Author Topic: Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console  (Read 29936 times)

taizou

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« on: June 14, 2011, 01:10:34 AM »
got something interesting from Taobao recently, i've been busy putting this page together since then: http://fuji.drillspirits.net/samuri/

it's a VT03-based plug & play console from around 2006 (I think) with games by none other than Hummer Team! mostly fairly simple games, the only real link back to their older stuff is an updated version of the Somari hack from the 15 in 1. but the Hummer name is actually used on the intro screen, which means they must have still existed as late as 06 (and actually as Hummer Team too, not just ex-members working somewhere else or under a different name).

i've also recorded video of all the games but it lasts about two hours at the moment so i'll trim it a bit (no one needs to see me dying a bunch of times in a Somari hack) and upload it to youtube.

the console was apparently manufactured by a Taiwanese company called Zechess which didn't last very long (it also looks a lot like those Timetop consoles, some connection there?) but for some reason a ton of stock has appeared on Taobao recently, and a few units even seem to have made their way onto Ebay (albeit without box/manual). I know of at least one other console Zechess made, the ZDog, which i'll probably have tomorrow. and i'm also attempting to get in touch with the guy that used to run the company, i'll keep you posted on that.

taizou

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2011, 01:10:34 AM »
got something interesting from Taobao recently, i've been busy putting this page together since then: http://fuji.drillspirits.net/samuri/

it's a VT03-based plug & play console from around 2006 (I think) with games by none other than Hummer Team! mostly fairly simple games, the only real link back to their older stuff is an updated version of the Somari hack from the 15 in 1. but the Hummer name is actually used on the intro screen, which means they must have still existed as late as 06 (and actually as Hummer Team too, not just ex-members working somewhere else or under a different name).

i've also recorded video of all the games but it lasts about two hours at the moment so i'll trim it a bit (no one needs to see me dying a bunch of times in a Somari hack) and upload it to youtube.

the console was apparently manufactured by a Taiwanese company called Zechess which didn't last very long (it also looks a lot like those Timetop consoles, some connection there?) but for some reason a ton of stock has appeared on Taobao recently, and a few units even seem to have made their way onto Ebay (albeit without box/manual). I know of at least one other console Zechess made, the ZDog, which i'll probably have tomorrow. and i'm also attempting to get in touch with the guy that used to run the company, i'll keep you posted on that.

Awesome Panda

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2011, 07:07:35 AM »
I'm wondering if Hummer is referring to Hummer Team itself or Hummer Cheng. Just wondering, is the music on the menu from any of their games?

Also, looking at the games I'm surprised at how much they revamped Somari. Kind of disappointed that they didn't port the graphics straight from Sonic the Hedgehog, but at least they had some creativity with the hacking.

codeman38

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2011, 07:59:15 AM »
Well, this definitely explains the presence of Pink Jelly in the VT03 Pic32 documentation.

Now I'm wondering whether "VDog", as shown in the EmuVT documentation, might actually be an alias of ZDog. I mean, they even look like each other.

taizou

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2011, 08:33:52 AM »
Cheetahmen
Jun 14 2011, 07:07:35 AM
I'm wondering if Hummer is referring to Hummer Team itself or Hummer Cheng. Just wondering, is the music on the menu from any of their games?

Also, looking at the games I'm surprised at how much they revamped Somari. Kind of disappointed that they didn't port the graphics straight from Sonic the Hedgehog, but at least they had some creativity with the hacking.[/quote]I don't think Hummer Cheng could have made the whole thing by himself personally. i'd say theres definitely a team of some kind involved. Whether they actually had many original Hummer Team members left by this point, though, i couldn't say.

Not sure about the menu music, it'll be in the video when I upload that anyway. I've checked a few Hummer NSFs and I didn't recognise it in any of them. most of the actual games just seem to use either music from Somari or that one track from Jing Ke Xin Zhuan though.

Quote:
 
Now I'm wondering whether "VDog", as shown in the EmuVT documentation, might actually be an alias of ZDog. I mean, they even look like each other.[/quote]
yeah, i think it's definitely the same dog. probably renamed ZDog after Zechess or something.

codeman38

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2011, 08:34:37 AM »
More research!

liaohandel on eBay seems to have some relationship to Zechess. His profile pic is, quite literally, ZDog's title screen.

This is Liao Handel's blog, which zechess.com redirected to at one point in 2008. I can't manage to pull up the 2006 version of zechess.com on the Wayback Machine (redirects to an IP address that wasn't archived), and the 2002 version was... a French web site on chess. Gotta love domain buybacks.

He also has this blog on Yahoo. Note the URL and profile pic.

I guess this is "the dude who used to run the company", as referenced in taizou's article?
« Last Edit: June 14, 2011, 08:37:08 AM by codeman38 »

taizou

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2011, 08:43:00 AM »
Yes exactly. :D I emailed him yesterday, no reply yet. but we'll see.

KingPepe

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2011, 08:49:19 AM »
Are you going to be doing a video of this? I would love to see it.

taizou

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2011, 09:02:09 AM »
yeah, i mentioned that in the first post - its all recorded, just needs editing and stuff.

and look who just turned up-

either the seller or my taiwanese agent cut off the top of his doghouse to fit it into the shipping box though >:0
well i've had a bit of a play around with it, there are three different modes but they all basically lead to the same 40 games. some are similar or the same as the Samuri's (but with digitised sound effects) but some older Hummer games seem to be mixed in too. Titenic is in there for instance. o:
on closer inspection Titenic seems to be split up into separate levels like hummersomari was on the Samuri.

oh and guess what else is on here - that Ping Pong game with the SF2 map that was listed on ABABsoft's site.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2011, 09:20:54 AM by taizou »

Doomkid

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2011, 09:53:42 AM »
Wow, this is awesome! More Hummer team stuff showing up is always a good thing!

codeman38

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2011, 10:00:26 AM »
Now I'm wondering what exactly the relationship is between Hummer, Zechess, and ABABsoft...

KingPepe

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2011, 10:03:39 AM »
Holy crap, this is just amazing. I wonder what that Ping Pong game is like.

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2011, 10:43:34 AM »
Personally, I say it's kind of odd that Hummer didn't bother putting all of their old games on that plug and play console. You'd think it'd be easier to do that than make a load of new games.

BTW, I'm probably gonna sound like a complete idiot asking this but isn't VDog named after VRT?

codeman38

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #13 on: June 14, 2011, 11:17:19 AM »
Cheetahmen
Jun 14 2011, 10:43:34 AM
BTW, I'm probably gonna sound like a complete idiot asking this but isn't VDog named after VRT?[/quote]Probably, yeah. That's what I'd have guessed, anyway.

MLX

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Samuri/Star Angel - a Hummer Team plug & play console
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2011, 11:35:57 AM »
Cheetahmen
Jun 14 2011, 10:43:34 AM
Personally, I say it's kind of odd that Hummer didn't bother putting all of their old games on that plug and play console. You'd think it'd be easier to do that than make a load of new games.

BTW, I'm probably gonna sound like a complete idiot asking this but isn't VDog named after VRT?[/quote]The companies that originaly released them are owning the rights and the source code for them. I guess Hummer was getting a lot of money but when they would leave the publisher, they would loose all the sources codes and stuff. (The games are copyrighted to JY for exemple).