Pirated gear I found on Argos

[Awesome Panda]

Fairly recently (by which I mean when I saw this review of the N-Joypad) Argos, a retailer based in the UK, distribute some pirated stuffs (sic) in their stores. Incicentally, that's where I got that Cyber Arcade Centre thing (or CAC if you prefer because that's what is :lol: ) from, which like I mentioned before (including a couple of updates to my last post which you might not have read) had a few ripped off games as well as the Pitfall II theme. I'll just put up a list of this stuff I found on their website and eBay account.

Zone 40 Wireless Gaming Console - The Zone 40 is quite obviously a 16-bit console that blatantly rips off the Wii with its motion control and general design. In the video I've linked to, you'll notice that some of the games are rip offs of 8-bit games, namely The Mouse & The Cat which is an obvious ripoff of Pac-Man, Bomberman which is a clone of... you know, and Bee Fighting which is an obvious clone of Galaga. Some of the games are also ports of 8-bit Trump Grand games, such as Hitting Mice and Baseball. Also, it's worth pointing out that Daniel in the Bowling game is actually Wallace Breen from Half Life 2. :lol:

Sega Megadrive LCD portable thing - TBH, I'm not sure if this is pirated or not seeing as Sega like whoring their stuff out these days (in fact, I think there's even another version of the Zone 40 with Sega's branding) but I'll point it out here anyways. One of those handheld Mega Drives (or Geneses (sic?) if you're American) you can find in numerous places nowadays. Several of these things are present on Argos' website, including one on sale for £13. (which is about $20, I think)

From eBay,

64-in-1 Plug & Play TV Game - This one I'm intrigued about, mainly because Argos really don't give the game away with their description. As I found out on AliBaba, this thing merely contains the same old Trump Grand games we've all grown to detest. Incidentally, that one is distributed by Tai Kee Industry Co. LTD., and looking at their account they seem to distribute (and possibly make) more of these clones. Should probably make a seperate topic about them, but I'm too lazy to.

Argos' bad attempt to look cool

 

Rock on.[/quote]

[codeman38]

The AtGames thing is officially licensed by Sega, if I recall. However, it has some horrible audio pitch issues from the NTSC/PAL conversion, from what I remember seeing in one playthrough video.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and it's been mentioned here before, but it totally bears repeating... The copyright registration numbers on the Zone 40? Waixing.

[Barver]

That Zone 40 thing is in every thrift shop over here in the US. I was actually surprised such a blatant rip-off of the Wii would be in such a public establishment, not used to seeing that kinda stuff over here. Famiclone controllers though, there's always a stand in the mall with those things Genesis portables seem to be coming out left and right, yet none get the sound right. It's not due to NTSC/PAL conversion, but rather they just can't replicate the hardware correctly from what I've read. Using cheaper chips at different clock speeds or something and lots of tech stuff I don't understand. A PSP would be a MUCH better investment!

BTW, anyone know if Zone 40 is some sort of localization of that Chinese thing called Vii? That's what I assumed

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codeman38

Oct 21 2010, 09:41:38 PM

The AtGames thing is officially licensed by Sega, if I recall. However, it has some horrible audio pitch issues from the NTSC/PAL conversion, from what I remember seeing in one playthrough video.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and it's been mentioned here before, but it totally bears repeating... The copyright registration numbers on the Zone 40? Waixing.[/quote]

Barver

 

That Zone 40 thing is in every thrift shop over here in the US. I was actually surprised such a blatant rip-off of the Wii would be in such a public establishment, not used to seeing that kinda stuff over here. Famiclone controllers though, there's always a stand in the mall with those things Genesis portables seem to be coming out left and right, yet none get the sound right. It's not due to NTSC/PAL conversion, but rather they just can't replicate the hardware correctly from what I've read. Using cheaper chips at different clock speeds or something and lots of tech stuff I don't understand. A PSP would be a MUCH better investment!

