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Thread: Coleco Vaporware: Dracula

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) theiceking's Avatar
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    Default Coleco Vaporware: Dracula

    Coleco was famous because their vaporware. Perhaps the most famous specimen is Dracula.

    Does anybody know more information about this unreleased game?
    I found this: http://www.adamcon.org/cartridge.html and the author claims he is developing
    a version based on the magazine advertize screen (or mockup).
    Last edited by theiceking; 01-03-2009 at 08:54 AM.

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    Apple (Level 5) dsullo's Avatar
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    I remember staring at this ad for hours wondering of the glory of DRACULA!
    A shame it never came to be!

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    Pretzel (Level 4) 8bitgamer's Avatar
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    I also remember drooling over the screen shot of Tunnels & Trolls.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Steve W's Avatar
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    I wonder if the Colecovision's TI video processor would be capable of doing justice to that artistic mock-up.

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    Kirby (Level 13) zektor's Avatar
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    Drac is back and only a video game crash can stop him!

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    Notice he does not cast a shadow....

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) theiceking's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve W View Post
    I wonder if the Colecovision's TI video processor would be capable of doing justice to that artistic mock-up.
    I doubt it. Did you saw the Sword and Sorcerer demo? (http://www.thelogbook.com/pdfmedia/1983/coleco-sword/)
    It runs but it´s hard to believe a real game would be possible (I mean an interactive multi stage game)

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) theiceking's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg2600 View Post
    Looks worse than the "real thing" huh?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg2600 View Post
    Was that the real prototype? How far along was it?

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    No I think that video was done by the guy who's site that is, Dale Wick. I think he is working on a new game inspired by the unreleased Dracula game. From what I've read, Dracula was never developed. I believe he also created CV mini-game cartridges. So he either made that video from an animated program, or that is video of his actual prototype.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg2600 View Post
    No I think that video was done by the guy who's site that is, Dale Wick. I think he is working on a new game inspired by the unreleased Dracula game. From what I've read, Dracula was never developed. I believe he also created CV mini-game cartridges. So he either made that video from an animated program, or that is video of his actual prototype.
    Coleco did way too much of this stuff. Sad, would probably have been a fun game. Doubt it went far into production at all.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Steve W's Avatar
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    After seeing what was possible on the ADAM computer with Dragon's Lair (Youtube link here), I think it might have been possible for Dracula to have looked like the screen mock-up. If it were ported to the ADAM.

    You read about how people used to have cocaine and hot tub parties at Atari in the early days, and how the Intellivision programmers had so much fun back then, but you never hear a thing about Coleco. They were an East Coast company, all staunchly corporate and faceless. All the cool companies seem to be from California, it seems. I wonder if Coleco even had an in-house programming staff, or did they just farm out every programming job to outside sources?

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve W View Post
    After seeing what was possible on the ADAM computer with Dragon's Lair (Youtube link here), I think it might have been possible for Dracula to have looked like the screen mock-up. If it were ported to the ADAM.

    You read about how people used to have cocaine and hot tub parties at Atari in the early days, and how the Intellivision programmers had so much fun back then, but you never hear a thing about Coleco. They were an East Coast company, all staunchly corporate and faceless. All the cool companies seem to be from California, it seems. I wonder if Coleco even had an in-house programming staff, or did they just farm out every programming job to outside sources?

    Several years ago I asked Joe at a CGE about getting ColecoVision programmers to speak. If I remember correctly he said that they had tried to track them down, but it seemed that many, if not most of them, were Japanese. There is probably more to the story, I'm sure.

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    Isn't the Colecovision design similar to the MSX? Or am I thinking the SG-1000? I remember hearing of a system that could play two system's games because of the similarity in chipset.
    -AB+

    Holy crap. It's been a while.

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    Pear (Level 6) OldSchoolGamer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AB Positive View Post
    Isn't the Colecovision design similar to the MSX? Or am I thinking the SG-1000? I remember hearing of a system that could play two system's games because of the similarity in chipset.

    BIT CORP. DINA 2-IN-1 SYSTEM
    This thing came out around 1987 and was touted as a Colecovision clone but there is also a second cartridge port that works with Sega Mark 1000 games.

    http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/others/dina.htm
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cav View Post
    Several years ago I asked Joe at a CGE about getting ColecoVision programmers to speak. If I remember correctly he said that they had tried to track them down, but it seemed that many, if not most of them, were Japanese. There is probably more to the story, I'm sure.
    The only Japanese-developed games published by Coleco I can think of are the Konami ones.

    Coleco actually had quite a few internal designers, artists, and programmers. Paul Jaquays rattles off a bunch of names.

    Zachary Smith programmed Donkey Kong. ColecoVision.US had an interview with him, but that site is gone (and the Wayback Machine didn't pick up the interview).

    Of course, a lot of stuff was done outside the company, too. Some of those outside companies:

    4D Interactive Systems
    Gordon Martin & Associates
    Innoventions
    Nuvatec
    Davis, Nussrallah (Nussrullah?) & Associates
    Last edited by CRV; 12-15-2009 at 09:07 AM.

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Quote Originally Posted by CRV View Post
    The only Japanese-developed games published by Coleco I can think of are the Konami ones.

    Coleco actually had quite a few internal designers, artists, and programmers. Paul Jaquays rattles off a bunch of names.

    Zachary Smith programmed Donkey Kong. ColecoVision.US had an interview with him, but that site is gone (and the Wayback Machine didn't pick up the interview).

    Of course, a lot of stuff was done outside the company, too. Some of those outside companies:

    4D Interactive Systems
    Gordon Martin & Associates
    Innoventions
    Nuvatec
    Davis, Nussrallah (Nussrullah?) & Associates

    Thanks for that link. That's an amazing interview. So there was definitely a strong US presence. I would love to hear those guys talk on a panel at CGExpo.

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