Yeah, they do seem related.. but whats odd to me is that *all* the games on those two consoles don't appear on anything else by Jungletac - from their earlier standalone handhelds like the Caplet, through the OneStation and Vii VC cartridges right up to the Zone 60's mini-games theyve been using basically the same set of 16-bit games. The Family Sport hardware still looks 16-bit to me, but maybe its a different architecture than their usual stuff, and they just rushed out a bunch of games for it (maybe at the request of some other company)?[/quote]Yeah, that's what threw me off at first as well... none of the names show up anywhere else.
However, I did wonder about something: perhaps they're renames of existing JungleTac games. For instance, "Dog" on the Family Sport is exactly the same gameplay concept as "Right Spot" on the Cyber Arcade Center (six spots, you can move pieces either across or to a neighboring square, and the object is to get the pieces in the right spots). Though I'm sure that game concept was a pre-existing idea anyway, so that probably doesn't mean much at all...
And of course, the game info sheet for the GCm (http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/images/game_menu_ARCTIC_GCM.pdf) on Arctic's site gives
no information whatsoever about the actual gameplay.
Looking at the GCm manual further... "Super Porter" sounds very much like "Dangerous Zone" on the Cyber Arcade Center. 'Course, I could be completely wrong; I wish I could actually see some gameplay videos...
Guess who makes a console with the same list of games? And 41 of them, to be exact? Macro Winners, that's who! (http://www.macrowin.com/en/productview.asp?id=29)
Ooh. Searching for "Benthal Jewel", I found this PDF (http://overmania.pl/ptom/80gier.pdf) with screenshots of an 80-in-1 console marketed by Overmania in Poland, probably the same as the GCm.
"Super Porter" is indeed Dangerous Zone. "Benthal Jewel" is, of course, Magic Jewelry/Jewel Master. "100 Floor" looks like Challenge 100. And "Balloon Boy" is...obvious.
Yet some of these other games seem like 16-bit versions of Trump Grand's stuff. And few others are obvious knockoffs of real games, but none that I've seen from Trump Grand or JungleTac.
Curiouser and curiouser...
- codeman38
- Dec 15 2010, 02:49:48 AM
"Super Porter" is indeed Dangerous Zone. "Benthal Jewel" is, of course, Magic Jewelry/Jewel Master. "100 Floor" looks like Challenge 100. And "Balloon Boy" is...obvious.[/quote]Not sure if this has any importance or not, but on the 101-in-1 Arcade Action II there was a hack of Sachen's horrible Tetris ripoff (or Pyramid, if you prefer) called Benthal World, and given what benthal actually means it kind of makes sense for that and Benthal Jewel to be set underwater.
Also worth pointing out that Up Stairs (as opposed to Dountstairs :P ) is a ripoff of another game on the Cyber Arcade Centre, but I forget what that game's called. If I remember correctly, Brick Blaster has graphics stolen from some downloadable Arkanoid derivative I played years back, but I can't remember what I was called. Jumping Mary looks like a Q-Bert ripoff, Start Restaurant is definitely a ripoff of Root Beer Tapper, Gold Miner appears to be that coin catching game off the Zone 60 with different graphics, Seize Jewelry looks like a Donkey Kong ripoff, Super Brick sort of looks like Puzznic, Highway Racing looks like an upgraded version off the Zone 40 game and Track Racing looks like a Micro Machines ripoff somewhat similar to Go Karts on the Zone 60. Also, if you move the mouse over one of the pictures, it usually brings up some Chinese text and/or the number 1. However, doing this with Doudou comes up with "PACMAN" so I think we can assume what that's a copy of.
BTW, I like how they spelled Insurance wrong in Blackjack. :P
well as I mentioned in this thread (http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8257699/1/#new) Shenzhen Nanjing's website lists 16-bit sports games that I had, at that point, never seen anywhere.. but I just happened to wander into some shitty discount store in Manchester today, and propped up against a stack of Zone 40's there were a few "Wow Wireless Gaming" consoles (for £18) with some of those exact Nanjing games.. I'm not sure if Nanjing themselves developed them or if theyre just Nice Code stuff, but Nanjing's logo is in the Ping Pong game and their name is in the Football (at least in the screenshots on their website), so they may well have had some kind of deeper involvement..
And here's the official promo video (http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/30695641) for the Wow Wireless Gaming console. Is that a James Brown sample at 1:06?!
Edit: The only other hits I can find are auctions on eBay and the like. That, and a bunch of ads for World of Warcraft-themed wireless headsets...
Edit #2: Somehow I didn't notice this on my first time watching the video, but the console is clearly labelled "Vii" when it's shown at 0:15. :lol:
- codeman38
- Dec 24 2010, 02:26:06 AM
And here's the official promo video (http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/30695641) for the Wow Wireless Gaming console. Is that a James Brown sample at 1:06?![/quote]Looking at that video, the announcer and family are clearly British, and as far as I'm aware (given that I'm not willing to travel to discount stores in other countries :P ) it wasn't released anywhere else, unless it was under a different name. As for that sound sample, I'd say it's more likely to be two sound effects playing at the same time, unless you've been listening to too much James Brown. (wait, is that even possible? XD)
well curiosity got the better of me. and I actually own the damn thing now. It does actually say "Wow Wireless Gaming" on it, the Vii one must have been pre-production I guess. but you can see the PCB through the flap where the cartridge port would be if this was actually equipped with one, which it isnt (its glued shut, but not very well) and it does still say "XA-VII-B 2008.6.25" on it
anyway the controls are mostly pretty bad, and there are tons of stolen graphics. makes the iSports look almost professional. theres no sign of Nanjing's logo in the table tennis either, unlike the version on their website - if i had to hazard a guess I'd say Nice Code had something to do with it, one of the non-sport games seems to be pretty similar to Burbles on the DreamGear only with Metal Slug graphics.
- taizou
- Dec 24 2010, 09:38:12 AM
well curiosity got the better of me. and I actually own the damn thing now. It does actually say "Wow Wireless Gaming" on it, the Vii one must have been pre-production I guess. but you can see the PCB through the flap where the cartridge port would be if this was actually equipped with one, which it isnt (its glued shut, but not very well) and it does still say "XA-VII-B 2008.6.25" on it.[/quote]In other words, whoever made the Wow Wireless Gaming took a Vii case and modded it? Also, I think you could mod that thing to play cartridges, although I really don't see the point in that.
well I suspect its probably made in the same factory as the (8-bit) Vii, just with different built-in stuff. it does look like it could be modded to add a cart slot (and a 9-pin joypad port for that matter), but yeah, I have no particular reason to, and I also don't own a soldering iron so I couldn't anyway :D
- taizou
- Dec 24 2010, 09:38:12 AM
anyway the controls are mostly pretty bad, and there are tons of stolen graphics. makes the iSports look almost professional. theres no sign of Nanjing's logo in the table tennis either, unlike the version on their website - if i had to hazard a guess I'd say Nice Code had something to do with it, one of the non-sport games seems to be pretty similar to Burbles on the DreamGear only with Metal Slug graphics.[/quote]Wow, I'd love to see a video recording of more of the games just because it sounds like such a train wreck. :)
yeah, I probably will record some - it seems to be a bit more responsive now at least, maybe the "motion" "controls" have loosened up a bit or something. the games are kind of a mixed bag really - if they are by Nice Code theyre mostly better than their usual 8-bit stuff gameplay-wise. though theres inevitably not much depth to any of them. Kind of Jungletac level, only with more stolen stuff.
well i just tried something on a whim that totally worked - seems like the Wow controllers are compatible with the iSports *and* my Excalibur 101 in 1, even though theyre all ostensibly by different companies (Power King/Xinan, Subor & Trump Grand respectively). i guess theyre all based on a standard design probably introduced by some old wireless famiclone years ago, and no manufacturer can be arsed moving to something more complex (hence all the "motion" controlled ones just mapping a shake to the A button instead of having a separate input for it, I suppose.. even the latest 32 bit wii clones still only have the same old A/B/Select/Start buttons)
I'm sorry, but a question I got to ask:
1) The Wii ripoffs like the iSport and the Interactive TV Game, which have Commander and such, are these 16 bit games supposed to be SNES-based, Genesis-based or are they not based on any official system?
as far as i'm aware they aren't clones of anything, they use generic system-on-chip type things... possibly VRT's VT168 or something by Sunplus.
I'm pretty sure that the Zone Mini is Subor/Waixing's doing as well. Just saw one in a store today, and the packaging said it was made in Zhongshan. And all the videos I can find of it seem to confirm this-- it's the same 32-bit Waixing-copyrighted games as always, including a few that are probably by Cube Tech.
And although it's not a Wii knockoff, it's too good not to mention: the Zone Fusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFSjW2guCaQ&feature=related), which is another of those mysterious vertically-oriented Jungletac handhelds.
Another one I saw recently: the Xtreme Fit mat (http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/xtreme-fit-interactive-gaming-system.aspx?a=590506&pn=1), which is basically an all-in-one DDR-mat-style console. It, too, appears to have Waixing connections-- "Hitting Mice" and "Highway Racing" are two of the included games. It also has some yoga exercises, which I think are the same ones on Cube Tech's listing. No, they're not-- those are for a system with an actual balance scale, while this is just a pressure-sensitive mat. But yeah, it's almost certainly made by Waixing, anyway.
Edit: Yoga Sports & Exercise Mat (http://suborchina.en.alibaba.com/product/288156106-50105565/Yoga_sports_and_exercise_mat.html) from Subor. Yep, that's exactly the same thing.
Hm, weird. The Xtreme Fit is actually sold by a hitherto unheard-of Shenzhen company called Joylink, if this Alibaba listing (http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/345303472/Xtreme_Fit_yoga_mat.html) is to be believed. That's exactly the same box I saw in the store the other day.
Probably just a rebranding/licensing of Subor's version, though, since everything else totally points to Waixing.
yeah that Xtreme Fit is the same thing as the Zone Family Fit afaik. Subor's version is called ifit Sports, the packaging is very similar (only in Chinese): http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/02/06/chinese_wii_fit/ (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/02/06/chinese_wii_fit/)
& I found this the other day - its another version of the Zone Fusion I think, with a game list + screenshots:
http://cybertoy.ru/joom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=2 (http://cybertoy.ru/joom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=2)
(although cybertoy's website is just about the slowest thing ever at the moment)
- taizou
- Jan 1 2011, 12:57:12 PM
yeah that Xtreme Fit is the same thing as the Zone Family Fit afaik. Subor's version is called ifit Sports, the packaging is very similar (only in Chinese): http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/02/06/chinese_wii_fit/ (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/02/06/chinese_wii_fit/)[/quote]Heh, I knew I'd seen video of a Chinese-language Subor version before somewhere. It was indeed in Nikkei's video-- they'd also done some videos on Subor's
iSports "V" console.
