2012/11/20: Intellivision: Christmas Carol Vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents

Postby **VideoGameCritic** » November 20th, 2012, 10:46 pm

This new Intellivision homebrew is pretty near flawless.
Classic gamers should be psyched.
Highly recommended, especially with the holidays coming up!

Leo1 · Postby **Leo1** » November 20th, 2012, 11:30 pm

Looks like a lot of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfwIrpE9-do

Is there a two player option?

dzfoo1 · Postby **dzfoo1** » November 21st, 2012, 12:35 pm

Hi, Leo!

It's only a single player game. By the way, that video that you posted is from the "demo" version, which is the prototype I made in 2 weeks over my then Pac-Man port project.

Since then, the game has evolve considerably. Check out the final version's trailers:
http://www.carolvsghost.com/pg_trailers.html

dZ.

dzfoo1 · Postby **dzfoo1** » November 21st, 2012, 12:40 pm

Oh, before I forget: in contemplation of a contest we're starting in December, we've released the game ROM for free. You can get it at our web site.

I hope you guys enjoy the game. And thanks to the Video Game Critic for the wonderful review!

-dZ.

Postby **VideoGameCritic** » November 21st, 2012, 5:54 pm

I think what pushed the game into an A+ is when I realized I could skip the intermissions. It's a great feature that too many modern games lack!
The intermissions are great, but it's good to have the option if you want to play a quick game.

dzfoo1 · Postby **dzfoo1** » November 22nd, 2012, 5:27 am

Ah, yes, precisely. During early testing, someone said the same thing: "what if I already played the first few levels? After a while they just get in the way."

So, all sequences are skippable.

-dZ.

dzfoo1 · Postby **dzfoo1** » November 25th, 2012, 10:01 am

By the way, IntellivisionDude posted an updated video of the final game on YouTube. This one shows the new title screen and multiple levels.

Enjoy!
-dZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ROnNx1RkGw

Teddybear1 · Postby **Teddybear1** » December 24th, 2012, 7:52 am

Just in time for the Fat Guy's big day.....I finally saved Xmas for the first time yesterday.

The review of this game was spot on - it's a lot of fun and should be in every Intellivision lover's collection. The intermission scenes are superb and I personally don't see the need to want to breeze past them even after seeing them several times. A few extra seconds to allow me to take another gulp of beer or wine works for me. But I suppose pressing 1 and 9 at the same time on the controller works too.

Christmas Carol is a great maze game! Props to these guys who put out these homebrews on our 30+ year old systems!

metlheart1 · Postby **metlheart1** » January 21st, 2013, 8:54 pm

I would love to personally see how awesome this game is as well, but Left Turn Only Productions isn't cooperating. I ordered Christmas Carol on December 17th, here it is January 21st and still no game. Emails sent to two different Left Turn Only emails from their webpage have gone unanswered and they've yet to reply to a claim submitted through Paypal (claim was started on January 9th). Hopefully my money will be refunded, but I want the game! Does anyone know where else I can get Christmas Carol? I would love to buy Space Patrol when it's back in stock, but not from them after this experience. It's also caused me to hold off on buying D2K Arcade from Elektronite. I know they have nothing to do with this particular purchase, but it's made me wary of purchasing homebrews.

dzfoo1 · Postby **dzfoo1** » January 22nd, 2013, 5:25 am

Hi metlheart!

I'm James, a.k.a. "DZ-Jay," the programmer of the Christmas Carol game. First, let me personally apologize for any problems with your order. I would like nothing more than for people to enjoy my game and be happy with the whole experience.

That said, let me offer some sort of explanation as to what could have happened. The game's publisher, Left Turn Only Productions, is a one-man operation, that of Joe Zbiciak. Mr Zbiciak has been in the process of moving to a new house throughout December. As far as I know, he was keeping up with orders throughout the first half of the month, and things were going smoothly with very sales trickling in.

However, then I'm afraid things got a bit out of hand: In a bout of extremely inconvenient timing, I was promoting the game with a month-long contest and that increased the number of orders, causing a back-log.

I won't speak for Mr. Zbiciak (and strictly speaking, I don't really represent Left Turn Only Productions directly), but last I heard he was still in the process of unpacking all his housewares, and the game boxes and cartridges were buried deep in the pile. I also know he has currently very limited Internet access. (As you may have noticed, even the LeftTurnOnly.info web site is down, for it was self-hosted in Mr. Zbiciak's home.)

Mr. Zbiciak is a legendary figure in the Intellivision community, being one of the first home-brew programmers, and even providing free tools and assistance to budding home-brewers like myself; so I can guarantee you he is a stand-up guy and your order will most definitely be fulfilled.

I am very sorry for this inconvenience and I will try to get a hold of Mr. Zbiciak to straighten this whole mess out. I will also look through the e-mails sent to find out why your questions weren't addressed. In the meantime, you can send e-mail directly to us at <info@carolvsghost.com>. I'll promise you will get a response.

Best regards,
-dZ. - James P.