Generic Wii clone thread

[taizou]

that thread on the MiWi Xtra inspired me to have a look around ebay for some Wii clones (I even bought one. but its not here yet.)
there are probably 100s of different and ridiculous names these things have been released under, like MiWii2, NiMiWi2, WiNi, Wiii3, SWii, My Play, MiSport, EZi, itek, MiZone, Vimax, X-wei and many many more, but i've found there are basically two major lines:

MiWi! ~ Games by Waixing. Hardware by Subor? Maybe. see below.
&
WiWi! ~ Games by Trump Grand or whoever the hell makes all those terrible famiclone games.

they both use some kind of 16-bit hardware as far as I can tell, and most of the wii clones you'll see in the wild are gonna be either of these. sometimes rebranded, sometimes with a different case, sometimes with a different selection of games.

now the odd thing here is the Miwi I and Wiwi I look identical, except the controllers (thats an easy way to tell with rebranded clones if youre really looking at a Miwi or a Wiwi - Miwis have 2 face buttons, Wiwis have 4). I dunno what that's about. Maybe they're made in the same factory with different software installed? Or maybe one just ripped off the other's design. That happens a lot.

few other notable ones include:

• iSports - Definitely Subor. there are a few different models - the standard 16-bit ones have pretty much the same Waixing software as Miwis. theres also a 32-bit iSports Pro, and the iFit, which is kinda mat-based. they all seem to have different names in China though.
  
• Sport Vii - the famous one. by jungletac/kensington. possibly the first, and possibly the only one to actually have 2.4G (not infrared) and some degree of actual motion control (rather than just treating any sharp movement as another button like the crap ones do). shame it didn't catch on really.
  
• Zone - just some distributor's brand name, they use it on a few different companies' products. the Zone is basically a Miwi, Zone 40 has Waixing games, Zone 60 seems to be Jungletac (the non-sport games at least, the sport games are different to the Sport Vii's), Zone Family Fit is Subor's iFit, Zone Sega (renamed Sega Reactor for some reason) is by AtGames, and I dunno about the Zone Interactive.
  
• 8-bit Vii is just weird.

ooh and not forgetting the WiWi is by Hamy, aka Qi Sheng Long (see this thread, website @ http://www.qishenglong.com/) which holds the copyright on a bunch of those Trump Grand games.

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taizou

 

WiWi! ~ Games by Trump Grand or whoever the hell makes all those terrible famiclone games.[/quote]
Yeah, that sounds like them. They also did the 8-bit Vii in case you didn't know.

Looking at what isn't here already:
Zone Sega - Yet another one of those Zone 40-type consoles, except it's officially licensed by Sega and includes 20 Mega Drive games, and I presume that much like the relatively common MD clones the sound emulation is imperfect. Judging by a few screenshots because I can't find any videos of it, the original games appear to be by the same people that made the Zone 40, although I've never even seen half of them before. This might be worth buying for the sake of curiosity. There's also the Sega Reactor which is most likely a rebranded version of it.
Lexibook Wireless Sports - From the same people that made the godawful 120-in-1 Cyber Arcade Centre I own, this one just looks weird. The graphics in Bowling look like they were ripped directly from Wii Sports and as far as I can tell the games on it are by a different company. Difficult to tell from the screenshot though.
Wireless Pingpong - Not sure if this one counts a Wii ripoff as there's no real console, but it's wireless all the same. A Famiclone with a ping pong paddle or whatever they're called and a blatant ripoff of the N64 controller. Looking at the list of games, I think Lucky Ball is the Pinball hack that was on the V-Mega. No idea who made that one but by the looks of things, probably the same people that did Super Fighter (the Super C hack) and these hacks seem to have more effort put into them than the ones on the Famicom Yarou. I'm pondering buying this one just to see what the other games are.

[taizou]

Cheetahmen

Nov 12 2010, 02:45:27 PM

Looking at what isn't here already:
Zone Sega - Yet another one of those Zone 40-type consoles, except it's officially licensed by Sega and includes 20 Mega Drive games, and I presume that much like the relatively common MD clones the sound emulation is imperfect. Judging by a few screenshots because I can't find any videos of it, the original games appear to be by the same people that made the Zone 40, although I've never even seen half of them before.

[/quote]I'm pretty sure the games on that one are AtGames originals - I've seen a few of them on their MD clones. (also: Mr. Balls )

Cheetahmen

 

They also did the 8-bit Vii in case you didn't know.[/quote]
well, kind of. thats why its weird. it seems to have both Trump Grand/QiShengLong games and Waixing games. And a hack of Rare's Slalom with upgraded graphics. so I have no idea really. there does seem to be some kind of tenuous connection between Waixing and TG/QSL, but they still pretty much have their own distinct styles of games. they just very occasionally overlap for some reason.

