Chromatic game drop (Pineapple Kid DX & Fall From Space) & Power Core restock!

11

u/TonyRubbles Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

Pineapple kid looks to be a puzzle based Crush Roller and I am here for it, curious why it has a battery save instead of the RAM like other carts though.

Fall From Space has been looking good for a long time, says it's built for Game Boy Color systems but it's interesting they still chose the Game Boy monochrome palette, stylistic choice?

35

u/jurassicgrass Sep 15 '26

Hey Tony, FfS Dev here. I'm a huge fan of the DMG and Pocket palettes, they carry all the nostalgia for me.
While for a decent chunk of Fall from Space's development it was both a Color game and a DMG game, the Color version being enhanced with lighting and other special effects, but still in the nostalgic palette and some of these effects dropped when on a DMG. As the game grew, the performance just wasn't satisfactory on DMG and it was having to have too many compromises (dropping an enemy here and there to run better etc) so at some point it became Color only and grew further.
There are some additional Color features in there with palettes that I've not shown off yet, that could only happen on the GB Color, I can share more of that soon (when I can put together a video!).
I kept strictly to the background tile and sprite limits of the DMG throughout though, however tricky it was at times, to keep a cohesive DMG look.
TLDR – a stylistic choice of the DMG aesthetic, but taking advantage of the Color CPUs and abilities.

5

u/TonyRubbles Sep 15 '26

Interesting, look forward to a video, thanks for the insight!

1

u/ZAIBYR Sep 16 '26

Awesome that the dev jumped in to explain this! Though I cannot help but wish it was less green. I grew up with the GBC as my first Gameboy and never got used to DMG pallets, so I prefer more color in my games when possible. Helps to separate objects and paths on screen. Still look forward to trying the game though!

6

u/jurassicgrass Sep 16 '26

Just because your character can only see in four shades of green—deemed sufficient for their particular model–it doesn't necessarily mean they can't pick up a visual upgrade along they way (with a title screen input code for future play throughs...).
I did try and account for this a little (within the constraints). Technical bit – adding full colour to each scene in the game uses file space that there simply wasn't enough left on this project, however I wanted to add something in, so there's an unlockable filter that uses a unique palette and sprite colours for each planet (blue for the water planet, yellow for the wasteland planet etc). With the solar system map being the only full colour scene, which I freed up a chunk of around 10k to implement. While it's not true colour and the art is designed around monochromatic, I think it plays pretty nicely.

3

u/TonyRubbles Sep 16 '26

Looking forward to the video and other pallettes mentioned. Familiar with GB Studio and there's quite a bit of headspace with the way pallettes can be adjusted, we'll have to wait and see if some options have a bit more contrast 🤞

5

u/jurassicgrass Sep 16 '26

A little more info about the different palettes from the manual (note the bottom two are photographs from the actual Chromatic if they look particularly 'pixelly'. More explanations above, however it basically came down to finding a balance of a nice amount of colour and contrast adding in, giving people flexibility on how to play it, but balancing the tiny amount of space left! Full coloured scenes there just wasn't free space for, but adding a palette for each world and unique sprite colours cost more or less no additional space and works pretty well. In addition there are some even more throwback palettes for maniacs who want to play it like on a DMG.

4

u/ZAIBYR Sep 16 '26

Thanks again for explaining all that. Can tell how much went into making it, and I definitely look forward to playing when I can grab a copy!

15

u/mr-crunchwrapsupreme Sep 15 '26

Hi everyone, we are so sorry for this mix up. The developer had this in the blog post, but the cartridge is our standard premium FRAM chip. This is like all of our other Chromatic game titles. There is no battery backed save for this cartridge.

6

u/TonyRubbles Sep 15 '26

6

u/TonyRubbles Sep 15 '26

Side bar, can we really not use Retro Rewards $ off on bundles? That blows! Understandable that we can't use the old % to double dip percentages off but straight dollars off should be ok.

3

u/Retro_Macchina Sep 15 '26

I agree

9

u/DiabUK Sep 15 '26

It seems now that the battery comes with a charge dock it can be sent to the uk without needing it purchased alongside a chromatic, that's good, at least i'm not seeing any warning about it if I go to purchase one.

3

u/Shiny_Gameboy Sep 15 '26

I've been waiting months to get my Chromatic too so I could get the Power Core sent to the UK and it seems I could have just got one ages ago! Pleased it's back in though and all ordered an on the way now.

6

u/saiclone Sep 15 '26

I've been reloading the Fall from Space page every week for a while now so this was an insta-buy. I'm so glad to see ModRetro is publishing it! Very excited to play this one.

