Dear ColecoVision fans, Daniel Bienvenu here (long letter)

[AtariBrian]

I am sure there are many homebrews to come that could use your music Daniel . You are the man when it comes to making great tunes for Colecovision games . And with all the homebrews that have been released , I am sure many could of used your expertise for title screen and or gameplay music .

[Troy_Whelan]

Hi Daniel,

 

Glad to see you back with (hopefully) a brighter future ahead. I have always enjoyed your games and will look forward to any new efforts you release either on your own or thru another publisher. The offers from CollectorVision and Team PixelBoy sound very promising as that will provide you some income while allowing you to focus on programming while they handle other publishing tasks; a true win-win situation!

 

I have been having time here off-and-on here lately, and I hope to make it more on as my own life begins to re-stabilize. Seems many of us are hitting mid-life obstacles and some, like yourself, have more than their fair share of obstacles all at once. Hang in there my friend.

 

I really like your ideas for original CV titles. Hope to see at least 1 coming out before year-end now that you have time, an active customer base, and 2 publishers ready to work with you.

 

You might not remember, but I first reached out to you in 1997 regarding games you were producing. You were very helpful, friendly and polite to me never making me regret reaching out and I will always remember, appreciate and respect that along with all you do.

 

Troy

[newcoleco]

Hi Daniel,

 

Glad to see you back with (hopefully) a brighter future ahead. I have always enjoyed your games and will look forward to any new efforts you release either on your own or thru another publisher. The offers from CollectorVision and Team PixelBoy sound very promising as that will provide you some income while allowing you to focus on programming while they handle other publishing tasks; a true win-win situation!

Hi Troy,

 

I'm glad to be back as well with a brighter view on life, especially by seeing the reaction here, warming inside.

My return might be official after releasing something fans can appreciate, even tho I've kinda released some tools earlier this year that might become handy.

 

I have been having time here off-and-on here lately, and I hope to make it more on as my own life begins to re-stabilize. Seems many of us are hitting mid-life obstacles and some, like yourself, have more than their fair share of obstacles all at once. Hang in there my friend.

I'm not sure why myself, but it looks like you're right. So many friends I've lost contact with, some ended up alright, some with health complications, some in depression, it's crazy... like life is telling us that we are not invincible.

I don't know if it's appropriate but I want to publically thank a friend named Eric Hamel, a friend I've lost contact for years, had a stroke and is dealing with complications and moves using a wheelchair. I've met him again during summer 2016 and he said to me with his deep voice: "one day at a time".

 

I really like your ideas for original CV titles. Hope to see at least 1 coming out before year-end now that you have time, an active customer base, and 2 publishers ready to work with you.

I hope you will like whatever I finish first to make my come back. Juggling with ideas and making progress is irregular these days, and I've things to do in real life.

 

You might not remember, but I first reached out to you in 1997 regarding games you were producing. You were very helpful, friendly and polite to me never making me regret reaching out and I will always remember, appreciate and respect that along with all you do.

 

Troy

Story time:

In 1997, I had a 1-2 years old website at Laval University, I'm sure you guys can still find it on the time machine archive dot org somewhere. Back then I published ICVGM for DOS with mouse support and included 2 colors sprites editor if you openned it with John Dondzila's Purple Dinosaur Massacre ROM file and that's why many ColecoVision ROM Collections has weird things like Killer Instinct (PDM rom hack). Another tool back then was VOIROM to see game in hexadecial and binary, with data displayed in a way to make it easy to see characters and sprites in various ROM files used for some ROM hacks like ELDCDBPAPP Q*BERT and Winky Trap.

In 1999, I coded my real first ColecoVision game from scratch, it was a Breakout clone named simply Breakout and was entirely in french, using all my tools to convert bitmaps for ColecoVision and Marcel de Kogel's devkit.

 

And I kinda remember you sent me an email back then, yes. I'm not sure what was the message anymore, that's kinda lost into oblivion, but I recall receiving an email from someone named Troy back in the 90s.

 

Daniel

[Murph74]

Welcome back, Daniel!

[Crapahute]

Bon retour, Monsieur Daniel !

[Swami]

Hi Daniel,

 

Just found and played the Flora and the Ghost Mirror rom you posted on here a while back - the pre-cartridge demo rom. It was more challenging than it looked in the video. For one, I didn't realize you used the fire button for more than ghost zapping, and though you just ran over the flowers and items like pac-man, but you have to position yourself well before hitting the fire button and your magic drops pretty fast. I'm glad you posted the demo rom. It was a a lot of fun and so I bought the cartridge. Only comment I can say is I wish it was longer. I have not made it to the end, yet, but I am sure I will wish there were more levels when I do. Maybe a future project?