BTW, anyone know if Zone 40 is some sort of localization of that Chinese thing called Vii? That's what I assumed [/quote]

Odd, I never noticed any of those audio pitch issues when I had my Mega Drive, (although that was a rather long time ago) must be poor emulation more than anything. I think Barver is right about the hardware, because after all, a lot of these companies are cheap like that. I would get a PSP, but I'm far too poor and lazy to get one. BTW, Sega themselves have done poor sound emulation before; cases in point being the Sega Smash Pack on the Dreamcast and Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis on the GBA. I think this and the Zone Sega go to show how much they're willing to whore themselves out for money these days, the video game equivalent of a prostitute if I dare say it.

As for the Zone 40 itself, I noticed those copyright dates long before (not to mention the stolen stuff in the games) and of course, the games are by Trump Grand. I think it's been said before, but presumably they and Waixing are either the same entity or different companies with close ties given that their 8-bit games have the same style for the copyright dates. Incidentally, it isn't a localisation of the Vii as that console has different games and such, and they don't seem to be by Trump Grand as far as I can tell.

[codeman38]

If I recall, the 16-bit version of the Vii was developed by JungleTac. However, there's also an 8-bit Vii that does use the Waixing/Trump Grand games.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Oct 22 2010, 03:15:02 PM

If I recall, the 16-bit version of the Vii was developed by JungleTac. However, there's also an 8-bit Vii that does use the Waixing/Trump Grand games.[/quote]If that's true, then I think there's a definite connection between Trump Grand and JungleTac, even if their games are different. Where did you get that information from, BTW?

Also, if JungleTac did the 16-bit Vii then would that make Chintendo an alias of them?

Edit: Oh yeah, that Jewel Master 2 game which is obviously a 16-bit port of Jewel Master which is a hack of Magic Jewelry.

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Oct 22 2010, 03:24:24 PM

If that's true, then I think there's a definite connection between Trump Grand and JungleTac, even if their games are different. Where did you get that information from, BTW?

Also, if JungleTac did the 16-bit Vii then would that make Chintendo an alias of them?[/quote]I can't remember where I saw it, but I know there's a playthrough on YouTube that shows a copyright screen featuring a JungleTac copyright.

And "Chintendo" is a name that someone made up before there was official info on the system. The actual brand it's sold under is Kensington... which is also what JungleTac markets their OneStation as.

Edit: Pretty much definitive proof that Jungletac makes the Vii.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Oct 23 2010, 12:33:28 AM

I can't remember where I saw it, but I know there's a playthrough on YouTube that shows a copyright screen featuring a JungleTac copyright.

And "Chintendo" is a name that someone made up before there was official info on the system. The actual brand it's sold under is Kensington... which is also what JungleTac markets their OneStation as.

Edit: Pretty much definitive proof that Jungletac makes the Vii.[/quote]I've never seen that playthrough, but looking through the info about them I don't really need to. So JungleTac made the Vii and Trump Grand were involved in some way or another with the Zone 40. Not sure what that means TBH.

BTW, it's not actually Kensington but rather KenSingTon. :lol:

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Oct 23 2010, 05:13:00 AM

BTW, it's not actually Kensington but rather KenSingTon. :lol:[/quote]Ah, right, forgot about that! Spell it the same as a real company, but capitalize it weird. Not that that will hold up in trademark court or anything, but manufacturers of knockoffs do weird stuff in general...

Edit: And they're not even consistent with that capitalization! Gamester81's unit spells it as "kensington", in all lowercase.

Edit #2: And what do you know, that's also the review that shows a credit to "Jungle Soft" on the start-up screen. Whee.And here's the 8-bit Vii. That copyright registration on Baseball (2006SR06872) does indeed belong to Waixing.

Interestingly, despite the console having the same name, the games seem to be completely unrelated.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Oct 23 2010, 11:13:34 AM

Cheetahmen

Oct 23 2010, 05:13:00 AM

BTW, it's not actually Kensington but rather KenSingTon. :lol:[/quote]Ah, right, forgot about that! Spell it the same as a real company, but capitalize it weird. Not that that will hold up in trademark court or anything, but manufacturers of knockoffs do weird stuff in general...

Edit: And they're not even consistent with that capitalization! Gamester81's unit spells it as "kensington", in all lowercase.

Edit #2: And what do you know, that's also the review that shows a credit to "Jungle Soft" on the start-up screen. Whee.And here's the 8-bit Vii. That copyright registration on Baseball (2006SR06872) does indeed belong to Waixing.

