Yeah, its really odd. Either Rinco returned to the video game business after 10 years to publish some weird multicart, or ABABsoft just stole it. but I have no idea why they'd do that. hmm.
& heres something interesting:
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=4329.0 (http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=4329.0)
i didn't make the connection until now, but this 15 in 1 cart is probably by ABABsoft too. & it has lots more links to hummer/someri.
games are:
1. Street Fighter IV
2. The Hummer(!) - Somari hack (probably - its described as a Sonic hack)
3 & 9-15. "single screen game like Bubble Bobble; you're a Felix-like cat and you have to get from one side of the screen to the other without dying, then advance to the next level, which adds enemies and obstacles." - sounds very much like Panda Adventure
4. War - presumably the same game as the one on ABAB's multi. uses Earthworm Jim 3 graphics.
5-6. Jack & Rose - Titanic themed Harrys Legend hacks. Probably "Titenic".
7-8. The Duck & The Egg - Duck Hunt clones, they lay eggs in the latter
some screens here:
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544 (http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544)
one thing i noticed is that none of these ABAB carts include JY-published Hummer games, or anything significant derived from them (except that sand from Aladdin) - its all either early Someri Team stuff or the later related games released by NT etc. which does seem to lend weight to that whole theory that Hummer Team split at some point.[/quote]In other words, some of them started making games for Taiwan Shin-Shin and NT (and are probably the original Someri Team) and the rest made games for JY?
Anyway, it's a bit weird that the Somari hack is called "The Hummer," obviously a reference to Hummer Team in the same way that Family Kid is named after Family TSI Ltd. Also, the logo on the title screen kind of reminds me of Street Fighter IV, which is also on there. Presumably the staff who worked at Abab Soft were originally Gouder Co., Someri Team and possibly Yoko Soft.
BTW, the drawing of "the Hummer" suggests he might be based off Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course, it'd help to see a gameplay screenshot to see if anything else was changed.
I don't fully understand that. If Jack Yeh went off to Cony Soft then why are their games so much worse than SFII/MFII?
It's more likely the team he had was less good than Someri Team.
I'm pretty sure Jack YEH was involved in SFII and may have programmed SFIII too. Because SFII characters are in the SFIII ROM. It is similar to World Hero and World Heroes 2 was programmed by CONY...
Little offtopic. The title theme of Sachen's World of Card Game is exactly the same song as in Panda Adventure ('level' one). No idea what song that originally was?
- Quote:
-
2. The Hummer(!) - Somari hack (probably - its described as a Sonic hack)[/quote]
If they didn't invented a new engine, then they probably did use Somari for that. The GFX are from Somari (final boss) as well (except for the Hummer himself).
I think it would be a hack of Somari. It's doubtful that they'd rewrite the engine, and it'd make sense for the character to be red seeing as in the Sonic hacks, some things that should have been red were recoloured blue in those because of the changed colour palette.
just noticed something in MK4 - I dunno if anyone remembers all the weird names that were found in the ROM a while back (thread here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_RX_Community?topic=1553447/1/) (http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_RX_Community?topic=1553447/1/)).
they didn't make much sense back then, but now.. well the first two do, at least.jack and rose! the same text is in harry's legend too, just slightly modified:
.ROSE..JACK..BOSS..ANY..BOATER..BIG.HEAD..RAINBOW..BOMB.MAN..PACO.HEAD.
.FAT.MAN..KILLER..COOKIER..MARY..SOU.JIN..AN.MEI..JU.KOU..JONU.UOU.
.CHUN.ARYUO..RYU.FU..CHEN..........................ZHAO.XIONG.....HU..XU..MA.
.FEI.FEI..RYU..LEE..AN..ZHANG..YANG..TIGER..SHUE..GEE..GENG..LIN..HUANG..XU.
.GAN..HUANG..CHUN..HUAN..ZU..SI..HO..WANG..THUN..ANN..SOU.SOU..IRON..MU.
.ZI..XING..HE..WANG..ZHU..YAN..SOU.SOU..RI.TEN.....FISH..LOBSTER..MEAT.BUN.
.PORK..BBQ..DUCK..MEAT.BUN..CHICKEN..GOLD..BOOK..GOLD..SCROLL..TREASURE.
.GONG................................................................................................................
.AXE..UNI..DAI..HAMMER..AIKOK..SWORD..SAI....
so i guess this proves Titenic came before Harry's Legend.. and it was in development at the same time as MK4.
