Colosoftware games (prototypes?)

[Icareevenless123456789]

A while back I got a plug 'n play simply titled the Super Video Game. I never used it much because the thing gets burning hot after, like, 30 minutes of being plugged in. It has mostly hacked games on it, like Super Shrek Bros. among some others. But three of the games are these weird ports of Commodore 64 games. They changed the names slightly, so I didn't realize it until just now. The (presumably) copyright screens are replaced with "Push Start to Play", so I couldn't see the company name either.

The games are:

*Hunter: Actually Ice Hunter. You have to roll a snowball to the edge of the river, so you can float across and escape.
*Magician: Actually Magic Madness. Shoot the stuff, whoopee.
*Shoot the Goof: Couldn't find a C64 counterpart to this; just a poor lightgun game.

The originals, at least, are from a company called Colosoftware. There's barely any info on them other than that they made these two games, along with a complete ripoff of Q-Bert called "R-Nest" (I'm not kidding), and [edited by taizou, see below]. Seems like a fantastic company, huh?

I'm guessing these are prototypes of some kind. I don't see why pirates would rip off these of all games. Does anyone have more information on these? Pictures whenever this website actually decides to let me upload them.

[taizou]

There is a plug & play out there that contains only the Colosoftware games - afaik there was either a youtube video or an article about it somewhere but unfortunately I now can't find it. I think there were more than those 3 though, maybe 4 or 5, and they had copyrights intact.

I'm assuming that at some point, some plug & play maker wanted to make a 'legit' console, and somehow were in contact with the ex/current/whatever programmer of Colosoftware, who ported those games to the NES for them. "Shoot the Goof" was probably made from scratch because the P&P system came with a lightgun and they wanted a game to justify it.

And then, as often happens with these things, the games were copied and ended up in other plug & play systems like yours, I guess.Oh it's because the video was deleted
http://web.archive.org/web/20150820180805/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFsXxsXsbco

There's some discussion of it in this thread though http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8143608/1/

and here's a list of the games on that console: http://obsoletetears.free.fr/jeu.php3?Marque=&Machine=Game%20Startuh also, I removed a certain claim from your original post - assuming you got that from the Denver Post article, they were using "Colo." as an abbreviation for "Colorado", it's nothing to do with the Colosoftware guy... and I'd rather not have a claim as serious (and potentially libellous) as that against an innocent person on the forum, you know

[Icareevenless123456789]

Found the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTPCdMusg78

Don't know why I didn't think of licensed P&P being a possibility. And that's the worst accidental claim I've made in a while.

If "Game Star" is the original developer of these ports though, I think it came after Nintendo saw some of their other systems. I have one under that brand ("Fun Educator", a keyboard Famiclone) with a handful of standard NES titles on it (Mario 1, Mappy, etc.).

And upon closer inspection, looking at the controllers, manuals and whatnot, it looks like both of my systems are from the same manufacturer, except the Super Video Game is unbranded. So it all kind of comes full circle.

[taizou]

Ah nice, that's a different video to the one I saw.

AFAIK "Game Star" was a brand name used by Macro Winners or some related entity, they're still in the business of making plug & play and handheld stuff today. If your Super Video Game was also made by them it would make sense, since they probably still had the ROMs for those games hanging around.

But yeah, this probably did come about because they (or some distributor) were wary about selling consoles with pirate NES games in certain markets, even if they hadn't been specifically targeted by Nintendo. Given that the on-screen text shown in that video is all in French it was probably done in conjunction with a French distributor and originally intended for that market.Oh and if you're having trouble uploading pics to the forum you could upload them somewhere like Imgur and link them here, I'm curious what this console looks like..

[codeman38]

One interesting thing about the older, now-deleted video is that it included the original game audio, rather than overdubbing everything with Galaxy Force. This revealed that, for whatever reason, the title screen music in these games was ripped from Linus Spacehead (the 6th track in the NSF rip for that game, specifically).

I have no idea whether this was used legitimately, or whether it was just thrown in by bootleggers. Allister Brimble (the composer for Linus) did audio for various Jakks plug-and-play consoles, but as far as I know, none of those used Famiclone hardware.

[PangentTech]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SdD4xUniLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTPCdMusg78
https://twitter.com/pangenttech/status/1569617829779079169

GameStar AL-27605M Taiwan 2000 / Game Star 5 in 1
"Hunter, Magic, Race, Tropical, Shoot"

(Menu uses graphics from "Hokuto No Ken 2"/Fist of the North Star. The color attributes are off by one tile vertically and an "arrow" tile has been added.)

Hunter / Ice Hunter / Hunter On Ice (Colosoftwares 1983/2000)
Magician/Magic Madness (Colosoftwares 1985/2000)
Tropical Fever (new? undumped?)
Race 'N Burn (new? undumped?)
Shoot the Goof (new? 2000, credited to Oniros)

These ports were made in 2000, and copyright info and French text were removed, and music changed, for the circulating versions. There is video of the removed text so it wouldn't be impossible to hack it back in.

"Shoot the Goof" is a 2000 original light gun game credited to Oniros.

Jean-François de Wergifosse was involved, as he takes credit for the 2000 Colosoftwares on his LinkedIn.

He is not credited everywhere for the original 80s games but they appear to be his also. A likely explanation is that he ported his own work.

Anecdotally, he has been asked about this on social media and replied that the games are his work.


