Color Dreams was a company that developed video games for the NES. The company left the video game industry in the mid-1990s, shifting its focus instead on digital cameras and related surveillance equipment under the name StarDot Technologies.
History
While most companies that developed NES games obtained an official license from Nintendo to produce cartridges, Color Dreams was unusual in that it developed NES games without an official license. To produce these unlicensed games, Color Dreams bypassed the NES' "lock out" chip (the 10NES).[1] The company developed a game (Baby Boomer) and released it in 1989, followed by Captain Comic, Crystal Mines, and Robodemons.
As a result of its reputation for releasing poor games, Color Dreams formed the label Bunch Games in 1990. Bunch Games was meant to be a label that Color Dreams could use to release lower quality games so that its reputation would not be damaged further. In 1991, Color Dreams formed Wisdom Tree for the purpose of releasing Christianity-themed games. The Wisdom Tree label resulted in 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.
Games
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomer | Published in South Korea by Daou Infosys. | |||
| Castle of Deceit | Under their Bunch Games label. | |||
| Challenge of the Dragon | Unrelated to the Sachen game of the same name. | |||
| Crystal Mines | Published in South Korea by Daou Infosys. | |||
| King Neptune's Adventure | ||||
| Menace Beach | Famicom | Published in Japan and South Korea by Hacker International and Daou Infosys respectively, the former as Miss Peach World 1. | ||
| Operation Secret Storm | Famicom | |||
| P'radikus Conflict | ||||
| Pesterminator: The Western Exterminator | ||||
| Raid 2020 | ||||
| Robodemons | ||||
| Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise | ||||
| The Adventures of Captain Comic |
Links
- Story of Color Dreams: Parts 1, 2, and 3
- NEWWorld.com Interview with Jon Valesh of Color Dreams
- Color Dreams fan site
References
- ↑ 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."
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