ooh good call on Macro Winners. that explains a lot. I guess they manufactured the original Zone (with the Miwi Xtra games) as a rebranded version of the Miwi, and Subor made the Zone 40. (i also recently discovered another Zone, the "Zone Mini", there are a few videos on youtube but I can't be arsed looking into it just yet)
they actually have a different, older version of their website up at
http://macrowin.com ...
at the bottom of this page:
http://macrowin.com/Quotation/Miwi.htmis a joystick that looks *very* similar to the 88 in 1 mentioned in
this thread. all the games built into that joystick are hacks, and some of the hacks that arent on the 101 in 1 are credited to "Winners". so they seem to have made a few hacks themselves, but used others from Inventor or whoever. and now i finally know what that damn cartridge port is for! it's their own proprietary format, also used by
this thing.
they also have some stuff up on Google Video:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Macro+Winners+Electronics+Ltd%22&tbs=vid%3A1
oh yeah, and I've definitely seen that "BS" logo from their (current) website on some pirate famicom carts.
the
V-Mega seems to be one of theirs too.. and poking through archived versions of their website (and other stuff) i've found that "BS" seems to stand for "Belsonic", they were founded in Taiwan in 1988, and "Andy Brown" (as in "Andy Brown's World" on the V-Mega) was originally
this thing.
come to think of it I'm sure I've seen Andy Brown and that BS logo on a "GameStar" famiclone mouse too.. (I have a GameStar multicart for what its worth. and its shit.) and
heres a GameStar Famiclone that looks identical to the Console TV by ABL. my Console TV 12 in 1 cart is also in a similar kinda case to the GameStar multi. hmm.
I love some of the stuff they have on their old website. proper oldschool ridiculous looking famiclones like the
MORTAL KOMBAT 3. and
this Mega Drive clone. All seven of those games sound fantastic. and
this - the description makes it sound like a Playstation clone, surely not?
At one point after that they seem to have gone through a phase of putting "
Z" on the end of everythingz but the only one that survivez now is the
Mi-Fiit Aero DANZ which is a pretty excellent name if you ask me.
this one's another Console TV alike - seems like at one point Macro Win and ABL were based in the same building in HK. well maybe. MW was there in 01 but had moved by 03, ABL was still there in 03. So maybe there was some cooperation in the early 00's.
just started a
wiki article on this company.
and one more thing I found - there are pics
here and a full list
here of all their 16-bit games, but the "newly released 24 games" seem to be a different style and even a different
aspect ratio to the usual Waixing games and the weird ones from the Miwi Xtra.
if anyone fancies pissing away $30,
this one seems to be the latest version with all 89 games on it.
edit: incidentally
these guys claim to be selling one with 127 games, more than Macro Winners even have.. wonder how they managed that. famicom multicart thrown in?
okay this shit just keeps coming. heres an advert for some cartridge for certain models of MiWi that I've never heard of before (the only one I can actually find is the 360,
here)
http://s917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/ROSH1976/?action=view¤t=macro1.jpgthe games on the left are all hacks from the 88 Games joystick, the ones on the right look like those Waixing Famiclone games with an enhanced colour palette that show up occasionally, and the ones at the bottom are standard 16-bit MiWi games..