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I have some good news. While we wait for the expansion module later this year, we will be offering a new ColecoVision game in the meantime. I am glad to announce that today I completed programming on a long stalled project, Konami's Ping-Pong.
Konami's Ping-Pong was an arcade game released in 1985 and later ported for both the MSX and Famicom Disk System (where it was renamed Smash Ping-Pong and released by Nintendo). The ColecoVision port is based on the MSX version, which is incredibly close to the original, but we also added a few small improvements, like a few graphic tweaks that make it even closer to the arcade game.
Konami's Ping-Pong is a very simple game to learn, but very addictive and a blast to play against another human opponent, though the computer plays very well too, and there are 5 different skill levels to choose from.
Contrary to the common notion you don't control the hand to follow the ball, as that is done automatically. The joystick is used to hit the ball, and for that you have 3 different "techniques": cut, drive and smash. The button is used to switch from forehand to backhand. The game requires precise timing and you should master all techniques in order to beat the computer on higher levels or a good human opponent. For example, the direction in which the ball is returned depends on the timing with which you hit it back. Or you can switch from backhand to forehand to aim different sides of the opponent court. Or switch to improve your chances to catch an otherwise indefensible ball.
The game’s animations, physics and sound FX are all top notch.
But that isn't all. Included with the ColecoVision version of Konami's Ping Pong is another Konami arcade table game, Video Hustler. That is right, the mythic never released Coleco game only found in prototype form. The included version has been re-converted from scratch to make sure it works 100% fine though.
Finally, Konami's Ping-Pong will be our first release to use our new deluxe packaging (more about that soon).
So when will the game be available? Well, 2 or 3 months is a good bet. We just started beta and Dale is already working on the game packaging.
At this time we aren't accepting pre-orders, but we will soon. If you want to be informed about the game in the future please subscribe to our mailing list. Go to www.opcodegames.com and click on Join List. In case you receive a message saying that your email is already registered that is because you probably bought a game with us in the past.
So subscribe to the list and stay tuned for more info, videos, pictures, etc soon.
Eduardo
