DVD Case Art

Released on 1/21/05, the NUON Games + Demos disc was a joint effort between DragonShadow Industries and NUON-Dome.com. The disc contains a variety of homebrew games, applications and NUON SDK demos. Here is the complete list of contents:

Games - 800 Emu, 2600 Pac-Man, BOMB!, Breakout, Chomp, Chomp T.E., Decaying Orbit, Doom, Samegame & Snake.

Graphic Demos - 2D Balls, AGL Demo, Ambient Monsters, BillSphere, Hello World, Life, Raytrace/Mandelbrot, Room, Screensaver, VMBalls 3, VMBalls 4 & Walkthru.

Audio Demos - Midi Jukebox 1 & 2, Play Sample, Play Wav, Set Pitch & Video Game Music Player.

Utilities - Controller Dump, Dead Zone, System Info & Version.

TIP! Press the stop button on the remote or on the machine itself to reset back to the loader without powering-off.

Because the NUON authentication software was not available at the time of release, the game had to be produced on CD-ROM using the public SDK file system, meaning the disc will only run on Samsung DVD-N50x model NUON DVD players.

Background Information:

When I announced that I would be taking NUON-Dome on the road to PhillyClassic 5, Scott at DragonShadow decided it would be cool to be able to demo homebrew games and apps on a single disc rather than having to haul around and swap out many discs. Thus the Boot Loader was born. Scott was able to pull the loader together in time for the show, but it wasn't perfect. We couldn't get more than 3 apps to load reliably, so the program selection was very limited. Scott continued working on the loader even after the show was over and by changing the way the programs were loaded, came up with a much more stable program. He continued to implement new features, such as title, screenshot and controller layout graphics, NUON.CD support (which allowed apps like Atari 2600 Pac Man and Ambient Monsters to be included since the source code is no longer available), and sound effects in the loader itself.

As the program grew and evolved, I worked with Scott by adding in various graphics, screenshots and compiling apps. Working on and off for about nine months, we eventually came to a point where we said "let's release this thing," and decided to make it available to all via CafePress. Because most of the content was readily available for free anyways, we decided to release it at-cost, a mere $8.99. The game comes in a full-color CD style jewel case with booklet, but a printable DVD case cover is also available if you'd like it to match the rest of your NUON collection.

Over the years, some fans have had trouble successfully downloading and burning the freeware homebrew apps that have been made available. A guide was put together to help users along in the process, but even then burning could be finicky. After attending PhillyClassic 5, giving out demo discs and talking to other NUON enthusiasts, it became apparent that there would be sufficient interest in having either a set of individual homebrew games and packaging available for purchase, or even better, a single disc with everything on it. We took it a step further by including many SDK demos, such as the infamous Raytracing demo, that most had never seen before.

Hopefully NUON Games + Demos is the solution everyone was looking for. A big thanks to everyone whose work is included.

Credits: Stephen Anderson - Breakout, BillSphere Demo Andreas Binner - Bomb, Chomp, CD Library, Raytrace Demo, Midi Jukebox Demos Scott Cartier - Boot Loader, Chomp TE, Decaying Orbit Kevin Manne - Graphics, Testing Mark Manyen - Atari 800 Emulator Jeff Minter - Raytrace Demo Tim Prezzano - Atari 2600 Pac-Man, Ambient Monsters, Atari/C64 Video Game Music Player Ken Rose - Mandelbrot Demo Eric Smith - Doom, Raytrace Demo Francois Souchay - Midi Jukebox Demos Chad Tindle - Snake

Reviews:

"The Games+Demos disk is a great and necessary addition to any collectors library." - Static Gamer (via archive.org)

 

Testimonials:

"I received my disk in the mail today! It's great to have all these things on one disk. I liked the raytracing demo, it's very impressive. Nice mini-manual as well. I tried out most of the demos and games, thanks again ND and DS!" - Shaggy

"Just got my disk today....all I can say is ...Kudos..Great job ...way to go...Alll right.. I think you hit a home run Kev...all the stufff I've down loaded and burned for the last two years and MORE..on one disk...an unbelievable achievement...two thumbs up from me....." - davidcd5

"Mine came in today, it's friggin sweet. Played a little bit of most everything, good times. Overall it's a great collection. Now I can throw away my crappy burnt CDs, never did get around to prettying them up!" - bones

Autographed Discs:

After the product was completed and in production, Scott and I decided that it would be fun to order up a bunch of the discs, send them around to everyone that we could get a hold of that had programs on there, and get them to autograph the front inserts. The plan was to give them out at game conventions, through NUON-Dome, etc. From start to finish the whole process of mailing and signing took about 6 months(!) but we ended up with 10 signatures on about 20 discs. Here are a few pics of the finished items, along with a signature guide if you should happen to end up with a copy of your own. Also pictured is the top of the box that the inserts were shipped around in - most of the signers doodled on it before signing the inserts. Neat trivia: Adele Fraser is the author of NUON SameGame!