Color Dreams Theory

[Hounder]

Well, I've been researching the Color Dream games up and down and all over as most of you know. And the whole 'blue cart'/'black cart' thing has got a lot of people asking - Why? Well, here is my attempt to try to settle it with a logistic answer.

Color Dreams began it's production run with Baby Boomer in 1989. During this year they produced a total of 6 known games including:

• Baby Boomer
  Captain Comic
  Crystal Mines
  Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
  Metal Fighter
  Raid 2020

The following year in 1990 they produced:

• Challenge of the Dragon
  King Neptune's Adventures
  Menace Beach
  Pesterminator
  P'radikus Conflict
  Robodemons
  Silent Assault

In 1991 they produced only two games before Color Dreams officially went out of business:

• Operation Secret Storm
  Secret Scout

Now the really interesting part starts in. By the above list we see that Color Dreams produced games all the way up through 1991 including the games they started back in 1989. However, if we take a look at the following games produced by Bunch Games:

• Castle of Deceit
  Galactic Crusader
  Mission Cobra
  Moon Ranger
  Tagin' Dragon

We see that these games were produced in 1990 which means that Color Dreams and Bunch Games co-existed at the same time unlike popular belief in that Bunch Games came AFTER Color Dreams closed their doors. This has a BIG part in what I'm about to say next.

With this little bit of information we can now cover why there are blue and black carts produced. You have to remember that even though Color Dreams/Bunch Games were producing new games they were still reproducing all their old titles from 1989/1990. All these games when produced came in a blue casing. In 1991, Color Dreams produced their second to last game Secret Scout releasing it also in a blue casing. They continued to run all their titles in these casing (including their Bunch Games titles) while working on Operation Secret Storm and getting ready to release it to the public.

However, due to possible financial bankruptcy and/or the fact that the games were not very popular in the USA, Color Dreams/Bunch Games started losing their money and switched over to the black casing which were probably cheaper. After all this happened, they finally got their last game - Operation Secret Storm - released to the public. This explains why this game is not found in the blue casing as it was released after Color Dreams/Bunch Games switched over. Shortly after the release of Operation Secret Storm, the company started shipping out all their stock to Canada and Europe where the games seemed to be more popular. This is probably why it is easier to find a black cart in Europe than a blue. Finally, Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors and stopped producing games altogether.

Now that leaves the question about Wisdom Tree. Well, here's my theory on that as well. After Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors, the recouped and started up again under the name Wisdom Tree and started producing the following games in a blue casing (possible leftover overstock; year unknown):

• Bible Adventures
  Spiritual Warfare

Again, the games were not a big hit and they started losing money again switching over to the cheap black carts. My opinion is that Spiritual Warfare was released right before they started losing money and therefore a very bare minimum was released in the blue casing. But they were determined to make it and produced the following (again, year unknown):

• Bible Buffet
  Exodus
  Joshua
  King of Kings
  Sunday Funday (1995)

Wisdom Tree produced all these in the black casing along with their two previous releases Bible Adventures and Spiritual Warfare. As you can see, Wisdom Tree managed to make it 1995 and barely squeezed out Sunday Funday and then closed its doors (which is why Sunday Funday is so hard to find).

Now to answer the question about Mission Cobra, Tagin' Dragon, Robodemons, and Metal Figher. Why haven't they been found yet in a black case yet? Well, remember how I said that all the games were starting to be shipped to Canada and Europe? Well, I believe that these games were being ready to be sent but never made it and therefore are stuck somewhere in a warehouse/storage. Which could be a reason why they are not found overseas. The newly found Baby Boomer and Raid 2020 were games that came in boxes with the "Micro Genuises" sticker on the front. Micro Genuises is a company that dealt with overseas shipping (or something like that) mainly for Brazil (?). Which obviously they never made it and were all found in Nevada recently.

Don't know if this all makes sense but, hey, it's a theory and it works I tried to cover as much as I could. I might have missed something. Thanks to NGD, Speedy_NES, jajaja, and everyone else for their help. It's been much appreciated!

Thoughts anyone?

[jbholio]

Hounder, your article is very interesting. If you want to be technical, Metal Fighter and Master Chu were bought from Sachen. CD did not make these games. Both games have a 1989 year on the title screen so I guess they were released that year.

Micro Genuises is a company that dealt with overseas shipping (or something like that) mainly for Brazil (?).

When I saw the Micro-Genius sticker on the sealed box I found weird that CD games were distributed by M-G. I'm really not sure why M-G distributed CD games. In fact, M-G is a pirate and unlicensed game publisher. They also made many NES clones. Games by TXC Corp. (which may be the company that bought Idea-Tek games) were published by Micro-Genius. I also have some pirate games that come in a Micro-Genius box (see pic). I've seen some NES clones in Brazil but I doubt M-G is from there. I'm pretty sure M-G is from Taiwan. If you google for Micro-Genius you'll find info about their IQ-XXX clones.

