Suggestions for RKGames...

[Pixelboy]

In his official Side Trak thread, RKGames hinted that he was thinking of starting a dedicated thread so that people could give him suggestions for his next ColecoVision homebrew game. So I spent about an hour preparing a few suggestions. But then, RKGames announced his final choice for his next game, namely Monster Bash. I thought it would be a waste to delete my little presentation, so here it is, in all its useless glory. Who knows, it may be useful to someone in the future.

 

So anyway, Russ, you said you could be interested in doing either a Zelda-style mini-RPG, or a faithful arcade conversion, so here are my suggestions:

 

 

Suggestion #1: Quest for the Rings

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ll_bbzRHKQ

 

I think a ColecoVision remake of the Odyssey2 game "Quest for the Rings" would be right up your alley. You could do it like the fake screenshots on my Team Pixelboy web site, or you could do it differently, doesn't matter as long as it gets done. One cool idea would be to have two modes of play: In mode #1 (i.e. the regular game) everything happens on the screen (overworld map, dungeons, status screen, etc.) and mode #2 would be designed to be used with the original Odyssey2 "Quest for the Rings" board game. Essentially, you would use the ColecoVision instead of the Odyssey2 when playing the video game portions of the board game. Better yet, a brand new edition of the board game could be created with cards instead of little plastic game pieces.

 

 

Suggestion #2: Riddle of the Sphynx

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFk6g3LlaXQ

 

From the above YouTube footage of the original Atari 2600 game, this game may seem slow and cumbersome to play, but that's the beauty of my suggestion: In the CV version, you wouldn't be confined to moving up and down slowly on a vertical scrolling field, the game could be a true Zelda clone, like Zelda on NES! And it wouldn't need to be overly complex either, just a fun multi-screen mini-RPG with items to collect, people to meet, critters to kill and riddles to solve. I see real potential here for a cool ColecoVision remake.

 

 

 

 

Aside from the suggestions above, I think you should just design your own Zelda-style mini-RPG. There are many adventure games you could draw inspiration from, including the Zelda series itself. Anyway, the rest of my suggestions below are arcade ports.

 

 

 

 

Suggestion #3: Vanguard

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhPaim4frj8

 

The ColecoVision could reproduce the arcade version quite faithfully (minus the voices). You could offer several control setups, but I think the best would be one fire button for vertical fire (shoot up and down at the same time) and the other for horizontal fire (shoot forward and backward at the same time), so you could shoot in four directions simultaneously by pressing both fire buttons. On the plus side, the graphics are simple and enemy ships have very simple AI. On the minus side, different scrolling engines would need to be created for horizontal, diagonal and vertical scrolling segments. But I think it would be more than worth the effort.

 

 

Suggestion #4: Bubble Bobble

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inAAItNuFaE

 

This game needs no introduction, you know CV fans would really eat it up. Two-player action would also be a blast! The game has simple graphics, but it would require the best flicker management algorithm you can come up with. Enemy AI could be a bit difficult to reproduce faithfully, but it shouldn't be a terribly hard challenge for you.

 

 

Suggestion #5: Kangaroo

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNJ8KiYGxzA

 

Here's a classic platformer that would be cool to play on the ColecoVision. The CV could reproduce the arcade graphics and sounds without any problem. You'd have sprite flicker to worry about, but that's about it.

 

 

Suggestion #6: Phoenix

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXQO0ibclm4

 

Gotta love a game that gives you a big boss ship to destroy! And the other levels of the game are pretty cool too! Having a scrolling star field with tile-based alien attackers could pose a certain programming challenge, but nothing that hasn't been done before on the CV.

 

 

Suggestion #3: Zookeeper

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfg6cIqA5SI

 

A cult classic, if there was ever one. It could actually be quite a programming challenge on the ColecoVision, with all that activity on the TV screen.

 

 

Well, that's about it. I hope you have enjoyed my little presentation.

[ColecoDan]

I will take 1 of each

 

They all look awesome.

We need some more programmers to get all these out.

[RKGames]

Awesome list Pixelboy. It's scary cause 5 of the games on your list are on mine (Zookeeper, bubble bobble, Vanguard, kangaroo and phoenix ). I thought scott H had a really good version of phoenix (think i saw it on youtube a while back?). Zookeeper was almost the game i was about to choose, but then monster bash came into my mind!

 

I decided on Monster Bash mainly because there was no home translation for it would give me the experience needed for better platformers (Like zooKeeper, which i dont has a home version either). If ZooKeeper is up for grabs when Monster Bash is done i'll likely want to work on it next.

 

Russ

[ColecoDan]

Your monster bash looked pretty cool too RK so I say it was a pretty cool decision you made :thumbsup:

[Pixelboy]

Awesome list Pixelboy. It's scary cause 5 of the games on your list are on mine (Zookeeper, bubble bobble, Vanguard, kangaroo and phoenix ).

It's not really surprising, because I took the work you did on Side Trak into consideration. This gave me a general idea of the kind of project you'd probably like to tackle, and I built my list accordingly. It's nice to see my list hitting so close to home.

 

I thought scott H had a really good version of phoenix (think i saw it on youtube a while back?).

Yeah but it's unfinished, and if you asked Scott nicely, he'd probably give you the thumbs-up to let you do Phoenix yourself.

 

Zookeeper was almost the game i was about to choose, but then monster bash came into my mind!

 

I decided on Monster Bash mainly because there was no home translation for it would give me the experience needed for better platformers (Like zooKeeper, which i dont has a home version either). If ZooKeeper is up for grabs when Monster Bash is done i'll likely want to work on it next.

That's cool. I hope you'll do a Zelda-type game one day.

[VectorGamer]

Bubbles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp7tz17F3FM

[Bartsfam]

My suggestion is one of those one screen puzzle games, of getting the key from one side of the screen to the locked door on the other side of the screen, while avoiding pitfalls and obstacles.

 

Kind of like "The Lost Vikings" was on Genesis and SNES.

 

Or, have you ever played Polygon G-Men?

http://polygon-gmen.com/en/tmvr_ng.html

 

Maybe something like this is too ambitious for the CV.

[bfg.gamepassion]

Seems like people would like to see an A-RPG on Colecovision. If only i could do good Gfx i've something in my head based on Drizzt Do'Urden universe and Menzoberranzan. But for the moment it's only in my head ...

[ozma wars]

RPG...mmmm....no thanks !

[san-d-2000]

Moon Cresta or Phoenix would be cool

[Marc Oberhäuser]

I would be all over for an updated version of "The Riddle of the Sphinx". This is really a great game and from the technical side rather simple. And there would be a real use for the keypad