retroillucid Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! Eric Bromley was the leading force behind the ColecoVision finally being manufactured by Coleco. He also played a large role in the line-up of arcade games that Coleco acquired the rights to make on videogame systems... and was the Coleco employee who flew to Japan to acquire the rights to Donkey Kong. There is a GREAT article, where he is interviewed extensively as well as further info on the ColecoVision and some Homebrew Scene items, in RetroGamer Issue #73 and I would recommend picking up the backissue. Coleco's Vision was in fact Eric Bromley's Vision Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 (edited) Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! Eric Bromley was the leading force behind the ColecoVision finally being manufactured by Coleco. He also played a large role in the line-up of arcade games that Coleco acquired the rights to make on videogame systems... and was the Coleco employee who flew to Japan to acquire the rights to Donkey Kong. There is a GREAT article, where he is interviewed extensively as well as further info on the ColecoVision and some Homebrew Scene items, in RetroGamer Issue #73 and I would recommend picking up the backissue. Coleco's Vision was in fact Eric Bromley's Vision Too bad Coleco Execs didn't listen to Eric B. going back to 1980. If they had gotten the system out upto 2 years earlier, who knows what might have happened. As it stands, Coleco was only really just getting going before the Crash and then all the mistakes by upper management concerning the ADAM was the final death blow. Edited February 24, 2011 by NIAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! Eric Bromley was the leading force behind the ColecoVision finally being manufactured by Coleco. He also played a large role in the line-up of arcade games that Coleco acquired the rights to make on videogame systems... and was the Coleco employee who flew to Japan to acquire the rights to Donkey Kong. There is a GREAT article, where he is interviewed extensively as well as further info on the ColecoVision and some Homebrew Scene items, in RetroGamer Issue #73 and I would recommend picking up the backissue. Coleco's Vision was in fact Eric Bromley's Vision Too bad Coleco Execs didn't listen to Eric B. going back to 1980. If they had gotten the system out upto 2 years earlier, who knows what might have happened. As it stands, Coleco was only really just getting going before the Crash and then all the mistakes by upper management concerning the ADAM was the final death blow. The main problem was that rom chips were really expensive in 1980 when they did the first prototype unit Fun fact is that the first proto unit were using rectangle cartridge port (similar to Atari2600) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madaracs Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! Eric Bromley was the leading force behind the ColecoVision finally being manufactured by Coleco. He also played a large role in the line-up of arcade games that Coleco acquired the rights to make on videogame systems... and was the Coleco employee who flew to Japan to acquire the rights to Donkey Kong. There is a GREAT article, where he is interviewed extensively as well as further info on the ColecoVision and some Homebrew Scene items, in RetroGamer Issue #73 and I would recommend picking up the backissue. I wonder if I recently sold that issue. I have Loads 1 and 2 back issues on DVD... but that sounds like a Load 3 number... I'll have to look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmcnett Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! My Dad was in charge of design at Coleco during those years. When I bumped into one of Coleco's game artists at a sushi restaurant many years later, he told me that Dad's nickname at Coleco was "Mr. Drummond." I guess this was because Dad was very "square" and looked like the television character. Dad expressed zero interest in computers or videogames until his death in 2009. I sometimes wonder if his attitude may have contributed to the collapse? Guess we'll never know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madaracs Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Does anyone have any idea who might have been in charge of game dev at coleco? It would be fun to see the reaction of the person who originally conceptualized having this game in the Coleco arsenal. Great work, RK! Great, I say! My Dad was in charge of design at Coleco during those years. When I bumped into one of Coleco's game artists at a sushi restaurant many years later, he told me that Dad's nickname at Coleco was "Mr. Drummond." I guess this was because Dad was very "square" and looked like the television character. Dad expressed zero interest in computers or videogames until his death in 2009. I sometimes wonder if his attitude may have contributed to the collapse? Guess we'll never know. Hmm. Well, I suppose maybe that could be true but if your dad was involved with Coleco during the pinnacle of it's popularity--I would be proud of that. Your dad was part of something special and though they called him Drummond, I'm sure there was a respect there for him as a business man. The whole industry suffered at that time. The men that took risks in the business rarely benefited from it--except by way of experience. I say kudos to your dad for what did come out of the company! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 (edited) I'm glad that you decided to join the discussion, and still hope to hear more from you. I don't think the attitude of one guy was a factor to explain the bankrupt Coleco experienced back then... even if he was THE Designer. In my opinion, it's more a question of bad decisions like all the false promises (delays, vaporwares), losing customers and third-party developers trust. Maybe it's too late for some people to make possible these unreleased games, but not for me and you who are looking forward "as if" ColecoVision was still the best game system available in the market. The tiny pictures of unreleased games in the ColecoVision catalog haunted my day-dreams during years, using my imagination to figure out what they games may added to my childhood gamer experience if they were released back then. And as far as this project of Side Trak goes, it's a little more than what I've expected first. About the missing sound, I'm still working on it. I hope to finish it for this friday evening. It's not excatly what I've expected in first the place, but I think it will be fine. Edited February 25, 2011 by newcoleco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKGames Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I'm glad that you decided to join the discussion, and still hope to hear more from you. I don't think the attitude of one guy was a factor to explain the bankrupt Coleco experienced back then... even if he was THE Designer. In my opinion, it's more a question of bad decisions like all the false promises (delays, vaporwares), losing customers and third-party developers trust. Maybe it's too late for some people to make possible these unreleased games, but not for me and you who are looking forward "as if" ColecoVision was still the best game system available in the market. The tiny pictures of unreleased games in the ColecoVision catalog haunted my day-dreams during years, using my imagination to figure out what they games may added to my childhood gamer experience if they were released back then. And as far as this project of Side Trak goes, it's a little more than what I've expected first. About the missing sound, I'm still working on it. I hope to finish it for this friday evening. It's not excatly what I've expected in first the place, but I think it will be fine. Dan, i'm sure it will be great! I'm just getting ready to start my coding for the evening. I'm hoping to squish some big bugs tonight and get us all closer to release! Cool info tonight about THE designer! hope to see the story continue! Any idea if he had control over the exidy games? does anyone know where the exidy games made inhouse at coleco or did exidy actually have a staff on their games? Take care, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmcnett Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 There's no way Dad was responsible for Coleco's top level business decisions, he was nominally in charge of "preliminary design" or prototyping. I remember him having pride in the toys and TV shows he helped make over the years, but never games. He got his degree in industrial design in the early 60s and videogames were simply beyond his ken. Since he had no mastery of the videogame making process he simply ignored it, far as I can remember. That couldn't have helped Coleco, but in retrospect it's unclear what would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 There's no way Dad was responsible for Coleco's top level business decisions, he was nominally in charge of "preliminary design" or prototyping. I remember him having pride in the toys and TV shows he helped make over the years, but never games. He got his degree in industrial design in the early 60s and videogames were simply beyond his ken. Since he had no mastery of the videogame making process he simply ignored it, far as I can remember. That couldn't have helped Coleco, but in retrospect it's unclear what would. Judging by your dad's bio, it lookslike your dad had decisions on Colecovision hardware related casings and much more... I'll be always thanksfull to ALL peoples involved in the making of ColecoVision including hardware & software So, I would say thanks to your dad, you should be very proud of what he has done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKGames Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr3Y7CoPayc Here is this weeks Side Trak Development update video! Getting closer! Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmcnett Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 AWESOME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Lookin' good! There can't be that many things left to fix, is there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Lookin' good! There can't be that many things left to fix, is there? Well, a nice bitmap title screen showing the game title logo instead for pure text could be a nice touch, but if there no rom space left it's fine. And there still the missing sound I've promise... I've put this aside the sound to do in order to focus on other things like using a shovel and working on my own projects... I may be less active in term of making Coleco games but I'm still one of the homebrewers here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 This project is looking awesome! Thank you for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madaracs Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 