A screenshot of the cancelled game, from a magazine.
Coolsville was a PC adventure game that was meant to be released in fall of 1994, developed by Music Pen and distributed by Mediavision. It was cancelled after the latter company sunk down.
Staff[]
Graphic designer T R U E worked on the character design, backgrounds, animations and other illustrations. Musician Jared Faber also served as the musical composer.
Plot[]
The game is set in Coolsville, a city populated with anthropomorphic cartoon animals who are all into jazz music. Coolsville is led by a council of six gurus who reunite each year for a concert known as "The Great Gig"; this concert gives energy to the city for a year. One of the gurus has been abducted, and the player character is set on a quest to find him, picking up musicians to form a band along the way.
Legacy[]
The only visual signs of its existence that have ever been made public are a few screenshots, as shown in several magazines that were published before the game was cancelled. These screenshots seem to imply that the game may also have had music-playing gameplay, as well as classic point-and-click adventure. No prototype, demo or concrete version of the game has ever surfaced to this day. Artist T R U E also showed two high-quality screenshots on his webpage.
Music Pen developed educational games, most of them being based on The Magic School Bus license.
Music Pen trademarked the COOLSVILLE name as a trademark in 1996, which possibly means that they were expecting to resume development and eventually release the game. However, it was abandoned two years later without a statement of use.
References[]
http://www.abandonware-france.org/ltf_abandon/ltf_jeu.php?id=1476 A French website about this game's cancelled status
http://www.trueart.biz/music_pen_cd_rom_game_character_design_coolsville_1.html Artist T R U E about his work on the game.
http://www.trademarkia.com/coolsville-75065508.html Trademark status