The CAT Scheduled Oil Sampling GameI thought this type of discovery deserved a bit of a higher profile, so here goes. Digital Press forum member, "Seaquest", posted about a game his father found about four years ago. I'll let Seaquest's words describe the finding:
"The Cat S.O.S game (Caterpillar scheduled oil sampling game)along with a colecovision was given to every cat dealership in 1983 to support the S.O.S. program. The customers would play it while waiting in the lobby. The game was made by the company Nuvatec. It was never sold commercially and could only be found exclusively in cat heavy equipment dealerships. My dad (who worked at cat) found that they were about to discard of both the game and the console so he saved it and gave it to me to add to my collection.

I am pretty sure I have one of the last copys left in existense. If anyone knows anything about the value or has any questions please send me a message. Thanks!"

As you can see in the forum topic - which also contains more images - someone has already taken the charge to get the data off the cartridge and create a ROM of this amazing find!

New Donkey Kong Intellivision (WIP)Anyone remember the mediocre Donkey Kong conversion from Coleco for the Mattel Intellivision? It was a bookend to the awful Atari 2600 version. While I firmly believe there's zero legitimacy to the theory that Coleco intentionally crippled these releases to make their ColecoVision pack-in look all the better, there's no denying that the programmer could have done a better job. Want proof? Thanks to this thread on AtariAge for the reminder, it looks like Beeslife, of stunning Moon Patrol port and update, Space Patrol, fame, just may be at it again with an equally impressive Donkey Kong conversion (NOTE: As of writing this, there's no word of Beeslife involvement, if any, or if this is simply just a proof of concept, since it's still built off of the original Coleco version, despite the addition of the missing screens). Check out the animated screenshot to the left and be sure to visit the Beeslife Website for more of them. Let's hope it gets finished up (whoever that task falls to) and makes it to a release on cartridge! It would be an excellent companion to the upcoming Opcode Games Donkey Kong conversion for the ColecoVision.

MaximumRD Indicted!: MaximumRD, aka Rob Daviau, is in big trouble (arrest photo).Some sad news for those of us who know and love MaximumRD, host of the popular YouTube program dedicated to classic gaming hardware. A Canadian investigation into his activities has led to his arrest and indictment. While the details of the case are still vague (repeated calls to the Toronto officials revealed little info), it appears that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have accused him of tricking local residents into thinking that the ColecoVision and games such as Lady Bug and Donkey Kong are just as fun as modern games. Indeed, apparently a few people who bought ColecoVisions from him enjoyed them intensely for months before realizing they weren't awesome. I was able to get in touch with a few of these poor kids, who still think that playing Mr. Do is just as satisfying (if not more so) than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Rob's ColecoVisions were confiscated along with several other contraband consoles that clearly weren't nearly as good as anything out today because they suck.

I will continue to reveal information as it comes to me, but by all means do *NOT* insinuate to anyone that classic games and consoles are "just as fun" as the latest offerings from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Doing so isn't just libelous; it's immoral.

Exciting news for ColecoVision fans, as Opcode Games' in-development expansion module for the classic platform, which, among several other things, will provide much needed RAM to the 1K console, has been officially blessed by Coleco Holdings, and will leverage the name of Coleco's original advertised - but never released - Super Game Module, a device with which it shares some similarities. Read about it here for the announcement and here for the details on the module. For those interested, one of the first games out of the gate that will make use of the low cost module is Donkey Kong Arcade...

Hello, everyone. I'm debuting a new regular video series entitled, "Armchair Arcade TV". The first one, with the surprising name of "Episode 1" is on little known Centuri arcade game, Route 16 (Route-16), from 1981, with feature coverage of its first home translation for the Emerson Arcadia-2001 and its family of systems. Other games and systems are also featured. This is my first time on Adobe Premiere and on a new computer system, so the usual issues cropped up in the creation of this, but naturally these will improve in all ways over time, including the host segments. In the mean-time, enjoy the first episode. The full transcript follows the video.

LOL, pretty funny stuff here, and well produced! Just how cool is Little Miss Gamer, eh? :)

Zippy RaceFrom the guys who brought you the Mr. Chin MSX conversion, comes Pyramid Warp/Battleship Clapton II, which ships next week and Zippy Race, which is accepting orders now. Each game is $60 and comes boxed with a manual. I'm looking forward to mine.

Check out their Website for more information on the games, with more details on the announcement below: http://www.colecovision.dk/collectorvision.htm

Pyramid Warp/Battleship Clapton II: http://www.colecovision.dk/coll-warp.htm

Zippy Race: http://www.colecovision.dk/coll-zippy.htm

"Lord of the Dungeon" was released in limited quantities as a homebrew back in 2000 from the 1984 unreleased original prototype for the ColecoVision from Probe 2000, which would have been the first ever battery backed cartridge. These are rare, rare images since so few people have it and it's unsupported by any emulator. You can see it would have been a phenomenal Wizardry-like RPG for a console well before anything like it on the NES!

Building on the platforms already impressive homebrew efforts to date, Dale Wick wrote in to tell me that the new ColecoVision mini-games cartridge compilation is now in stock. I already got my order in previously, but now it's available to everyone more easily. When you're there, be sure to check out the info on a second mini-games cartridge and get a sneak peak at early development on a game inspired by Coleco's never developed (but advertised) Dracula game. All the info here.