Digital Press Online

here is the straight scoop ... I did Cubicolor in 1982 after Cosmic Ark and before Fathom because I went to visit relatives in Hungary, and met Rubik himself, the Rubik's cube guy, , and on the flight home convinced myself that two player games were under-represented and we can't all play "Death From Above" forever, so why not "mix it up" instead of doing a sequel to Demon Attack which is what Imagic wanted me to do.

"Death from Above" was my standard name for any game featuring the play pattern of menacing looking incoming flying things that are trying to kill you for no apparent reason other than you exist. Kill as many of them as you can before you inevitably perish, hit reset, play again. Space Invaders was the first, then Galaxians, then Phoenix, then Centipede ... all the same play pattern known fondly as "Death From Above".

Cubicolor was programmed in six weeks and fit comfortably in 2K of ROM. To this day, nobody has ever beaten me in a game.

Thankfully, Bruce Davis, the attorney at Imagic at the time played politics skillfully and convinced the company to not bother releasing a puzzle game in a market dominated by Death From Above over and over again.. He was right, of course. Cubicolor demoed terribly, puzzle games were slow sellers and there was nothing to destroy or kill.

So I kept a box of ROMS and dragged them around for years and then one day some guy calls me from the VideoGame Update or something and interviews me and begins drooling upon learning I had a bunch of these sitting around, and he convinces me to sell them through his newsletter.

So I thought "why not" and I think I asked fifty bucks a piece and had the clever idea of numbering them as sort of a " limited edition", and I don't remember how many I sold but it wasn't a whole helluva lot, and I sort of forgot about Cubicolor for a few years.

Fast forward a few years and I got a letter from somebody asking about Cubicolor and he told me he had just bought one for a hundred bucks, and how do you play the damn thing anyway, and I figured why not run another ad and sell the rest, and that's all I really remember, except I sold them fast for a hundred bucks and recall thinking to myself "Just you wait Bruce Davis, just you wait".

Now about the duplicate #7 ROMS, my guess is I forgot the count from when I first sold them, to when I second sold them .... I mean like I wasn't trying to pull a fast one or anything .... OK, if you want a refund I'll be happy to buy any or all Cubicolors back for the price you paid me for it plus I'll even throw in a copy of DOGZ II and a PFMAGIC tee-shirt ... just tell me your size.

But after yesterday when I saw that somebodly paid like almost a grand for one of these, I went scrambling through my office and found a few more that I'll probably hang onto so at lleast I'll know I can always buy dinner at the Sizzler in a few years by selling it off. You can't beat the cheese toast at the Sizzler, like I love the way it's all crunchy and cheezy on top and sort of mushy and warm on the bottom.

I hope that answers the Mystery of Cubicolor once and for all.

Below are copies of Rob Fulop's letter that came with the (2nd release of) Cubicolor, along with the original instructions, as well as the 1993 offer to sell them through the "2600 Connection" (click for a larger view):

Here is our latest documented list of the owners. If you own one of these numbered cartridges and it's not listed, please get in touch with either Digital Press (digitalpress@email.com) or Tim Duarte (timdu@hotmail.com)! As far as we know, although the specifics of what kind of home-made label is (or isn't) on them, every genuine Cubicolor cart contains an actual ROM chip, not an EPROM.

We do not need your contact info if you don't care to give it out. Also if you can prove differently than what you see here, by all means let us in on it!