- taizou
-
& I found this the other day - its another version of the Zone Fusion I think, with a game list + screenshots:
http://cybertoy.ru/joom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=2 (http://cybertoy.ru/joom/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=2)
(although cybertoy's website is just about the slowest thing ever at the moment)[/quote]"Abey's Dream"? Yep, totally the stuff that NiceCode made for JungleTac. (And those are the best screenshots I've seen of those so far!)
Something else interesting I just noticed, though: The GC12 PocketGame (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/tom-tec-16-bit-Handheld-Portable-gaming-System-rare-/360235132173#ht_5992wt_1139) (discussed in the NiceCode thread) uses what sounds like 16-bit music. The Zone Fusion, on the other hand, uses the NES sound chip, with typical JungleTac-sounding music. Same games, same developer,
same chassis... same processor, even, as far as I know. Weird.
Edit: Nope, not the same chassis. The PocketGame is the same chassis as the Classic Pocket, but the Zone Fusion is rounder. Either way, the Fusion is definitely not your standard Famiclone games, though.
I think I'll start a new thread for this Jungletac business - I found some more stuff, don't wanna take this thread off on too much of a tangent :D
done ~ http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8284794/ (http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8284794/)
btw, back on the subject of Wii clones, heres an odd one:
http://www.dooyoo.de/konsolen/millennium-super-arcade/1393501/ (http://www.dooyoo.de/konsolen/millennium-super-arcade/1393501/)
the "Millennium Super Arcade", probably by AtGames since its compatible with Mega Drive games (and I definitely recognise "Mr. Balls" as being an AtGames original, ahem) . has 20 16 bit and 90 8 bit games built in - the review only lists the first few 8-bit games but they include Space Shuttle and Panda Adventure, by ABABsoft.
edit: although its probably worth pointing out that AtGames have *another* motion controlled console (the vaguely Sonic shaped one) which they sometimes claim has 110 games built in.. but it doesn't really. in true pirate tradition they've listed separate levels from the Sega games as separate games.
- taizou
- Jan 1 2011, 03:23:02 PM
only lists the first few 8-bit games but they include Space Shuttle and Panda Adventure, by ABABsoft.[/quote]Holy crap, the ex-Hummer games seem to get around a lot. (And so does pandas)
- KingPepe
- Jan 1 2011, 09:22:39 PM
Holy crap, the ex-Hummer games seem to get around a lot. (And so does pandas)[/quote]I know! makes me wonder if some ex-hummer person is still out there licensing these things to other companies.. or maybe they just sold them to someone else after they left the games industry. Everyone loves a panda anyway.
& heres another weird one, from the German distributor of some Jungletac consoles among other stuff: http://www.pearl.de/a-NC1459-5953.shtml;jsessionid=jlo42Cb9umbtE8ZuCrd1s (http://www.pearl.de/a-NC1459-5953.shtml;jsessionid=jlo42Cb9umbtE8ZuCrd1s)
its not exactly a traditional wii clone but the description mentions motion sensitive controllers so it can go in here. i don't think i've seen any of those games before (although "Puzzloop" and "Puzzle Bobble" are in there - they arent even *trying* to disguise this shit). theres a video on that page, a couple of the games actually look 3D, so I guess its a newer one. Pretty cheap though - i'd buy it if shipping to the UK wasn't something like 30 Euros.
something I just noticed in the iSports (while I was trying to identify some of the stolen music, without much success. I suspect - unlike Cube's games - a lot of the iSports stuff is just ripped from other games, which probably wouldnt be in SoundHound's database)
(http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/hwr1.jpg) + (http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/osr1.jpg) = (http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/ral1.jpg)
the first two being from the iSports, the latter from the Wow. both Highway Racing and Rally are Road Fighter clones, and they seem to use the same car sprite:
(http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/hwr2.jpg) (Highway Racing) (http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/ral2.jpg) (Rally)
BUT then I found this:
(http://maws.mameworld.info/img/ps/titles/trally.png) (http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/img/shots/select/trally.png)
which, well, yeah. Should have expected that really. especially from the iSports - the sports games especially are stuffed to the tits with stolen NeoGeo graphics. the boxing game even still says "SNK" in the background (
and what looks like "FUCK", but I'm not 100% on that EDIT: actually I just found the stage from Garou: Mark of the Wolves (http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/597/garoutizocbg.gif) they ripped off, and it's probably "LUCK" really. ahem)
I'm not sure if its completely a coincidence that both games happened to rip off the *second* car from Thrash Rally rather than any of the others though.
Looking at a video of that Thrash Rally game, Rally and its cohorts appear to be Road Fighter clones with stolen graphics (and music, and sound effects) more than anything else. Going off-topic for a second, I'm far too poor to own a phone that doesn't suck (and I don't think the one I have would be able to run it) but I somehow doubt Soundhound would be able to identify VGM. (mind you, probably a good idea to test that just to make sure) Besides, I think the music in the former two ripoffs are that Wall of Shame song Codeman38 mentioned earlier.
all three racing games on the iSports use Wall of Shame, but I tried SoundHound on a few of the others and got no matches - to me it sounds like some are direct rips from somewhere else (like Wall of Shame) but others are possibly Waixing's own covers of other games' music (eg the Donkey Kong theme in Mouse Bang and Adventure Island music in Merry Noshery)
edit: but yeah, i'm not suggesting Rally or Highway Racing are Thrash Rally clones gameplay-wise, theyre still entirely Road Fighter based (Highway is closer than Rally though, it even still has Konami Man flying past) - they just steal some graphics from Thrash Rally.
- taizou
- Jan 2 2011, 02:25:22 PM
all three racing games on the iSports use Wall of Shame, but I tried SoundHound on a few of the others and got no matches - to me it sounds like some are direct rips from somewhere else (like Wall of Shame) but others are possibly Waixing's own covers of other games' music (eg the Donkey Kong theme in Mouse Bang and Adventure Island music in Merry Noshery)[/quote]I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other songs are stolen, what with sound effects being stolen from Sonic the Hedgehog and King of Fighters and graphics taken from Half Life 2 and BPS Tetris.
So two random things I discovered about the Zone Sega/Sega Reactor, via this post (http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/rig_veda/61313111.html) on the Japanese blog "I FEEL ALRIGHT!":
1. The non-Mega Drive original games on it are Waixing stuff. The bowling game is the same one we've seen numerous times, and Beach Volleyball is a dead ringer for their Famiclone volleyball game.
2. The Mega Drive originals are all credited to one of two companies: AtGames... or Tec Toy. The latter, as you might recall, was the official Brazilian licensee of the Mega Drive, and developed some original software for it. So does that mean Tec Toy = AtGames?
- codeman38
- Jan 5 2011, 02:12:36 AM
2. The Mega Drive originals are all credited to one of two companies: AtGames... or Tec Toy. The latter, as you might recall, was the official Brazilian licensee of the Mega Drive, and developed some original software for it. So does that mean Tec Toy = AtGames?[/quote]I dunno, I think its more likely that Tec Toy sold some of their original software to AtGames (or vice versa, and AtGames just didnt bother to change the logo for their own version). AtGames and Tec Toy AFAIK have completely separate product lineups, and different approaches to Mega Drive clones - AtGames' use an emulator running on (IIRC) some kind of ARM based system, but TecToy's are actual hardware clones. TecToy actually seem to be selling their chips to other, non-licensed clone makers, theyre used in Yobo systems (manufactured by Qi Sheng Long) which usually results in a much better clone than the licensed ones by AtGames - I've been trying to get hold of one of QSL's handheld Mega Drives for a while now, but all I can see for sale anywhere are AtGames ones.
I'd say it was probably Tec Toy licensing their code to AtGames. From what I've seen on videos, the Zone seems to be based on AtGames' hardware, not Tec Toy's-- it has the horribly off-key audio emulation that seem to be present in all of AtGames' stuff, but that isn't an issue on the Yobo.
- codeman38
- Jan 5 2011, 12:31:27 PM
I'd say it was probably Tec Toy licensing their code to AtGames. From what I've seen on videos, the Zone seems to be based on AtGames' hardware, not Tec Toy's-- it has the horribly off-key audio emulation that seem to be present in all of AtGames' stuff, but that isn't an issue on the Yobo.[/quote]Well if that was the case, then that raises the question as to why AtGames' Mega Drive clones have poor emulation when Tec Toy's clones (as far as I can tell) are pretty much the same as the real Mega Drive. Mind you, given that these clones are licensed by Sega I don't see why they didn't bother telling AtGames how to properly emulate the sound; especially seeing as they could emulate it perfectly fine in Sonic's Ultimate Mega Drive Collection. Then again, I don't know much about hardware.
BTW, I'm not sure if you're aware of this already but it's not just sound issues that plague these clones; some games suffer from graphical glitches and some simply don't work for various reasons. Also, the poor sound emulation reminds me a lot of the version of Genecyst I have on a CD. (which isn't even the final version)
portuguese versions of some of those games are on these cards for Tectoy's "MD Play" handheld too (which as far as I can tell is a rebranded version of AtGames' Gopher)
http://www.tectoy.com.br/produto_interna.php?id=53 (http://www.tectoy.com.br/produto_interna.php?id=53)
http://www.tectoy.com.br/produto_interna.php?id=57 (http://www.tectoy.com.br/produto_interna.php?id=57)
& their Guitar Idol thingy:
http://www.tectoy.com.br/pagina.php?tag=jogosmd100 (http://www.tectoy.com.br/pagina.php?tag=jogosmd100)
- Cheetahmen92
-
Well if that was the case, then that raises the question as to why AtGames' Mega Drive clones have poor emulation when Tec Toy's clones (as far as I can tell) are pretty much the same as the real Mega Drive. Mind you, given that these clones are licensed by Sega I don't see why they didn't bother telling AtGames how to properly emulate the sound; especially seeing as they could emulate it perfectly fine in Sonic's Ultimate Mega Drive Collection. Then again, I don't know much about hardware.[/quote]
well I think AtGames wanted to do more with the hardware than just play Mega Drive games, which is why they used an emulator running on something more powerful rather than a straight clone.. but then they didn't give enough of a shit to get it right. I doubt Sega had any technical involvement, they probably just sold AtGames the rights and let them get on with it.
some screens of the Portuguese versions: (from a Master System clone): http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11078 (http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11078)
theyre all credited to Devworks Game Technology (http://www.devworks.com.br/).
