Mr. Chin for ColecoVision (2008)Another upgraded MSX conversion for the ColecoVision is now available for pre-order, this time, Mr. Chin, originally created in 1984 by HAL Labs. Check out all the details over at the AtariAge forums, here. I put my name of the list! Also, be sure to check out some of the other games mentioned in that thread and the author's profile--you'll see lots of screenshots for some downright amazing already released or forthcoming ColecoVision developments that really take the system to new places!

Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels 2: ColecoVision screenshotCheck out the following announcement from the ColecoVision Programming Yahoo Group... I already ordered my own copy of "Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels 2" for the ColecoVision:

Good News!
Two NEW Colecovision games are about to be released through GameConsoles.com! 'Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels 2' - the sequel to Philipp Klaus Krause's original- plus his Colecovision port of 'Monster Masher' are available for pre-order! Both are complete productions, with cartridge, label, instructions & box.

Could this be the product Coleco has been talking about for a while? I hope not, but until a unit is issued that includes real Coleco games it will have to do.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-3/qid=1161671380/ref=sr_1_3/60...

I have to thank our friends at Gamesetwatch for posting about Jason Scott's scans of an amazing pre-Colecovision Product Catalog from Coleco.

Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels (2006) screenshot: ColecoVision - Adam formatNot much more to say here than in the blurbs provided below, but two new cartridge games, "Search for the Stolen Crown Jewels", which is loosely based on the 1981 Rock-Ola arcade game, "Fantasy", and "Schlange CV", which is a "Snake" remake, are available in cartridge form for the ColecoVision/Adam in limited supply from the GameConsoles.com Website. Downloadable trial ROM versions provide a nice demo-before-you-buy option in the emulator of your choice or for direct transfer to a flash device.

Sunrise MSX Game ReaderOne of the first USB cartridge readers called the "MSX Game Reader" from Japan, is currently available (also under the Sunrise USB-GAMEREADER name as an alternate English supplier), and essentially allows you to play real MSX cartridges on a standard Windows XP PC. The product comes with the MSXPLAYer, which does a good job with emulation. However, the latest version of the freeware blueMSX, 2.6, now supports the device as well. This is great news for those who want the MSX experience without having to maintain an MSX computer or even multiple systems for maximum compatibility (MSX 1, MSX2, Turbo-R, etc.), so the more options, the better (I only have a Sony HB-F1XD MSX2 computer myself). It's unfortunate then that the hardware is so relatively expensive, but perhaps this will inspire others to implement related technology for other classic systems as well.

Microsoft Xbox 360Well, I'm behind in my updates for Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays. I missed "Pac-Man" and "Texas Hold'em", and just yesterday was "Time Pilot", a personal favorite of mine back from the ColecoVision days.

"Pac-Man" is a straight up port that unfortunately does not translate well to the Xbox 360 gamepad, as most games of that type don't to post-Atari pack-in style controllers. Some arcade controllers are coming soon, so that should help with these, but for now, "Pac-Man" is well-done and as with all these games, worth it for the competitive and scoring/leaderboard aspects, but I'll be holding off until I get a hold of one of those controllers. And again, aside from the online competitive comparisons and points for my Gamertag, I have a wonderful MAME arcade machine that plays the game better than any system short of the real machine.