Interestingly, despite the console having the same name, the games seem to be completely unrelated.[/quote]Like I said earlier Trump Grand seem to have made the games for the 8-bit Vii, but for all we know they might have seen the advertisement for JungleTac's one and felt like making a poor man's version of it.

The Baseball, Tennis and Ping Pong games are different, and the music in the latter's 8-bit version uses Sunsoft's sound engine. I think Street Dance (the version without the PCM music) used the same sound engine so maybe Invent, the people who made that, also made Ping Pong?

The sound effects on Penalty Kick are stolen from Hummer Team games which is kind of odd considering that they're not used in any of the other games.

The Slalom game in the third part of the video is a graphical hack of Slalom by Rare, in case you didn't notice. Even the music is unchanged in that game. I also like how in the multicart menu, the names Assart and Hell are listed (the latter being there twice, no less) which I think describe Trump Grand in a nutshell. :lol:

BTW, Boxing's intro looks like it was inspired by the Rocky films which kind of makes sense.

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Oct 23 2010, 12:43:32 PM

The Baseball, Tennis and Ping Pong games are different, and the music in the latter's 8-bit version uses Sunsoft's sound engine. I think Street Dance (the version without the PCM music) used the same sound engine so maybe Invent, the people who made that, also made Ping Pong?[/quote]Ooh, good catch! And yes, Street Dance definitely uses the famous Sunsoft bass.

What's so weird is that the rest of the music in Ping-Pong doesn't use it. Maybe Invent only did the intro?

Cheetahmen

 

The sound effects on Penalty Kick are stolen from Hummer Team games which is kind of odd considering that they're not used in any of the other games.[/quote]OK, that is weird. What's even weirder is that although the sound effects are definitely Hummer,  the music in the intro seems to use a completely different engine!

Cheetahmen

 

The Slalom game in the third part of the video is a graphical hack of Slalom by Rare, in case you didn't notice. Even the music is unchanged in that game.[/quote]Yep, I noticed that-- even left a comment on the vid long ago about it.

[taizou]

one of the games on my "Super Gun King" joystick (Jurassic Park, a lightgun game) uses the Sunsoft sound engine too. which is really weird, because all the other games on there are definitely by Waixing, but i've never known any other Waixing game to use it.
edit: well apart from Ping Pong's intro. if that was theirs.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Oct 24 2010, 12:36:44 AM

Cheetahmen

Oct 23 2010, 12:43:32 PM

The Baseball, Tennis and Ping Pong games are different, and the music in the latter's 8-bit version uses Sunsoft's sound engine. I think Street Dance (the version without the PCM music) used the same sound engine so maybe Invent, the people who made that, also made Ping Pong?[/quote]Ooh, good catch! And yes, Street Dance definitely uses the famous Sunsoft bass.

What's so weird is that the rest of the music in Ping-Pong doesn't use it. Maybe Invent only did the intro?

Cheetahmen

 

The sound effects on Penalty Kick are stolen from Hummer Team games which is kind of odd considering that they're not used in any of the other games.[/quote]OK, that is weird. What's even weirder is that although the sound effects are definitely Hummer,  the music in the intro seems to use a completely different engine.[/quote]About Ping Pong, I've got no idea either. Maybe the intro theme is stolen from another pirate or something seeing as they stole Hummer Team stuff as well. I don't recall hearing it in any Sunsoft game I ever played. I also don't get that Osaka 2006 endorsement, I can't find any information about the event itself. (and yeah, I know Osaka is a city in Japan ) Presumably some obscure ping pong tournament or something, that's assuming it exists.

As for Penalty Kick, I guess they ported the sound effects to their sound engine because they figured using Donkey Kong Country music in a game loosely based on football wouldn't make sense. Then again, seeing as one of their platformers uses a bad rendition of the Pitfall II theme, I've got no idea. Another thing I find odd there is the "ready" text before the game starts, like in Hummer's KoF96 and The Legend, that version of Street Fighter IV which appears on that 15-in-1 multicart MLX has.

Also, I just noticed that the title screen actually says "Penrtly Kick," the timer starts at 9 minutes and 60 seconds and it says "muff" in the HUD. :lol: