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Color Dreams

Video game developer and publisher From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Color Dreams
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Color Dreams was an American technology company formerly known for developing and publishing unlicensed video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

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At a time when the vast majority of NES games were licensed by Nintendo, Color Dreams discovered how to bypass the 10NES lock-out system that restricted unlicensed software. By avoiding licensing fees, Color Dreams could release a large quantity of games while undercutting the prices of other publishers. The company operated in a legal gray area but was never sued by Nintendo. Color Dreams also developed a reputation for the poor quality of its games and is now infamous for publishing games considered to be some of the worst of all time.

The company attempted to shake its reputation and legal woes with name changes, launching the "Bunch Games" label and a separate Christian-themed publisher called Wisdom Tree. Color Dreams ultimately left the video game industry in the mid-1990s. The company began selling IP cameras and related surveillance equipment in 1996 and sold its ownership in Wisdom Tree in 1997. Color Dreams is now known as StarDot Technologies.[3][2][4][5]

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History

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Founding and early years

Color Dreams was launched by Dan Lawton in 1989 in Brea, California, at the peak of the NES's popularity. The company had worked out a method to bypass the NES's 10NES lock-out chip. Lawton opposed Nintendo's licensing requirements and also saw a business opportunity: Color Dreams could sell cheaper games and modify the cartridges themselves, such as by adding an additional processor or accessing unused features in the NES hardware. After an internal legal review, the company believed they were safe from lawsuits and released Baby Boomer in 1989, with several other titles planned for quick release afterward.[2][3]

Color Dreams games were marked by a baby-blue cartridge (distinguished from typical gray cartridges). The cartridges had to be physically inserted into the NES in certain ways in order for the lock-out bypass to work. Later models of the NES would prevent certain Color Dreams cartridges from working correctly, posing an ongoing customer service problem for the company.[3]

Games that were considered low-quality even by the standards of Color Dreams were released on a budget "Bunch Games" label. Five Bunch Games titles were released in 1990.[6]

Color Dreams published games at a rapid clip (six in 1989 alone), the vast majority for the NES. In 1990, they claimed to be developing the "SuperCartridge," an NES-compatible cartridge intended to compete with the upcoming Super Nintendo. The company stated it would debut with a game adaptation of the horror film Hellraiser. The SuperCartridge attempted to simulate a 16-bit color palette by rapidly alternating between two 8-bit palettes. This did not achieve the desired effect, and the cartridges were expensive to produce, so the project was scrapped.[3][7][8]

The Hellraiser project too eventually fizzled out, partly because of the failure of the SuperCartridge and partly because of marketing concerns. In 1990, Color Dreams formed Wisdom Tree, a spinoff company focused on Christianity-themed games. Because Hellraiser was a mature, gory film, Color Dreams management feared it would conflict with Wisdom Tree's wholesome image, and so the project was canceled despite the company paying $50,000 for the license to the Wolfenstein 3D engine. The company's experience with that engine, however, would eventually lead to the release of Super 3D Noah's Ark in 1994.[8]

Success and sale of Wisdom Tree

Main article: Wisdom Tree

In addition to revenue from Christian video game sales, Wisdom Tree provided another advantage for Color Dreams. Color Dreams faced ongoing legal tensions with Nintendo. Some retail stores declined to stock Color Dreams games, reportedly, though not proven, because of pressure from Nintendo, and the threat of a lawsuit still loomed. Color Dreams believed that Nintendo would not risk reputational damage by taking a publisher of Christian video games to court—a gambit that seemed to pay off as Color Dreams was never the subject of a lawsuit.[9][10][11][12]

Wisdom Tree would go on to release Color Dreams' best-selling titles, including Spiritual Warfare and Bible Adventures. Wisdom Tree is also noted for creating the only unlicensed SNES game to ever be released in North America, Super 3D Noah's Ark.[13] While Wisdom Tree remains active today and is still selling religious video games, Color Dreams left the video game business in 1996 to focus on digital camera development, now trading as StarDot Technologies.[3][14]

Legacy

In August 2011, Ken Beckett, the programmer of Crystal Mines, released the source code under a custom permissive license to the public.[15][16] Artwork is still proprietary, but can be shared for non-commercial, personal use.[17]

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Video games published by Color Dreams

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All games were developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System unless otherwise noted.

As Bunch Games

As Wisdom Tree

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See also

References

External links

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