- taizou
- Jan 5 2011, 01:08:24 PM
some screens of the Portuguese versions: (from a Master System clone): http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11078 (http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11078)
theyre all credited to Devworks Game Technology (http://www.devworks.com.br/).[/quote]If I remember correctly, Canhao was released on the Sega Reactor (no idea what that version is called) which I think was licensed by AtGames. Presumably, the supposedly original Mega Drive/Master System/whatever games included are all by Devworks. I also like how despite that their website doesn't seem to have been updated since 2005, they've been developing games up to at least 2009.
on a completely unrelated note this is one of the games from the Wow: http://twitpic.com/3ncfkp (http://twitpic.com/3ncfkp)
you have to pick up the blocks and throw them around to make lines. Jungletac made something similar, so I assume both games are clones of something else - anyone know what it is?
Not sure if Dangerous Zone and its cohorts are clones of anything, but I do know that one of the games on the Zone 60 (I forget the name of it) is a clone of Magical Drop 3 for the Neo-Geo or something. I guess Chinese companies like that console a lot.
Oh, yeah, they all love the Neo-Geo. or at least they love to steal things from it. I think Jewel Fever 2 is the Magical Drop clone, its on the VG Pocket Caplet too.
- taizou
- Jan 5 2011, 06:33:52 PM
on a completely unrelated note this is one of the games from the Wow: http://twitpic.com/3ncfkp (http://twitpic.com/3ncfkp)
you have to pick up the blocks and throw them around to make lines. Jungletac made something similar, so I assume both games are clones of something else - anyone know what it is?[/quote]Check out "Araiguma Rascal" for Super Famicom. It's not quite the same thing (the object is to connect three rather than fill a line), but it's
very similar.
Of course, I'm not sure if
that is actually based on something prior...
ooh. theres actually another game on the Wow that looks pretty much identical to Araiguma Rascal (its called Rascal, so maybe I should have guessed). you can only play as the boy, the controls suck and the music is from Castlevania, but otherwise its the same thing. so I guess Strong Builder (the one in the screenshot, i didn't mention its name) and Dangerous Zone must be clones of something else, unless it was actually Jungletac's original (ish) creation.
new one at CES, from Timetop (makers of the Game King):
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/07/wii-clone-has-a-built-in-metal-slug-clone/ (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/07/wii-clone-has-a-built-in-metal-slug-clone/)
it does seem to have actual motion controls though, even a sensor bar.
Looking at the Game King, Timetop put more effort into making their games than Nice Code or JungleTac IMO. Is there a name for that clone, BTW?
their website (http://www.timetopcn.com/ProductShow.aspx?Sendid=16) just calls it the GM609. but then that page is clearly listing the specifications for the wrong product since it mentions an LCD screen and a camera among other things.
there are some tiny screenshots of their games here (http://www.timetopcn.com/Products.aspx?Classid=93&BigClassId=0), and yeah, they do look better than the usual crap. itll be interesting to see if this takes off, or if it ends up just being too expensive for a clone..
edit: better screens on the chinese site (http://www.timetop.cn/DownLoad.aspx?Classid=10), you can even download the games. as far as I can work out these are actually for some Konka TV that Timetop released a controller for, so i'm not sure if theyre the same versions that will be built into the actual console.. but if they are, some of them look pretty damn impressive for a Wii clone, like the baseball (http://www.timetop.cn/DownInfo.aspx?DownId=98) and golf (http://www.timetop.cn/DownInfo.aspx?DownId=107).
If you can download the games, then how the hell are you supposed to play them? :huh:
well you need that Konka TV, presumably it has a USB port or SD reader or something.
Apparently the files are Linux executables to be run on a MIPS processor.
Of course, trying to run this would require not only knowing the processor, but likely also what sort of video, sound, etc., device the machine has (since they're probably framebuffer apps rather than X11). That, and knowing what libraries the game is linked against...
i admit i'm like 90% ignorant of all things Linux, but its interesting to know Konka's TVs at least are running it rather than some closed proprietary system. if Timetop's actual console is the same (i'm not particularly optimistic, itll probably run on something else entirely and just have games built-in, but who knows), coupled with those reasonably decent looking games they might even have a minor hit on their hands. If its cheap.
Well, it definitely looks miles better than anything Qi Sheng Long have ever made at least. Also, I don't know much about hacking newer consoles to put OS' on them but if the games run on Linux technology then wouldn't it be possible to run Linux itself off the console? I doubt it but that'd be awesome if it were the case. (presumably at least, having never used Linux)
well I guess it's possible, the TV must be already running some kind of Linux based OS. but remember these games are all only for the TV as far as I can tell, which is its own thing. we basically know nothing about the actual console so far thanks to timetop's crap website (I found it on Eittek's website (http://www.eittek.com/Games/EK-G609_en.htm) too but they just copied the same wrong specifications from Timetop) - the console might run something completely different. it might not even have any kind of user accessible storage.
hmm. well it seems like timetop has actually completely redesigned its website since I posted those links to it two days ago. the new one is kinda broken, it still has the wrong specifications for the console, but there does seem to be a name for it now - you can sort of make it out in this photo (http://www.timetopcn.com/en/ProductInfo.aspx?ID=5a118598-57ce-4569-a74c-e0e9b14fef2a#) - Allinone Family? or something.
well I managed to get one of these (http://www.pearl.de/a-NC1459-5953.shtml;jsessionid=jlo42Cb9umbtE8ZuCrd1s) on the cheap, thanks to ebay. it seems to be made by Unicorn Manufacturing (http://www.unicornmfg.com.hk/) but I still have no idea who developed the games. its thankfully very small and has in a box to match - Wii clones tend to come in massive boxes to accommodate all the crap accessories and the consoles themselves are oversized to make them look more "real", which tends to inflate the shipping cost and take up more room in my damn house. but theres none of that here. it doesnt even come with a second player controller or an AC adapter (and I can't even use them from some other console, since it doesnt seem to use the same IR controller standard as the iSports and Wow, or the same power standard as pretty much every Chinese/Taiwanese console since the very first famiclones copied it from the original Famicom. so its one player only and 4 AA batteries for now)
the games are pretty variable in quality but generally better than the stuff on the Wow. the obligatory Puzzle Bobble clone is just as blatant in its graphics thievery as the Wow's but plays way better, for example. only a few of the games actually use the motion control (its not like the others where you can basically use it as an A button replacement in anything, it seems to be a separate input) - the golf is pretty decent, but "Frisbee Challenge" lasts about two minutes. im still not sure if this thing actually has 3D capabilities, the game that looked like it had 3D backgrounds seems to be pre-rendered (theres lighting effects and anti-aliasing for one thing, i doubt it can do that) but the animations of the ball hitting the pins in the bowling game actually *do* look like theyre being rendered in real time, so I dunno.
i'm still waiting for my new video capture card but once it turns up i'll record some video and whatnot.
Actually, I just noticed in CVS today they were selling Zone 60s. They were manufactured by "Ultimate Products" in Shenzhen, China if that helps.
- KingPepe
- Jan 11 2011, 04:04:29 PM
Actually, I just noticed in CVS today they were selling Zone 60s. They were manufactured by "Ultimate Products" in Shenzhen, China if that helps.[/quote]"Ultimate Products" is a British reseller that owns the "Zone" brand and imports consoles (and other gadgets) from various Chinese OEMs:
http://www.ultimate-products.co.uk/index.html (http://www.ultimate-products.co.uk/index.html)
And the OEM they sourced the Zone 60 from is... Jungletac, of course! Not at all surprisingly, they're based out of Shenzhen.
Edit: In retrospect, I'm not sure the Zone 60
chassis is necessarily JungleTac's; they don't list any Wii clones on their site. But the software is definitely Jungletac, and the board is likely theirs as well.
I'm amazed how many UK famiclone/Wii clone/etc importers are based somewhere near Manchester - Ultimate Products is in Oldham, Power Joy UK used to be in Stockport (where I live), the distributor of my 88 in 1 joystick is (was?) in Bury. and a couple more are in Blackburn, which isnt *too* far off. I never realised I was in such a hub of crap game console activity.
- codeman38
- Jan 12 2011, 04:13:09 PM
Edit: In retrospect, I'm not sure the Zone 60
chassis is necessarily JungleTac's; they don't list any Wii clones on their site. But the software is definitely Jungletac, and the board is likely theirs as well.[/quote]It still could be - their site hasnt been updated in a while. the Classic Max seems to be the newest thing on there, and thats from 2007 ish. The Vii isnt even listed. Ultimate Products do seem to get exclusive case designs for some of their Zones though - the 40 doesnt look like any other Subor console I've ever seen.
- taizou
- Jan 12 2011, 04:41:07 PM
I'm amazed how many UK famiclone/Wii clone/etc importers are based somewhere near Manchester - Ultimate Products is in Oldham, Power Joy UK used to be in Stockport (where I live), the distributor of my 88 in 1 joystick is (was?) in Bury. and a couple more are in Blackburn, which isnt *too* far off. I never realised I was in such a hub of crap game console activity.[/quote]Speaking of that, there's also E-Cell who I found recently, that sells this mysterious handheld (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-RED-16-BIT-PORTABLE-HANDHELD-TV-OUT-GAMING-CONSOLE_W0QQitemZ190484068191QQcategoryZ62054QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6023484765146653215) that blatantly rips off the PSP. I'd check this myself, but I somehow doubt it'd be worth £37. I guess you could also call Shenzhen a hub of those awful Wii clones as well, with JungleTac, Qi Sheng Long and all of those other companies.
I also just found yet another Wii clone called the Reactor 42 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yai2ybMRo8c), no doubt by the same people who did the Zone 40 and such. Just noticed that the American distributors of these are Midwest Trading Group Inc. in Addison, Illionis (I presume they distribute across the whole of the US and not just the Midwest) and searching on their website I couldn't find any Wii clones on there.
ah I've seen that PSP lookalike before - the description is really vague, I have no idea what the hell it is. they mention included games and a "Game Card" but not how many, or what type. and it looks like it has a MicroSD slot too. maybe its just one of those consoles with a bunch of emulators built in and they just supply a MicroSD card full of roms along with it.
the Reactor 42 actually looks identical to my iSports, so I guess its manufactured by Subor too - Im not sure if it has anything to do with Ultimate Products, but their "Zone Sega" was released as a Reactor in the end, so who knows..
