# Colors l!ve for the Nintendo Switch reaches kickstarter goal; introduces the "Sonar Pen"



## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

Colors! is literally the first ever digital painting software I've ever had the luck to use.
I remember getting offers to expose my Colors! painting in art galleries around the world.

I used to have 600+ paintings on that site, but I got an arrow to the knee and deleted my whole gallery.
Each week, Colors! helds a painting contest. From time to time, they'd give away stuff like Nintendo Wii U consoles, Styluses, 3DS Consoles, and what not. 
I never won a console, but I did won a Stylus (which broke 1 year later for heavy use) and well... the Gallery was truly something else in the early Nintendo DS homebrew days. Like, the artists using Colors! were among the best I've ever seen.

Nowadays, with the popularity of the 3DS and Colors! 3D, the gallery went from *Awesome* to DeviantArt clone.

If you can, go to check Munin and madwurmz.com galleries.
I met both "personally" and I have very good memories chatting with both.

It's amazing how far Mr. Jens has gone with this software. From the very humble begginings on piracy devices, to a fully Nintendo Licensed software.
I'd be excited about this, but I don't have a Nintendo Switch, and I already own a Wacom Tablet + Autodesk Sketchbook.
Most of my Sketchbook brushes are meant to resemble the brushes that Colors! comes with.


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

JuanMena said:


> Colors! is literally the first ever digital painting software I've ever had the luck to use.
> I remember getting offers to expose my Colors! painting in art galleries around the world.
> 
> I used to have 600+ paintings on that site, but I got an arrow to the knee and deleted my whole gallery.
> ...



That's amazing! I've seen tons of paintings since the DS era to the 3DS, and yes, the galleries back then were quite unique, you could find tons od scenery, photorealistic wonders that really shone. Then, it became a meme board (shame on me, I were part of that with a painting).

I still remember the first painting that got me traped into Colors!, because I saw the timelapse on youtube, is this one:



Tough very simple, the main thing that got me interested was that replay feature.

I only managed to make some drawings and trash, and some other things that are still on my gallery haha, here's the link for the laughs:



 
https://www.colorslive.com/artist/Dartz150


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

Dartz150 said:


> That's amazing! I've seen tons of paintings since the DS era to the 3DS, and yes, the galleries back then were quite unique, you could find tons od scenery, photorealistic wonders that really shone.
> 
> I still remember the first painting that got me traped into Colors!, I saw the timelapse on youtube, is this one:
> 
> ...



Aaaaah!
I remember that Ash painting you have there!
Never knew you where Mexican when I first encountered your Gallery, never followed you though.
I used to be  a Featured Artist on the Colors! Gallery. Made me feel special.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

And yes, the thing that also drew me into Colors! (pun intended) is the Playback feature. I've been pitching that idea to Autodesk Sketchbook.


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

JuanMena said:


> Aaaaah!
> I remember that Ash painting you have there!
> Never knew you where Mexican when I first encountered your Gallery, never followed you though.
> I used to be  a Featured Artist on the Colors! Gallery. Made me feel special.
> ...



Hahaha yes lol, my top ranked painting on my gallery:





I may have seen your gallery pretty often actually, as one of the main uses I gave to Colors! was to watch replays from featured artists again and again, or to show to my family just to amaze them.

Antoher thing I really liked specifically on the 3D version, was the clever use of the 3D effect some artists pulled off, even though the painting only supported 2D layers, somehow they managed to create an optical ilussion were some objects looked like they had volume.


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## Jayro (Jun 10, 2020)

Cool, but how do we buy the sonar pen?


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

Jayro said:


> Cool, but how do we buy the sonar pen?


Until Mr.Jens decides it's time to release the Colors! version for Switch you'll be able to buy the Sonar Pen.
OR
You can actually support the project on its patreon page and you'll literally get a copy of Colors! for Windows, Nintendo Switch (when it comes) and your Sonar Pen.


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## Trash_Bandatcoot (Jun 10, 2020)

Exiting! I'm kind of surprised that a homebrew application made it all the way to the Switch. Nintendo wasn't too happy with flashcarts and homebrew to begin with in 2005, and nothing has changed since then


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## Deleted User (Jun 10, 2020)

THIS IS THE BEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER SEEN IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

Trash_Bandatcoot said:


> Exiting! I'm kind of surprised that a homebrew application made it all the way to the Switch. Nintendo wasn't too happy with flashcarts and homebrew to begin with in 2005, and nothing has changed since then



You might be even more surprised by knowing that many devs start messing around with consoles using unauthorized devices, as dev kits are not afordable to them, and some games and apps are birth in this form.