Oh wow, that is strange. Maybe there is an NT version of Titenic going around? (Or just Hummer Team left and moved onto Abab Soft and continued from there)
yeah, there probably is an NT version, or something like that.
I wouldnt go so far as to say Hummer Team was working with ABAB Soft though.. everything discovered on one of their carts so far is either something already released on a single cart, or a hack, or something fairly amateurish (by hummer/etc standards) like Panda Adventure. My guess would be that maybe one member of staff joined ABAB (taking the sound engine and whatever games they had access to), and it was someone from whichever offshoot developed all those games for NT.
edit: though I think that 15 in 1 will probably hold a few answers. they seem to show up quite often on ruten. if only I had some damn money.
I'm trying to get one right now, I've a Taiwanese friend wich is going to make an account soon (when he will be back to Taiwan). So I may get it in the next 3 months.
I can't guarantee it will still be there but we just have to wish :)
I'll also buy a copynes to dump it myself. And I'm pretty sure the board will give us information of when it was produced and who made it.
- Quote:
-
some things that should have been red were recoloured blue in those because of the changed colour palette.[/quote]
Offtopic... They COULD rehack the enemies so they would use Sonic's shoes's palette... couldn't they, theoretically?
- Crash Nicker
- Aug 9 2010, 08:09:48 AM
- Quote:
-
some things that should have been red were recoloured blue in those because of the changed colour palette.[/quote]
Offtopic... They COULD rehack the enemies so they would use Sonic's shoes's palette... couldn't they, theoretically?[/quote]Probably, but I'd say it's more likely that they made the character red to rectify the colouring issues in the Sonic hacks. BTW, if Titenic came first than shouldn't we change the Harry's Legend page on BootlegGames Wiki to that? Also, if that text was in the MK4 rom then that'd mean it also came after Titenic.
I also wonder if Titanic had cutscenes... Harry's Legend had ones (nicely done IMO), but if Titanic has them... would they be in Chinese?
We aren't sure that Titenic came first, even if there are stuff about it in MK4. It was probably planned at that time but the project wasn't started at all and Harry's Legend was probably starting too. Or maybe the reverse.
Only the dump will give us enough informations...
I'm looking at Barver's post on RX and...that cart in the bottom-right looks JUST like the one in that auction.
(http://a.imageshack.us/img825/2317/downsized0809001928.jpg)
I'm hoping that it is. XP
I was wondering that, it's too small and blurry to tell, but looking back at the auction they do look like the same multicart.
Is it possible to get few picture of your multi Cheetahmen ?
I haven't got a multicart, I was talking about the one on Ruten.
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544 (http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544)
"I recently found a 4-in-1 multicart which when booted up brings up a screen with a logo and a website for Abab Soft. Using the Wayback Machine, I found that they seemed to have been active from 2003 to 2005, here's a link to what their website was like."
- MLX
- Aug 14 2010, 07:20:04 AM
"I recently found a 4-in-1 multicart which when booted up brings up a screen with a logo and a website for Abab Soft. Using the Wayback Machine, I found that they seemed to have been active from 2003 to 2005, here's a link to what their website was like."[/quote]Oh, I meant I found a rom of it, and screenshots of it can be found on the website. I have a link to it here. http://www.planetemu.net/index.php?section=roms&dat=715&action=showrom&id=980304 (http://www.planetemu.net/index.php?section=roms&dat=715&action=showrom&id=980304) Strangely, when translated from Chinese (you have to change the website into Chinese mode to get text) the multicart claims that the games on the cart are based off TV shows. Mind you, I've never heard of Panda Adventure and Snow Bros. cartoons myself. :P
- Cheetahmen
- Aug 14 2010, 08:30:19 AM
Oh, I meant I found a rom of it, and screenshots of it can be found on the website. I have a link to it here. http://www.planetemu.net/index.php?section=roms&dat=715&action=showrom&id=980304 (http://www.planetemu.net/index.php?section=roms&dat=715&action=showrom&id=980304) Strangely, when translated from Chinese (you have to change the website into Chinese mode to get text) the multicart claims that the games on the cart are based off TV shows. Mind you, I've never heard of Panda Adventure and Snow Bros. cartoons myself. :P[/quote]They also have a sci-fi 4-in-1 with Space Shuttle Exploration, The Avengers, Samurai Pizza Cats, and Chip & Dale 3 (which, judging from the title graphic, appears to be the one that's a graphics hack of Heavy Barrel-- and even then, still isn't very sci-fi).
