Coleco convention this July 2012, Are you ready?

[newcoleco]

I'm gonna use this thread to inform people about the upcoming Coleco convention this july 2012.

 

I invite you to reply to this thread, saying if you will be there, what you expect, what you will bring and present, and later what was your impression of the overall convention and what you think should be the future conventions.

 

The following is my letter to you saying my personal view on the ColecoVision homebrew scene, from my childhood to present time, and invite you to the Coleco convention this summer, which is our convention, in this a celebrating milestone time.

 

 

 

Hello, my name is Daniel Bienvenu, and I'm proud to be part of the ColecoVision homebrew scene.

 

Since my youth, I had a dream to program my own games for the ColecoVision game system. I've worked hard with various computers, learned various programming languages, talked with other programmers, acquired new knowledge with documentations, trials and errors, to finally realize my childhood dream multiple times from 1999 to now.

 

Even before I've made my first own CV games, I've started to make my own tools (my first hex and graphic editors based on ColecoVision specs can be traced back to 1996) and to use the Internet to share them. Each time I've made progress in understanding Coleco programming, I've improved my tools and even provided help into source codes, debugging and online chat. I wanted others to also experience the amazing feeling of making new ColecoVision games and so I've provided not only new games, but also even more source codes, various tools (editors, libraries, etc.), documentations, support and help (debugging, compression, optimizing, coding sounds and musics, etc.) during more than 10 years.

 

Regardless of all the expertise, all the time consuming effort and accomplishment, help and inspiration toward other programmers to make and release new games, it seems that we just talk about the games, as if it's what ColecoVision homebrew scene is all about. I hope we can see the merit in the ColecoVision homebrew scene, not just for the games coded and released, but also for the overall work as a common effort to support it, to keep going.

 

This year, I don't think I'll be able to program and release a game and I'm kinda sad about it. However, I'm so proud to organize and host the only specific Coleco convention in existence, this July 2012, in my hometown Quebec city, to celebrate the 30 years of the ColecoVision game system and you are invited to be part of it, to participate, to present your vision, from the nostalgic past to the innovative future, to see presentations of history and new great products. Hope to see you there in person.

 

Happy 30 years anniversary!

 

Best regards,

 

Daniel Bienvenu aka NewColeco

 

 

 

For more information about the Coleco convention this July, visit this URL : http://ann.hollowdreams.com/

Also consider to use the weekly online chat, Wed 9PM EST, at this URL : http://www.adamcon.org/

 

Are you ready?

Edited April 8, 2012 by newcoleco

[retroillucid]

Colecomaster & I are planning to be there for a day.. .. hope this is ok?

 

I'm thinking to bring some cool stuff there, including the CV prototype

Also want to bring some games to giveaway

 

Can't wait to meet all those cv/adam fans!

[oldjd]

Will thier be an award for whom travelled the longest distance?

[adamcon]

You BET, IF you get way up to Quebec City this summer, I WILL PERSONALLY GET YOU AN AWARD!!!!!

[Pixelboy]

I'll be there for sure. In fact, I've already sent my registration info to Richard. He must have received it by now.

 

I'll be bringing a few copies of my Team Pixelboy games, by the way, just in case some people want some of those games and want to save on shipping.

[newcoleco]

I remember the presentations I've made for the conventions (ADAMCon). Dale was presenting the first ones about programming, which ended with a simple game like Breakout, one made Yank Bash based on it. Then I've made one about my story into the CV homebrew scene, talking about all my CV games, showing them in boxes. After that I've talked about minigames and the minigame compo, the challenge of making optimized games to fit in 4K or less and a nice trick I've developped to get a bunch of CV minigames into a single cartridge : Canadian Minigames Cart #1. And after that I've talked about graphics and sounds, mostly sounds and music. The last presentation I've made was about colecome, a project to personalize games by involving you, as a picture or a message or whatever else, into a "pre-made" CV game.

 

This year, because of the lack of new project from my part, instead of doing an elaborated presentation, I'm gonna do basicaly the host, with the greeting to the convention. If I've time, I will also make and show an animation, like the one I've done for

. Also, I still have to work on the poster and t-shirt design this month.

[opcode]

I am planning to go, but unfortunately I cannot yet confirm that. We will see in June.

[cOLeCoHiTMan]

Hmm.. I'll watch VIA specials for Windsor to Quebec....

[patbb]

I'll be there.

[hardhat]

It's going to be a great weekend. I look forward to it every year.

 

I think this year I'll be giving a presentation on an introduction to Z80 assembler programming. I haven't done that topic in a while and I know Pixelboy had requested it.

 

I will also finish my talk on doing a 3D perspective based game, which I started last year but was more of a spontanious presentation last year, and I sorted out my issues since then.

 

And I will talk a bit about the 2D physics engine I made over the winter for my up coming Super Action Bowling game. It works pretty well.

 

Hopefully I'll have some information on some of the new hardware I've been working on. At least about the design process anyway.

Edited April 17, 2012 by hardhat

[Pixelboy]

  On 4/17/2012 at 7:36 AM, hardhat said:

It's going to be a great weekend. I look forward to it every year.

 

I think this year I'll be giving a presentation on an introduction to Z80 assembler programming. I haven't done that topic in a while and I know Pixelboy had requested it.

 

Well, I will definately need to learn Z80 assembly some time in the future (more likely in mid-2013), but the more pressing topic for me is generating sounds on the CV. The reasoning is as follows: If I can't create my own music (and sound effect) data, then doing BasicVision is a complete waste of time, because I want to develop BasicVision to create my own CV games, and there's no way I will ever put a soundless CV game on cartridges.