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## Deleted User (Jun 10, 2020)

Do yourself a favor, Buy Corel Draw Painter on PC or Mac and a Wacom Tablet if you want to draw


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## banjo2 (Jun 10, 2020)

That's really cool!


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## 64bitmodels (Jun 10, 2020)

xenocard said:


> Do yourself a favor, Buy Corel Draw Painter on PC or Mac and a Wacom Tablet if you want to draw


or Clip Studio Paint


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## gudenau (Jun 10, 2020)

The way that appears to work is kinda amusing and Nintendo can't do much about the hardware side.

Let's hope the software gets approved.


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

xenocard said:


> Do yourself a favor, Buy Corel Draw Painter on PC or Mac and a Wacom Tablet if you want to draw





64bitmodels said:


> or Clip Studio Paint



Yeah, those are better solutions for artists and producers, but this app, since its roots, was aimed for amateurs, casuals or just artists who want to spend their free time doodling or something, also, this has been way cheaper (except if you don't own a switch) in the platforms it has been released on.
As stated, back in the day one of the marvels this had was the time-lapse feature, and many artists started their career with this.


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## JustANoob;) (Jun 10, 2020)

Dartz150 said:


> According to the *kisckstarter *page,



Can't wait to see this release, I used to use the 3DS version often.


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

JustANoob;) said:


> Can't wait to see this release, I used to use the 3DS version often.


Thanks mate. Also, I just noticed this got frontpaged 

I used this for years in the Nintendo DS when I was young, had a lot of fun with it.


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## zoogie (Jun 10, 2020)

It's not often you see homebrew and commercial software shown side-by-side like that in a press release image, pretty cool imo.


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## CMDreamer (Jun 10, 2020)

Where were I all this past years that didn't knew this existed!?

Let's start the research.


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## 64bitmodels (Jun 10, 2020)

if i were good at art maybe this would have some use to me lol


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jun 10, 2020)

Oh hey I remember this homebrew way back when, I had no idea it got an official release on the 3DS, that's pretty neat.


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## MetoMeto (Jun 10, 2020)

This homebrew was free on DS. I used it as first digital painting software.
It was great, it had pressure sensitivity on DS lite!
........
Yes that is correct, DS lite has pressure sensitive screen!
Colors on 3DS does not have pressure sensitivity.

This is not so great software per se, but what i find gret about it is the ability to playback stroke by stroke when drawing and see other people drawings stroke by stroke in real time or slowed down. That was great.

I still think DS Lite version is the best.


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## Veho (Jun 10, 2020)

Colors! Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. 
I gave the original DS homebrew a try, liked it but as you can see drawing is... not my strong suit. Still a great little program, and I'm glad it got this far. 

It's great that they're bundling a stylus. Capacitive screens may be more responsive but the precision on them is absolute _balls_.

EDIT: 
I looked SonarPen up and it costs $35 on its own. 

https://www.sonarpen.com/

It works on Android and iOS devices. 
This also means it can be ordered separately.


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## MetoMeto (Jun 10, 2020)

Veho said:


> precision on them is absolute _balls_.


You need more practice for precision, but yes, its not that precise.


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## Dartz150 (Jun 10, 2020)

I have installed Colors 3D on my 3DS again and man, I had forgotten how beautiful many of the paintings look in 3D, you can even get to see some photorealistic wonders like this one:



 

https://www.colorslive.com/details/1204383


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## Bedel (Jun 10, 2020)

So you can only get the pen with kickstarter and won't be sell in stores? I don't like that...


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## Veho (Jun 10, 2020)

Bedel said:


> So you can only get the pen with kickstarter and won't be sell in stores? I don't like that...


The pen can be bought separately. It also works with Android and iOS devices. 

https://www.sonarpen.com/


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

CMDreamer said:


> Where were I all this past years that didn't knew this existed!?
> 
> Let's start the research.


If you own a Nintendo DS you can go to ScenebetaDS to download the "latest" stable released version of Colors!
If you want to download it, just let me know and I'll share my Username and Password for the site, as only registered members are allowed to download.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



Bedel said:


> So you can only get the pen with kickstarter and won't be sell in stores? I don't like that...


