Color Dreams is pure heaven!

FYI You've probably stumbled across this, but there's a lot of fun Color Dreams information here, including quotes from people that worked at the company, how they got started, etc:

http://thewarpzone.classicgaming.gamespy.com/colordreamss...

Overdrive--I'll take this opportunity to plug my Secret Scout guide. I'd be interested how well it works, if you get sick of the game. Also, Happy Camper may've been dumped, but you probably knew that, too.

Drella--that's a really good link. Bonus Wisdom Tree information at the site, too. Maybe some of their games were a bit weak but it's cool to read about their visions, even if everything fell short in the end.

Oh, and Joshua is a terribly underrated NES game.

I actually had never been to that site. Very interesting stuff there. I think the most telling thing I read was one guy's comments that "Eddie" (who must have been a higher-up sort of guy) enlisted the insight of two guys who were considered expert players. These guys would rip through games and complain things were too easy, so Eddie'd demand changes.

That really explains a lot. I've noticed these games have a bizarrely cruel level of difficulty (go on, try taking on the second-level boss of Operation Secret Storm......that fight's inexplicably brutal, especially since it's a guy riding a camel.....a camel that jumps around the screen wildly blasting you with fireballs or something the entire time) and the fact a couple of game expert geeks were constantly able to have their whims indulged so they could be challenged makes sense.

Schultz.....man, you must be in a cruel mood today. On that site, I just read that Secret Scout, Operation Secret Storm and Challenge of the Dragon all use the same engine.......so I'd be playing the same sort of game in a different setting. Sad thing is, I can still see me doing that in a week or two.

I've been looking at how they beat the NES lockout chip, OD, and I'd recommend changing your Robodemons review, which gives them credit for "reverse engineering" it.

Any company -- like Color Dreams -- that makes cartridges that produce voltage spikes to beat the NES knock-out chip is irresponsible, lazy and risks permanent damage to the lockout chip and console. Claims they "reverse engineered" are entirely bullshit as far as I can see (see Atari's Rabbit chip, or the independently developed Ciclone chip, for real reverse engineering).

Colored Dreams merely broke the lockout with circuits producing steady power surges that caused the chip to overheat and malfunction (probably pulling pin 4 on the 10NES chip low, which is as easy as having the right transistor exceed its breakdown voltage (and that'd explain why it's not a continuous surge -- which would permanently damage the hardware -- but one at regular intervals, that over a long time will permanently damage hardware regardless)). This method takes no brains at all, risks system damage, and might even cause a fire if you leave the system on indefinitely. Nintendo did these idiots a favor by pressuring companies not to sell these cartridges, because otherwise they would have broke a lot of systems and probably killed someone.

Wow...I don't know much about electronics so it's very interesting to know something like that. Not that that leaves Nintendo off the hook in my eyes for abusing the notion of quality control. Not that Color Dreams did the right thing themselves with their playtesters--though I never considered you needed both bad and good players, so to speak, to round off a game's difficulty.

Overdrive, maybe it's best to wipe all the games out at once, if they have the same engine--as long as the controls are about the same, it may save you the trauma of re-learning later.

Plus Secret Scout isn't all that bad once you learn to jump next to enemies instead of walking. Then you kick the you-know-what out of them. Rinse, lather, repeat. The guys near the end who freeze you, though, are a mess.

Why you keeping secrets from me man?

Drella -- thanks for that info. I altered the review, so it doesn't look like I'm giving CD any credit for showing intelligence or ingenuity at any point and time during the creation of Robodemons.

ASchultz -- yeah, that might be a good idea. I think I might do Challenge of the Dragon next, though. It has a medieval theme, which could work in nicely for the team tournament, as I do love me some medieval stuff, which combined with my hatred of CD, could provide an entertaining trainwreck.

Felix -- all to keep the intrigue flowing like the fine wine that are my words