Cheetahmen

 

Wireless Pingpong - Not sure if this one counts a Wii ripoff as there's no real console, but it's wireless all the same. A Famiclone with a ping pong paddle or whatever they're called and a blatant ripoff of the N64 controller. Looking at the list of games, I think Lucky Ball is the Pinball hack that was on the V-Mega. No idea who made that one but by the looks of things, probably the same people that did Super Fighter (the Super C hack) and these hacks seem to have more effort put into them than the ones on the Famicom Yarou. I'm pondering buying this one just to see what the other games are.[/quote]
yeah I wouldnt count that as a Wii clone, single-game consoles with various sports controllers (pingpong, tennis, boxing, football etc etc) existed way before the Wii. most of the Wii clones you get now are pretty much evolutions of that concept, just with all the different games in one unit. Still looks interesting though - I havent heard of any of those hacks before, except Lucky Ball.

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taizou

Nov 12 2010, 03:36:18 PM

Cheetahmen

 

They also did the 8-bit Vii in case you didn't know.[/quote]
well, kind of. thats why its weird. it seems to have both Trump Grand/QiShengLong games and Waixing games. And a hack of Rare's Slalom with upgraded graphics. so I have no idea really. there does seem to be some kind of tenuous connection between Waixing and TG/QSL, but they still pretty much have their own distinct styles of games. they just very occasionally overlap for some reason.[/quote]That's a good point. I guess the usage of stolen sound engines, 8-bit renditions of other songs (Sudoku 49-in-1, which is mostly Trump Grand games, does this as well) and the Slalom hack go to show that Trump Grand/Qi Sheng Long tend to steal quite a lot of stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if Waixing licensed a couple of games to them. Also, the TG games are a definite majority by my count, I think the only Waixing games on there are Desert Storm and Hua Rong Dau.

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Nov 12 2010, 02:45:27 PM

Wireless Pingpong - Not sure if this one counts a Wii ripoff as there's no real console, but it's wireless all the same. A Famiclone with a ping pong paddle or whatever they're called and a blatant ripoff of the N64 controller. Looking at the list of games, I think Lucky Ball is the Pinball hack that was on the V-Mega. No idea who made that one but by the looks of things, probably the same people that did Super Fighter (the Super C hack) and these hacks seem to have more effort put into them than the ones on the Famicom Yarou. I'm pondering buying this one just to see what the other games are.[/quote]One of the games on that one-- no idea which of the names corresponds to it-- is very clearly a hack of Binary Land.

This is clearly the same console, given the list of games-- and yep, they're all NES hacks, it appears. Interestingly, the screenshot of the Ping Pong game itself looks very much like one I saw on Qi Sheng Long's site, right down to the option for "Knocks Exercise". Also note that they have versions for boxing, tennis, and even a DDR knockoff-- the latter being the one from Invent that includes both Hit Mouse and actual PCM samples, it appears.

Edit: It wouldn't surprise me if the Dancing/Hit Mouse ROM had some connection to Qi Sheng Long too; the menu uses the same tune as some of the DreamGear games.

[taizou]

codeman38

Nov 12 2010, 05:30:53 PM

Edit: It wouldn't surprise me if the Dancing/Hit Mouse ROM had some connection to Qi Sheng Long too; the menu uses the same tune as some of the DreamGear games.[/quote]That kinda makes a hell of a lot of sense. a very similar Hit Mouse is on my D-Cat 8 as a separate game (with a 2002 copyright) and most of the original games on there are Qi Sheng Long's. Plus Street Dance is credited to "Invent", F22 (an original shooter) and Sea War 2000 (a Battle City hack) on my 101 in 1 are both credited to "Inventor".. could be a connection there, since lots of the same hacks from the 101 in 1 are on the Yarou 54, which also contains a few QSL games (and the same menu music as the D-Cat, which is pretty much a mixture of those hacks, QSL originals and unmodified stuff)

codeman38

 

This is clearly the same console, given the list of games-- and yep, they're all NES hacks, it appears. Interestingly, the screenshot of the Ping Pong game itself looks very much like one I saw on Qi Sheng Long's site, right down to the option for "Knocks Exercise". Also note that they have versions for boxing, tennis, and even a DDR knockoff-- the latter being the one from Invent that includes both Hit Mouse and actual PCM samples, it appears.[/quote]
I have a ping pong console by ABL with that same ping pong game (none of the hacks though), i'll have to dig it out. but ABL also made the N-Joypad, Console TV and  some arcade stick famiclone which all contain Inventor/Yarou style hacks. hmm.

edit: and of course ABL have their own line of Wii clones now. because what sort of cheap console maker would they be if they didn't.

