Well, I've been researching the Color Dream games up and down and all over as most of you know. And the whole 'blue cart'/'black cart' thing has got a lot of people asking - Why? Well, here is my attempt to try to settle it with a logistic answer.

Color Dreams began it's production run with Baby Boomer in 1989. During this year they produced a total of 6 known games including:

• Baby Boomer
• Captain Comic
• Crystal Mines
• Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
• Metal Fighter
• Raid 2020

The following year in 1990 they produced:

• Challenge of the Dragon
• King Neptune's Adventures
• Menace Beach
• Pesterminator
• P'radikus Conflict
• Robodemons
• Silent Assault

In 1991 they produced only two games before Color Dreams officially went out of business:

• Operation Secret Storm
• Secret Scout

Now the really interesting part starts in. By the above list we see that Color Dreams produced games all the way up through 1991 including the games they started back in 1989. However, if we take a look at the following games produced by Bunch Games:

• Castle of Deceit
• Galactic Crusader
• Mission Cobra
• Moon Ranger
• Tagin' Dragon

We see that these games were produced in 1990 which means that Color Dreams and Bunch Games co-existed at the same time unlike popular belief in that Bunch Games came AFTER Color Dreams closed their doors. This has a BIG part in what I'm about to say next.

With this little bit of information we can now cover why there are blue and black carts produced. You have to remember that even though Color Dreams/Bunch Games were producing new games they were still reproducing all their old titles from 1989/1990. All these games when produced came in a blue casing. In 1991, Color Dreams produced their second to last game Secret Scout releasing it also in a blue casing. They continued to run all their titles in these casing (including their Bunch Games titles) while working on Operation Secret Storm and getting ready to release it to the public.

However, due to possible financial bankruptcy and/or the fact that the games were not very popular in the USA, Color Dreams/Bunch Games started losing their money and switched over to the black casing which were probably cheaper. After all this happened, they finally got their last game - Operation Secret Storm - released to the public. This explains why this game is not found in the blue casing as it was released after Color Dreams/Bunch Games switched over. Shortly after the release of Operation Secret Storm, the company started shipping out all their stock to Canada and Europe where the games seemed to be more popular. This is probably why it is easier to find a black cart in Europe than a blue. Finally, Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors and stopped producing games altogether.

Now that leaves the question about Wisdom Tree. Well, here's my theory on that as well. After Color Dreams/Bunch Games closed their doors, the recouped and started up again under the name Wisdom Tree and started producing the following games in a blue casing (possible leftover overstock; year unknown):

• Bible Adventures
• Spiritual Warfare

Again, the games were not a big hit and they started losing money again switching over to the cheap black carts. My opinion is that Spiritual Warfare was released right before they started losing money and therefore a very bare minimum was released in the blue casing. But they were determined to make it and produced the following (again, year unknown):

• Bible Buffet
• Exodus
• Joshua
• King of Kings
• Sunday Funday (1995)

Wisdom Tree produced all these in the black casing along with their two previous releases Bible Adventures and Spiritual Warfare. As you can see, Wisdom Tree managed to make it 1995 and barely squeezed out Sunday Funday and then closed its doors (which is why Sunday Funday is so hard to find).

Now to answer the question about Mission Cobra, Tagin' Dragon, Robodemons, and Metal Figher. Why haven't they been found yet in a black case yet? Well, remember how I said that all the games were starting to be shipped to Canada and Europe? Well, I believe that these games were being ready to be sent but never made it and therefore are stuck somewhere in a warehouse/storage. Which could be a reason why they are not found overseas. The newly found Baby Boomer and Raid 2020 were games that came in boxes with the "Micro Genuises" sticker on the front. Micro Genuises is a company that dealt with overseas shipping (or something like that) mainly for Brazil (?). Which obviously they never made it and were all found in Nevada recently.

Don't know if this all makes sense but, hey, it's a theory and it works I tried to cover as much as I could. I might have missed something. Thanks to NGD, Speedy, jajaja, and everyone else for their help. It's been much appreciated!

Thoughts anyone?

I think that is the most likely explaination.  I guess we will never really know for sure, but I hope the other games surface soon

Beautifully put, uses all existing facts and comes up with a great chronology. The continuously-produced-titles theory is in my opinion absolutely correct.

I have another theory as to the eventual cart switchover though...while black plastic is _MUCH_ cheaper to produce than light blue, it does not explain the re-molding of the carts. This must have been a complicated choice and I can't believe that the mere price of dyed plastic would have recouped this cost. I believe this is as a result of backlash from rental stores (their prime market since retail stores wouldn't touch unlicensed games in the early 90's due to Nintendo's threats to stop selling licensed games to stores who stocked unlicensed ones). Rental stores usually used VHS cases or sometimes specially-made square game cases (you're all seen them, and they were widely available at the time). In both cases, color dreams carts were problematic - they wouldn't fit and snap shut tightly...and many times wouldn't archive properly with the other rental games when stowed behind the counter. I'm sure in order to solidify this last market, in response to complaints they made the re-cast, and to save money changed their color as well in the process. Both financial reasons that would show the company's desparation.

The reason why OSS is black-only: They most likely finally received their cart order as this game was to be released, and since their prime market was rentals, made every one in the shiny new design. Also, they released many of their older titles (probably their best-sellers) in black and re-solicited them to rental stores. The best-sellers notion might explain why some of the uninspiring turds weren't re-made. This left blue carts over...which were used in WT carts that were packaged to be sold in Christian Bookstores and through their website...these could finally be boxed for individual sale again without fear from Nintendo, and the bumps didn't matter. The Black cart WT games were shipped to renters. This, along with their blue cart stock finally petering out would explain why the blue Spiritual Warfare was so scarce.

thoughts?