- taizou
- Jan 12 2011, 05:40:59 PM
the Reactor 42 actually looks identical to my iSports, so I guess its manufactured by Subor too - Im not sure if it has anything to do with Ultimate Products, but their "Zone Sega" was released as a Reactor in the end, so who knows..[/quote]Sega Reactor, to be pedantic. :D I doubt Ultimate Products would really have any effect on the name change. I could be wrong but I think the Sega Reactor was released under the same name in the US, or a different one to the Zone Sega at least.
well I finally saw one of the games from the Wow somewhere else - the Columns clone is on the video page (http://en.sznanjing.com.cn/Default.aspx?PN=play) of Nanjing's website. which doesnt work (like their games). but the thumbnail is still there, its the third one along. So i guess that probably means Nice Code made it. Unless Nanjing did, but, well, I doubt that.
and there are some very similar games to some of the ones on the MGT 20 in 1 on this thing (http://tweeterman287.blip.tv/file/3779663/) which is credited to "V-Tac (http://www.vtac.com.tw)", a Taiwanese company.. their site has a few game screenshots at the bottom of this page (http://www.vtac.com.tw/product/multimedia.html). the golf again looks similar to the 20 in 1's, they also seem to have been responsible for an official looking Tetris plug & play system and some kind of.. 8-bit Sesame Street football game? Among other stuff.
Hm. There was a NiceCode game on the DreamGear that featured Elmo in it... coincidence, or shared sprite designers?
Also, I love the fact that V-TAC can't spell their own name right in the copyright notice on that console reviewed by TweeterMan.
- codeman38
- Jan 15 2011, 02:50:19 AM
Hm. There was a NiceCode game on the DreamGear that featured Elmo in it... coincidence, or shared sprite designers?[/quote]Given that the sprites were stolen from a Sesame Street game for the NES (if I remember correctly, it was the one with the ridiculous dance sequences at the end) and the game itself looks a lot like "Penrtly Kick" on the 8-bit Vii, I assume this is by Nice Code as well. Given that they tend to steal a lot of stuff from other NES/Famicom games (mainly sound engines) it wouldn't be all that surprising. Mind you, I don't get why you'd make a football game and put Elmo in it, but that's just me.
Personally, I'm wondering if V-Tac actually made the games on that X-Racer II 7-in-1. Seeing as they have (presumably) Nice Code games the ones on that could probably be by 2 different companies as far as I know. I like how so many of these racing games use ripped off F-1 Race sound effects. The third game on it looks rather similar to that Space Harrier derivative that JungleTac made. I could be wrong on this, but to me the last 4 games on it appear to be running on Master System hardware as opposed to the Famicom, mainly judging by the sound and amount of colours.
the Elmo game seems to be licensed, its from this: http://www.mjstoy.com/sesame-street-elmos-world-first-games-p-503.html (http://www.mjstoy.com/sesame-street-elmos-world-first-games-p-503.html)
so maybe its just a coincidence that Nice Code used Elmo in one of their games, if the sprites are stolen.
i'm not sure if V-Tac actually does develop their own games, but they claim to, at least: "We’ve developed nearly 100 games for the market 2001 enter the game market of inside chips. 2003 combination with V-TAC Becoming Multimedia Development 1998 XiGu technology company set upDevote in producing game for PlayStation and DreamCast"
Hm, an interesting connection I just noticed: that Elmo's World console is produced by TechnoSource, the same company that released the Intellivision plug-n-play whose games were hacked by Nice Code!
Seriously, we need a family tree for these things...
Edit: Here's a video of the Elmo console. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf3b6BjxL2Q) Definitely Famiclone hardware, but it doesn't sound like Nice Code stuff. Hm.
Well, the Shape Jump game sort of looks like River Jump off the DreamGEAR 75-in-1 to me, which incidentally had Elmo in it for some crazy reason.
i'd imagine Techno Source just outsourced development to pretty much anyone who'd do it.. so maybe they got Nice Code to port the Intellivision stuff, V-Tac to do Elmo etc etc.
- codeman38
-
Seriously, we need a family tree for these things...[/quote]
oh i try every so often. but i just end up with a screen full of lines and a headache.
I think I just found a new (well, new in that I wasn't aware of it before) Wii clone, what is apparently called the Sport 6-in-1. This is by far my favourite one, simply because of how obvious half of the stolen stuff is. Also, I have no idea who made this but I somehow bet they went out of business soon after making it.
Starting off with the sports titles, the music in Super Boxing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgCsKVW39s&feature=related) is Am I Evil by Metallica, which instantly equals awesomeness in my book. (I don't think Lars Ulrich will be happy with that :P ) Also, the music in the pre-match screens on some games (including Bowling which is in the video I just linked to) might be The Bad Touch by the Bloodhound Gang, but I doubt I'm right on that.
What's really interesting though are the mini games (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz56c2QomA4), because the creators of these games didn't even try to cover up what they stole. Hell, I can list the stuff I noticed from these things.
- The menu background is likely stolen from somewhere.
- Columns is a complete ripoff of the Mega Drive game, and it's obvious that the creators don't care about copyright issues. Oh, and the music is a MIDI rendition of a song from that unlicensed Emi-Chan game for the Famicom Disk System. (Don't ask me how I know that XP)
- Incept Presents seems to be a remake of Nice Code's Xmas Gift.
- I think you can guess what Precious Stone is a clone of. :P
- The bloke in Flash Ghost looks a lot like Master Higgins from Adventure Island.
- Huarong Road is a remake of Hua Rong Dau by Waixing.
- The music in Memory is a MIDI rendition of a song I forget the name of.
- The graphics in Find Same Picture are blatantly stolen from Pokémon.
- Puzzle Bobble is a clone of, well, Puzzle Bobble. They even stole the graphics from the original game.
- Guess Fruit is basically a graphical update of Xiao Ma Li for the Famicom and I think the background is stolen from King of Fighters. (The bloke in the middle sort of looks like Iori, at least)
- Falcon is obviously a clone of Tapper.
- Warehouse is the obligatory Sokoban clone.
- Fight to Fire is a complete ripoff of the Fire game from Game & Watch Gallery Advance, right down to the graphics. It's especially funny because anyone with half a brain would have finished writing this sentence the first time around. :P Anyway, the graphics are obviously based off those from Mario.
- If I remember correctly, the character's sprite in Shuttle is stolen from one of the SNES Final Fantasy games.
Hm, interesting-- that looks very much like the very few snippets I've seen of taizou's "Wow" console, namely from this video from the reseller of the thing (http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/4974061/Wow-wireless-gaming-system). So apparently it's not a one-off, then.
Edit: LOL, they even used the menu music in the background of that vid.
Edit #2: Yep, same system exactly. The menu from the Wow vid reads "Sport 6 in 1".
Edit #3: I've played Dance Dance Revolution way too often not to recognize the selection sound from the minigame menu. Also, I know I've heard the sound effect that plays when the minigame menu opens in the opening logo of some old DOS game or something.
Well it's nice to see that this thing is way more interesting than that ad makes it out to be. Gotta love the Star Force clone, BTW. :P
More observations, edited in as I find them:
- The music in Memory is "Another Day In Paradise" by Phil Collins!
- The music in Find Same Picture sound vaguely familiar? Yep, they stole that from Pokemon too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbrbpqs11gw) With notes just randomly changed around for no reason-- I mean, it's not like they weren't blatantly infringing things already.
- The background graphic in Falcon says "Merry Christmas" in Swedish, for no apparent reason.
Interestingly, the minigame selection seems to be different on taizou's version-- he's already mentioned two games, both of which involve a dude picking up and moving blocks, that aren't on the version shown on YouTube.
yeah that's pretty damn similar. the sports games and menus are identical, but mine has a slightly different selection of minigames - Huarong Road, Black White Chess, Guess Fruit, Fight to Fire or Shuttle arent on it, but it has 10 more that arent on that version. and Puzzle Bobble & Columns have been renamed (to "Brain Bender" and "Jigsaw"), I guess for copyright reasons, but they still have all the stolen graphics.
Are you going to post videos of that at some point or another? :)
Yeah, definitely. i bought a new video capture thingy to replace my old half-broken one, but the picture quality sucks, so I think i'll just try and make the old one work for long enough to record some stuff.
I'm still trying to rack my brain to figure out just where I have heard that sound effect that the minigame menu opens with. It's totally from something I've played in the past.
- codeman38
- Feb 13 2011, 08:04:15 PM
- The music in Find Same Picture sound vaguely familiar? Yep, they stole that from Pokemon too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbrbpqs11gw) With notes just randomly changed around for no reason-- I mean, it's not like they weren't blatantly infringing things already.[/quote]Never watched the Japanese Pocket Monsters, but TBH I probably should have noticed that from Pocket Monster II for the Mega Drive, which uses a much better rendition of the same song.
- Cheetahmen
- Feb 13 2011, 08:38:21 PM
Never watched the Japanese Pocket Monsters, but TBH I probably should have noticed that from Pocket Monster II for the Mega Drive, which uses a much better rendition of the same song.[/quote]Heh, yeah. Whoever developed that did some
awesome renditions of the Japanese theme music. Same tune is also used in the Pokemon Ruby bootleg for GBC, and it's equally awesome (but hey, it's Vast Fame, what do you expect?).
- codeman38
- Feb 13 2011, 08:43:13 PM
- Cheetahmen
- Feb 13 2011, 08:38:21 PM
Never watched the Japanese Pocket Monsters, but TBH I probably should have noticed that from Pocket Monster II for the Mega Drive, which uses a much better rendition of the same song.[/quote]Heh, yeah. Whoever developed that did some
awesome renditions of the Japanese theme music. Same tune is also used in the Pokemon Ruby bootleg for GBC, and it's equally awesome (but hey, it's Vast Fame, what do you expect?).[/quote]Something better than the games on this Wii clone. :D
Also, I'm pretty sure it's just me but the sound effect when you pick a game sounds like one of the instruments from Bebe's Kids (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKTYXh8WQHw) on the SNES, a game which quite frankly makes a lot of the games on this system seem fun by comparison. And I'm willing to bet that the songs in the Snake and Tapper clones are MIDI renditions of songs from SNES games or something, but I'm not sure what games they're from.