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Quote:

 

This is clearly the same console, given the list of games-- and yep, they're all NES hacks, it appears.[/quote] Why am I not surprised? However, one of those games on the box I showed earlier definitely looks like Super Fighter to me. In fact, the font that's used in that game is (I think) identical to some of those Famicom Yarou games, so for all I know TG/QSL could have done those hacks themselves. Then again, those Famicom Yarou games were all hacks of 1st-gen Famicom games so I'm confused as hell there. >_<

codeman38

Nov 12 2010, 05:30:53 PM

Edit: It wouldn't surprise me if the Dancing/Hit Mouse ROM had some connection to Qi Sheng Long too; the menu uses the same tune as some of the DreamGear games.[/quote]That kinda makes a hell of a lot of sense. a very similar Hit Mouse is on my D-Cat 8 as a separate game (with a 2002 copyright) and most of the original games on there are Qi Sheng Long's. Plus Street Dance is credited to "Invent", F22 (an original shooter) and Sea War 2000 (a Battle City hack) on my 101 in 1 are both credited to "Inventor".. could be a connection there, since lots of the same hacks from the 101 in 1 are on the Yarou 54, which also contains a few QSL games (and the same menu music as the D-Cat, which is pretty much a mixture of those hacks, QSL originals and unmodified stuff.

Didn't expect that myself, although I guess it makes sense in a way. What I find odd is, if they ripped off the Sunsoft sound engine for the original version of Street Dance (the one with a 2000 copyright) then why didn't they just use that for their other games instead of the (awful) sound engine that they used for most of them? Also, I think back before they did those cheap Famicom games from 2002 onwards I believe, (I've yet to see their games with a copyright date before that) they originally did those Intellivision ports reworked for Famiclone hardware (and of course, they'd be hacked for some other games) so maybe there 2 groups of programmers or something. One for the Intellivision ports, the rest for their other stuff. I doubt that's the case though.

Edit: codeman, that Famiclone you brought up isn't quite the same, the one I found has more games on it. The Ping Pong game (and likely some others) is definitely the same though.

[codeman38]

taizou

Nov 12 2010, 05:50:37 PM

That kinda makes a hell of a lot of sense. a very similar Hit Mouse is on my D-Cat 8 as a separate game (with a 2002 copyright) and most of the original games on there are Qi Sheng Long's. Plus Street Dance is credited to "Invent", F22 (an original shooter) and Sea War 2000 (a Battle City hack) on my 101 in 1 are both credited to "Inventor".. could be a connection there, since lots of the same hacks from the 101 in 1 are on the Yarou 54, which also contains a few QSL games (and the same menu music as the D-Cat, which is pretty much a mixture of those hacks, QSL originals and unmodified stuff)[/quote]There was also that Inventor sprite editor that maxzhou88 posted. Perhaps they had something to do with the hacks? I really have no idea.

taizou

 

I have a ping pong console by ABL with that same ping pong game (none of the hacks though), i'll have to dig it out. but ABL also made the N-Joypad, Console TV and  some arcade stick famiclone which all contain Inventor/Yarou style hacks. hmm.[/quote]Interesting. So perhaps there is a connection between the QSL originals and the hacks? Who knows...

Edit: Take a look at the last two screenshots on ABL's AB3500 console. Yep, it's Trump Grand/QSL stuff! They also produce a Mini Joystick with the QSL games. And yet, they're also still marketing consoles (including both the N-Joypad and the Console TV) with the licensed-game hacks on them.

[taizou]

Cheetahmen

Nov 12 2010, 07:03:19 PM

However, one of those games on the box I showed earlier definitely looks like Super Fighter to me. In fact, the font that's used in that game is (I think) identical to some of those Famicom Yarou games, so for all I know TG/QSL could have done those hacks themselves. Then again, those Famicom Yarou games were all hacks of 1st-gen Famicom games so I'm confused as hell there. >_<[/quote]well my 101 in 1 has Super Fighter on it, plus a bunch of the Yarou hacks and a few hacks of more advanced games (Batman, James Bond Jr, some racing game, Gun-Nac etc etc). its also on this 12 in 1 cart I have. so i'd say Super Fighter and the Yarou hacks are by the same people.. and if that really is Super Fighter on the Ping Pong thing, the hacks on there probably are too.

