JungleTac + Hwang Shinwei + Shenzhen Nanjing

[codeman38]

OK, here's a really bizarre one for ya.

I just found this video review of a hitherto unseen DreamGear plug-n-play unit. It's very clearly made by JungleTac; not only does one of the games credit "DJ Jungle", but it's also identical UI-wise to the Centurion GamePad reviewed by HalfBlindGamer.

The second game shown on the DreamGear console is named Jewel Master. It is... (breathes in)... a hack of Magic Jewelry, credited to JungleTac, that uses music from some of Nanjing's RPGs. (Music which was, in turn, remade from Majin Eiyuuden Wataru, as I've pointed out here before. Oops, wrong one; that's a different tune, but from the same game, Golden Sun. All these Nanjing tunes sound the same anyway. )

I think my whole understanding of the relationships between all these pirate companies just got turned sideways or something...

Edit: Even more interestingly, HalfBlindGamer's version has the same game, but with completely different music, sticking with Jungle's more standard Contra sound driver. Go figure!

Edit #2: Oh, wow, this isn't the only game that uses Nanjing music. Space Castle uses Nanjing's remake of the Zelda dungeon theme. And yet, the rest of the games all still seem to use the traditional JungleTac music. Wei~~~rd.

Edit #3: Even more! In this part of the review, Move Fun has still more Nanjing music, this time from their Saint Seiya game.

[Awesome Panda]

Well, I somehow doubt Hwang Shinwei is connected to them. Their games are common on multicarts so I'm guessing JungleTac stole the game and called it their own.

The SNT music is a complete mystery though. The versions of those games I have use regular JungleTac music so why they use it there I've got no idea. Could be ripped off I guess, seeing as one of the sound effects in Move Fun is ripped off from somewhere, can't remember which game though. What's even weirder though is that Move Fun was apparently made in 2001, two years before SNT even existed. Either they didn't bother updating the copyright (and probably stole the music) or SNT ripped them off, I think.

Edit 1: I'm guessing the former, considering that JungleTac ripped off Hwang Shinwei, Taito (I think), Recca and Side Pocket. Also, is it just me or does the font for Zero Tiger's title screen look like it was ripped off from Legend of Zelda?

Edit 2: Looking at Big Racing, the music on the menu screen sounds ripped off, as does the sound effect on there. And the engine noise is stolen from Road Fighter. GP Race steals sound effects from that game as well and the title theme uses a different sound engine to JungleTac's.

[codeman38]

Ooh, I just realized... The OneStation-- whose menu screen uses the music from Nanjing's Super Robot Wars port-- is also manufactured by JungleTac.

Maybe Nanjing really did rip off JungleTac rather than the other way around? Something is definitely up between the two companies, anyway!LOL, yes, Zero Tiger's title screen is a horrible knockoff of the Zelda font. That's hilarious.

Yeah, Big Racing's music does sound ripped off - it's very different in style from pretty much all of JungleTac's other stuff.

And I wish Josh had left more of GP Race's title screen in the video-- that definitely sounds like Nanjing's old sound engine.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Oct 29 2010, 10:22:58 AM

Ooh, I just realized... The OneStation-- whose menu screen uses the music from Nanjing's Super Robot Wars port-- is also manufactured by JungleTac.

Maybe Nanjing really did rip off JungleTac rather than the other way around? Something is definitely up between the two companies, anyway!And I wish Josh had left more of GP Race's title screen in the video-- that definitely sounds like Nanjing's old sound engine.[/quote]Sounds like JungleTac ripping off yet another company if you ask me. Then again, SNT ripped off Dragon Co. themselves so I think based on what these companies have ripped off before, could be either of them.

What makes it confusing in my opinion is that one of the games with SNT's music was apparently made in 2001 when they formed in 2003, apparently. I presume the copyright date wasn't updated and that JungleTac are being thieving expletives, but I don't think there's anything to back that up yet.

Also, I noticed that both companies use Konami's sound engine at one point or another. The theme from that Super Robot Wars port was remixed for one of SNT's other games (I forget which) while JungleTac uses it for pretty much all of their games.

About that last part, I don't think that's SNT music. Sounds like it was ripped off a legit game if you ask me. I'd guess Darkwing Duck judging by what I heard but I doubt it.

BTW, I think it'd help if someone could dump a multicart or something that has JungleTac's 8-bit games on it, but I think their games are always built in to the console.

[taizou]

well this is weird. maybe, since some of those Jungletac games are 2001ish, ie pre-Nanjing, the musician moved from Jungletac to Nanjing (both are in Shenzhen AFAIK so it wouldnt be too much of a stretch). that OneStation cart with the SRW music was way later than that, but I think the menu music there is reused from some old JungleTac handheld anyway, so it could still have been the same guy.

Cheetahmen

Oct 29 2010, 10:47:53 AM

BTW, I think it'd help if someone could dump a multicart or something that has JungleTac's 8-bit games on it, but I think their games are always built in to the console.[/quote]yeah, i don't think jungletac ever made any multicarts apart from the ones for their own proprietary hardware (onestation, vii etc). their famiclone hardware is modified a bit so they probably couldnt make standard carts anyway.

they did port a few of their 16 bit games to the GBA for some weird reason, but i don't think they were ever released standalone (or maybe they were?) they were just distributed with the Dingoo.