This game is gonna kick all kinds of a$$ over Dodge Em. I've never played the arcade version but I'm really looking forward to this. It looks very addictive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKGames Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Lookin' good! There can't be that many things left to fix, is there? Well, a nice bitmap title screen showing the game title logo instead for pure text could be a nice touch, but if there no rom space left it's fine. And there still the missing sound I've promise... I've put this aside the sound to do in order to focus on other things like using a shovel and working on my own projects... I may be less active in term of making Coleco games but I'm still one of the homebrewers here. I agree, i'm hoping to put in a bitmap title screen once the game is done and i know how much rom i got left to play with. Thanks again for all the help on the sounds! I still got a bunch of stuff todo so no problem if the crash sound takes a little bit longer. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKGames Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M7N9lFvKqM If anyone is interested i just set my iphone Anime Shooter Blazing Arc to FREE for tonight only! Anyone with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad go get your free copy, hopefully you'll enjoy the game thanks again for all the help and positive feedback on side trak! iTunes link: Blazing Arc itunes link All i ask is if you want to write a review on the game that would be awesome! Russ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M7N9lFvKqM If anyone is interested i just set my iphone Anime Shooter Blazing Arc to FREE for tonight only! Anyone with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad go get your free copy, hopefully you'll enjoy the game thanks again for all the help and positive feedback on side trak! iTunes link: Blazing Arc itunes link All i ask is if you want to write a review on the game that would be awesome! Russ Very generous and appreciated. Thanks Russ. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newcoleco Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Ok, this is an intentional leak from my part. Consider this as a teaser for the game and an educational way to introduce Coleco fans to what I'm giving to ColecoVision homebrewers when I compose music for their projects. Sometimes I give an audio file, but I prefer to give only a rom file for 2 reasons : they can test it with their own ColecoVision (console or emulator) and the rom size gives them a good idea of the rom space needed for the audio part. The source code is reserved for 2 things : a partial one to let programmers give it a try with their projects, and a final version to complete their projects. Sometimes, the game project itself is not even started and so the audio source code is given only once after an agreement for the work done. Because my work is based on my devkit which is based on ColecoVision BIOS routines, I assume that programmers who don't want to use these routines for their projects can't really use my sounds and musics... but I may be surprised one day. In addition to the educational part : Only a few days after posting my Youtube video of Crazy Train, someone sent me a comment for another music I've composed last year and asked me why I'm not also offering my music in KSS format. I gave a look to this format and it's like coding for a virtual Z80 machine with full 64K RAM that can also use various sound chips including those in MSX computers and Sega Master System consoles. The sound chip in the ColecoVision is closed to the one in the SMS but I'm pretty are different for the noise part which will makes my musics sound bad. So, I didn't give it a try yet, but I'm glad to know that it exists. Remember : best resulting sounds while running on a real ColecoVision Daniel Bienvenu\'s SideTrak MusicBox Feb-Mar 2011.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Really impressive :lust: :lust: I love the "Craaaazyyyy TRaaaaiiiinn". :lust: :lust: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Looking forward to this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Thanks Daniel! And thanks for the many years that you have supported the ColecoVision and CV Scene! +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKGames Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Hello everyone, just wanted to give a quick update on Side Trak. The game is still coming along nicely. I'm working on some bugs that keeping me busy over the last few days. I'm sure i'll get them but again just wanted to let everyone know the game is still coming along! Dan, amazing work on the music as always! Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madaracs Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Hello everyone, just wanted to give a quick update on Side Trak. The game is still coming along nicely. I'm working on some bugs that keeping me busy over the last few days. I'm sure i'll get them but again just wanted to let everyone know the game is still coming along! Dan, amazing work on the music as always! Russ Thanks for the update! I think this is going to be a hit release once it's ready to be packaged up and sold. I so want to play this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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