20 replies to this topic

[oldjd]

So,Im reading thru the 1982 Coleco game catalog,and noticed quite a few game titles that I was not
familiar with.
Side Track
Rip Cord
Horse Racing
Skiing
Tunnels and Trolls
Mr.Turtle(Was this Telly?)
Were these game titles dropped before production,because of the crash?I cant honestly remember these

And then I see the steering wheel module,and the decals on the module are different then the catalog
shows
And finally,I noticed on QBerts Cubes,when the game is booted it says Qbert 2
Only took 29 years for me to notice

[retroillucid]

These are all unreleased games
Mr.Turtle is not Telly Turtle , its completely another game

Side Trak will be release at the end of this year

Someone here was (still?) working on Horse Racing

I'm also working on Skiing but will not be release until next year (maybe even 2 years)
There's also Tunnels & Trolls I'm working on, but this one is far away to be release though

[Pixelboy]

oldjd, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:31 PM, said:

So,Im reading thru the 1982 Coleco game catalog,and noticed quite a few game titles that I was not
familiar with.
Side Track
Rip Cord
Horse Racing
Skiing
Tunnels and Trolls
Mr.Turtle(Was this Telly?)
Were these game titles dropped before production,because of the crash?I cant honestly remember these

They were vaporware. Coleco was well-known for creating promos of software that didn't actually exist, just to make the competition nervous.

By the way, a homebrew version of Side Trak will be released within the next few months.

Quote

And then I see the steering wheel module,and the decals on the module are different then the catalog
shows

That's something else Coleco was famous for. They changed their products quite often at the last minute.

Edited by Pixelboy, Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:44 PM.

[oldjd]

Well,curiousity on my part....if they are showing the game in the catalog,and apparently a picture of it in action,wouldnt that
indicate a ready to go format?
Or would it be like movie trailer for a movie not yet done?
And how would you complete the game?Example,Sidetracks,do you have a "blueprint" to work from?
Or do you start from 0 ?

[retroillucid]

oldjd, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:04 PM, said:

Well,curiousity on my part....if they are showing the game in the catalog,and apparently a picture of it in action,wouldnt that
indicate a ready to go format?

Those are man made mockup , not actually game screen

Quote

And how would you complete the game?Example,Sidetracks,do you have a "blueprint" to work from?
Or do you start from 0 ?

Using mockup, and sometime start from scratch

[Murph74]

Yeah, Retro is right on. The proof, oldjd, is right there on the Colecovision system box. Even the pack in Donkey Kong looks NOTHING like the picture of the screen on the box.

I don't really buy into the 'make the competition nervous' idea though. Coleco had already acquired licenses for most of those titles. There's a huge stretch in business terms between mocking up a concept and paying for the license to it.

I really think Coleco thought they would produce those games, but found they were either likely too primitive in game play for that era as things were advancing so fast, or too ambitious to make playable and fun (like Tunnels and Trolls). I look forward to playing Side Trak and see it as a welcome addition to the ColecoVision Homebrew library, but still find the concept to be a very simple one, and one that may have been overshadowed by the evolution of arcade titles at the time-- hence shelving it permanently. Or the other possibly thought is that with the Expansion Module #1, the games were too similar to already available Atari games that were cheaply available by then. IE, Side Trax to Dodge 'Em, Rip Cord to Sky Diver, etc.

[Yurkie]

Murph74, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:11 AM, said:

Yeah, Retro is right on. The proof, oldjd, is right there on the Colecovision system box. Even the pack in Donkey Kong looks NOTHING like the picture of the screen on the box.

I don't really buy into the 'make the competition nervous' idea though. Coleco had already acquired licenses for most of those titles. There's a huge stretch in business terms between mocking up a concept and paying for the license to it.