Also, that MIDI rendition of Another Day in Paradise sounds different to the MIDIs I got, so I assume the developers sequenced it themselves. Then again, some of the others are probably stolen from the internet, which really wouldn't surprise me. :P
oh yeah, the music in Columns is only half that tune from the FDS game - its mixed with some pretty famous song that i can't bloody remember (the guy in the video doesnt play it long enough for that bit to kick in). its been driving me nuts ever since i bought the damn thing. anyone know?
http://www.mediafire.com/?cdyjcmwzp69ch43 (http://www.mediafire.com/?cdyjcmwzp69ch43)
also i just bought a Wiii3 on eBay. its by Qi Sheng Long and it comes with 205 games. which is a lot of damn games.
i'd imagine the majority of them other than the sports games will be Nice Code stuff, probably repeated a few times with different sprites, but still. I'll see when it gets here I suppose. (and i definitely will record a video of it along with all this other stuff when i get everything sorted out)
this one definitely *does* have a cartridge port btw. hopefully its famicom compatible. and ill finally have the damn wireless front-loading famiclone i've been trying to get all this time.
[i am seriously going to record some videos of it, and the Wow, and every other damn thing too btw. :D]
I remember seeing a video of one of QSL's Wii clones somewhere on YouTube-- and indeed, unsurprisingly, a majority of the games are 8-bit Nice Code crap.
And I know I've heard the 2nd tune from the Columns music before somewhere too, but I can't think of where I heard it either. Gah!
Edit: The bass line is totally "Pretty Fly For A White Guy", though. Just noticed that. It's like a cross between three different songs!
was it this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3koDkngx8)? (or something similar) - i'd imagine the Wiii3 is something like that. only with more games. It does come with a cricket game though, which seems to be kinda rare on these things.
- taizou
- Feb 14 2011, 11:14:18 PM
was it this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3koDkngx8)? (or something similar) - i'd imagine the Wiii3 is something like that. only with more games. It does come with a cricket game though, which seems to be kinda rare on these things.[/quote]Yep, that's the one! I distinctly remembered the multicart menu being orange, even.
- taizou
- Feb 14 2011, 11:14:18 PM
was it this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w3koDkngx8)? (or something similar) - i'd imagine the Wiii3 is something like that. only with more games. It does come with a cricket game though, which seems to be kinda rare on these things.[/quote]I'd say it's part of some rebranding for the UK, but seeing as the EZi was released over here I'm not sure why. Maybe they were running out of sports to make games out of. :P And yeah, if there's 205 games then it's pretty safe bet that Nice Code will rear its ugly head with some proprietary cartridge, or possibly a built-in multicart like the 8-bit Vii.
Speaking of which, I recently found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n15md3JQJrM) and from watching this, there seems to be at least 2 different versions of that one. Whereas Tweeterman's version has those horrible Nice Code games built in, this one has standard Nintendo games on it which is a lot better. I'm guessing the manufacturers figured that if they released this version in the US, they'd end up with a huge lawsuit by including games like Super Mario Bros. on their console. (Then again, that Slalom hack is included on the cartridge of both versions)
- Cheetahmen
- Feb 15 2011, 10:16:02 AM
I'd say it's part of some rebranding for the UK, but seeing as the EZi was released over here I'm not sure why. Maybe they were running out of sports to make games out of. :P And yeah, if there's 205 games then it's pretty safe bet that Nice Code will rear its ugly head with some proprietary cartridge, or possibly a built-in multicart like the 8-bit Vii.[/quote]Probably a different distributor - I doubt Qi Sheng Long cares how many different names their consoles get released under, its all more money for them. as far as I can tell there are two different Wiii3s (or at least two that were released in the UK) - one has the same selection of games as the EZi but a different case, the other is the 205 in 1 one i'm getting.
i've uploaded videos of a few of the games from the Wow here: (more coming soon)
http://youtube.com/neopnp (http://youtube.com/neopnp)
i have some kinda vague plans to catalogue all the games from chinese plug & play consoles on my site, and its an extension of that. or its supposed to be. so i'm going to upload individual videos of games to that account, and maybe do a proper review of the Wow on my main one sometime in the future. or something like that.
I already commented on this on the video, but I swear that the character sprite in Strong Builder is a sprite hack of Dale from Chip 'n Dale. The character's motions are practically identical.
Edit: And of course, I see you mentioned that on Twitter when you posted the screenshot of the game, heh. It's still hilarious, though.
well the Wiii3 is here - few early observations:
comes with two carts, a 7 in 1 and a 198 in 1. the games on them seem to be by different developers, the 7 in 1 is by Nice Code (their logo is in "Battle of Freekick").
the 198 in 1 actually *isnt* full of 8-bit Nice Code games, the games are 16-bit and possibly by Cube Tech? (not sure, none of them are on their website, but the ping pong is definitely an updated version of their VT03 one). A couple of the games kinda resemble Jungletacs (eg theres a Columns clone called Jewel Master and one that looks a lot like Deep Storm) but theyre nowhere near as well programmed, so maybe its a coincidence/ripoff/something. And there are repeats! D: I havent gone through all 198 yet to see how many unique games there really are, but I thought we'd left that kind of bullshit behind. apparently Qi Sheng Long hasn't.
oh and despite having a 60 pin cartridge port, this thing isnt compatible with Famicom carts at all. even OneBus ones. Its also not compatible with any other console's wireless controllers.
In that case, I suppose the 7-in-1 contains some (really bad) sports games. (and evidently, yet another free kick game due to laziness)
well, theyre not all sports games. but mostly bad yes.
heres a complete (i think) game list. as far as i can tell the 198 only has unique games at the start and end of the list, but if there are any in the middle i might have missed them.
7 in 1
1.Pop Cricket
2.Kungfu
3.Flush Ball
4.Crazy Karts
5.3-Point Shot
6.Freekick
7.Flying Dream
"198" in 1
1.Tennis
2.Baseball
3.Boxing
4.Fishing
5.Magic Key
6.Cross Street
7.Sky Up
8.Photo Match
9.Jewel Master
10.Sky Hawk
11.Super Motor Race
12.Super F1 Race
13.Sudu
14.Heroic Pilot
15.Puzzle
16.Magic Box
17.Boat Race
18.Maze
19.Skiing
20.Undersea Bubble
21.Jewel Land
22.Bubble Monster
23.Malibu
24.Space Defense
25.Speed Motorboat
26.Mine
27.Bomb Kid
28.Undersea War
29.Horrific Collapsar
30.Solitaire
31.Riding Hunt
32.Flying Block
33.Switchman
34.Russian Blocks
35.Tank
36.Final Race
37.Motor Race
38.Bowling
39.Golf
40.Pingpong
41.Shooting
42.Dart
43.Ring Game
44.Bump Bump
45.Railway Builder
46.Pipe Worker
i think the players on Nice Code FC in the free kick game might be named after actual staff members. i recognise a few of them..
heres the full list: WAYNE, COSMO, LEO, JONY (credited in one of the DreamGear games), KEN (three of the courses in Crazy Karts are shaped like "K", "E" and "N", so he probably worked on that one too), STING (contact for their domain name = Sting Zhao), WYB, GLEN, SUM, DBOY
oh and i finished that game. nice "YOU ARE CHAMPION" screen :D
I know I've seen that "Horrific Collapsar" somewhere else before... a name like that tends to stick in one's head. ::looks:: Yep, was mentioned in this very thread, in fact, as part of Arctic Cooling's "GC Pro" console. Now it turns up several hits on, you guessed it, Qi Sheng Long's site.
yeah, lots of the games on the 198 in 1 seem to be on the GC Pro too. but the GC Pro (and QSL's Wiwi 32) is 32-bit, the Wiii3 is 16-bit and it shows - the GC Pro versions of the games have way better graphics.
i think i'm liking the Nice Code games on the 7 in 1 more than the 198 in 1 stuff though. theyre not exactly good, but i dunno, they just have a certain charm about them.
just uploading the last few games from the Wow (i'm only doing the ones that aren't covered in that other video for now).
but i noticed all those games plus a bunch more (a Mr.Driller clone! now i want it D:) are on the Power Player "Protable" by Qi Sheng Long. And repeats, because theyre terrible like that.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120645137681 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120645137681)
the tennis on there is definitely *not* the Wow's tennis though.
- taizou
- Feb 17 2011, 02:51:30 PM
but i noticed all those games plus a bunch more (a Mr.Driller clone! now i want it D:) are on the Power Player "Protable" by Qi Sheng Long. And repeats, because theyre terrible like that.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120645137681 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120645137681)
the tennis on there is definitely *not* the Wow's tennis though.[/quote]Heh, I just found this review of it... it's in Spanish and the camera's not good, but it's
sort of a way to see the gameplay in action, anyway. Definitely the same games from the Wow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACv3ItAKyw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dACv3ItAKyw)
The guy who made that video, incidentally, seems to have a wide variety of weird portable consoles: http://consolasportatiles.info/ (http://consolasportatiles.info/)
ah its that guy :D i've exchanged a few emails with him about the Gamate. i should ask him about that thing.
having played them a bit more, quite a few of the games on the Wiii3's 198 in 1 cartridge are similar to Jungletac's:
Magic Key -> Mr. Onion
Jewel Master -> Jewel Master (in name at least)
Sky Hawk -> Tiger Rescue (kinda)
Heroic Pilot -> Deep Storm
Undersea Bubble -> Pinball Fish
Magic Box -> Boxboy (okay theyre both just Sokoban clones but they have the exact same puzzle layouts)
they don't actually reuse anything from the Jungletac games but they have far too much in common for it to be a coincidence. Jungletac's versions are generally way better programmed though, some of the Wiii3 versions have decent graphics but they mostly play like shit. so I dunno if theres a legitimate connection between the two or if the makers of this thing just ripped off Jungletac a bit.
heres a few impressions of the Wiii3 games from the Nice Code cart now i've spent a bit more time with the thing (i'll leave the 198 in 1 games for later, because theyre mostly boring). videos will be forthcoming i think.
1. Pop Cricket - the big selling point of this console, but it seems kinda rushed. the players on screen are always the same colours no matter who's playing (would it have been that hard to palette swap them?), practice mode doesnt work at all, and .. one other mode (i don't actually have the console on at the moment, can you tell?) seems to give you control of the opposite team at some points if you field first. apart from those issues it's just a fairly standard wii-clone sports game, press A (sorry, swing the remote) at the right time to set all the various meters and then stuff happens.
2. Kungfu - kind of in the same vein as the boxing games you get on these things, only you don't need two controllers. you just punch with A and kick with B, you dont seem to be able to control the different types of punches and kicks with the D-pad or anything, they just happen randomly. theres a meter at the bottom of the screen that gradually fills up and sometimes the screen will flash red and either you or the opponent will be able to attack unopposed for a while before launching a special attack. not sure exactly what controls this, maybe its timing or maybe its just random. you can choose different opponents off a little map who'll appear in little badly rendered intro scenes saying something threatening in engrish. its kind of amusing for a while but gets boring before long, unless theres a whole strategic element to it that i'm missing.
3. Flush Ball - I like this one. its a pretty simple single-screen arcade-style game kind of like Pang or something like that, you control a little dinosaur at the bottom who'll flick out his tail in front of him when you press A, and you have to bounce balls off it to make them change colour a certain number of times before they fly off into the sky and you move to the next level (with one extra ball). If you let them bounce on the floor too many times they switch back to the previous colour, or if they hit the dinosaur on the head they turn grey and just roll along the floor (and become deadly). Its kind of like Nice Code took the "shit falling from above" idea they used with so many of their famicom games and actually thought about how to make a fun game out of it.
4. Crazy Karts (Kart Crazy) - Sort of a poor man's Mario Kart. All the characters are palette swaps but it has a decent number of tracks with different graphics and you can pick up items and stuff (even if theres only, like, three of them). Kinda fun, kinda annoying (because if one of the CPU characters hits you with a missile - and they will - it takes so long to accelerate again that youll probably end up in last place) and a bit rough around the edges but probably better than most Wii-clone racing games. Maybe.
5. 3-Point Shot (3-Point Shootout) - Basketball thingy. Another pretty standard "shake/hit A to stop the meter" sports game, albeit based on a sport that doesnt often appear on these things. Not too bad, anyway.
6. Freekick (Battle of Freekick) - oh you know. another sports game. Better than the usual mostly luck-based penalty shootout games though, you set direction, curve and power, which IMO makes it feel like you have much more control over where the ball ends up. plus with it being a free kick game rather than a penalty one you have the dudes lined up in front of the goal which adds an extra bit of strategy to proceedings. Also its kinda interesting because the team you're playing as has Nice Code's logo and some/all? of the players seem to be named after Nice Code staff, so youre basically playing *as* Nice Code.
7. Flying Dream - Well this one's weird. it basically controls like one of the sports games again, but the theme is very much non-sporting. There's an animal of some kind(?) on a ledge on the left, you have to press A/shake to set position and power to make it jump such that itll bounce off both the wolves floating in the middle and land on the platform on the right. After you do that a certain number of times you switch to a flying, differently-coloured version of said animal, and I dunno. This one definitely needs further investigation. On Nice Code's site theres a screenshot of a version called "Flying Pig" where the animal looks more piglike (though the screenshot is too small to tell really), and it does look like an *edited* pig in-game, so I guess they changed it for some reason? from a pig to a "dream". maybe this is what Nice Code's dreams look like.
and thats that. I was pleasantly surprised by this cart really. yknow, its nothing fantastic, but the games are way better than their NES stuff, more fun & more interesting than the 198 cart, more original than the Wow - theyre the sorts of games I'd like to see more of on Wii clones in the future, if they can just avoid any major Pop Cricket-style. Nice Code have gone up quite a bit in my estimation with this thing, anyway.
QSL's catalogue (this page (http://www.qishenglong.com/UserFiles/Info/2010/10/11/201010111422202110.jpg)) lists a 77 in 1 and a 70 in 1 console that both seem to be full of 16-bit Nice Code games, I .. sort of want one. But theyre not listed anywhere on QSL's alibaba page or their main website, and they dont seem to be for sale from any distributors anywhere. not yet, anyway. O:
well, well, well. i think i found the name of the 198 devs. i was searching the chinese copyright database, the mistake i made was searching for individual game names. but it hit me when i tried searching on Qi Sheng Long and noticed they'd registered their 121 in 1 and 101 in 1 consoles - why register each game separately when you could just register the entire compilation? so i searched for 198, and here it is.
2009SR00036 - SPG289 16 位红外互动游戏软件(198inl) V1.0 [简称: SPG289互动游戏198inl] by 深圳市纽泰科技发展有限公司
registered to Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co. the company also has copyrights on two 18 in 1s and a 20 in 1 also for the SPG289, and a 32-bit 48 in 1 for the SPG293 (presumably the same 48 games from QSL's 32 bit console). unfortunately they seem to have 0 internet presence so I can't verify anything (they might just be another hardware manufacturer - Qi Sheng Long and Waixing have both registered Nice Code's games, after all)
in the process i also found the Family Sport series are registered to 深圳市森佳科技有限公司 Shenzhen Senjia Technology Co., or Senca Technology in English. found their website @ http://www.sencatech.com (http://www.sencatech.com) despite most pages pointing to http://www.senca.com.cn (http://www.senca.com.cn) (what was i saying about chinese companies never being able to hold onto a domain name) & theres a bit more info in Chinese if you google around.
oh yeah, and theres a "Mini 15 in 1" registered to Nanjing, possibly a reference to the 15 in 1 minigames from that variation on my Wow .. maybe Nanjing really did have something to do with development? all the blatant thievery going on in those games is far more Nanjing's style than Nice Code's.
- taizou
- Feb 24 2011, 02:09:40 AM
oh yeah, and theres a "Mini 15 in 1" registered to Nanjing, possibly a reference to the 15 in 1 minigames from that variation on my Wow .. maybe Nanjing really did have something to do with development? all the blatant thievery going on in those games is far more Nanjing's style than Nice Code's.[/quote]I think you're right on that, actually. Looking on their website, the sport games off the Wow (I noticed Super Boxing in particular) are listed on there. Can't find the games off the 15-in-1, probably because they realised that they couldn't get away with ripping graphics from Columns and Puzzle Bobble. Mind you, their blatant thievery makes me wonder what their DDR clone listed is like. :P
- taizou
- Feb 24 2011, 02:09:40 AM
2009SR00036 - SPG289 16 位红外互动游戏软件(198inl) V1.0 [简称: SPG289互动游戏198inl] by 深圳市纽泰科技发展有限公司
registered to Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co. the company also has copyrights on two 18 in 1s and a 20 in 1 also for the SPG289, and a 32-bit 48 in 1 for the SPG293 (presumably the same 48 games from QSL's 32 bit console). unfortunately they seem to have 0 internet presence so I can't verify anything (they might just be another hardware manufacturer - Qi Sheng Long and Waixing have both registered Nice Code's games, after all)[/quote]Sort of odd that Qi Sheng Long wouldn't have registered these titles themselves, though. I'd say this company deserves further investigation, but they truly do not seem to exist, other than a couple company profile pages that are completely barren.
- taizou
-
in the process i also found the Family Sport series are registered to 深圳市森佳科技有限公司 Shenzhen Senjia Technology Co., or Senca Technology in English. found their website @ http://www.sencatech.com (http://www.sencatech.com) despite most pages pointing to http://www.senca.com.cn (http://www.senca.com.cn) (what was i saying about chinese companies never being able to hold onto a domain name) & theres a bit more info in Chinese if you google around.[/quote]Now
that's an interesting find. Definitely the right company-- they even show screenshots of the Family Sport games on their site! Though I'm wondering what's up with the stolen box art from a real Guitar Hero controller...
Apparently even Sky League has known about these guys since 2008 (http://www.efgcw.com/?dp-bbsthread-398.html).
- taizou
-
oh yeah, and theres a "Mini 15 in 1" registered to Nanjing, possibly a reference to the 15 in 1 minigames from that variation on my Wow .. maybe Nanjing really did have something to do with development? all the blatant thievery going on in those games is far more Nanjing's style than Nice Code's.[/quote]Hm,
that's interesting. I knew that they'd had some of the sports games listed on their site, so it wouldn't entirely surprise me that Nanjing had something to do with it.
Edit: SZ Nanjing also own copyrights on VT168-based ping pong, tennis, boxing, badminton and bowling games. This can't be a coincidence.
- codeman38
- Feb 24 2011, 09:46:28 AM
- taizou
-
oh yeah, and theres a "Mini 15 in 1" registered to Nanjing, possibly a reference to the 15 in 1 minigames from that variation on my Wow .. maybe Nanjing really did have something to do with development? all the blatant thievery going on in those games is far more Nanjing's style than Nice Code's.[/quote]Hm,
that's interesting. I knew that they'd had some of the sports games listed on their site, so it wouldn't entirely surprise me that Nanjing had something to do with it.
Edit: SZ Nanjing also own copyrights on VT168-based ping pong, tennis, boxing, badminton and bowling games. This can't be a coincidence.[/quote]the columns game is listed on this video page (http://en.sznanjing.com.cn/Default.aspx?PN=play) but the actual video doesn't work.
but, yeah, what i'm thinking now is either these games were either developed by Nanjing alone (and they just cloned that one thats similar to a Nice Code game, since theyd probably licensed it from them already), or Nanjing collaborated with Nice Code somehow.
- taizou
- Feb 24 2011, 12:55:28 PM
- codeman38
- Feb 24 2011, 09:46:28 AM
- taizou
-
oh yeah, and theres a "Mini 15 in 1" registered to Nanjing, possibly a reference to the 15 in 1 minigames from that variation on my Wow .. maybe Nanjing really did have something to do with development? all the blatant thievery going on in those games is far more Nanjing's style than Nice Code's.[/quote]Hm,
that's interesting. I knew that they'd had some of the sports games listed on their site, so it wouldn't entirely surprise me that Nanjing had something to do with it.
Edit: SZ Nanjing also own copyrights on VT168-based ping pong, tennis, boxing, badminton and bowling games. This can't be a coincidence.[/quote]the columns game is listed on this video page (http://en.sznanjing.com.cn/Default.aspx?PN=play) but the actual video doesn't work.
but, yeah, what i'm thinking now is either these games were either developed by Nanjing alone (and they just cloned that one thats similar to a Nice Code game, since theyd probably licensed it from them already), or Nanjing collaborated with Nice Code somehow.[/quote]I think SNT had some part in the development of it, they probably made it on their own. I doubt even Nice Code would be that blatant in ripping off other games. Then again, some of those videos on there seem to be of NC games so I'm not sure. <_<
yeah, I do think it was Nanjing, either developed completely in-house or they headed up the project but outsourced some work to Nice Code (NC don't rip stuff off so blatantly in their own games, but they have no problem doing it when Nanjing asks them to - look at Tomb Raider etc).
as this Nanjing developer (http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8015707/1/#new) said theres no market for Famicom games anymore, so it'd make sense for them to have moved into stuff for plug & play consoles. but then the Wow seems to be from 2008, when they were still making RPGs, so I have no idea what they're actually doing now.
oh yeah, and i just found this:
http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/762-Supermarket-Metal-Slug (http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/762-Supermarket-Metal-Slug)
apparently one of those TVs with Timetop games was sold by Aldi in 2009 (in the US?)