- codeman38
- Aug 16 2010, 07:21:00 PM
They also have a sci-fi 4-in-1 with Space Shuttle Exploration, The Avengers, Samurai Pizza Cats, and Chip & Dale 3 (which, judging from the title graphic, appears to be the one that's a graphics hack of Heavy Barrel-- and even then, still isn't very sci-fi).[/quote]Speaking of inaccuracies, if you go onto the archive of their website and change it into Chinese and use Google Translate, you'll find that apparently the 4-in-1 with that "War" game on it is apparently about games based off 9/11 which makes absolutely no sense seeing as the licensed games were made before that and last time I checked, the WTC wasn't in New Junk City. :lol: Anyway, that Heavy Barrel hack was originally released in 1995, I believe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcAtSdl8YcA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcAtSdl8YcA)
Another random thing I just noticed: Turn the ABAB logo upside down. Does the color scheme look vaguely familiar? If not, find a picture of the Super Famicom or PAL SNES controller and compare.
Heck, it even sort of looks inspired by the Super Famicom logo...
- codeman38
- Aug 17 2010, 12:45:58 AM
Another random thing I just noticed: Turn the ABAB logo upside down. Does the color scheme look vaguely familiar? If not, find a picture of the Super Famicom or PAL SNES controller and compare.
Heck, it even sort of looks inspired by the Super Famicom logo...[/quote]Not really sure what significance that has. I somehow doubt they were around before 1990.
- Cheetahmen
- Aug 17 2010, 06:37:28 AM
Not really sure what significance that has. I somehow doubt they were around before 1990.[/quote]It's not significant or anything; I just thought it was funny that they were sort of aping the SNES logo.
I wonder if they named themselves after a Famiclone controller that had the buttons laid out like that?
- codeman38
- Aug 17 2010, 10:46:24 AM
- Cheetahmen
- Aug 17 2010, 06:37:28 AM
Not really sure what significance that has. I somehow doubt they were around before 1990.[/quote]It's not significant or anything; I just thought it was funny that they were sort of aping the SNES logo.
I wonder if they named themselves after a Famiclone controller that had the buttons laid out like that?[/quote]Well if they did, it'd be a pretty odd thing to name your company after. Anyway, one thing I find odd is that (to my knowledge) Hummer Team didn't really make multicarts except for DKC4/JB2 which are the same game pretty much so did Abab publish their own games or something?
Wasn't Popeye II - Travels In Persia another as well?
Popeye II cartridge is only Popeye II, you can reset many times it will still be Popeye II. On the board there are dip switches. Those switches aren't dumped so it's why all emulator starts the game on dip1 (FCEUX has extra code to make the game load on it's original dip).
Same for DKC4. Also we aren't sure that ABAB Soft is Hummer Team. It's more likely H.T. was working with ABAB Soft. I don't think they were able to run their own company alone.
ABAB probably just hired one ex-Hummer Team member to make some original games for their multis. maybe they had an ex-Sachen person too, what with the World of Card Game music and that Rinco logo from The Dragon and all.
Don't forget that there's Arabic text from The Dragon in The Panda Prince (http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=7938989/1/#new). Stuff from that game just keeps showing up in random places!
Yeah, theres a Rinco logo in Panda Prince too. it makes way more sense in Panda Prince though, that seems to be by the same developers.
I wonder if ABABSoft have more than two tracks original. One sounds like a fishing programme's music and the other one is way too Somerish.
- SpaceNinja
- Aug 22 2010, 02:46:55 AM
I wonder if ABABSoft have more than two tracks original. One sounds like a fishing programme's music and the other one is way too Somerish.[/quote]And one of them is based off the World of Card Game menu. Either that or both songs were based off some obscure Chinese song or something.
In fact, one one proof that Harry's Legend IS based off Titenic. Or vice versa, if the coop mechanism turns out to be better than in HL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP9tSfdARgU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP9tSfdARgU)
gryzorr:
Funny thing is, when you press second cotroller's A button twice, second player appears and game starts to behave insane :D What's more, press A and then using left/right you can switch through characters to choose... not all can be controlled though.
Anyone tested this? I tested. And LOOKIES! :JY:
(http://a.imageshack.us/img843/1107/harrislegendenglishunl0.png)
(yes, I have a bad ROM, blame me)
Both Harries are controlled simultaneously from one gamepad, no matter if it will be the first or second player's. Haven't figured out where to use the debug feature though...