oh yeah, and a few of the very earliest hacks by these people (at least I'm assuming they are, since they show up on the same famiclones as their later ones) are built into the Power Joy (by Trump Grand)

Cheetahmen

 

Didn't expect that myself, although I guess it makes sense in a way. What I find odd is, if they ripped off the Sunsoft sound engine for the original version of Street Dance (the one with a 2000 copyright) then why didn't they just use that for their other games instead of the (awful) sound engine that they used for most of them? Also, I think back before they did those cheap Famicom games from 2002 onwards I believe, (I've yet to see their games with a copyright date before that) they originally did those Intellivision ports reworked for Famiclone hardware (and of course, they'd be hacked for some other games) so maybe there 2 groups of programmers or something. One for the Intellivision ports, the rest for their other stuff. I doubt that's the case though.[/quote]
i wonder if Inventor only really existed from around 2000-2002, then QSL just acquired their games somehow. thatd explain the crapness of QSL's own games compared to stuff like F22 (which isnt fantastic, but at least it, y'know, scrolls, and the music is passable) - if the Inventor games were just bought in, QSL's own internal development (or whoever was making the games for them) would have been basically starting from scratch at that point.

the Intellivision ports are another weird one though. both QSL and Waixing seem to have games based on those, so i'm not sure where they came from originally.

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taizou

 

well my 101 in 1 has Super Fighter on it, plus a bunch of the Yarou hacks and a few hacks of more advanced games (Batman, James Bond Jr, some racing game, Gun-Nac etc etc). its also on this 12 in 1 cart I have. so i'd say Super Fighter and the Yarou hacks are by the same people.. and if that really is Super Fighter on the Ping Pong thing, the hacks on there probably are too.

oh yeah, and a few of the very earliest hacks by these people (at least I'm assuming they are, since they show up on the same famiclones as their later ones) are built into the Power Joy (by Trump Grand)[/quote]

So whoever did these monstrosities of hacks made quite a lot of them then. Never even heard of those other hacks you mentioned though. Looking at that Pingpong thing again, that screenshot is definitely from Super Fighter, the same graphics and the screenshot is from Area 1. Also, looking at the Ping Pong game itself I would assume that's a rehacked version one of QSLs originals with better graphics. Also, isn't the other screenshot (the one that isn't Binary Land) a hack of Mighty Bomb Jack? And about Binary Land, I wonder if it's that hack that replaces the penguins with Doraemons.

Looking around, I found this (and several other) console(s) that have the same Ping Pong game, and that definitely looks 16-bit to me. The only real difference between them is the games, I think. Also, notice that the supplier is Shenzhen Qi Sheng Long Ltd. I think we can guess who made these games at least. Apparently this thing comes with a 198-in-1, judging by the large number I'd assume those are those stupid 8-bit QSL originals.

Also, I just found this video of the Sega Reactor/Zone Sega being sold on Price-Drop TV, one of the many home shopping channels we get in this country. And yeah, the sound emulation is off because I know that Sonic & Knuckles runs the same on PAL TVs as it does on NTSC. I don't think I've ever seen that Boxing game or the one that appears before Golden Axe though. The latter might be some 1st gen Mega Drive game or something but the latter definitely isn't.

Edit: Come to think of it, the intro theme to the Ping Pong game on the 8-bit Vii is almost certainly by Invent, so I guess it'd make sense for them to be QSL.

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Nov 13 2010, 06:35:21 AM

Also, I just found this video of the Sega Reactor/Zone Sega being sold on Price-Drop TV, one of the many home shopping channels we get in this country. And yeah, the sound emulation is off because I know that Sonic & Knuckles runs the same on PAL TVs as it does on NTSC. I don't think I've ever seen that Boxing game or the one that appears before Golden Axe though. The latter might be some 1st gen Mega Drive game or something but the latter definitely isn't.[/quote]Yeah, the boxing game has got to be one of the new productions they mention. No idea about the game with the flying projectile, but it doesn't look familiar to me.

Cheetahmen

 

Edit: Come to think of it, the intro theme to the Ping Pong game on the 8-bit Vii is almost certainly by Invent, so I guess it'd make sense for them to be QSL.[/quote]Ooh, hadn't even thought about that, but there probably is a connection there! Now the question is just whether QSL was Invent, or QSL and Waixing just licensed games from Invent, or what.Oh, yes, and there's also a non-Sega-branded Reactor console, seen in this ad on YouTube. It appears to be... surprise, surprise... the same as the Zone 40. I guess "Reactor" is trademarked by the same company as "Zone", given that the Sega all-in-one is sold under both names as well.Yep, the game with the flying projectile is one of the manufacturer's original developments. See this video review, in which it's scrolled past as "Cannon". I'm assuming the manufacturer is AtGames, but perhaps they're just the licensee of Sega's stuff and the actual game is by QSL; I really don't know.

