connections and ping pong

[taizou]

whenever i think i've got these companies figured out something always comes along and throws a big fat spanner in the works. this time its ping pong.

now as pointed out by cheetahmen in his video here this V-tac casino thing has the same music on its menu as is used in the Famicom Table Tennis, a game featured in various places with a Waixing copyright. and an early version  of which is on a Techno Source 10 in 1 thingy. this was at some point suspected to be a Nice Code game  but I don't think it is, personally. its only ever appeared either with a Waixing copyright or (in an early version) on that Techno Source console, and the same goes for a few other games with similar music, whereas other Nice Code games Waixing released all showed up elsewhere with different graphics. and Techno Source's Elmo plug & play was evidently developed by V-Tac so they seem to have connections there already.

now this game has a pretty similar title screen (but not gameplay) to the vt03 ping pong game listed on cube tech's website, which i have on a standalone ping pong console made by ABL. cube's vt168 pingpong is pretty different, but the one on my Wiii3 (some sunplus 16bit system i think?) 198 in 1 cart is basically exactly the same with higher quality graphics/sound. it has the same "(c) all rights reserved" text as all the other games on that cart, but a few things set it apart, like the fact that it still has the stolen 80s italo soundtrack so beloved of cube tech, and it still refers to the O button from the ABL console which isnt present on the Wiii. theres yet another upgraded version on the 32-bit GC Pro.

in the Wiii3's tennis game (the one that was also sold standalone by Conny) during the intro you can see something that looks quite a lot like it says "V-tac". so its possibly coming back around to them again? BUT V-tac's own site shows a very different pingpong game to either of the aforementioned versions. and Waixing has a 16-bit ping pong game with the same options ("Knocks Exercise" & "Smash Exercise") which is otherwise different.

so theres:
* cube(?)'s vt03 pingpong
*  v-tac(?)'s sunplus 16bit pingpong
* ?'s 32bit pingpong
which are all basically the same game
* waixing/v'tac(?)'s famicom table tennis
* waixing's unknown 16bit pingpong
with a little bit in common with the above
but
* cube's vt168 pingpong
* v-tac's unknown pingpong
have nothing in common with any of them
so! what the hell.

[codeman38]

On the topic of ping pong plug-n-plays (try saying that five times fast), turns out that DreamGear also has one. And it uses the VT03 version from Cube Tech that's in your unit from ABL:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6164787162824794060

So that's yet another company whose products have been distributed by DreamGear-- I've already seen JungleTac, Trump Grand and Qi Sheng Long (though there's overlap between the latter two anyway).

Edit: And it would not surprise me if the Famicom Table Tennis was in fact Cube Tech's as well. Several other games on Waixing's consoles, including Helli Mission, are known to be Cube Tech's work.

[taizou]

codeman38

Feb 18 2011, 10:38:16 AM

On the topic of ping pong plug-n-plays (try saying that five times fast), turns out that DreamGear also has one. And it uses the VT03 version from Cube Tech that's in your unit from ABL:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6164787162824794060

So that's yet another company whose products have been distributed by DreamGear-- I've already seen JungleTac, Trump Grand and Qi Sheng Long (though there's overlap between the latter two anyway).[/quote]i notice the video description says DreamGear but the actual video says Excalibur, then the "toy expert" comes in and says its from DreamGear - not sure what the connection is there. but he does make a ton of what i'm pretty sure are false claims about its ability to detect different types of shots so who knows. I do own an Excalibur famiclone which is manufactured by Trump Grand and quite similar to this DreamGear product as far as I can tell, just with a slightly different design and selection of games, so maybe there was some kind of connection between the two companies. Excalibur doesnt seem to do video games anymore though.

codeman38

 

Edit: And it would not surprise me if the Famicom Table Tennis was in fact Cube Tech's as well. Several other games on Waixing's consoles, including Helli Mission, are known to be Cube Tech's work.[/quote]
Could be, I'm not too sure though - the Cube Tech games on Waixing consoles all seem to be VT03 stuff, and Cube Tech's site doesnt list any original VT02 games apart from Magic Ball. oh and here's the V-tac thing in Wiii3 Tennis.

[codeman38]

taizou

Feb 18 2011, 05:36:49 PM

oh and here's the V-tac thing in Wiii3 Tennis.[/quote]Hm, I guess if you squint it does sort of look like V-Tac. So blurry it's really hard to tell; it almost sort of looks like the Vonage logo if you squint at it too.