Well, as I said above, if Titenic's coop code is better than Harry Legend's, than it may be possible that HL came out first. What bugs me, however, is that the chicken enemy and the illuminator BG sprites used in Titenic are present in Harry's Legend too, just buried. So... DAMMIT WHO CAME FIRST?!
Update. So it seems like I can do little in the debug mode...
Here what I've discovered:
THE DEBUG MODE.
Press the A button on the second gamepad to enable the debug mode.
Use LEFT/RIGHT on the second gamepad to swap between characters you can summon:
- Your clone (controlled simultaneously with the first Harry, but both may be fully controlled by player two);
- Voldemort (may get stuck in the ceiling, so...);
- The professor-like enemy, possibly used in Titenic;
- The country guy in a hood (instead he's yellow now, not pink).
And last but not least. Use UP/DOWN buttons on the same pad to control the water height.
WARNING: After you enable the debug, you won't be able to scroll further!
That should give some extra clues.
What I also found out is that (at least) summonable enemies may sometimes kick others' asses and even grab 1UPs!... But that's off the topic.
Another update, because I have nuffin' to do.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20050205184448%2Fababsoft.com%2Findex1.html&sl=zh-CN&tl=en (http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20050205184448%2Fababsoft.com%2Findex1.html&sl=zh-CN&tl=en)
Will Lord of the Rings be a fighting game? :faint:
- Crash Nicker
- Aug 24 2010, 05:05:43 AM
Well, as I said above, if Titenic's coop code is better than Harry Legend's, than it may be possible that HL came out first. What bugs me, however, is that the chicken enemy and the illuminator BG sprites used in Titenic are present in Harry's Legend too, just buried. So... DAMMIT WHO CAME FIRST?!
[/quote]...if they didn't appear in Harry's Legend but they appear in Titenic, there's probably a good chance Titenic came first. I don't think Harry's Legend was ever meant to have a cop-op mode to begin with.
I've always thought that the backgrounds in Harry's Legend looked more like something from the early 20th century than something set in the 1990s. Though maybe I'm just projecting now that I know there's a Titanic game with the same backgrounds... :)
Edit: Oh, wow. Something I never realized in Harry's Legend until now: if you press B+A in stage 2 and up, you can throw a broom. And it uses up some of your life meter in doing so. O_o
I've noticed that before which is odd...I wonder what it is in Titenic.
A few other random observations on Harry's Legend:
* In the sprites, the digits '01493' are separate from the digits '25678'. I wonder if this is an indication that this was hacked from a Somari Team game from 1993 or 1994? Or maybe it's just a coincidence. It just doesn't make sense why the numbers would be separated like that, though.
* There's a pair of sprites in there whose sole purpose appears to be replacing the "P" in "Potter" in the HUD with a "B". Yeah, like that will make the game totally non-infringing. :P (I've also seen a version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te9wzp2iFaU) out there, not yet dumped, in which the HUD reads "Harry Legend".)
* The letters to spell out "Jack" and "Rose" in the gradient font are not there, for whatever that's worth.
- Quote:
-
Edit: Oh, wow. Something I never realized in Harry's Legend until now: if you press B+A in stage 2 and up, you can throw a broom. And it uses up some of your life meter in doing so.[/quote]
That's what I found out before :P
Bumping because of this:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:CAT-5E-Wall_Outlet.jpg (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:CAT-5E-Wall_Outlet.jpg)
It matches color and name !
I know I haven't read all the posts here, but I wonder what other pieces of crap games ABAB Soft have developed.
- BrydoRX
- Mar 9 2011, 08:25:06 AM
I know I haven't read all the posts here, but I wonder what other
pieces of crap games ABAB Soft have developed.[/quote]If I remember correctly, ABAB Soft actually published the games at some time or another. The games themselves were made by ex-Hummer Team employees (although the programmer is probably new, given the poor quality of the games when compared with Hummer's work), I'll try listing them here.
Mortal Kombat 4
Panda Adventure
Space Shuttle Exploration
Rings (apparently based off Lord of the Rings)
Titenic (sic)
Harry's Legend (a hack of Titenic)
A DDR clone I forget the name of
The Hummer (yet another Somari hack)
The Legend (Street Fighter IV hack)
The Duck/The Egg
War
Not entirely sure if MK4 was before Hummer stopped producing games, but it's pretty poor when compared with their previous fighters.
I know that ABAB Soft is formed by ex-Hummer Team members, but I didn't know they were behind Harry's Legend. However, War and Space Shuttle Exploration are the two games that interest me and I hope one day they get dumped.