I really think Coleco thought they would produce those games, but found they were either likely too primitive in game play for that era as things were advancing so fast, or too ambitious to make playable and fun (like Tunnels and Trolls). I look forward to playing Side Trak and see it as a welcome addition to the ColecoVision Homebrew library, but still find the concept to be a very simple one, and one that may have been overshadowed by the evolution of arcade titles at the time-- hence shelving it permanently. Or the other possibly thought is that with the Expansion Module #1, the games were too similar to already available Atari games that were cheaply available by then. IE, Side Trax to Dodge 'Em, Rip Cord to Sky Diver, etc.

I think people will be pleasantly surprised with Side Trak. Although the game may appear simple, it is a lot of fun. And Russ did a great job programing it. The Arcade is incredibly difficult, while Russ's ColecoVision version has a reasonable difficulty level.

I will agree that Rip Cord is a simple out dated game. In fact Russ tried it in M.A.M.E. and decided he didn't want to do it, that's why he is working on Monster Bash.

I encourage everyone that plays M.A.M.E. to check out Side Trak and Rip Cord and see what they think. Also if you can make it past the second screen in Side Trak please let me know, I played the M.A.M.E version for hours and only made it thru the first screen a couple times.

[retroillucid]

Yurkie, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:23 AM, said:

I will agree that Rip Cord is a simple out dated game. In fact Russ tried it in M.A.M.E. and decided he didn't want to do it, that's why he is working on Monster Bash.

I encourage everyone that plays M.A.M.E. to check out Side Trak and Rip Cord and see what they think. Also if you can make it past the second screen in Side Trak please let me know, I played the M.A.M.E version for hours and only made it thru the first screen a couple times.

Yeah, but if you are playing Rip Cord with MAME, be sure to have a spinner, otherwise it sucks
Rip Cord is a simple game, a bad game? certainly not , IMO


Remember that Coleco start liscensing games in 1980, .... games at time were rather simple than those in the early 80s

[ColecoDan]

Yurkie, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:23 AM, said:

I think people will be pleasantly surprised with Side Trak. Although the game may appear simple, it is a lot of fun. And Russ did a great job programing it. The Arcade is incredibly difficult, while Russ's ColecoVision version has a reasonable difficulty level. I will agree that Rip Cord is a simple out dated game. In fact Russ tried it in M.A.M.E. and decided he didn't want to do it, that's why he is working on Monster Bash. I encourage everyone that plays M.A.M.E. to check out Side Trak and Rip Cord and see what they think. Also if you can make it past the second screen in Side Trak please let me know, I played the M.A.M.E version for hours and only made it thru the first screen a couple times.

I would second that. Side Trak was pretty awesome to watch let alone play. As a matter a fact when NIAD let his kid play the game he never wanted to stop. Instant addiction baby!!!

[retroillucid]

ColecoDan, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:06 AM, said:

Yurkie, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:23 AM, said:

I think people will be pleasantly surprised with Side Trak. Although the game may appear simple, it is a lot of fun. And Russ did a great job programing it. The Arcade is incredibly difficult, while Russ's ColecoVision version has a reasonable difficulty level. I will agree that Rip Cord is a simple out dated game. In fact Russ tried it in M.A.M.E. and decided he didn't want to do it, that's why he is working on Monster Bash. I encourage everyone that plays M.A.M.E. to check out Side Trak and Rip Cord and see what they think. Also if you can make it past the second screen in Side Trak please let me know, I played the M.A.M.E version for hours and only made it thru the first screen a couple times.

I would second that. Side Trak was pretty awesome to watch let alone play. As a matter a fact when NIAD let his kid play the game he never wanted to stop. Instant addiction baby!!!

.... and not to mention the wonderfull music tune newcoleco had done!
Simply fantastic!

[Yurkie]

...I'm going off the rails on a Crazy Train...

Kudos to Daniel on the incredible music. I have literally just sat and listened to the music play.

[NIAD]

Yeah, I was pretty fortunate to get an early glimpse of just how amazing Side Trak is (game, gameplay, graphics, sound effects and music... the whole package!) when J-F let me demo it and a number of other games at ADAMcon. This is truly a MOST BUY game for all ColecoVision fans and Russ' version far outshines anything that I can imagine that Coleco could have done with the game.

