I was discussing this with a few others in the PGC Discord chat regarding this after checking out some of the topics like these two:
http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=8186875 (also curse you imageshack)
http://s4.zetaboards.com/PGC_Forums?topic=30035804And here's a list of IDs I've gathered based around these games:
ES-xxxxx: (nabbed from Barver, possibly the original releases, I'll explain soon)
ES48001 Sonic Jam 6
ES48002 Mario Bros 2
ES48003 Hercules
ES12801 Mortal Kombat 5
ES12802 Pocket Monster
And now, the Chinese name IDs:
BK001
Pocket Monster (比卡超,
Bi
Ka Chao)
CC001
A Bug's Life (蟲蟲特工隊,
Chong
Chong Te Gong Dui)
JG001 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition (金剛戰士,
Jin
Gang Zhan Shì)
TQ001 Tekken 2 vs Virtua Fighter (铁拳,
Tie
Quan)
BK002 Pocket Monster 2 (same as Pocket Monster)
QL-003
Dragon Ball Final Bout (七龍珠 -
Qi
Long Zhu)
TQ003 Tekken Special (Same as Tekken 2 vs Virtua Fighter)
DL004
Hercules 2 (大力神,
Da
Li Shen)
DJ004
Super Donkey Kong 99 (大金刚,
Da
Jin Gang)
SZ006
The Lion King 2 (獅子王,
Shi
Zi Wang)
DH007
Soul Blade (刀魂 -
Dao
Hun)
WS007 Samurai Spirits II (武士精神,
Wu
Shì Jīng Shen)
ZR009
Top Fighter 2000 MK VIII (真人快打,
Zhen
Ren Kuai Da) (This is Mortal Kombat's Chinese name, it's probably using this ID because of the MK in its name)
ZR010
Mortal Kombat 5 (The ID for Top Fighter applies to this)
YS-013
Sonic Jam 6 (音速,
Yin
Su)
CJ028 Super Mario World (that Squirrel King hack) (超級馬里奧,
Chao
Ji Ma Li Ao)
Unmarked or Unknown games (or ones I can't find any significant markings with)/X Boy-only label
Aladdin II
Lion King 3 (Has X Boy mark)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition
Mulan (Has X Boy mark)
Pocket Monster II
Pokemon Stadium
Rockman X3
Samurai Spirits II
Soul Edge VS Samurai Spirits
Tekken 3 Special
The King of Fighters 98
The King of Fighters 99
Virtua Fighter 2 VS Tekken 2
Ka Sheng as a Mega Drive publisher?So as probably most people know about Barver Battle Saga, there's an easter egg in the game where pressing A+B+C+Start shows the logos for Ka Sheng and Shin-Shin Electronics. For the most part, no one was sure what to make of it, especially since Ka Sheng and Shin-Shin Electronics seemed to mostly care the Famicom.
As I mentioned above though, there's also Barver's topic regarding Pocket Monster and how it Ka Sheng's name on it. (Imageshack took out the image but thanks to JP Ronny, here's
an upload of the box. Here's also
a shot of the cart. The name on the cart is different: in Cantonese this comes out to "Kaat Sing" and Ka Sheng (or Ka Sing in Cantonese) were originally located in Hong Kong) So this would make two games that appear to be affiliated with Ka Sheng. Both games also use the High Seas Havoc sound driver, the former originally developed by Chuanpu.
However, Pocket Monster has a year of 2000 on its box. That seems like quite a gap between 1996 and 2000, doesn't it? Well, this gap is probably much smaller than that. You might have noticed Pocket Monster uses one of those ES IDs. It's possible all these ES IDs could belong to Ka Sheng and they just didn't put their name on everything else. Another common element these ES-ID'd games had is their carts keep advertising a fake memory size; Sonic Jam 6 and Super Mario Bros 2 say 48M, Hercules 2 says 64M, and Mortal Kombat 5 and Pocket Monster say 128M (They basically seem to grow over time). With that in mind, Sonic Jam 6's original cart also has the year 1998 so this closes the gap tighter. As for why there was no Sega Mega Drive games in 1997 from them... I wish I knew about that. Maybe they couldn't afford another development team at that point? (At this point, they had Hummer Team and Ei-How Yang while the other EX-Sachen team was on their way out with Super Donkey Kong 2.)
Another thing I would like to note is Hummer Team's King of Fighters 96 came out around 1998; their last original game sold while they were still together. Titenic was being developed around this time (also Mortal Kombat 4 crept up with Titenic's object list in the code) but Ka Sheng halted its release because the Famicom market was declining. Of course, they kept releasing carts afterwards but they never had any new original games. Maybe Ka Sheng was planning to focus mostly on original Mega Drive games?
X Boy and those Chinese name IDsX Boy slapped their name on a few Mega Drive releases; notably Mulan, Lion King 3 and Top Fighter 2000 MK VIII... the last one actually having a Chinese name ID on it! Could this mean all the others are X Boy releases?
However, notably not all of these marked games are original; most of them appear to be reprints of the ES-numbered games! (also The Lion King 2 for... some reason) Some of the ES releases reuse the same art but changed it around (One example being Pocket Monster's reprint replacing Ka Sheng's logo with "2000") and the original stuff X Boy published seems to be by the same team. So maybe Ka Sheng (or whoever) got absorbed by X Boy?
At first, I was thinking the IDs would be in order but there are a few issues with the list. First off, there's quite a few gaps within the list itself. Maybe some of the unmarked games have IDs like these and I haven't seen them? There's also a few duplicated numbers too; Pocket Monsters and A Bug's Life are both 001 while Hercules and Super Donkey Kong 99 are both 004. There's also a weird oddity with the Hercules 2 reprinted box: it still has the ES number on it! Maybe this was possibly an error X Boy didn't catch? Also Super Donkey Kong 99's name presents another issue because the IDs lower in it appear to be from 2000. (Hercules keeps the Hi Game 1999 text but that could've been the fact it just kept the original box art) Maybe Super Donkey Kong 99 had trouble getting a release?
Also this is on the minor side but this particular
Pocket Monster II cart has an oval on it but nothing inside it. Maybe Pocket Monster II had an X Boy release and this reprint just took out the ID?
EDIT:Another oddity is
this Sega Retro page on Dragon Ball: Final Bout mentions a 1998 release.
This is actually on BootlegGames Wiki (as well as the 2000 release) so the X Boy version is obviously a reprint. However, I don't see an ES serial on it.
Made an update regarding Dragon Ball: Final Bout and added Super Mario World (Squirrel King) to the list based on this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/rare-vintage-Clone-SUPER-MARIO-BROS-WORLD-Sega-Genesis-Mega-Drive-game-/172543001074?hash=item282c5d41f2:g:n0oAAOSwImRYgDkFEDIT 2: Added more IDs thanks to bgr, even more duplicates...