PERSON	CART #	NOTES
	01	not sold?
	02	not sold?
Marco Kerstens	03	Once belonged to William Sommerwreck
Jason Wilson	04*	*4 of 60 - bought it from Al Backiel, who purchased it in the 1980s
	05
Michael Garber	06*	*6 of 60
Leonard Herman	07*	*7 of 60 - bought in 1980s
Russ Perry Jr.	07*	*7 of 60 - bought in 1993
	08
Rick Weis	09	*9 of 60 (PIC) - bought it from Marco Kerstens, who bought it from Dan Mowczan
	10
Rebecca Heineman	11	Sold by James Manazer in 1997 for $1,500. Bought it from Ben "le geek" Langberg via RGVC for $222.22 ("My Dad (Norman Langberg) purchased #11 for me. I later auctioned the game off on usenet")
Mark Androvich	12	"I accidentally knocked the small sticker off the top of Cubicolor cartridge that I bought from Rob Fulop several years ago (12 of 50). The sticker/label said Cubicolor in typewritten letters, but when I knocked it off, I found another sticker underneath. This one said 'Balloon Race'."
Matthew Archambeau	13
Ian Pleasance	14	Bought from Kenny Gerald Brooks Jr. in 1998
Will "Smitty" Smith	15
Mervil Carmickle	16
Craig Pell	17
Scott Vanarsdall	18
Bill Zandrew	19
Edward Villalpando	20
Jens Kloepfel	21	Bought it from Arnd Jurczyk in 2002
Sam Twiford	22
John Hardie	23	Bought it from Al Backiel
James "DeusExMachina" Manazer	24	(PIC). Bought it from Tony Bueno in 2007 (for $1,700).
Bill Combs	25*	*20 of 60. Bought from John Breeding. Dated June 4, 1994.
Jerry Greiner	26
Sam Twiford	27
Kevin Oleniacz	27
Richard Wilkins	28
Tom "atariager" Faso	28	Bought it from Steve Marra, who bought it from Rick Weis, who bought it from Marco Kerstens, who bought it from Sam Twiford
	29
Jose "wonder007" Artiles	30	Bought it from Adam "buyatari" Harvey, who bought it at CGE2K1 from Rob Fulop. The strip is signed by Rob, has 30/50 circled, and is dated 8/10/01.
Jens Kloepfel	31	Originally owned by Jim (last name unknown) and sold on Ebay in 1998
Sam Twiford	32	Bought from Richard Kline
Scott Williams	33
Jason Brassard	34	Bought from a NY collector, who bought it from Joe Cody, who bought it from Pam Coker in 2006
Jerry Albanese	35
Greg Hillegas	36
new owner(?)	37	Des R. sold his cart on Ebay in 2002
Dave Cadieux	38
Don Rogers	39
John Hardie	40
Delf Meek	41
Greg Woodcock	42	May have sold it (listed it on Ebay in 2003)
Louis A. Percarpio	43
Robert Burtt	44	Was up on Ebay in 2003
Robert Burtt	45
Dan Skelton	46
Keita Iida	47
John G. Earney	48	Also states his cart has a double label, and that the bottom label says 'Balloon Race'.
unknown	49	Bought it from Jerry Greiner years ago, when he was still running Atari2600.com. Jerry doesn't remember who he sold it to.
	50
unknown	51-60
unknown	61-100

PERSON	NOTES
Jim ?	ROM was in a cracked Imagic case
Ian Baronofsky	"I have an unnumbered Cubicolor cart. I bought it though the newsgroup about 5 years back from a guy who got it from Rob, who promised it to him when he came through his company for a job interview."
Dean Dierschow	Owns a Cubicolor cartridge that is unnumbered, with Rob's signature and "4/20/92".
Marc Oberhaeuser	Bought Jeff Cooper's entire collection in 1997, which included a Cubicolor cartridge with no #. It just says: "Rob Fulop 11/10/93".
Paul Papierman
?	Robb Alvey got an unnumbered cart from Rob Fulop on a visit to P.F. Magic (Rob gave him the cart). He later sold it on Ebay in 2000, but doesn't recall who purchased it.
Joe Siegler	The webmaster for 3D Realms, owns a Cubicolor cartridge that is unnumbered. About seven years ago, he "ran into Rob Fulop online as part of my duties. We got to chatting about videogames, and Rob ended up sending a copy of Cubicolor. Didn't pay for it, he just nicely sent it for free. Rob said when he sent it to me that 'it was my last copy'. I don't believe this was part of the 'group of 50' - it had to be somewhere else."

The Registered List of Cubicolor Owners

Needless to say, this lead to some confusion when people started claiming to have the same cart #s. So in June 1998, Fulop posted on RGVC to explain the confusion over the 2 different releases he did. Here is his post (unedited):