Color Dreams is the former name of a California-based company that used to develop video games, primarily unlicensed games for the NES and other video game consoles. The company is still active, although they would leave the video game industry by the mid-1990s and shift their focus instead on digital cameras and related surveillance equipment, which they had already been doing business in starting in 1993 under the name StarDot Technologies.[1] This name has since become their legal company name as of August 2011.
History[]
Color Dreams was among the first companies to publish NES games outside of Nintendo of America's third-party licensing program by bypassing the 10NES "lockout" chip.[2] They released Baby Boomer in 1989, followed by Captain Comic, Crystal Mines, and Robodemons.
Poor sales of their initial product line prompted Color Dreams to form the budget label Bunch Games in 1990 for releasing simpler games, and Wisdom Tree in 1991 for releasing Christianity-themed games. Wisdom Tree published Color Dreams' best-selling titles, including Spiritual Warfare and Bible Adventures; Wisdom Tree is also noted for creating the only unlicensed Super Nintendo Entertainment System game ever released in North America, Super 3D Noah's Ark. While Wisdom Tree remains active today and is still selling religious video games, Color Dreams quit the video game business in the mid-1990s. Wisdom Tree is no longer associated with Color Dreams, having bought by former sales representative Brenda Huff in order to continue the line.
One unreleased Color Dreams game was based on the movie Hellraiser. The game cartridge, or "Super Cartridge" as it was called at the time, contained an extra processor that modified the tiles in the cartridge RAM without alerting the NES processor. This allowed for enhanced graphic effects rarely seen on the NES, such as a fully animated background running without the lag usually found with such tricks. The extra processor also performed palette swapping between scans of the TV to give the illusion of extra color. Because of delays in production, development problems, lack of a market for unlicensed games based on horror movies, and the exorbitant amount of money it took to make each "Super Cartridge", the project was eventually abandoned.
Staff[]
- Anthony Henderson - Programmer for Castle of Deceit and Captain Comic, all of Super Noah's Ark 3D.
- Brenda Huff - Sales representative; current owner of Wisdom Tree
- Dan Lawton - Founder of Color Dreams and he programmed NES sound driver.
- Dan Burke - Artist, designer, composer.
- Frank Waung - Programmer of Raid 2020, co-designer with Dan Burke (Raid 2020)
- Jim Meuer - Programmer for Baby Boomer.
- Jim Treadway - Programmer.
- John Borchert - Composer for Baby Boomer.
- John Dwyer - Composer.
- Judye Pistole - Composer for Castle of Deceit and Captain Comic.
- Ken Beckett - Programmer for Crystal Mines. Author of Nindraw (allowed artists to use a mouse on a PC)
- Nina Stanley - Graphic designer for several games.
- Rick Waldron - Composer for Crystal Mines.
- Sandy Sims - Composer for Operation Secret Storm. (Alias for John Dwyer?)
- Roger Deforest - Programmer, graphic designer, composer, sound designer.
- Vance Kozik - Programmer and composer for Color Dreams and Wisdom Tree games.
- Robert Tegel Bonifacio - Programmer for King Neptune's Adventures (credited as "Sir Robert T. Bonifacio")
List of games[]
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomer | NES | 1989 | Published in South Korea by Daou Infosys. | |
| Challenge of the Dragon | NES | 1990 | Unrelated to the Sachen game of the same name. | |
| Crystal Mines | NES | 1989 | Published in South Korea by Daou Infosys. | |
| King Neptune's Adventure | NES | 1990 | ||
| Menace Beach | NES (US), Famicom (Japan and South Korea) | 1990 / 1991 | Published for the Famicom in Japan and South Korea by Hacker International and Daou Infosys respectively, the former as Miss Peach World 1. | |
| Operation Secret Storm | NES | 1991 | ||
| P'radikus Conflict | NES | 1990 | ||
| Pesterminator: The Western Exterminator | NES | 1990 | ||
| Raid 2020 | NES | 1989 | ||
| Robodemons | NES | 1990 | ||
| Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise | NES | 1991 | ||
| The Adventures of Captain Comic | NES | 1989 |
As Bunch Games[]
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castle of Deceit | NES | 1990 | ||
| Galactic Crusader | NES | 1990 | Published originally as Incantation (Famicom). | |
| Mission Cobra | NES | 1990 | Published for the Famicom as Sidewinder. | |
| Moon Ranger | NES | 1990 | Development for Odyssey Software. | |
| Tagin' Dragon | NES | 1990 | Pubilished by Sachen as Colorful Dragon. |
Unreleased[]
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Escape from Atlantis | NES | |||
| Happy Camper | NES | |||
| Hellraiser | NES | Based on the movie of the same name. The game was meant to run on a "Super Cartridge", a"Super Cartridge" does exist but little evidence supports the existence of the actual game. Likely Vaporware. | ||
| Seven Gates to Eternity | NES | Programmed by Judye Pistole. |
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Archived stardot-tech.com home page in December 1998
- ↑ Woodyard, Chris (1990-10-24). "Nintendo Keeps Color Dreams Up Worrying Video Games". Los Angeles Times: p. 5. "Color Dreams' games circumvent the Nintendo lockout chips and can therefore operate on the Nintendo system."
External links[]
- Story of Color Dreams: Parts 1, 2, and 3
- NEWWorld.com Interview with Jon Valesh of Color Dreams
- Color Dreams fan site
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