Hunter (Unl) is a NES port of Ice Hunter (Commodore 64, 1983).

The title screen HUD is eight tiles wider than the NES's screen, and is cut off. It scrolls with you during gameplay. It feels like this might have been a test for a C64 mini console with a wider screen, although it is cut off to NES resolution on every circulating version.

Cutscenes with an igloo aren't included. Graphics are slightly updated but very similar.

There is an extra "press start" title screen which is replacing the original French text screen. It's regular NES width, and forces you to only use the first six rows of graphics (mostly an alphabet) -- which I fixed.

Change 60 to 00 at 1E75 and 1E7A to remove this offset. Sprite palettes are set at 722.

There's one weird thing:  the seal and yeti enemies both use the same "crying" sprite, which is supposed to resemble both of them. In the C64 version it had different colors, but doesn't even have that here. It's literally the same sprite call, in the yeti's red color.

[PangentTech]

Here's the onscreen text from the games, removed in the circulating dumps. It's in the original French, and in a quick machine translation to English.

______________


©  Colosoftwares  1983.2000


Hunter On Ice.

Help Hunter the Inuit Hunter find his igloo.

Build a raft with the ice cubes you find on the ice floe. Watch out for dragons and sea lions who won't leave you alone. Fortunately, you can crush them under the ice cubes, or fight them once you've taken the pearl of power.

Use the 'A' button to pick up the ice cubes and drop them into the sea at the bottom right of the screen.

Put on your skates and press 'Start' to begin...

______________


Magic Madness.

Little Merlin, the magic land needs you to fight the evil Kholoo.

To achieve this you will need to have the 4 magic books that are at the end of the 4 levels of the magic land.

Use your magic powers to fight the evil creatures that will stand in your way.

The 'B' button lets you change spells and the 'A' button lets you use the selected spell.

Press 'Start' to begin and let yourself be carried away by the magic madness.

______________


 Race 'N Burn.

Like Nikki Senna, you dream of car races and podiums...

But be careful. The champion will be the one with the highest score at the end of the 8 championship races.

Don't forget to use the 'A' and 'B' buttons to change gears.

You can play alone or with a friend if you have two gamepads.

Press 'Start' to begin...

______________


Tropical Fever

The zoo has sent you on a mission to capture wild animals.

To get there, you'll have to climb vines, bounce on hippos' bellies, put out fires, lure the gorilla with a banana or scare him away with water...

Press 'Start' to get started before you catch tropical fever...

______________


 Shoot the Goof

You are a sniper in the anti-alien division.

Hungry aliens have crossed the galaxy and threaten to eat your friends.

You have a time limit to complete your mission.

Each alien you eliminate will give you points.

If you hurt an innocent you will lose some.

The more points you have accumulated at the end, the better you will have succeeded in your mission.

Be brave and precise!

Press the A button to Start.

______________




©  Colosoftwares  1983.2000

        Hunter On Ice.

Aide Hunter le chasseur
esquimau a retrouver son igloo.

Construit un radeau avec les
cubes de glace que tu
trouveras sur la banquise.
Attention aux dragons et aux
otaries qui ne veulent pas te
laisser faire.
Heureusement, tu peux les
ecraser sous les cubes de
glace ou les combattre non
sans avoir pris la
perle de puissance.

Utilise le bouton 'A' pour
prendre les cubes de glace et
laisse les tomber jusqu'a la
mer en bas a droite sur
l'ecran.

Chausse tes patins et appuie
sur 'Start' pour commencer...


______________


        Magic Madness.

Petit Merlin, le pays magique
a besoin de toi pour combattre
le mechant Kholoo.

Pour y parvenir il te faudra
avoir les 4 livres magiques
qui se trouvent au bout des
4 niveaux du pays magique.

Utilise tes pouvoirs magiques
pour combattre les creatures
malefiques qui te barreront
la route.

Le bouton 'B' te permet de
changer de sort et le
bouton  'A'  d'utiliser le
sort selectionne.

Appuie sur   'Start'  pour
commender et laisse toi
emporter par la folie magique.

______________


        Race 'N Burn.

Comme Nikki Senna tu reves
de courses automobiles
et de podium...

Mais attention le champion
sera celui qui aura le plus
haut score au terme des 8
courses du championnat.

N'oublie pas d'utiliser les
boutons 'A' et 'B' pour
changer de vitesse.

Tu peux jouer seul ou avec
un ami si tu as deux
manettes de jeux.

     Appuie sur 'Start'
     pour commencer...

______________



        Tropical Fever

Le zoo t'a envoye en mission
pour capturer des animaux
sauvages.

Pour y arriver tu devras
grimper aux lianes, rebonoir
sur le ventre des
hippopotames, eteindre des
incendies, attirer le gorille
avec une banane ou le faire
fuir avec de l'eau...





Appuie sur 'Start' pour
commencer avant d'attraper
la fievre tropicale...

______________


        Shoot the Goof

Tu es un tireur d'elite de la
division anti extraterrestres.

Des aliens affanes ont
traverse la galaxie et
menacent de manger tes amis

Tu as un temps limite pour
mener a bien ta mission.

Chaque alien que tu elimnines
te donnera des points.

Si tu blesses un innocent
tu en perdras.

Au plus de points tu auras
acumule a la fin au mieux  tu
auras assume ta mission

Soit courrageux et precis !

Appuie sur le bouton A
pour commencer


______________