Brydo, ABAB Soft isn't a developer but a publisher. They only published the games and sold them. They weren't formed by EX-Hummer members. (EX-Hummer themselves are the developer. It's not the name of the team but we call them that due to the fact it's only a few Hummer members in a group)
And Cheetah, Mortal Kombat 4 had a bunch of clones before. (Ture MK3 most likely being the first one, developed after Tekken 2 (most likely) and before Street Fighter Zero 2 97) Also Titenic is a much higher quality then some of the other games (then again, they were developed after I think KOF96 was made)
After some investigation of the ABABsoft website, As well as some famiclones made by DreamGear, I think I might see a connection.
-Space Shuttle Exploration was released on the Arcade Gamestation 101-in-1 as Space Destroyer Exploration.
-Dragon Running from the Hot Dance 3-in-1 was released on the ill-fated Arcade Gamestation 60-in-1
-War of Strike Mouse was released on several DreamGear consoles under different names and (sometimes) changed graphics
-Panda Adventure was released on the Arcade Gamestation 60-in-1 as well as the Plug-n-Play 86-in-1
-A game that I think is a hack of chase h.q., Police Vs. Thief Violent Chasing, was released on several dreamgear consloes.
Also, the DreamGear famiclones have an intro screen with a website before the menu, just like the ABAB multicarts.
Scary, Ain't it?
- Linkrulezall
- Mar 31 2011, 10:40:18 PM
-A game that I think is a hack of chase h.q., Police Vs. Thief Violent Chasing, was released on several dreamgear consloes.[/quote]Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just a game where you drive around in a Pac-Man style maze in an attempt to drive into criminals. It's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. I'm guessing ABAB and DreamGEAR licensed the games from whoever programmed them and made their own menu screens for them. ABAB never licensed any Nice Code games as far as I'm aware and aside from the intro, the menus are completely different.
- Cheetahmen
- Apr 1 2011, 04:34:02 AM
- Linkrulezall
- Mar 31 2011, 10:40:18 PM
-A game that I think is a hack of chase h.q., Police Vs. Thief Violent Chasing, was released on several dreamgear consloes.[/quote]Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just a game where you drive around in a Pac-Man style maze in an attempt to drive into criminals. It's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. I'm guessing ABAB and DreamGEAR licensed the games from whoever programmed them and made their own menu screens for them. ABAB never licensed any Nice Code games as far as I'm aware and aside from the intro, the menus are completely different.[/quote]Yes, I own these consoles, so I know what police vs. thief is. However, I've never played chase hq.
- Linkrulezall
- Apr 1 2011, 10:44:45 AM
- Cheetahmen
- Apr 1 2011, 04:34:02 AM
- Linkrulezall
- Mar 31 2011, 10:40:18 PM
-A game that I think is a hack of chase h.q., Police Vs. Thief Violent Chasing, was released on several dreamgear consloes.[/quote]Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just a game where you drive around in a Pac-Man style maze in an attempt to drive into criminals. It's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. I'm guessing ABAB and DreamGEAR licensed the games from whoever programmed them and made their own menu screens for them. ABAB never licensed any Nice Code games as far as I'm aware and aside from the intro, the menus are completely different.[/quote]Yes, I own these consoles, so I know what police vs. thief is. However, I've never played chase hq.[/quote]Well, let's just say that it has absolutely nothing to do with Police Vs Thief, nor are the gameplay mechanics alike. Chase H.Q. uses a third-person perspective, a lot like Rad Racer on the NES.
Bumping this: I had fun recording a video of my PowerJoy 60in1 multicart which included the Hummer Tech games. The sound was cut in little parts for some odd reason. PAL system:
http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/835/p6j.mp4/ (http://imageshack.us/clip/my-videos/835/p6j.mp4/)
The menu seems to have the same music as the Dream Gear 75-in-1.
Odd that the background on the title screen of Panda Adventure is a different colour to the Super Cool Boy 4-in-1 version, and pointless I might add.
Caused by PAL colors.
The colours may look different in PAL mode, but I can assure you that the palette itself was changed from the original. The blue on the pandas' faces doesn't match the colour of the background, which looks more green in this version.
Well I always had odd result when playing on PAL console, for exemple: the blue used as a background on JY sun was white. It's a mess with green/blue/white colors.
Yeah, but if it was an error with the hardware then shouldn't the panda faces be green instead of blue as well?
Well I'd need a VT02 NTSC system but I'm too poor to buy anything right now.
I love how both "bonus" and "score" are misspelled on the score screen for War Of Strike Mouse. Quality control, who needs it?