BTW, how do we know NT are just publishers and not developers? I musta missed that[/quote]
On their NES games, they publish with the ID code of NT-xxx. They published a bunch of EHY games and Hummer games. (Along with 2 unknowns Shinshen Mahjong II or whatever that was called and Yuu Yuu Hakusho).
ah, I had a half-arsed theory about that based on some of them saying "Hi-Game 1999".. good to have confirmation :D
- Barver
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BTW, how do we know NT are just publishers and not developers? I musta missed that :P[/quote]
well I can't think of anything they released that doesnt seem to have been developed by someone else.. seems like the only things they made in-house were half arsed title hacks.
I got what appears to be the original print of Mortal Kombat 5 today. So far it looks like we've got a rundown like this:
ES48001 Sonic Jam 6
ES48002 Mario Bros 2
ES48003 Hercules
ES12801 Mortal Kombat 5
ES12802 Pocket Monsters
Wonder what others there are. I feel like I forgot something already.
Hm, all of these are games that use the High Seas Havoc sound driver and that are based on licensed properties. I imagine all the others in that category (Aladdin 2, Mulan, and others I can't recall at the moment) must be by NT as well...
Edit: Oh yeah. Lion King 3. And probably Top Fighter and KOF too, now that I think about it.
Some of them were published by X Boy though AFAIK. Lion King 3, Mulan and Top Fighter are definitely theirs.. and one of the Pokemons, I think?
Speaking of X Boy, there's this game which is practically at a Tiny Toons 3 level of popularity.
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5900/soulb.jpg)
(http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3065/pic5nq.jpg)
(http://img574.imageshack.us/img574/4693/pic1fk.jpg)
(http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4256/pic2qx.jpg)
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3283/pic3j.jpg)
(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/298/pic4el.jpg)
wow, i've never seen that before. seems to be a *bit* more widespread than TTA3 judging from google, but not much. do you actually own it or did you just find the pics online somewhere?
I like how the label says "Soul Euge vs Sumurai Spirits".
I didn't even know it comes up under Google! But the first result is where I got the cart pic since it's owned by the same guy who I first saw "Tiny Toon Adventures 3" on his list of games owned at guardiana.net. Figured after a year of trying to contact that guy, he finally messaged me just the other day. Only when it's too late and I finally got that game through other means =p But I don't own it, I got the gameplay pics from an old Mercado Libre auction.
Either Euge is a typo or the font for the D made them think it was a U =p Probably just built off the same engine as Top Fighter though. Sucks that this game and Power Rangers are the two latest pirates to crop up. I'd love to see something besides a fighter.
Ooh, it just dawned on me-- we already knew that NT had a role in at least one Genesis pirate: Barver's namesake! Their logo is hidden in the Barver Battle Saga ROM as an Easter egg (A+B+C+Start at title screen). And that one was definitely developed by Chuanpu.
So perhaps NT hired ex-Chuanpu people to make these other bootleg games? It'd explain the High Seas Havoc sound driver, anyway.
Well, that'd also explain why some of those pirates reuse music from a beat em up (I think) Chuanpu made that I forget the name of.
That sounds pretty convincing, especially since I've always felt these games were made by ChuanPu, I guess it was the sound driver.
Is the beat em up you're thinking of Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan? That game also feels like a ChuanPu game to me, though on taizou's site there's a link to a JP blog that shows the side of the box with a Kin Tec logo, which sort of complicates things. The main character in that game arguably looks like a more macho version of Tim from Barver Battle, though :D
well Kin Tec seems to be the same company as King Tec, and King Tec published Super Big 2 which is definitely by Chuanpu, so it doesnt really complicate things that much :D
I don't think Shui Hu is by the actual company Chuanpu though, just a lot of its former staff - Feng Shen Ying Jie Chuan was their last game according to that guy you contacted a while back, and both games came out in 96, so Never Ending Soft Team might have been formed by the ex staff after Chuanpu went out of business.. maybe Shui Hu started out in development at Chuanpu but they finished it off as Never Ending. and then it was actually Never Ending that developed all those pirates (and I guess they started Vast Fame sometime in 1999)