 

Best wishes,

 

Swami

Edited May 28, 2017 by Swami

[newcoleco]

Hi Daniel,

Hello Swami,

 

Just found and played the Flora and the Ghost Mirror rom you posted on here a while back - the pre-cartridge demo rom. It was more challenging than it looked in the video.

Many of my Youtube videos do show my best performance, so it looks easier than it is. Sorry about that!

 

My gameplay is the result of many hours testing the game through the entire development process.

 

Side note: One big problem when making an original game is tweaking it to make it a pleasant, nice difficulty curve, with a good challenge, without being insanely hard. When I created GhostBlaster and went back to design the "tutorial" 1st level, it felt too easy and useless. But in reality, many players can't even pass the first level because of their tv screen (new but slow) and the controllers not top notch (unresponsive fire button and direction) and also they never played the game before.

 

For one, I didn't realize you used the fire button for more than ghost zapping, and though you just ran over the flowers and items like pac-man, but you have to position yourself well before hitting the fire button and your magic drops pretty fast.

My reasoning: I really want the player to do the action of helping the flowers, but I don't want to do a numpad key press or even a secondary fire action to try to keep the game playable with "compatible controllers". So, I've made the two actions into the fire button based on Flora+flower relation, making the game slightly more challenging.

 

Side note: During one ADAMCon (a Coleco convention), Dale Wick did a presentation about ways that controls can be exploited in videogames to do various actions like buttons combinaisons and he tried to integrate this idea into one of his ColecoVision projects. What he forgot to mention was that sometimes the same controls can have different effects in relation to what is happening on screen, or he mentionned it in another presentation and I missed it. Anyway, it was interesting and it's nice to open up to various ideas about controls and gameplay and physics and all kind of possible ways to make a videogame fun.

 

I'm glad you posted the demo rom. It was a a lot of fun and so I bought the cartridge. Only comment I can say is I wish it was longer. I have not made it to the end, yet, but I am sure I will wish there were more levels when I do. Maybe a future project?

Happy to hear you had a lot of fun playing this game.

 

Yes, I see what you mean. This game is not for hardcore gamers, it's short and would be even better with more levels, elements to discover and enjoy. Flora's universe can be expended in the future and that's the beauty of a small original game leaving space for many possible sequels. More levels, more challenges, perhaps also an elaborated storyline... I'll try to keep that in mind for my next game.

 

Flora and the Ghost Mirror means a lot to me. It's my attempt to do an original casual minigame based on Gabriela. Gabriela and I were in love when I coded this game, but the distant relationship didn't last a year; we are still in contact, but we moved on. During this period, I've suggested to Gabriela to do a videogame together. After a few brainstorming, Flora the fairy was born. "With our power combined" (cliché) Flora and The Ghost Mirror videogame was created with my experience in ColecoVision programming and Gabriela's love and interests which includes: nature, living plants and flowers, spiritual world, energy healing, horoscope (title screen made of horoscope signs constellations), pretty clothing and accessories, music style, ingame music is based on one of Gabriela's favorite music, Flora's voice is Gabriela's voice, addictive gameplay of online casual games, and of course a happy celebration ending.

 

I have considered to do a sequel, even a trilogy based on Flora's universe; I think it's an interesting world to explore. I drew some sketches, but I've not started coding anything yet. Will I make Flora 2 anytime soon? No, but I'm thinking about it and see the evolution of Flora.

 

Best wishes,

 

Swami

Thanks

 

Daniel

[newcoleco]

Welcome back, Daniel!

Thank you!

 

Bon retour, Monsieur Daniel !

Merci! Ça fait plaisir d'être de retour!

[Swami]

Hello Swami,

 

 

Many of my Youtube videos do show my best performance, so it looks easier than it is. Sorry about that!

 

My gameplay is the result of many hours testing the game through the entire development process.

 

Side note: One big problem when making an original game is tweaking it to make it a pleasant, nice difficulty curve, with a good challenge, without being insanely hard. When I created GhostBlaster and went back to design the "tutorial" 1st level, it felt too easy and useless. But in reality, many players can't even pass the first level because of their tv screen (new but slow) and the controllers not top notch (unresponsive fire button and direction) and also they never played the game before.

 

 

My reasoning: I really want the player to do the action of helping the flowers, but I don't want to do a numpad key press or even a secondary fire action to try to keep the game playable with "compatible controllers". So, I've made the two actions into the fire button based on Flora+flower relation, making the game slightly more challenging.

 

Side note: During one ADAMCon (a Coleco convention), Dale Wick did a presentation about ways that controls can be exploited in videogames to do various actions like buttons combinaisons and he tried to integrate this idea into one of his ColecoVision projects. What he forgot to mention was that sometimes the same controls can have different effects in relation to what is happening on screen, or he mentionned it in another presentation and I missed it. Anyway, it was interesting and it's nice to open up to various ideas about controls and gameplay and physics and all kind of possible ways to make a videogame fun.

 

 

Happy to hear you had a lot of fun playing this game.

 

Yes, I see what you mean. This game is not for hardcore gamers, it's short and would be even better with more levels, elements to discover and enjoy. Flora's universe can be expended in the future and that's the beauty of a small original game leaving space for many possible sequels. More levels, more challenges, perhaps also an elaborated storyline... I'll try to keep that in mind for my next game.

 

Flora and the Ghost Mirror means a lot to me. It's my attempt to do an original casual minigame based on Gabriela. Gabriela and I were in love when I coded this game, but the distant relationship didn't last a year; we are still in contact, but we moved on. During this period, I've suggested to Gabriela to do a videogame together. After a few brainstorming, Flora the fairy was born. "With our power combined" (cliché) Flora and The Ghost Mirror videogame was created with my experience in ColecoVision programming and Gabriela's love and interests which includes: nature, living plants and flowers, spiritual world, energy healing, horoscope (title screen made of horoscope signs constellations), pretty clothing and accessories, music style, ingame music is based on one of Gabriela's favorite music, Flora's voice is Gabriela's voice, addictive gameplay of online casual games, and of course a happy celebration ending.

 

I have considered to do a sequel, even a trilogy based on Flora's universe; I think it's an interesting world to explore. I drew some sketches, but I've not started coding anything yet. Will I make Flora 2 anytime soon? No, but I'm thinking about it and see the evolution of Flora.

 

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

Wow! What an incredible background for the game! That is truly touching. I doubt few games could match a backstory like that. Thank you for sharing.

[newcoleco]

Wow! What an incredible background for the game! That is truly touching. I doubt few games could match a backstory like that. Thank you for sharing.

There are easter eggs in some my CV games.

 

I wished to see someone figuring out the Easter Eggs in Flora without me telling any. I'm sure at least one had the question: "why clothes has bonus points?" ... well now you know why.

[ColecoGamer]

Hi Daniel,

 

It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. First, I am really sorry about your mother. Losing a loved one is never easy, but to cancer? I can't even imagine...

 

I've been unemployeed, supported by family. and buried in a mountain of debt all at the same time, so I can definitely sympathize with your current situation.

 

While I am not fimiliar with you personally, I have read about your games on FB groups and websites. In fact, I believe I might have subscribed to your Youtube channel a very long time ago, while searching for Coleco dev/homebrew videos. The channel was called newcoleco, I believe.

 

I hope you stick around and become an active member of the community again. And if you ever decide to finish and publiish those unfinished projects (which I assume are games), you can count on me to place an order.

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited June 3, 2017 by ColecoGamer

[Swami]

removed.

[newcoleco]

removed.

 

You went to the ADAMCon website to buy Flora game and there is no answer? Try contact Dale Wick, he is the admin of the website.

[Swami]

 

You went to the ADAMCon website to buy Flora game and there is no answer? Try contact Dale Wick, he is the admin of the website.

Sorry. I ordered flora from them, but have not heard or received anything in a month. I have found AdamCon is now being ran by Adam News Network rather than adamcon.org. Dale has not posted here for a year and emails get bounced back as unavailable. I think he's retired, but left the store website up that still takes payments, unfortunately. Anyhow, just checked Gooddealgames and they have it back in stock (a little pricier, as usual), so I am ordering from them and getting a refund from PayPal. Took some investigating, but didn't really need to bother you once I figured all this out. Thanks though. BTW, PM doesn't work, if not intentional.

[newcoleco]

Sorry. I ordered flora from them, but have not heard or received anything in a month. I have found AdamCon is now being ran by Adam News Network rather than adamcon.org. Dale has not posted here for a year and emails get bounced back as unavailable. I think he's retired, but left the store website up that still takes payments, unfortunately. Anyhow, just checked Gooddealgames and they have it back in stock (a little pricier, as usual), so I am ordering from them and getting a refund from PayPal. Took some investigating, but didn't really need to bother you once I figured all this out. Thanks though. BTW, PM doesn't work, if not intentional.

You're not bothering me, and thank you for making me aware of the issue.

I really should clean up my mailbox to get messages directed to me personally.

I've sent an email to Dale Wick about the situation and you should hear from him soon.

 

Sorry for the inconveniences