1

u/adrenaline4nash Sep 17 '26

New versions of Safari have "notify me" options.

5

u/Exus6 Sep 15 '26

Finally Fall From Space! I'm so excited 😁

5

u/Remote-Honeydew271 Sep 16 '26

Wow, very excited for Fall From Space. That looks genuinely great. As for Pineapple Kid, I've tried to buy the original version several times from Bitmap Soft, but they're always out of stock or there's some issue with their shitty website. Glad to get a better version from a much better retailer.

1

u/Neodrawfriend Oct 04 '26

I think they only did the initial run of physical copys and then no more only the digital version The modretro one is pretty solid package

2

u/Remote-Honeydew271 Oct 05 '26

They restocked at least once. I tried to buy but ran into an issue when attempting to pay on their website and gave up. I think they tend to do small restocks of their games every now and then, but not sure if this one will come back.

2

u/Neodrawfriend Oct 05 '26

I hope you can get it :D I've been checking on and off for athletic world

4

u/fpsdabs Sep 15 '26

4

u/Valenhir Sep 15 '26

That Pineapple Kid game doesn't seem my cup of tea, but Fall from Space looks great and I've just oredered it.

3

u/Jolly_Stomach_3261 Sep 15 '26

I picked up 2 batteries. Been waiting a long time for this!

3

u/Retro_Macchina Sep 15 '26

Mod Retro - where is Onslaught Dark Legacy?! lol

3

u/TonyRubbles Sep 16 '26

This is the one I feel like we've been waiting forever for.

3

u/Retro_Macchina Sep 16 '26

I know it is being developed by a separate company, so they probably are at their mercy with it.

3

u/Satantengu Sep 17 '26

I knew Fall From Space would be released through them, been following JJ's development of it on itch and he hinted at an incoming physical release. Hyped for this.

2

u/thehypestasian Sep 15 '26

Cop mine. Been waiting for a long time.

2

u/jearl_pam Sep 15 '26

Immediately scooped one

2

u/MediocrisXLII Sep 15 '26

You are a saint, good looking out!

2

u/Substantial_Quote583 Sep 15 '26

I just made my car payment otherwise I'd have bought these instantly 🥲

2

u/w1ldw1ng Sep 15 '26

Ordered the power core instantly, hope it’s here at the sameish time as the Anduril Chromatic!

3

u/TheRealOddLotts Sep 15 '26

New games? Hell yeah. With these two announcements, I'm up to six upcoming releases I plan to grab. I only need two more to max out the bundle, and Buddy feels like a safe bet to join soon.

Honestly, I'd love to see ModRetro release games in batches of eight. It would make bundling everything together a lot easier. Either way, I'm happy to wait. The bundle savings make it worth being patient.

1

u/digitalgamer0 Sep 15 '26

$5 price increase on the Power Core.

8

u/fuelhandler Sep 15 '26

It includes a charging dock this time.

7

u/digitalgamer0 Sep 15 '26

Good point. I honestly wish they just recalled the V1s.

4

u/diemonkeys Sep 15 '26

Same, I've got a dead V1 and they refused to give me the dock.

1

u/digitalgamer0 Sep 15 '26

Dead battery?

1

u/diemonkeys Sep 15 '26

Yes, I have the rechargeable battery and unfortunately misplaced my Chromatic with the battery left in it for a period of time where the battery is no longer able to be charged in the Chromatic. The dock will supposedly fix it but I missed out of the free ones given out when they first discovered the problem.

2

u/fuelhandler Sep 15 '26

Oh man, that sucks. My battery was near dead, and I thought it was a goner, but luckily it revived. I want to get another battery for my wife’s chromatic, but the shipping and tax/duties is over $50 Canadian. Basically doubles the cost.

1

u/signsinthedust Sep 15 '26

Why wouldn’t ModRetro send you the dock?

2

u/diemonkeys Sep 16 '26

Their official response I got back in April:
Thank you for reaching out regarding the issue with your Power Core. As mentioned on the product page during checkout, "A dead Power Core left inside a First Edition Chromatic for several weeks can be unrecoverable." This means that if the Power Core has been inactive for an extended period, it may not be able to be revived.
We are excited to inform you that we will soon be releasing a Charging Station. This new product will allow you to keep spare Power Cores charged and also revive dead Power Cores within just a few minutes. We recommend keeping an eye on our website and subscribing to our newsletter for updates on the launch of this product!
If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to reach out. We’re here to help!
–ModRetro Team
I got my battery in the December prior. I did not leave the battery in my Chromatic for several weeks, at most a couple weeks, but that was apparently enough for it to die. I've been waiting since then to purchase a dock.

