Color Dreams

Last updated
Color Dreams
Industry Video games (formerly)
Electronics (as StarDot Technologies)
Founded1988;37 years ago (1988)[ citation needed ]
Defunct1997;28 years ago (1997)
Fatereformed as StarDot Technologies
Successor Wisdom Tree
StarDot Technologies
Headquarters
Brea, California
,
U.S. [2]
Key people
Dan Lawton (founder) [3]
ProductsVarious video games for Nintendo Entertainment System
IP cameras (as StarDot Technologies)

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

Contents

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]

History

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

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]

Video games published by Color Dreams

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

As Bunch Games

As Wisdom Tree

See also

References

  1. ↑ Voytko, Lisette (6 December 2017). "Artist Profile: Nina Stanley". Video Game History Foundation. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Eddy, Andy (July 1989). "Color Dreams May Be Nintendo's Nightmare". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (6): 28–31. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Whatever Happened to Color Dreams". Electronic Gaming Monthly. 10 (101): 34. December 1997. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  4. ↑ "God 1, Nintendo 0". Game Informer (95): 100–101. March 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  5. ↑ Woodyard, Chris (October 24, 1990). "Nintendo Keeps Color Dreams Up Worrying". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  6. ↑ "COLOR DREAMS ... THE STORY OF". NESworld.com. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  7. 1 2 The Whizz (July 1990). "The SuperCartridge". GamePro (12): 22. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  8. 1 2 "How a Hellraiser tie-in became Super 3D Noah's Ark". Game Developer. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  9. ↑ "Behind the Nintendo Seal of Quality". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (20): 92. September 1990. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  10. ↑ Worley, Joyce (February 1995). "Bits". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (25): 34. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  11. ↑ Parish, Jeremy (October 2005). "20 Years of NES". Electronic Gaming Monthly (196): 137. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  12. ↑ Halter, Ed (December 2006). "Play to Pray". Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (1): 44–46. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  13. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (14 January 2014). "Unlicensed SNES game Super 3D Noah's Ark to be reprinted". Eurogamer . Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  14. ↑ "Color Dreams, Inc.: Private Company Information". Businessweek. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  15. ↑ Crystal Mines (Source Code) (NES Game) on pdroms.de (Aug 26, 2011)
  16. ↑ Post subject: Crystal Mines Source Code Released on nesdev.com (August 2011)
  17. ↑ Crystal%20Mines%20(NES)%2011151989%20Version.zip in "Crystal Mines License.txt" "Ken's license: - The name "Crystal Mines", the graphics, sound, music, and the levels are NOT open source. People other than me worked on them, and for that version of the game actually got royalties and still have ownership. It's OK to possess them for personal use, but they can't be reused in a new game or distributed for profit. - As the sole author of the code, I (Ken Beckett) will allow the source code for the NES version to be used in other works, provided that: A) Credit is given to 'Ken Beckett' in both the portions of re-used source code AND in the credits of the new game, and B) That the code is modified sufficiently such that the new game is not easily recognizable as being Crystal Mines with new graphics/sound/music. -Ken"
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