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!

Among other updates, Intellivision Lives has announced that they've just once again made available the highly sought after Steamroller for the ColecoVision, an unreleased game created for Activision from 1984. It was released in limited quantities of ~100 at CGE back in 2000, and is once again available in a limited release of 100. I know I got mine and also ordered a nifty running man poster made up of the 125 original mainstream releases for the Intellivision for my basement den area. Fun stuff and with all the recent buzz about the Intellivision lately, I'm glad there's also a boost for the ColecoVision while we're at it! When you're at the Blue Sky Rangers/Intellivision Productions/Intellivision Lives Website, be sure to check out their news section for other interesting updates!

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.

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.

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.

Zaxxon for the Apple II: Is it really a bad thing that this version of the game is not arcade perfect?It used to be that home videogame or computer translations of arcade games were judged on how closely they mimicked the source material. This included how many levels were brought over - memory constraints often meant that one or more stages were left on the cutting room floor (Donkey Kong translations were rarely complete, for instance) - how accurate the graphics and animation were (did Pac-Man look like Pac-Man?), whether or not the sound captured the intended spirit (did Asteroids provide enough of a bass effect?), and how well the controls matched up (like angling the joystick for Q*bert), among many other areas.