Color Dreams: The Trouble of an Ambitious Company

Special thanks to ‪@geekume5539‬ for the idea for the video title!
History of Color Dreams:
bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/...
Gaming Historian’s Tengen Video:
• Tengen: Atari Games vs...
Interview with Programmer Jon Valesh:
www.nesworld.com/valesh.php
Hellraiser NES:
lostmediawiki.com/Hellraiser_...)
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:21 Nintendo of America
2:35 Color Dreams
3:43 Baby Boomer
4:47 Difficulties
5:46 Metal Fighter
7:32 Nintendo's Response
8:02 Bunch Games
9:21 Castle of Deceit
12:43 Development of Hellraiser
15:54 Cancellation of Hellraiser
17:32 Menace Beach
18:34 Conclusion
19:23 Outtro
All stock footage came from the following authors at pexels.com:
Tiger Lily
Mikhail Nilov
Thirdman
Polina Tankilevitch
Free Videos
Karolina Grabowska
Yan Krukov
A frame in motion
Jack Sparrow
David McBee
Curtis Adams
Tom Fisk
Pete Wales
Cottonbro
Joseph Redfield
Caleb Oquendo
Tima Miroshnichenko
Yaroslav Shuraev
Kelly
All background music came from streambeats.com.

[@theusher2893]

I had the pleasure of talking with the guy who developed Challenge of the Dragon. He was young at the time, only 21, and was wholly dedicated to the project. He and his friends playtested the game constantly to work out bugs and difficulty, and in the end sequence when the princess is rescued he based her look off of his then-girlfriend. It was really interesting to speak with him.

[@pojr]

Wow, that's really cool to hear. You almost never hear about Color Dreams developers. How did you run into him?

[@lukesmith9692]

Right this is interesting. I heard color dreams didn't care at all and did whatever. That's what I heard

[@theusher2893]

@pojr What's funny is he was selling his own personal CIB copies of the game on ebay. He was signing them too. The copies were pretty expensive otherwise I definitely would have gotten one, but he took the time to do some email correspondence for a while. Super nice guy with some very interesting stories.

[@thesegacampgamerandwerecam7504]

I'm sure by 1995 Color Dreams/Wisdom Tree eventually gave up since the PS1, Sega Saturn, and N64 were on their way and the NES was being discontinued by this point since it was out on the Market for 10 Years at this point!

[@FeralInferno]

19:50 hey, that's me! 😁 Awesome video! Castle of Deceit had a lot of promise, it's a shame they didn't have a more talented development team.

[@pojr]

You found a way to make a cameo in my video haha. Yeah I wonder what color dreams could have achieved if they had the right resources. I also wouldn't have minded seeing what the Hellraiser game looked like, maybe they put their best effort into it.

[@theusher2893]

I always thought it was a pretty good game. Especially when compared to some licensed games like Mystery Quest and Puss n Boots...both of which absolutely sucked in every way.

[@edgardeitz5746]

Someone (with hacking / coding experience) should go through each "Color Dreams" game (at a time) and really improve them...

[@TheSteveTheDragon]

So no mention of wolfenstein?

[@f.k.b.16]

I tend to lose focus on just about everything... Maybe I missed it?

[@VitaEx]

I did not see anything about it

[@pojr]

It's in there!

[@f.k.b.16]

@@pojr I like you videos. Can you put in the timestamp of where it is?

[@f.k.b.16]

@@pojr you might simply change the name and thumbnail of your video as its a good video just has nothing to do with W3D

[@derelictfields]

I bought Captain Comic at a toy liquidator store at an outlet mall back in the day. Not a very good game at all, and I hated the funky blue cartridge, but for some reason I've held onto it. It's a weird bit of NES history.

[@operationbs7610]

Click bait from a sub 500 Andy. You'll go far kid..far far away

[@KaiFoxx]

It's really cool to find out the Hellraiser game almost actually existed, I thought it was just a Halloween gag someone made up for a KZbin video.

[@LordmonkeyTRM]

I really like your choices of subject matter. Glad I'm here for come up. 5k very soon

[@jimmyclaw9974]

Color Dreams wanted to take the NES to places it’s never been before… church ⛪️

[@javaly78]

I like the niche content choices for your videos, And the in-depth analysis. As far as content suggestions I pretty much like your unique span. There are a few things I would like to see on gaming retrospective channels, We’ve seen same name different game, But what about the same game released multiple times and still purchasable in the same console generation? As much as I love Capcom arcade games, Lately they’ve been notorious for releasing the same games through different arcade collections admittedly I’ve been purchasing each one of them I don’t know how many releases of Final Fight I’ve purchased, The only real changes are graphical filter options. Sega is notorious for this as well for their 16 bit re-releases. I believe you can buy Flashback more than once as well. Or how about a video of NES games That are currently purchasable on non-Nintendo consoles?

[@pojr]

This is actually a really good point. If you think of Sega, Capcom or Nintendo games, you typically see classics get re-released numerous times. Then you see lots of games (like Jr Pac-Man) that will basically never be re-released. One game in particular that I always loved was Toki. Toki got an NES release, and a few releases on PC consoles, but the original arcade version was never re-released. All we got was a mediocre Switch version, and the developers couldn't even bother including the original arcade ROM.

[@stargazerlaurent6780]

I really liked Pesterminator Western Exterminator

[@metamorphicblood]

I rented it several times as a kid. I always liked finding unlicensed games that were downright bizarre, so that was one for me.

[@RageyRage82]

My aunt who worked at a Christian book store, convinced my dad to buy Bible Adventures for me. In actuality, I liked it lol! Still, it was a silly idea.

[@solonsaturngaming3727]

what model is your NES never seen that one before, looks cool

[@DirectorOfOperations811b]

King Neptune's Adventure 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤

[@DirectorOfOperations811b]

i ❤ lots🎉

[@DirectorOfOperations811b]

Crystal Mines 2

[@lukesmith9692]

If you think about it. Nintendo didn't want us to release games along with Canada. Only camerica, color dreams and active enterprise ( action 52) is that weird? All unlicensed

[@tacoman6697]

You know, a lot of folks share that complaint that unlicensed games just don't hold up compared to licensed games. And sure, in a lot of cases, that's true. However, what are they comparing to? From what I can tell, it's always some of the best games the console ever had to offer, some of which are considered all-time greats. I just think that's unfair. Some of the unlicensed games definitely come up to at least the average of a "good" quality game at the time, and many, many licensed games are significantly worse than even the bulk of Color Dreams' library. It's not wrong that these mid-to-low tier games often get overlooked when talking about the NES, since there *are* better games, but when making comparisons to the unlicensed competition, one ought to remember that the NES's best games were not necessarily the majority.

[@Acidonia150reborn]

Metal Fighter looks like it Took alot of its Ideas from UPL's Atomic Robo Kid Arcade game just removing the free scrolling roaming maze levels with ones thats dont. That game had no Famicom or Nes versions though.

[@Minty0091]

The nes game Chiller is a horror light gun game they could have done that with Hellraiser

[@pojr]

This is true. They could have done something more feasible. Even a platformer would have been OK. At least that would have most likely guaranteed a release.

[@cappa310]

Hey Pojr, you should have mention that Wisdom Tree is still making game till this very day. Religious games of course.

[@shawnio]

IM TAKING MY BUSINESS NOWHERE LOL

[@alecrutz6979]

I love Menace Beach, it's one I've actually beaten, and though I know the controls are slippery and some of the level designs are bad (looking at you level 9 with your dumb springs and level 11 with that near impossible jump), but it's just a fun little beat em up

[@Loanwolf387]

Please someone make a hellraiser colour dreams home brew …blue cart required

[@edgardeitz5746]

Maybe the "Hellraiser" game might've been possible on the *Super NES* instead... ("Super Noah's Ark 3d", anyone?)

[@gtf9733]

This lad's baked but seems to know what he's on about 🙂 good job. *Apologies if you're not actually baked 😉

[@gtf9733]

P.S Got a sub 👍

[@pojr]

Thanks man! Always appreciate the support. And no I'm not baked, just regular personality 😁

[@gtf9733]

@@pojr All good man. 1, 2 Regular Spectrum Crew 🙂

[@KrunchyTheClown78]

Should have made there games for the master system and 7800!

[@scragglewaggle4109]

Make a video about the "Alpha Central Cd"

[@alexhydell3608]

Pojr is my hero

[@GconduitYTubeAccount]

Metal Fighter wasn't developed using Color Dreams tools or western developers. That's my hunch on why it feels different.

[@pojr]

Right, it was made by Sachen. Someday I'm going to do a video about them

[@yurishosan]

1. click bait 2. half baked script with some less thought iut sentences and repetitve talking points, a few more passes on the script would have ironed these kinks out. 3. incoherent structure, the video was mostly unrelated to the title, and the story of the compeny was cut off in a weird time. What happened to Wisfom Tree, what games did they make? It looks like the video was cut in the middle. Overall, you got potential, but you are not quite there yet.

[@pojr]

I appreciate the advice, genuinely. You bring up some great points. To answer your last point, I didn't cover Wisdom Tree because I mainly wanted to focus on the Hellraiser topic. I feel like the Wisdom Tree games have been covered in great detail by KZbinrs like the AVGN. But if people wanted to see a video about that, I would be happy to cover it!

[@geekume5539]

Great video but kinda clickbaity this really isn't about Wolfenstein on the nes this video would have been better named "color dreams: the trouble of an ambitious company"

[@pojr]

Fair. I've been thinking about changing this for a while. Do you mind if I use this title for the video? I will credit you in the description.

[@geekume5539]

@@pojr go ahead no credit needed

[@pojr]

@@geekume5539 Thank you, I changed it and credited you in the description.

[@geekume5539]

@@pojr oh thanks man! That's pretty cool!

[@joesaiditstrue]

sup click bait, cya click bait

[@intel386DX]

When you a pirate company why even bother to pay movie license?? LoL 🤣 very stupid decision, better spend those money on actual game and hardware development

[@pojr]

Yeah they really put all of their eggs in the hellraiser basket.

[@tosgem]

Thumbs down for click baiting me, nerd. The video was so long and never got to the point. Blocked, never want to see your channel again

[@iamhere490]

Imagine getting this upset over a KZbin video title.