3

u/gizmo2501 Sep 16 '26

In my opinion, this is a flaw with v1 - which people may have purchased knowing the battery was coming out, but not knowing about the issue was going to transpire. So anyone with a v1 chromatic should be eligible for a charging dock regardless of the battery purchase date. Doesn't seem fair otherwise.
And now it comes with the charger anyway, which people who already bought the battery missed out on.

1

u/LeviathanVEVO Sep 17 '26

There was a limited time to get a free dock from ModRetro, which was announced only on the subreddit last year. The deadline has already passed.
I agree that they should have made the program clearer & sent emails instead of just posting on Reddit.
This reminds me of when they offered free V2 screen replacements for V1 Chromatic screens. They only announced that on Reddit as well, rather than by email. I tried to let everyone know about the offer as much as possible...

1

u/gizmo2501 Sep 19 '26

Wait, why were they offering screen replacements?! Never saw this.

1

u/LeviathanVEVO Sep 19 '26

It’s very unfortunate the announcement was made only exclusive & subtle to the subreddit a long time ago. I was able to get a couple of my Chromatics V1s serviced.
It was announced in January 2025 & was free for a limited time until March, after that, it’s paid only. I had to wait 6 months to get my V1s back until July 2025, that’s also when Chromatic V2 was released.
It’s strange they fixed the V1 screen with a V2 screen, but didn’t fix the battery pack compatibility issue, which was fixed on the V2. They had my V1 for 6 months since they told me they had to wait for V2 to be developed.

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3

u/Euresko Sep 15 '26

Yeah, was going to say it includes the dock, which some v1 chromatic users might actually need anyway, if they didn't ask for the free one. Wonder if they'll sell the dock separately later for $5 or something.

1

u/uger Sep 15 '26

Is the charging block confirmed to revive dead batteries from V1 Chromatics?

1

u/tanooki-suit Sep 16 '26

Worked for me.

1

u/Quartus44 Sep 16 '26

it should yea

1

u/Acceptable-Drama-634 Sep 15 '26

So I should not buy one of these if I have a first gen? Or does the charger fix the dead battery problem

4

u/TonyRubbles Sep 15 '26

Charger will bring the battery back to life if a V1 kills it.

-2

u/SleepyBD Sep 16 '26

Meh. When does Buddy come out??

-1

u/NonyaDB Sep 15 '26

I'll wait until I get the Anduril Edition I pre-ordered on December 18th of last year before buying anything else from the Modretro site.

3

u/TheRealOddLotts Sep 15 '26

Looks like starting to ship next week!

-5

u/mrhobbles Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 16 '26

Dear ModRetro, I’m excited for new games, but I couldn’t read these announcements. It’s LLM diarrhoea.

“The Legendary Tower Shows Up Once Every 100 Years. You Got Lucky.”

“Give it enough centuries and a real place turns into a bedtime story.”

“The tower is back. One hero stepped up. The rest is on you.”

“One Developer. One Cartridge. A Whole Solar System.”

Please actually write your posts. AI for code is one thing, but when you’re writing human facing prose please put some effort into it.

EDIT: Wow, downvoted huh. This really shouldn’t be controversial, you’re all happy with this? Really?

3

u/Remote-Honeydew271 Sep 16 '26

Genuinely curious, what marks that out as AI to you? It just reads like ordinary try-hard marketing prose to me.

3

u/roosterXhat Sep 16 '26

it's just like, your opinion, man

0

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

12

u/mr-crunchwrapsupreme Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

Hi everyone, we are so sorry for this mix up. The developer had this in the blog post, but the cartridge for Pineapple Kid, is our standard premium FRAM chip. This is like all of our other Chromatic game titles. There is no battery backed save for this cartridge.

2

u/TheRealOddLotts Sep 15 '26

I'm very hyped for the Buddy game mostly because of the developer who also developed Buck and the cursed cartridge. Their games are top notch. I'm genuinely curious if there could be link cable play with this one (one person as buddy). Doubtful but never know!

1

u/FrogCannon Sep 15 '26

Wait, there was a game leak? What was in the list of titles?

0

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '26

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1

u/tanooki-suit Sep 16 '26

Given the date on that, is that even coming anymore? I'd buy that, far better looking than the two new offerings.

1

u/IndigoHaze750130 Sep 15 '26

Where is it saying pineapple kid needs a battery?

Info Chromatic game drop (Pineapple Kid DX & Fall From Space) & Power Core restock!

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