- taizou
- Feb 24 2011, 01:47:15 PM
oh yeah, and i just found this:
http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/762-Supermarket-Metal-Slug (http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/762-Supermarket-Metal-Slug)
apparently one of those TVs with Timetop games was sold by Aldi in 2009 (in the US?)[/quote]Probably Australia, if the WHOIS on the forum's owner is anything to go by.
But now I'm curious whether that TV got sold Stateside as well...
- Cheetahmen
- Feb 15 2011, 10:16:02 AM
Speaking of which, I recently found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n15md3JQJrM) and from watching this, there seems to be at least 2 different versions of that one. Whereas Tweeterman's version has those horrible Nice Code games built in, this one has standard Nintendo games on it which is a lot better. I'm guessing the manufacturers figured that if they released this version in the US, they'd end up with a huge lawsuit by including games like Super Mario Bros. on their console. (Then again, that Slalom hack is included on the cartridge of both versions)[/quote]Amazingly, at least one batch of that version of the 8-bit Vii has been spotted in the US:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI65nUiu8Dg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI65nUiu8Dg)
Even more interestingly: it's branded "Power Player"! Wouldn't surprise me if they were sold at the same mall kiosks that sold the other Power Player consoles.
speaking of which, i found what seems to be another division of Xinan Industry, the company that makes those Viis and various Power Players and stuff. called Omni Special in English or 东莞市常平信安实业有限公司 in Chinese. they have a copyright on some unspecified 50 in 1.
http://www.omnispecial.com/ (http://www.omnispecial.com/) / http://www.omin-speciac.cn (http://www.omin-speciac.cn) (seriously!) / http://aqtdesign.cn.alibaba.com/ (http://aqtdesign.cn.alibaba.com/)
(other sites: http://www.powerkinghk.com (http://www.powerkinghk.com) / http://xinan.en.alibaba.com/ (http://xinan.en.alibaba.com/) .. i dunno why they need so damn many)
i've uploaded a video of Battle of Freekick ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBzzdRFmlQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBzzdRFmlQ)
was gonna do Crazy Karts too but i'm having problems encoding that. grr. (plus i paused for like a minute while i was recording and i'm trying to edit that out convincingly)
actually Crazy Karts/Kart Crazy/whatev is up now (or at least it will be once it finishes processing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWzCyraEEt8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWzCyraEEt8)
Kungfu would be coming next, but I was just playing through it so I could add the ending, and I accidentally hit the shoulder button (which resets the console.. nice controller design there) on like the second to last fight. balls!
anyway heres the game over screen because i like it.
(http://fuji.drillspirits.net/stuff/notwii/justice.jpg)
oh yeah, and does the Kart/Track Select font in Kart Crazy look like a PC Paint font to anyone else?
- taizou
- Feb 26 2011, 12:43:43 AM
oh yeah, and does the Kart/Track Select font in Kart Crazy look like a PC Paint font to anyone else?[/quote]I was thinking the same thing as I watched it, actually! Would be easier to tell if they gave us more than eight unique letters, of course, but those eight do seem to match up...
i wonder how it got there, though.. surely no one would still be using PC Paint or GRASP or whatever in this day and age. and it certainly looks like its been resized in a modern graphics program. maybe they just lifted the text from some older game that actually did use PC Paint? or maybe they downloaded your truetype versions of the fonts :D
oh and i just finished Kungfu. the ending .. well there is no ending. you just get the game over screen. what!
- taizou
- Feb 26 2011, 03:24:05 PM
i wonder how it got there, though.. surely no one would still be using PC Paint or GRASP or whatever in this day and age. and it certainly looks like its been resized in a modern graphics program. maybe they just lifted the text from some older game that actually did use PC Paint? or maybe they downloaded your truetype versions of the fonts :D[/quote]::snort:: I was wondering the same thing, actually... what's the copyright date on this thing again?
But seriously, I have actually seen a few Taiwanese/Chinese games that mix PC Paint fonts with standard Windows fonts. I've noticed this in several games by Sintax and VFame; it's especially noticeable in the latter's GBA stuff, of course. There's also Lonaisoft's Bubble Hero 2, for that matter. So perhaps they really did use PC Paint for preliminary sprite work and then resize/recolor it in Windows.
- taizou
-
oh and i just finished Kungfu. the ending .. well there is no ending. you just get the game over screen. what![/quote]Gaahhh! How disappointing...
I just discovered something incredibly odd on the OmniSpecial (Xinan) site.
View source on http://www.omnispecial.com/8%20Bit%20Video%20Game%20Console.htm (http://www.omnispecial.com/8%20Bit%20Video%20Game%20Console.htm) and you'll notice something that's just a bit off:
- Code:
-
<!-- saved from url=(0044)http://www.qishenglong.com/docc/default.html -->
So perhaps Xinan is related to QSL?
Maybe.. Or maybe they just stole a page from Qi Sheng Long's website and used it as a base for their own :D
I did think it was odd that both companies were using the "Power Player" name until I looked up QSL on the chinese trademark database and found that they had trademarks on "Micro Genius", "Ending Man", "Dendy" and some other stuff that i'm pretty sure they have no rights to. so i think if any particular famiclone gets popular they just rip it off.
in fact i think all of the famiclones in the first set of pictures here are by QSL:
http://cah4e3.shedevr.org.ru/pirates.php (http://cah4e3.shedevr.org.ru/pirates.php)
"King Game" and "Fei Hao" are their trademarks too.
Ran into yet another Wii clone today, the Wisp. According to the box it has 7 Hyper-Sports (which I'm guessing are ripoffs of Track & Field), 16 arcade games and 8 beat games or something if I remember correctly.
ah yeah, i just saw one of those on eBay yesterday:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk//320678042956 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk//320678042956)
Looks like a rebranded MiWi of some kind, theyre always the ones with the "tatacon drum-master games".
That's definitely it, although I recall the one in the store coming in a different box oddly enough.
as i mentioned in another thread i recently got hold of the carts/controllers/etc from the EZi, in the hope that they'd all work with my Wiii3 .. which they didn't, of course. well i suppose the various crap sports attachments will fit the Wiii3 controller, but thats it.
but out of curiosity i opened all the carts and i found something quite interesting (well possibly). The Wiii3's 7 in 1 (16bit Nice Code) cart and the EZi's 69 in 1 (VT03 Nice Code) just contain a standard rom chip, as you might expect. the 69 in 1 even works in my Power Joy Supermax, since its a OneBus system, but half the games don't run or have glitched graphics because the PJ is only VT02. I'd imagine it'd run perfectly on something like a Generation NEX or that Subor console the Japanese guy reviewed though.
BUT the Wiii3's 198 in 1 (16bit Niutai) & EZi's 18 in 1 (16 bit Niutai) PCBs have an extra glop-top and all kinds of other shit on them - a bunch of resistors and capacitors and a timing crystal and whatnot. Now I confess to not knowing much about electronics but I've never seen stuff like that on a cartridge before. which makes me wonder if these carts actually contain an additional system on a chip, OneStation-style, that overrides the console's "native" architecture (VT03 for the EZi, and some Sunplus 16-bit for the Wiii3), rather than the console itself being some kind of dual-system hybrid. thatd certainly explain why no Famicom or OneBus cart works on the Wiii3, and probably why the EZi 18 in 1 doesnt work either - the method QSL use to override a VT03 system might be entirely different the one they use for a Sunplus system.
[as for the Wiii3 it seems like its natively a Sunplus SPG288 or 243 or something, but the 198 in 1 cartridge is SPG289. but thats just going from from Nice Code's site and the Chinese copyright database respectively. official info on the various Sunplus systems - and there are a lot of them - is extremely sparse online, Sunplus doesnt publish any public documentation like VRT as far as I can tell. I can't even find a list anywhere.]
edit: mixed up the two wiii3 carts. ahem. fixed that.
heres a video review of the Wireless 60, which was mentioned a while back:
unboxing/intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28IKR9t7Mw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28IKR9t7Mw)
arcade games part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEksX9m5hA4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEksX9m5hA4)
arcade games part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zIMliVS3A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zIMliVS3A)
arcade games part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYf0KeSrrYE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYf0KeSrrYE)
"motion" games - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78RjSBB0Aac (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78RjSBB0Aac)
but here's one on ebay which seems to have an entirely different set of arcade games - http://cgi.ebay.com//200559655903 (http://cgi.ebay.com//200559655903)
i was thinking some of the games might just have been renamed (Totally Jet is Jet Rush 2 for example, I'm pretty sure of that) but i recognise some of the games on the ebay version from other Jungletac consoles - On n Off & Rotating Puzzle for example - and they don't show up on the reviewed version in any form.
- taizou
- Apr 14 2011, 08:18:53 PM
heres a video review of the Wireless 60, which was mentioned a while back:[/quote]Ooh, yes, that is totally the same one I saw at Big Lots a while back. I remember that disclaimer distinctly. :D
Speaking of JungleTac crap, British1500, the guy who introduced us to the DreamGear 75, now has video of over half of the Zone 60 up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaezEtkzHwU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaezEtkzHwU)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2X02w6EK0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2X02w6EK0)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-aAhvPWk4Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-aAhvPWk4Y)
Same exact menu layout as the Wireless 60-- one's probably just a rebrand/alternate of the other.No, my brain is already getting tired and confused. A slightly different menu layout for the main menu, but the sub-menu is entirely the same. Many of the same games, even.
Lulz. The Zone 60 instruction screen shows a white controller when its actual controller is black. And as Farmhouse's review points out, the Wireless 60 shows a black controller, but its controller is white!
oh yeah, talking of the Zone 60, i noticed something weird about it that i mentioned in the wiki article - it looks exactly the same as this:
http://www.suborchina.com/product.asp?id=234 (http://www.suborchina.com/product.asp?id=234)
the Smart Station by Subor. but the Smart Station has absolutely nothing in common with the Zone software wise - i've seen screenshots in taobao auctions, its like a cross between a Wii clone and an upgraded version of Subor's old computer Famiclones. its full of 32-bit Waixing games and educational stuff, it has PS/2 ports on the back for a keyboard and mouse and it can play MP3s (and possibly NES games?) off a MicroSD card. Looks pretty interesting really, I hope Ultimate Products pick it up as the next Zone or something.
well I just got a Zone Interactive for a whole six pounds. even though the box says 40 games in one place and 30 games in another (thats professionalism for you), its actually a rebranded version of that Family Sports 41 in 1. i've been messing around with it and it seems like in the sports games it can actually detect the strength of a movement (but not direction), whcih is.. something, I guess. oh and it has really annoying rumble.
