Adventures of the Pink Panther (ColecoVision)# 2152CL

In 2013, a man with the Internet handle "retroren" made a discovery. His neighbor, a former Philips salesman, had a cache of prototype and demo carts hailing from about a 1983 time frame. Most were prototypes of ColecoVision games, even one that was in an Odyssey² cartridge shell. This was not uncommon for Philips prototypes of this era – apparently they'd stick prototype boards into whatever shells were handy. When powered up, this prototype's title screen proudly proclaimed: "The Adventures of the Pink Panther, Written By Randy Green." After some hunting, retroren located the programmer and put me in contact with him. I then interviewed Randy Green over the phone and learned more about the game. Randy began programming Pink Panther in March 1983 while working for Philips in Knoxville, TN. He was the only developer on the project but was assisted by artist Ed Hensley and musician/programmer Ken Bourque.

Randy revealed that ColecoVision Pink Panther was never completed. The version discovered by retroren, which is dated 1 June, was a demo shown at the Summer 1983 CES. Development continued for another few months after CES, but Philips pulled the plug on the game and Probe 2000 before it could be finished. The "final" version contained two screens and some gameplay elements, but has yet to be discovered. Interestingly, the ColecoVision game contains some similarities to Pink Panther prototypes for Atari systems, although Randy says he was not aware of the other versions while developing his game. The ColecoVision prototype is a looping demo that cycles between a headshot of the Panther and a shipyards screen that shows him runing along a dock, with the Pink Panther theme music playing in the background.

Marketing material adveristing this game calls it "Pursuit of the Pink Panther" (or "Pink Panther: The Video Game"), but the demo's title screen reads "The Adventures of the Pink Panther." Randy couldn't recall if the "Adventures" title was the game's official name; he thought it might have been quickly slapped on for demo purposes.

The prototype was auctioned off, and the ROM was eventually dumped by the ColecoVision Brotherhood, a group of AtariAge forum members who are dedicated to preserving games for their favorite console. You can download it on this thread. The independent game development group CollectorVision is affiliated with the CV Brotherhood and has promised to release a complete game based on the prototype.