Here is a link to the games published by M-G

[Bronty-2]

From reading the label on these copies, I don't think Micro Genius was distributing CD.

What the labels say is:

"Cartuccia Giocco per
MICRO GENIUS
COMPUTER GAME
DISTRIBUITA A DA GRA. DI. S.R.L. MILANO

CARTUCCIA COMPATIBILE ANCHE CON NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

(Nelle versioni antecedenti il 1991)

NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM E MARCHIO REGISTRATO DELLA NINTENDO CO LTD JAPAN"

My Italian is far from perfect but I read that as:

"Cartridge Game for

MICRO GENIUS
COMPUTER GAME
DISTRIBUTED BY GRA DI S.R.L., MILAN

CARTRIDGE ALSO COMPATIBLE WITH NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

(Models predating 1991)

NES trademarked by Nintendo Co Ltd Japan

[Bronty-2]

Which I take as meaning that Micro Genius was being sold in Italy and that CD games were being marketed as Micro Genius game carts in Italy by an Italian company in Milan.

[googlefest1]

i have to question one thing with your theory

im not sure if there is a cost savings changeing to the black color -- my guess is the ugly blue color (to me its realy ugly) was the natural color the formula for the plastic they used created -- to make it black they would have to add some kind of pigment thus making it more expensive

in my experiece black foam and plastic are more expensive than ugly versions of beige,green,blue which many plastic naturaly have - i think thats why we see alot of products from the black an white days have those colors - they didnt have a way to add pigment

BUT - the black could have been cheaper if it was from china or recycled or purchased as stock from another company that was dumping it -- so you could be right about that.

[Melf]

However, due to possible financial bankruptcy and/or the fact that the games were not very popular in the USA, Color Dreams/Bunch Games started losing their money and switched over to the black casing which were probably cheaper. After all this happened, they finally got their last game - Operation Secret Storm - released to the public. This explains why this game is not found in the blue casing as it was released after Color Dreams/Bunch Games switched over. Shortly after the release of Operation Secret Storm, the company started shipping out all their stock to Canada and Europe where the games seemed to be more popular. This is probably why it is easier to find a black cart in Europe than a blue. Finally, Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors and stopped producing games altogether.

Color Dreams didn't go bankrupt; they just got out of gaming. My website recently interviewed Brenda Huff, who bought the rights to the games in 1997 and she said this:

StarDot Technologies. Color Dreams development program simply went in a new direction., Digital Carmeras! After launching their first camera, WinCam, in 1996, they chose to focus all of their efforts on development of digital cameras. It was at this time that they offered my husband and I the opportunity to purchase the rights to the WT games. Being committed to keeping the games alive and offering parents a family friendly alternative, we purchased WT in 1997.

Now that leaves the question about Wisdom Tree. Well, here's my theory on that as well. After Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors, the recouped and started up again under the name Wisdom Tree and started producing the following games in a blue casing (possible leftover overstock; year unknown):

• Bible Adventures
  Spiritual Warfare

Again, the games were not a big hit and they started losing money again switching over to the cheap black carts. My opinion is that Spiritual Warfare was released right before they started losing money and therefore a very bare minimum was released in the blue casing. But they were determined to make it and produced the following (again, year unknown):

• Bible Buffet
  Exodus
  Joshua
  King of Kings
  Sunday Funday (1995)

Wisdom Tree produced all these in the black casing along with their two previous releases Bible Adventures and Spiritual Warfare. As you can see, Wisdom Tree managed to make it 1995 and barely squeezed out Sunday Funday and then closed its doors (which is why Sunday Funday is so hard to find).

Wisdom Tree hasn't disappeared either, and they only make PC games now (www.wisdomtreegames.com). Also, their games sold - and still sell - pretty well. You can read the full interview here

[Postermen]

Color Dreams is right down the street from me. They are still listed in the yellow pages under video games.

[rbudrick]

Tagin' Dragon..I thought that was a Sachen only game made by Sachen. CD released a version of this in the US?

WTF is "Tagin'" anyway? Is that some kind of Engrish for "sucks major balls?"

-Rob

[Bronty-2]

Engrish

[Hounder]

Tagin' Dragon..I thought that was a Sachen only game made by Sachen. CD released a version of this in the US?

WTF is "Tagin'" anyway? Is that some kind of Engrish for "sucks major balls?"

-Rob

The game does "suck major balls" if you ask me. It's terrible. The object of the game is to eat or "tag" (hence the name "Tagin" the other dragon's tail. Really lame and it's very unbearable to play.

[TheRedEye]

Tagin' Dragon..I thought that was a Sachen only game made by Sachen. CD released a version of this in the US?

WTF is "Tagin'" anyway? Is that some kind of Engrish for "sucks major balls?"

-Rob

Sachen version was Colorful Dragon, Color Dreams changed it to Tagin'

[rbudrick]

I thought it rhymed with Raging, not Tagging. Raging is appropriate.

That game is about as much fun as whacking your balls with a stick.

-Rob