No, it will be sold separatedly. This kickstarter bundle is exclusive for kickstarters.


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## Deleted member 512337 (Jun 10, 2020)

Yeah thanks I still got my dsi not buying some stupid fucking pen.


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

Dartz150 said:


> I have installed Colors 3D on my 3DS again and man, I had forgotten how beautiful many of the paintings look in 3D, you can even get to see some photorealistic wonders like this one:
> 
> View attachment 212855
> 
> https://www.colorslive.com/details/1204383



I painted more than 1 eye:
https://www.colorslive.com/details/3703400


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## stanleyopar2000 (Jun 10, 2020)

Who knew a free homebrew would evolve into a large scale official product?

Did the dev retain the rights to it still?


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 10, 2020)

stanleyopar2000 said:


> Who knew a free homebrew would evolve into a large scale official product?
> 
> Did the dev retain the rights to it still?


Yes, and his name is Jens Anderssen.


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## CMDreamer (Jun 11, 2020)

JuanMena said:


> If you own a Nintendo DS you can go to ScenebetaDS to download the "latest" stable released version of Colors!
> If you want to download it, just let me know and I'll share my Username and Password for the site, as only registered members are allowed to download.
> [...]



Thank you so much for kindly offering your credentials of ScenebetaDS site! And yes, actually I've got a NDSi XL, where I like to play some hacked games.

Can you please let me know which one is the most "recent" DS version of Colors!? I've found somewhere else the 1.1 version, but don't know if it is the most "recent" version.

Best regards.


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## ciaomao (Jun 11, 2020)

Is this just a conductive pen, connected to the audio GND? The pressure sensitivity can be achieved by the touch controller fw. Do we know more about the internals?


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## MetoMeto (Jun 11, 2020)

JuanMena said:


> If you own a Nintendo DS you can go to ScenebetaDS to download the "latest" stable released version of Colors!
> If you want to download it, just let me know and I'll share my Username and Password for the site, as only registered members are allowed to download.


But....the DS version of Colors! is free (i don't mean financially free, but account free) to download from here, without any account: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Colors!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I just hate this added peripherals like pen that are not part of the console like pen was on DS/3DS. It just adds extra weight nuisance and thing to carry around ON TOP of that, switch is not exactly a pocket console, no sir, its really big like a small laptop. It defeats the purpose of portable console. Yes you can transport it but not so conveniently like DS lite or GBA SP.

Anyway, pen doesn't help that. If i do want to do art id much rather buy iPad and a pen or a PC tablet like Wacom or something, or Cintique. Or just get a DS version of Colors with pressure sensitivity.


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## Purple_Shyguy (Jun 11, 2020)

Stumbled across my old DS homebrew 'Colors' drawings the other day. Had a crappy little doodle I did of my ex girlfriend at the time. My heart sunk. God damn, that was 12 years ago. Where does the time go.


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## Deleted User (Jun 11, 2020)

Dartz150 said:


> Yeah, those are better solutions for artists and producers, but this app, since its roots, was aimed for amateurs, casuals or just artists who want to spend their free time doodling or something, also, this has been way cheaper (except if you don't own a switch) in the platforms it has been released on.
> As stated, back in the day one of the marvels this had was the time-lapse feature, and many artists started their career with this.



do yourself a favor and buy a wacom pen [Latest version] for an iPad or just buy a tablet with wacom support, i am telling you that this game is worthless compared to the real thing

i am a Designer for 15 years and i can tell you that this piece of hardware is a joke and an insult to artists

its your choice


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## Alato (Jun 11, 2020)

xenocard said:


> do yourself a favor and buy a wacom pen [Latest version] for an iPad or just buy a tablet with wacom support, i am telling you that this game is worthless compared to the real thing
> 
> i am a Designer for 15 years and i can tell you that this piece of hardware is a joke and an insult to artists
> 
> its your choice


You're talking about spending hundreds of dollars for pens and tablets vs. spending $40 to use a cool app on a Nintendo Switch.

It's not a joke nor an insult to artists. It's a way of using a video game console in a unique (dare I say subversive?) way, which I'd even argue is more interesting and valuable to the artists who are looking to create things that haven't been done before.