Edit: Oh, fun! The copyright number on Bowling on the Sega Reactor, shown in that last link, is 2008SR04430, which belongs to... ::drumroll:: Waixing! However, it's markedly different from the arcade games on the Reactor; the sports games are the standard 16-bit Waixing stuff, but the original arcade games are written for Mega Drive hardware.

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codeman38

Nov 13 2010, 08:03:11 PM

Oh, yes, and there's also a non-Sega-branded Reactor console, seen in this ad on YouTube. It appears to be... surprise, surprise... the same as the Zone 40. I guess "Reactor" is trademarked by the same company as "Zone", given that the Sega all-in-one is sold under both names as well.Yep, the game with the flying projectile is one of the manufacturer's original developments. See this video review, in which it's scrolled past as "Cannon". I'm assuming the manufacturer is AtGames, but perhaps they're just the licensee of Sega's stuff and the actual game is by QSL; I really don't know.

Edit: Oh, fun! The copyright number on Bowling on the Sega Reactor, shown in that last link, is 2008SR04430, which belongs to... ::drumroll:: Waixing! However, it's markedly different from the arcade games on the Reactor; the sports games are the standard 16-bit Waixing stuff, but the original arcade games are written for Mega Drive hardware.[/quote]I wouldn't quite say that the Reactor is exact to the Zone 40, could be my faulty memory but I don't recall there being a ping pong game on the latter. The rest of the games appear to be the same thing though.

As for that Sega one, I think the arcade games are by different developers to whoever did the sports games. All of them (with the obvious exception of the Mega Drive games) could have been from Waixing but I'm not entirely sure on that. For one thing, the music in the Bomber game sounds awful to say the least when compared with the sports games, and it sounds like it uses the Mega Drive's sound chip, unlike those games. Mind you, if that and all of the Zone 40 games are by Waixing/QSL/whatever, then why would they make two games ripping off the same thing?

Edit: Oh, you already mentioned the whole Mega Drive hardware thing for the arcade games. :lol: Mind you, it's a bit odd to remake the games for Mega Drive hardware when they have the generic 16-bit architecture to work with.

[taizou]

i'm pretty sure the arcade games on the Sega Reactor at least are AtGames' own (of course thats not to say they didnt farm out development to someone else). i just assumed the sports games would be too, but evidently not.. so i guess this thing must have both AtGames' *and* Waixing's hardware in there. kinda similar to some of the iSports consoles i've seen, which are compatible with famicom carts but the internal games are the usual Waixing 16-bit hardware.

AtGames and Subor seem to have collaborated before though, i've seen a handheld on Taobao with both companies' branding (its not listed anymore though, i should have saved it. damnit.) - its a portable megadrive clone that takes its own proprietary red cartridges, which seem to contain games that i'm pretty sure AtGames doesnt have the rights to (like Konami's Tiny Toons). the carts don't have any company name on them but i suspect they were made by Subor.something else i noticed, the Cool Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr7iZEQMg1o
contains both Waixing and QSL games... and DealExtreme sell a cart with F22 on it, originally by Inventor

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taizou

Nov 14 2010, 01:27:50 AM

something else i noticed, the Cool Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr7iZEQMg1o
contains both Waixing and QSL games... and DealExtreme sell a cart with F22 on it, originally by Inventor[/quote]Makes me wonder if Inventor is an alias of QSL. Mind you, I think they rarely use Street Dance because of how much bigger the rom size of that is when compared with their other games. I guess they never learned the lesson of "quality over quantity."

[codeman38]

Interestingly, Assart is registered to both Waixing and Qi Sheng Long. Go figure. In this case, Waixing registered it first.

F22 is registered to both Waixing and a hitherto unknown company called 「广州志华环讯软件科技有限公司」 (Guangzhou Zhihua Central Information Software Technology Co., Ltd.) Again, Waixing was the first to register it. Never mind; Zhihua's F22 isn't a game at all; it's a content management system. So the only owner of F22, the game, is... Waixing.

Edit: Also, the Cool Boy cart that taizou linked above? Note the very prominent Subor logo on it... and Subor = Waixing. I'm beginning to speculate that Invent might have been a contract developer for both Waixing and Qi Sheng Long.