Just found the 20-in-1 Spielekonsole (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7K-4-XPZNg), yet another Wii ripoff released in Germany. (And yeah, the video's in German in case you're wondering) From what I noticed, several of the games are rebranded from that steering wheel thing that Tweeterman287 reviewed, it contains the obligatory Puzzle Bobble, Sokoban, Zuma and Columns ripoffs, there's one shooter which (I think) rips off graphics from R-Type III and another which sort of looks like a cross between Life Force and Fly War off that Wii clone that Taizou has.
oh i've got one of those. :D i mentioned it further back in this thread somewhere.
I saw a Sport Vii in a store in Croatia! However, I didn't take a photograph, but it's the same that the one at the wiki. I didn't buy it, I recognized it's a clone, a very bad one (I think).
i think the Sport Vii is one of the better clones - its one of the few with actual motion control (along with the Conny Q3 and that one Timetop is making). did you see it recently? i didnt even know they were still in production.
Well, I saw it somewhere in 2010, forgot when.
i was poking around on taobao and i found a bit more evidence of Nanjing having developed the Wow games: this console called the MiniWi, it looks a lot like the Wow/Vii only with a curved top and front panel. 9 sports games, 15 mini games on a separate cart.
heres the Chinese version: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=5914419506 (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=5914419506)
the tennis, badminton, football & pingpong all have Nanjing logos in them.
& the English: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8333628235 (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8333628235)
in the English version the Nanjing logos seem to be removed (like they are on my Wow), I guess so distributors can put their own name on it. but theres a closeup of the 15 in 1 cartridge which says "NJ" on it. (& it also has Macro Winners' "BS" logo for some reason.)
I guess in that case, their blatant plagiarism isn't limited to the Famicom.
Also, why is Bob the Builder on that 15-in-1 cartridge?
Maybe because to make it more random. =P
- taizou
- Apr 27 2011, 07:04:32 PM
in the English version the Nanjing logos seem to be removed (like they are on my Wow), I guess so distributors can put their own name on it. but theres a closeup of the 15 in 1 cartridge which says "NJ" on it. (& it also has Macro Winners' "BS" logo for some reason.)[/quote]Heh, that
is confusing. Maybe Nanjing ended up getting the molds from Macro Winners and made their own incompatible system?
Also note the "Power Player" branding on the console itself. This stuff just gets more and more confusing.
yeah, and I still haven't figured out why this (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8984646556), this (http://www.wiwigame.cn/product/291238526-10329501/Wireless_Sport_Video_Game.html), this (http://www.omnispecial.com/game/game_6.htm) & this (http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/game-player/product-detailAMymbSZdSlVD/China-Miwi-Wireless-Video-Game-Player-BS-9800-.html) all look identical (controllers aside), despite all being from different companies and containing each a different set of games.. do they all just copy each other, or is there some kind of real connection here?
well i found a tiny bit more info about the previously mysterious Shenzhen Niutai-
http://www.hysz.net/plus/view-39813-1.html (http://www.hysz.net/plus/view-39813-1.html)
企业名称:深圳市纽泰科技发展有限公司
主营行业: 应用软件服务
成立日期: 2006年8月30日
电话: (手机号不对外公布)
联系人: 杨帆
地址: 深圳市福田区彩田南路中深花园B栋2809
主营产品:
计算机软硬件的技术开发（不含限制项目）。
quick google trans-
Company Name: Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Industry: Application Software Services
Launch date: August 30, 2006
Phone: (phone number is not made public)
Contact: Yang Fan
Address: South Road, Futian District, Shenzhen Caitian 2809, Building B in the dark garden
Main Products:
Computer hardware and software technology development (excluding restricted items).
DealExtreme has a few Wii clones up if anyone's interested. made by Subor:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/29493 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/29493) http://www.dealextreme.com/p/29492 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/29492) - iSports, was out of stock for a while but it's back
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/65752 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/65752) http://www.dealextreme.com/p/65751 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/65751) - iSports Pro, relatively new addition
(if only i'd signed up to their affiliate program i could have made some money from all those links. curses!)
they're both pretty expensive though. the iSports is even more expensive than the Pro for some reason. although that one can play Famicom carts at least. (for what its worth I have another iSports that looks like the Pro but has mostly the same games as the non-Pro. and no cart slot)
The Pro has an SD card slot intriguingly but i'm not paying $60 for a damn Wii clone.
and another: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/90566 (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/90566)
looks like some kind of Family Sports variant.
I happen to own a Zone 60 myself, I came across it while shopping at an A&P not to far away from my neighborhood. I had planned on grabbing a friend or two and recording our exploits of playing this horrible clone, but so far I haven't made any attempt to do so. I've already tested it out once, though, and now it sits in my room, still in the box.
also, hi guys, first post on this forum. :V
How much did you pay for it?
(Also, welcome :D )
I'm pretty certain it was around the 20 dollar range. Not particularly pricey, but I still felt it was a stupid amount, despite the fact that I knew EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GETTING MYSELF INTO when I purchased this Wii clone. :V
I really do want to record footage of it, though. It definitely needs to be done.
Yes, please! :D
- FoxMan
- Jun 21 2011, 01:16:06 AM
I really do want to record footage of it, though. It definitely needs to be done.[/quote]Do eet.
Seriously though, these consoles might be fun if you managed to get a couple of mates over with a crate of beer on standby. ;)
I saw a Zone 60 console at a flea market recently, and got it for 15 bucks.
I cracked up when I saw Mr. Frosty (from Kirby's Adventure) in that Hot Drop game, as well as that Mario figure with the pirate suit in Jewel Fever 2, and Bunearies in Ice Climber. :P
There's some vaguely-familiar pink-haired figure in that Surf Adventure game that sort of mystifies me for some reason, and unsure of what game she was ripped off from or who she really is. I took a screenie off of Tweeterman287's video commentary of the Zone 60 for emphasis on this:
(http://www.picturetogo.com/images/2011/07/03/41584-z60surfgame.png)
I apologize for the blurry quality since I screencapped this, but no one bothered to notice her when Tweeterman287 went to the next game.
EDIT: I took a better (and closer) shot of her in farmhousemedia3000's video of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYf0KeSrrYE), if that helps:
(http://www.picturetogo.com/images/2011/07/03/41704-w60pinkhairedgal.png)
no idea who she is - the blue-haired guy looks an awful lot like Goemon though.
Hmm... I don't know where she's ripped from, but i think her name is Misty. I've seen her in a game before and that was her name, but I can't remember what game it was.
if anyone's interested Xinan Industry, aka Powerking & Omni-Special, makers of the (non-Jungletac) Vii, Wow & etc (not to mention the Power Player) now has yet *another* name & website, Sinango (http://www.sinango.com/).
the latest bandwagon they've jumped on is ... 3D games (http://eng.sinango.com/index.php?case=archive&act=list&catid=4), of the red/blue glasses style. Unfortunately the games are developed by Shenzhen Niutai so they probably control like my arse.
There's also a video (http://www.sinango.com/show5.html), anyone with 3D glasses want to check it out and see how good the effect is?
Funny how when Nintendo decides to utilise a gimmick for their system, these companies always try to rip it off regardless of how stupid the original idea is. Utilising 3D in gaming is a bad idea to begin with as far as I'm concerned. The 3D itself is only done to enhance the graphics which I couldn't care less about and having to wear two pairs of glasses just looks silly, quite frankly. -_-
Anyway, the games just look like updated versions of JungleTac's 16-bit games and nothing more from what I remember.
Well theyre updated versions of Niutai's 16-bit games, and some of those were pretty much clones of Jungletac's (only worse). Not sure if theres any relationship or if Niutai just ripped off Jungletac or what.
From what I can gather watching the video, the 3D games use ChromaDepth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromaDepth) 3D glasses - it explains the bizarre color schemes for the games. (I used to have a pair of those that was included with a set of markers when I was a kid, but I'm sure it got thrown away by now.)
3d? What 3d? I used the glasses, and it just looks stupid. You can't even see half the objects when you're wearing the glasses.
- codeman38
- Sep 23 2011, 03:00:30 PM
From what I can gather watching the video, the 3D games use ChromaDepth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromaDepth) 3D glasses - it explains the bizarre color schemes for the games. (I used to have a pair of those that was included with a set of markers when I was a kid, but I'm sure it got thrown away by now.)[/quote]ah, good spot - ChromaDepth glasses don't seem to be all that common compared to the red/blue type, there are a few on eBay but all in the US and it's probably not worth my while paying the shipping just to watch a video of some crap games i'll never play :D
The WAL*MART in my city (Welland, Ontario) is selling a wii clone, and I'm pretty sure there were pirated game on it. I don't remember the name of it, but it had 60 games on it, mostly sports games, plus about 10 arcade games updated to 16-bit graphics.
Does anyone know what this wii clone is called?
- ClassicGamer
- May 26 2012, 06:01:26 PM
The WAL*MART in my city (Welland, Ontario) is selling a wii clone, and I'm pretty sure there were pirated game on it. I don't remember the name of it, but it had 60 games on it, mostly sports games, plus about 10 arcade games updated to 16-bit graphics.
Does anyone know what this wii clone is called?[/quote]Almost sounds like someone took the NJ Pocket and made it a Wii clone. Amirite?
This... Argentine? (their site is written in Rioplatense Spanish and they do sell their products here) company has several game consoles: http://www.noganet.com/productos/noganet/video-juegos/consolas (http://www.noganet.com/productos/noganet/video-juegos/consolas) Seems to be similar to the Nanjing ones. Also, http://www.noganet.com/producto/consola-de-video-juegos-2 (http://www.noganet.com/producto/consola-de-video-juegos-2) What is this exactly? It uses PS2 joysticks and includes 60 games, but I don't know if they're good classic games or Waixing/Jungletac/etc. rubbish.
the latter one looks like a rebranded version of the Gamebox 380:
http://www.sznanjing.com.cn/pro_view.aspx?id=120 (http://www.sznanjing.com.cn/pro_view.aspx?id=120)
AFAIK it plays arcade games (and other consoles if that page is to be believed), no idea how good the emulation is though.
At least some of Noganet's consoles are clearly by Qi Sheng Long-- the light gun, the fitness mat, and the two Wii clones are all ones that I've seen on QSL's site (and the latter include Niutai's 32-bit games as well).
Thanks you guys! All of Noganet's products come with instructions in broken English, so I supposed they were generic Chinese products with their brand, but I wasn't sure who made those consoles originally.
My Zellers has the Wireless 60 for $50, and that's on sale. If it goes cheaper I might actually get one. I've also seen the same console with Sears stickers on it.
Intec Interact anybody?