Abab Soft

[Awesome Panda]

I recently found a 4-in-1 multicart which when booted up brings up a screen with a logo and a website for Abab Soft. Using the Wayback Machine, I found that they seemed to have been active from 2003 to 2005, here's a link to what their website was like.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050205212309/http://ababsoft.com/index.html
There are several oddities I spotted from the screenshots. Firstly, the map in the Ping Pong game appears to have been based off the one from Master Fighter VI and Street Fighter III, especially seeing as it states that Spain is where the UK is. Apparently, there are pirated games based off Lord of the Rings and Titanic. (or Titenic if you prefer ) Possibly hacks, but whatever. I also noticed several Hummer Team/possibly Someri Team games: Shisen Mahjong 2, (on the multicart with the Japanese/Chinese text) Harry's Legend and Mortal Kombat 4. I wouldn't mind, but on the 4-in-1 multicart I found the rom of, (the one with Panda Adventure) the music sounds suspiciously like something Hummer Team would've made. I might link to the rom if I need to.

[taizou]

ooh. nice find. I noticed the same thing about the Panda Adventure/menu music - it does sound kinda like the same engine as Hummer etc, just not the same person using it.

btw this is the one image thats broken on the latest archived copy of their website:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040404210322/http://www.ababsoft.com/images/4in1B.jpg

& I'm sure I've seen "Space Shuttle Exploration" somewhere else. but I can't think where. famiclone maybe?

[Awesome Panda]

taizou

Aug 5 2010, 10:08:56 PM

ooh. nice find. I noticed the same thing about the Panda Adventure/menu music - it does sound kinda like the same engine as Hummer etc, just not the same person using it.

btw this is the one image thats broken on the latest archived copy of their website:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040404210322/http://www.ababsoft.com/images/4in1B.jpg

& I'm sure I've seen "Space Shuttle Exploration" somewhere else. but I can't think where. famiclone maybe?[/quote]I presume on that image, "War" is some game created by them and Golden Axe IV is that hack of Astayanax. I suspect Abab are connected with Hummer in some way or another, is it possible that Titenic and Rings are by Hummer? After all, they could have made Harry's Legend. As for Space Shuttle Exploration, I've got no idea.

[taizou]

Yeah, Titenic and Rings (and maybe War too) could well be Hummer/etc games.. or they could be crappy ABABsoft originals like Panda Adventure, I suppose. But it definitely looks like there's some kind of connection - maybe a former Hummer team member worked for them or something.

[Awesome Panda]

I just realised, Panda Adventure actually uses graphics from Aladdin by Hummer Team. Could be presumed that someone who worked at Hummer Team made Abab Soft, took the sound engine and programmed the games themselves.

[taizou]

Yeah, could be. Maybe it was one of the graphic artists, and they just hired an inexperienced programmer - the sprites are decent, even if the backgrounds arent particularly detailed, but  it just feels a lot like a student project or something.

[Awesome Panda]

Strangely, I looked through the tiles of Panda Adventure and I found some tiles which when put together made a box saying "Rinco." No idea who or what that is.

[taizou]

well I'll be damned. Rinco (=Ramar INternational CO.) is the publisher of The Dragon, that's their logo as it appears in that game. No idea what it's doing there.

[Awesome Panda]

taizou

Aug 5 2010, 11:34:50 PM

well I'll be damned. Rinco (=Ramar INternational CO.) is the publisher of The Dragon, that's their logo as it appears in that game. No idea what it's doing there.[/quote]I thought I heard that name somewhere. Maybe it was an Arabian copy of the multicart or something, although it could just be the publisher in general which is rather odd, to put it simply.