 

So the first order of business for me in 2013 will be to learn everything there is to know about the CV sound chip (and more to the point, the Coleco sound data format). Then I will develop an application in Java that will let me edit and encode music and sounds effects. Once this application is done and working properly, I will work on a very crude version of the BasicVision IDE, in which I will integrate my sound-editing application, and also create a graphic editing application that will vaguely resemble ICVGM. The next step will be to work on the BasicVision language parser (I started working on it a couple of years ago, I just need to pick it up where I left off) and then I'll finally be ready to learn Z80 assembly, because I can't really create the BasicVision compiler without this knowledge. The whole project will likely require a full year's worth of my free time, if not more.

 

With all this said, if you give a presentation about Z80 assembly at Adamcon, it will likely be lost on me, because a full year will likely separate the day you give the presentation (mid-2012) from the day I'll actually be ready to jump head-first into that very subject (mid-2013).

[hardhat]

Duplicate post. Not sure how that happened.

Edited April 17, 2012 by hardhat

[hardhat]

Well Daniel has presented on using the sound chip a few times now, although there may still be aspects to explore the the coming AdamCon. You can write music with a variety of his tools such as Jukebox and also experiment with sound effects in the native OS7 music format. Strangely the last time I was working on making sound effects, in the OS7 format I found that the Internet based documentation is a bit sparse. But I did fully learn all of the ins and outs around 1987, so I have paper documentation for all of that. Maybe there is something not yet covered for sure.

 

I recently went to a Toronto Skillswap tutorial on how to write Chiptunes using a GBC based tool, and it is strikingly similar to what would apply to the ColecoVision sound chip. If I was more into tools writing, I'd declare that I was planning to write such a tracker for the ColecoVision. I've certainly written melodic music editor tools in the past, so it's not out of the question.

 

I would say that I was planning to present an introduction to Z80 over maybe 3 hours with a hands on component. That would be enough to do a couple of cool experiments and get a feel for what it is like, but certainly not enough for you to master Z80 programming.

 

For that matter I've been thinking of making some kind of IDE like BasiEgaXorz (Sega Genesis BASIC) or Batari Basic for the ColecoVision for the last couple of years. But I haven't figured out exactly what I'd want there. I at least have already written a BASIC cross compiler compiler (from 9 years ago already) for ColecoVision/Coleco Adam, which would surely be a first step in making that happen.

Edited April 17, 2012 by hardhat

[newcoleco]

 

This low-res picture is showing the poster design made by a guy named simply Tobi. I've met Tobi while playing Minecraft and having some conference chat on Skype. I've presented this picture to some ADAMCon members and the reaction is so positive that the hi-res version will be used for the poster.

[retroillucid]

Awesome Poster, Daniel!

 

I'm really honored that my 30th Anniversary Logo did make it to ADAMCon poster!

Thanks, I appreciate

[Pixelboy]

Wow! What an awesome poster!!

 

Great job, Tobi!

[coleco_master]

I have to agree !!! SUPER

[coleco_master]

  On 4/18/2012 at 11:02 PM, retroillucid said:

Awesome Poster, Daniel!

 

I'm really honored that my 30th Anniversary Logo did make it to ADAMCon poster!

Thanks, I appreciate

 

I can't wait to be there.... i think its going to be a day to remember !!!

[newcoleco]

This is what the ADAM Convention 24 shirt might looks like. The drawing was done again by Tobi.

 

 

If you want more accurate informations, or even get one of these t-shirts, contact the Adam News Network webmaster, Bob Slopsema.

Edited April 30, 2012 by newcoleco

[Pixelboy]

Very nice. Already paid for my T-shirt with my Adamcon registration.

 

Will there be presentations this year? I'd like to give one (of about 30 minutes) to present my upcoming Team Pixelboy releases.

[newcoleco]

  On 4/30/2012 at 12:48 PM, Pixelboy said:

Very nice. Already paid for my T-shirt with my Adamcon registration.

 

Will there be presentations this year? I'd like to give one (of about 30 minutes) to present my upcoming Team Pixelboy releases.

 

 

Of course you are invited to show and talk about your actual and upcoming releases, and also to bring games for sale.

 

The scheduling for the presentations isn't fixed yet. It's usually about a month before the convention day that we know who is coming and what will be the subjects. Dale is always planning some presentations in case we have time left for more, I know that he wants to continue the presentation he started last summer, and also a presentation about Z80 programming.

[Pixelboy]

  On 4/30/2012 at 3:40 PM, newcoleco said:

Of course you are invited to show and talk about your actual and upcoming releases, and also to bring games for sale.

 

I'll definately bring at least a couple of copies of each of my games, and I'm hoping that some people who live in or nearby Quebec City, who aren't necessarily AtariAge members, will drop by AdamCon and purchase a few.

 

 

  Quote

The scheduling for the presentations isn't fixed yet. It's usually about a month before the convention day that we know who is coming and what will be the subjects. Dale is always planning some presentations in case we have time left for more, I know that he wants to continue the presentation he started last summer, and also a presentation about Z80 programming.

 

Should be interesting, no matter who does presentations. You and I will have a ton of stuff to discuss, Daniel, mostly in private. If it's possible to install a functional setup of your OS7 sound bank Java application on your laptop, that would be appreciated. I haven't seen it online since you lost your Geocities account.

[newcoleco]

With the permission of Tobi, a direct link to Tobi's deviantart page

 

Take time to visit his page and leave a comment

Edited May 1, 2012 by newcoleco

[the.golden.ax]

Will there be foie gras, beer, and hockey?

[RedRaider]

Man I wish they held this in the Southern part of the US, namely Texas, then I'd go for sure.

 

My vacation time in the summer is always spent on a 7-day cruise with my son, so no time to make a trip to Canada in the summertime.

 

Canukistan always gets all the fun !