things happen to them recently, and we've been sending thoughts and prayers their way. Oscar and family will now be included as well. May everything work out for you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoDan Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Good luck to oscar and his family. As always in for all of them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Is there any way to donate without purchasing a game? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBuff Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Congrats to you on the new job and all the best to the Oscar family. Please put me up for each and every of these releases. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grips03 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Is there any way to donate without purchasing a game? I've asked him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I have donated to Oscar for IntyBASIC in the past. I will purchase majority of the games since I enjoyed those new MSX games on the Colecovision so much. Oscar is very positive guy and hope his wife get better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 My wife and me really appreciate your prayers. It's has been indeed a hard time getting all these news from doctors in so few weeks but a little happiness with our baby girl, even if she is premature. I'll be porting several of these games as soon as possible. My Spanish friends have provided source code so the timing is good. Thanks everyone for your help! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grips03 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 This is awesome thing to do Luc!! If people want to send something directly to Oscar and family send him a PM. Oscar is very good people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 An absolute buy for all of these for myself and more importantly, my thoughts, prayers and best wishes for you and your family Oscar. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RelliK111 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) My Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Oscar. I will absolute buy a few of those budget games. I would want:Frostbite,SHMUP!,Yar's Revenge,Kaboom!,Heroes Arena, & Shouganai Is there any chance you could add Sea Quest to the budget titles!!!!! Edited May 20, 2016 by RelliK111 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Teams Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Very sorry to hear about Oscar's wife - hopefully it goes into remission and she makes a full recovery. My thoughts and prayers are with them both. He is lucky to have a friend like Luc and it's really nice to see the community come together like this and help out. I'm in for all games. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digress Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I'm in for all 17. I'm glad to help out Oscar and this was great idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 I just finished sending e-mails to all the people listed in my customer records. I've received many replies already, but I haven't responded to any of those replies yet. I've had my fill of writing e-mails for today, and I will resume processing all incoming e-mails tomorrow morning. I should go to bed before my eyes fall out of their sockets... Thanks a lot for your support, guys! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family, Oscar. Stay positive. I'm definitely interested in some of these games, I'll buy what I can when the time comes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirby76 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I just read the email. I'm down for all 17. Oscar I will keep you and your family in my prayers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAZ Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I'm also signed up for 17. A very sad situation. Oscar and family are in my thoughts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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