It's totally cool to be purist about it, but then it's no different than if a classical oil painter told you that your Wacom tablet is useless and an 'insult' to 'real artists'.

//On-topic: This homebrew always blew my mind when it was on the DS. It was so well designed and really felt like official licensed software, so it's super cool to see that his work become a real product.


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## Deleted User (Jun 11, 2020)

Alato said:


> You're talking about spending hundreds of dollars for pens and tablets vs. spending $40 to use a cool app on a Nintendo Switch.
> 
> It's not a joke nor an insult to artists. It's a way of using a video game console in a unique (dare I say subversive?) way, which I'd even argue is more interesting and valuable to the artists who are looking to create things that haven't been done before.
> 
> ...




*you have a flat circle around the nip* of the pen that you have to use to draw, suit yourself enjoy it

wacom pens for ipads
https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Bamboo...keywords=wacom+pen+ipad&qid=1591890664&sr=8-7

wacom tablets start at 80$

Chinese knock offs at 40$
https://www.amazon.com/Inspiroy-H64...&keywords=wacom+tablet&qid=1591890751&sr=8-14

i forgot kids with no income brows these forums, sorry i tried to help you understand that the product for switch is trash


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 12, 2020)

CMDreamer said:


> Thank you so much for kindly offering your credentials of ScenebetaDS site! And yes, actually I've got a NDSi XL, where I like to play some hacked games.
> 
> Can you please let me know which one is the most "recent" DS version of Colors!? I've found somewhere else the 1.1 version, but don't know if it is the most "recent" version.
> 
> Best regards.


1.1b BETA 2 according to this site

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



MetoMeto said:


> But....the DS version of Colors! is free (i don't mean financially free, but account free) to download from here, without any account: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Colors!
> 
> --------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
> 
> ...


Yes, well sure is somewhere else besides the site I mentioned.
Is just that my first experience with NDS Flashcards and NDS Homebrew was with that site, and I met Colors! thanks to that site, so it still holds a special place in my mind, and that's why I keep using the site, as I've made my account about 10 years ago, and all the homebrew apps are in their servers. They're safe and always available.
*Still, if anybody would like to use my password and username, feel free to message me.*


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 12, 2020)

Colors! is not trash. It depends on how you use it and how you view the app.
I mean... while, yes technically a Wacom tablet is better, Wacom tablets doesn't guarantee that your software (Photoshop, Corel Painter, and a long list of etcetera) will be lag-free.
Whilst Colors! is aimed and designed with hardware limitations in mind, so the experience is way more natural than trying to run heavy software on crappy hardware.

I mean... I agree, that you can't do something really super profesional with Colors! because it lacks things such as higher resolutions and whatnot.



Spoiler



Just a side note: My first ever work done as an object and character designer for mobile games was entirely made with the DS version of Colors!.
Another side note: My first ever invitation to expose my paintings in galleries around the world were paintings made with the 3DS version of Colors!



Colors! is not completely trash. It's good for aspiring digital artists and it literally teaches you the basics of digital painting. Besides, if you're a drawing junkie such as myself, I very much rather to go with my portable console and a copy of colors than carrying around my bag with sketchbooks and pencils & pens & colored pencils.


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## CMDreamer (Jun 12, 2020)

JuanMena said:


> 1.1b BETA 2 according to this site
> [...]
> *Still, if anybody would like to use my password and username, feel free to message me.*



Thank you!!!

(Off Topic):
And BTW, just now noticed your avatar image and I went wow! I'm also a huge fan of Phoebe Cates! Long ago I had a girlfriend that looked just like her, really good memories...
Best regards... 

Colors! is just a tool, and the most professional or expensive ones, won't make you draw better out of nowhere.
Colors! is aimed at simplicity and made available at anyone who has a DS/3DS/(and soon a Switch) who wants to enjoy painting on what they have at hand.

Yes there are "better" tools but we all already knew it.


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## JuanBaNaNa (Jun 12, 2020)

CMDreamer said:


> Thank you!!!
> 
> (Off Topic):
> And BTW, just now noticed your avatar image and I went wow! I'm also a huge fan of Phoebe Cates! Long ago I had a girlfriend that looked just like her, really good memories...
> ...



You're welcome. Still if you really want to use my "credentials" ask for them.
And to be honest, I too had a friend that resembles her. So I kinda like Phoebe for that reason too!


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