[codeman38]

Just discovered yet another variation of the ping-pong thing: this console from a German company known as "MebeTeck". The ping pong cartridge included with it is clearly a derivative of Cube Tech's VT03 version, but this one's copyrighted to "Gameinis". (Somebody please tell me that name is an intentional German pun...)

Edit: Wow, no, Gameinis is not some snark at German buyers of this console-- it's an actual company in Hong Kong, which apparently is the OEM for MebeTeck's console. Huh.

[Awesome Panda]

So apparently, Cube Tech released some games on single carts whereas all of Nice Code's games were either on multicarts or published by SNT. BTW, wasn't that 101-in-1 multicart also released seperately? Pity he didn't show those weird light gun games, but I think it's the same one.

[taizou]

Anyone know of a ping pong game with "Zinger" signs in the background? i came across a mention of this company just now (a PDF in the archive with those odd coloured LCD games posted by maxzhou88) and i'm sure i remember seeing one, but I can't find it. Maybe it was some other sports game though.

oh and theres a hidden Gameinis credit in the soccer game from this thing, which I didn't even know existed until Cheetahmen wrote a wiki page about it (so thanks! )

[Awesome Panda]

taizou

Mar 30 2011, 04:05:02 PM

oh and theres a hidden Gameinis credit in the soccer game from this thing, which I didn't even know existed until Cheetahmen wrote a wiki page about it (so thanks! )[/quote]No problem. Unfortunately, I know very little about the origins of this multicart. All I can deduce is that Nice Code aren't involved for once and whoever did make the games haven't made any others to my knowledge. Incidentally, the football game is much better than the one which I think is by Nice Code (2002 World Cup PK, I think it was called), which is nothing more than a penalty shootout with poor spelling. I'm guessing these are either by Cube Tech (I'm sure someone else can rule them out somehow) or that Gameinis company.

Also, does anyone know what the songs on the DDR clone are? I suspect they're 8-bit renditions of DDR songs (then again, I never actually played the original) which are given the most generic names possible on the menu.

[codeman38]

taizou

Mar 30 2011, 04:05:02 PM

Anyone know of a ping pong game with "Zinger" signs in the background? i came across a mention of this company just now (a PDF in the archive with those odd coloured LCD games posted by maxzhou88) and i'm sure i remember seeing one, but I can't find it. Maybe it was some other sports game though.[/quote]I don't know what the connection between Zinger and Waixing is, but there's definitely some sort of connection.

[Awesome Panda]

Well the game itself looks just like the Ping Pong game off the Vii, apart from the signs in the background. Could be a front for Nice Code as far as I know. BTW, is it just me that noticed the Nike symbols in the background?

[taizou]

Ah yeah, that must have been where I saw it - i think i just assumed it was reference to Waixing at the time.
can't find much about Zinger though, its full name is Zinger Software Development Company Ltd. and in Chinese its 智格软件开发（深圳）有限公司.

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Mar 30 2011, 07:30:01 PM

BTW, is it just me that noticed the Nike symbols in the background?[/quote]Nope, I saw them too.

And yeah, probably Nice Code. Trump Grand shows the exact same game on their site-- except that the logo in the back reads "WXTV". (WaiXing TV?)

[taizou]

oh that reminds me, ive seen "WX" in another (presumably) Nice Code game - its one of the high scores in Bar Room Shootout. it has a 2005 Waixing copyright number on my Super Gun King, so it could still refer to them, but it makes me wonder if there wasnt a staff member at Nice Code that coincidentally happened to have the initials WX - it seems weird that the version of that ping pong game released by Trump Grand would have a Waixing reference in the background, but the version released by Waixing themselves would replace it with another company entirely..

[Awesome Panda]

Seems likely, given that those two letters happen to be very common in Chinese names. Of course, it'd help if any of their games had credits. As far as I can tell, all of them either don't end, go back to the title screen or just have an "End" message when you complete them.

[taizou]

i just noticed theres yet another ping pong game out there - the one on the Zone 40, which is also on Subor's "V" (video). i'd always assumed the Zone 40 would have the same one as the iSports (with the Smash/Knocks exercises) because theyre both Subor and both 16-bit, but evidently not.. the Zone & V also seem to have different tennis & baseball games too. And none of them have a Waixing copyright. hmm.

oh and in the iSports' ping pong your opponent actually appears *on top* of the table. either someone fucked up sprite ordering or Waixing really doesnt understand how ping pong works..