[taizou]

Yeah, its really odd. Either Rinco returned to the video game business after 10 years to publish some weird multicart, or ABABsoft just stole it. but I have no idea why they'd do that. hmm.& heres something interesting:
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=4329.0
i didn't make the connection until now, but this 15 in 1 cart is probably by ABABsoft too. & it has lots more links to hummer/someri.

games are:
1. Street Fighter IV
2. The Hummer(!) - Somari hack (probably - its described as a Sonic hack)
3 & 9-15. "single screen game like Bubble Bobble; you're a Felix-like cat and you have to get from one side of the screen to the other without dying, then advance to the next level, which adds enemies and obstacles." - sounds very much like Panda Adventure
4. War - presumably the same game as the one on ABAB's multi. uses Earthworm Jim 3 graphics.
5-6. Jack & Rose - Titanic themed Harrys Legend hacks. Probably "Titenic".
7-8. The Duck & The Egg - Duck Hunt clones, they lay eggs in the latter
some screens here:
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544

one thing i noticed is that none of these ABAB carts include JY-published Hummer games, or anything significant derived from them (except that sand from Aladdin) - its all either early Someri Team stuff or the later related games released by NT etc. which does seem to lend weight to that whole theory that Hummer Team split at some point.

[KingPepe]

taizou

 

5-6. Jack & Rose - Titanic themed Harrys Legend hacks. Probably "Titenic".[/quote]

I'll be honest here, I think it might be the other way around. The level with Rose in it shows a whole new level and Harry's Legend has tons of unused stuff. That chicken in the screenshot with Rose appears in Harry's Legend's tiles.

Quote:

 

[/quote]
Those birds look like the ones from EWJ3 strangely.

[Awesome Panda]

taizou

Aug 5 2010, 11:46:00 PM

Yeah, its really odd. Either Rinco returned to the video game business after 10 years to publish some weird multicart, or ABABsoft just stole it. but I have no idea why they'd do that. hmm.& heres something interesting:
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=4329.0
i didn't make the connection until now, but this 15 in 1 cart is probably by ABABsoft too. & it has lots more links to hummer/someri.

games are:
1. Street Fighter IV
2. The Hummer(!) - Somari hack (probably - its described as a Sonic hack)
3 & 9-15. "single screen game like Bubble Bobble; you're a Felix-like cat and you have to get from one side of the screen to the other without dying, then advance to the next level, which adds enemies and obstacles." - sounds very much like Panda Adventure
4. War - presumably the same game as the one on ABAB's multi. uses Earthworm Jim 3 graphics.
5-6. Jack & Rose - Titanic themed Harrys Legend hacks. Probably "Titenic".
7-8. The Duck & The Egg - Duck Hunt clones, they lay eggs in the latter
some screens here:
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21001299047544

one thing i noticed is that none of these ABAB carts include JY-published Hummer games, or anything significant derived from them (except that sand from Aladdin) - its all either early Someri Team stuff or the later related games released by NT etc. which does seem to lend weight to that whole theory that Hummer Team split at some point.[/quote]In other words, some of them started making games for Taiwan Shin-Shin and NT (and are probably the original Someri Team) and the rest made games for JY?
Anyway, it's a bit weird that the Somari hack is called "The Hummer," obviously a reference to Hummer Team in the same way that Family Kid is named after Family TSI Ltd. Also, the logo on the title screen kind of reminds me of Street Fighter IV, which is also on there. Presumably the staff who worked at Abab Soft were originally Gouder Co., Someri Team and possibly Yoko Soft.
BTW, the drawing of "the Hummer" suggests he might be based off Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course, it'd help to see a gameplay screenshot to see if anything else was changed.

[Awesome Panda]

I don't fully understand that. If Jack Yeh went off to Cony Soft then why are their games so much worse than SFII/MFII?

[MLX]

It's more likely the team he had was less good than Someri Team.

I'm pretty sure Jack YEH was involved in SFII and may have programmed SFIII too. Because SFII characters are in the SFIII ROM. It is similar to World Hero and World Heroes 2 was programmed by CONY...

[brightentayle]

Little offtopic. The title theme of Sachen's World of Card Game is exactly the same song as in Panda Adventure ('level' one). No idea what song that originally was?

Quote:

 

2. The Hummer(!) - Somari hack (probably - its described as a Sonic hack)[/quote]
If they didn't invented a new engine, then they probably did use Somari for that. The GFX are from Somari (final boss) as well (except for the Hummer himself).