As far as why Coleco canceled plans of making Side Trak... I personally think it was due to how incredibly hard the arcade game was and is. As most of you know, Coleco programmers didn't port the arcade code to the CV of games that they acquired the rights to, as they did not have access to it. So what they had to do was acquire the actual arcade game and play and film the gameplay sessions so as to learn the game. Well, in Side Trak's case, they probably gave up rather quickly due to the simple fact that they couldn't get very far in the game in order to learn it well enough to program the CV version. As Russ has proven, Side Trak is a very fun game to play when the skill level is set to a more appropriate level.

BTW ColecoDan, I still can't believe that you didn't want to play a couple games while you had the chance! Oh well, soon enough everyone will have the opportunity.

[retroillucid]

NIAD, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:10 PM, said:

..... Coleco programmers didn't port the arcade code to the CV of games that they acquired the rights to, as they did not have access to it. So what they had to do was acquire the actual arcade game and play and film the gameplay sessions so as to learn the game. Well, in Side Trak's case, they probably gave up rather quickly due to the simple fact that they couldn't get very far in the game in order to learn it well enough to program the CV version

Yeah but think of it, we do pretty much the same as Coleco did back in days ......
Playing the Arcade game over and over again..... trying to pass the first level.......
Coleco could had done it even if they were not able to complete the whole arcade version, every levels looks the same, difficulty increase in every levels
They did not release it only for marketing ($$$) purpose ..... other games were in the pipe and were considered, more "high sellers" than Side Trak could have been....

[oldjd]

They did not release it only for marketing ($$$) purpose ..... other games were in the pipe and were considered, more "high sellers" than Side Trak could have been....
So all about the money then?
Where could I see a preview of Side Track?
And btw,hats off to all of you that do this type work.Nothing short of amazing!!!!

[retroillucid]

oldjd, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:19 PM, said:

They did not release it only for marketing ($$$) purpose ..... other games were in the pipe and were considered, more "high sellers" than Side Trak could have been....

So all about the money then?

Not entirely, but profits is always something that was considered by Coleco since how many time they were near bankruptcy ?!
So if they had another game that was more popular for the official release, then they scrapped the lower title and go with a more popular one

All said, that's my opinion and not actual fact

[AtariBrian]

oldjd, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:19 PM, said:

They did not release it only for marketing ($$$) purpose ..... other games were in the pipe and were considered, more "high sellers" than Side Trak could have been....
So all about the money then?
Where could I see a preview of Side Track?
And btw,hats off to all of you that do this type work.Nothing short of amazing!!!!

go to youtube and type in side track colecovision. russ has like 6 videos on it. great music, great game !

[oldjd]

Thats pretty cool,although my eyes started going bonkers trying to follow it.

[RKGames]

NIAD, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:10 PM, said:

Yeah, I was pretty fortunate to get an early glimpse of just how amazing Side Trak is (game, gameplay, graphics, sound effects and music... the whole package!) when J-F let me demo it and a number of other games at ADAMcon. This is truly a MOST BUY game for all ColecoVision fans and Russ' version far outshines anything that I can imagine that Coleco could have done with the game.

As far as why Coleco canceled plans of making Side Trak... I personally think it was due to how incredibly hard the arcade game was and is. As most of you know, Coleco programmers didn't port the arcade code to the CV of games that they acquired the rights to, as they did not have access to it. So what they had to do was acquire the actual arcade game and play and film the gameplay sessions so as to learn the game. Well, in Side Trak's case, they probably gave up rather quickly due to the simple fact that they couldn't get very far in the game in order to learn it well enough to program the CV version. As Russ has proven, Side Trak is a very fun game to play when the skill level is set to a more appropriate level.

BTW ColecoDan, I still can't believe that you didn't want to play a couple games while you had the chance! Oh well, soon enough everyone will have the opportunity.

Thanks for the kind words about my conversion of Side Trak! Dan's Music did wonders to the game! I've wanted to own that game for 30 years now! I recall several times looking at the coleco catalog with my younger brother and both of us always saying how great it would be to have that game. and the countless visits to KMart and Hills hoping that it would be on the shelf. Cant wait to hold a complete boxed copy in my hands! I told my brother a little while back as i was finishing the game and he thinks it funny that i was the one to eventually write the coleco version. now if i only knew that as a 7 year old, that would have been mind blowing! Sorry just wanted to share the story. Being the coder for side trak really ment alot to me!

Russ

[AtariBrian]

RKGames, on Sun Oct 16, 2011 8:00 PM, said:

NIAD, on Fri Oct 14, 2011 4:10 PM, said:

Yeah, I was pretty fortunate to get an early glimpse of just how amazing Side Trak is (game, gameplay, graphics, sound effects and music... the whole package!) when J-F let me demo it and a number of other games at ADAMcon. This is truly a MOST BUY game for all ColecoVision fans and Russ' version far outshines anything that I can imagine that Coleco could have done with the game.

As far as why Coleco canceled plans of making Side Trak... I personally think it was due to how incredibly hard the arcade game was and is. As most of you know, Coleco programmers didn't port the arcade code to the CV of games that they acquired the rights to, as they did not have access to it. So what they had to do was acquire the actual arcade game and play and film the gameplay sessions so as to learn the game. Well, in Side Trak's case, they probably gave up rather quickly due to the simple fact that they couldn't get very far in the game in order to learn it well enough to program the CV version. As Russ has proven, Side Trak is a very fun game to play when the skill level is set to a more appropriate level.

BTW ColecoDan, I still can't believe that you didn't want to play a couple games while you had the chance! Oh well, soon enough everyone will have the opportunity.

Thanks for the kind words about my conversion of Side Trak! Dan's Music did wonders to the game! I've wanted to own that game for 30 years now! I recall several times looking at the coleco catalog with my younger brother and both of us always saying how great it would be to have that game. and the countless visits to KMart and Hills hoping that it would be on the shelf. Cant wait to hold a complete boxed copy in my hands! I told my brother a little while back as i was finishing the game and he thinks it funny that i was the one to eventually write the coleco version. now if i only knew that as a 7 year old, that would have been mind blowing! Sorry just wanted to share the story. Being the coder for side trak really ment alot to me!

Russ

hey russ, just wondered whos idea was it to use that music in the first place? or any music at all

[Yurkie]

Quote

Thanks for the kind words about my conversion of Side Trak! Dan's Music did wonders to the game! I've wanted to own that game for 30 years now! I recall several times looking at the coleco catalog with my younger brother and both of us always saying how great it would be to have that game. and the countless visits to KMart and Hills hoping that it would be on the shelf. Cant wait to hold a complete boxed copy in my hands! I told my brother a little while back as i was finishing the game and he thinks it funny that i was the one to eventually write the coleco version. now if i only knew that as a 7 year old, that would have been mind blowing! Sorry just wanted to share the story. Being the coder for side trak really ment alot to me!

Russ

Thanks for the Awesome story! Now you just need a ColecoVision and a CIB of Side Trak to give to your brother... that along with a Hallmark card and a box of tissues.

[schuwalker]

This is why the colecovision! Another rare game (Side Trak) ported over to the coleco.... I actually played a Side Trak before in the arcade before. It was a very cool game albeit a
very tough one from what I remember. The thing I didn't know about Side Trak that there was a bell mechanism that would chime periodically. The one I played this must have been missing
or on the fritz - I didn't remember hearing it.... Out of all my arcade days, this is the only Side Trak I have ever seen! Someone mentioned Ripcord on here - that was one game I never did see Bitd.

I think my choices for the *weren't* category would've have been Dracula and Swords & Serpents? The later, had a pic in a Electronic Games magazine w/ a screenshot of a giant looking Cobra.