How to identify a V.Fame game from the cart or box

[Barver]

Just a little thing I noticed, and thought might be interesting to some. I'm almost confident that this always tells that a game is from V.Fame.



It's simple really, just look at the side. Besides the games from V.Fame that clearly show their logo on the front, anything else made by them always has these same characteristics:
1. It always says NEW GB COLOR on the side
2. There's always that little blurb thing at the bottom left in Chinese that reads 全部的ＮＥＷ　ＧＡＭＥ共通, which means Compatible with all New Game.

Here's an example that confused me before.


I used to always think this was a V.Fame game going by the NEW GB COLOR thing on the side, until taizou got it. Now I notice the difference. The blurb about compatibility on the bottom left looks different. Yeah, that's it =p Here's another V.Fame game to show the difference:



NEW GB COLOR isn't in a white border anymore, but it's there along with the same compatibility blurb. And this game is confirmed to be V.Fame, it's what's dumped as Shawu Story.



Different font for NEW GB COLOR on the side, but still same text, same blurb. It's a V.Fame game alright!



Nope, not V.Fame. It says NEW GAME COLOR, not NEW GB COLOR, and the compatibility blurb is different.


You get the idea. Seems V.Fame always kept this exact same style for their carts and boxes, and of all pics I have of any V.Fame games that don't have their logo explicitly on it, they always look exactly like what I've shown. So if you find anything and wonder if V.Fame made, you know what to look for now

[SpaceNinja]

I see they seem to follow the New GB/Game Color on the box.

[Barver]

Only V.Fame will never have GAME written on the side, only GB. That's one of the things you gotta look out for =p

[klax]

Your right!

[taizou]

well i'll use this thread's bumpage as an opportunity to post some mainland China examples I found: (these pics are from sky league's taobao page but i've seen others)


this is Soul Falchion. I've also seen Harry Potter 3 & Rockman DX3 with the same "Game GB Color" text.


Sky League says this one is unofficial but I dunno, I've seen loads of Vast Fame games with that same Chinese text down the side. in fact the only games released with that text seem to be VFame's and the occasional Chinese translation (and you can usually tell the difference, the Chinese translations usually have smaller PCBs but the VFame ones are full-length).
i've also seen a multicart with two VF RPGs, using the same artwork from these guys' releases, but that one had a "Super Game Color Boy" logo, which usually only appears on generic pirates.

[Awesome Panda]

taizou

Jun 30 2011, 12:11:44 PM

Sky League says this one is unofficial but I dunno, I've seen loads of Vast Fame games with that same Chinese text down the side. in fact the only games released with that text seem to be VFame's and the occasional Chinese translation (and you can usually tell the difference, the Chinese translations usually have smaller PCBs but the VFame ones are full-length).[/quote]I wonder if those translations were done by V.Fame, unless they explicitly credit another company or something.

[codeman38]

I've seen a Shui Hu Shen Shou cartridge with the same "2002" logo as that Soul Falchion one, owned by this guy on Flickr. But oddly, this one doesn't have the "GAME GB COLOR" side bar.

[taizou]

maybe it's a later release or a bootleg or something? those smaller PCBs that don't take up the full length of the cart seem to be a recent-ish development (well for games with a battery anyway, even Nintendo used them for non-battery games). plus its a different colour - all the "GAME GB COLOR" Vast Fame games i've seen are in that same sort of teal colour cart (which VFame even used themselves for the Taiwanese release of Xin Feng Shen Bang AFAIK)

edit: oh wait, forget the colour thing, just saw a purple one

[Barver]

All these other ones seem to be bootlegs of V Fames games and not originals. Though I think I may have found an exception to the rule some time ago, can't recall at the moment.

Odd how this was bumped with a pic of a game I already had in an example in the first post

[taizou]

I think at least the "Game GB Color" carts might be originals - the font is pretty similar to the one they used for "New GB Color", and this Rockman DX3:

seems to have the same type of PCB (complete with labels on the ROMs) as the 12 in 1 I have:


the ones with the Chinese text might be bootlegs, but I dunno - I've only ever seen it on VFame games and Chinese translations. Maybe it was a Chinese publisher that licensed VFame's games or something, like Li Cheng.

[Barver]

I've never seen that cart before. I would assume it's not an original cart from VFame only based on the fact it's DX3, which so far has been assumed to be a hack and not from VFame themselves. I always assumed that 12in1 to be from VFame officially though, so if the innards are the same... I'm lost now.

All of these definitely reek of being mainland manufactured rather than Taiwan though.

...I think anyway.

[taizou]

I think VFame did actually produce one version of DX3 themselves - as codeman pointed out somewhere the DX3 title screen (from the non-saving version with Zook Z music) uses PC Paint fonts, which some random hackers probably wouldn't have had access to. my guess would be that VF's version was the same as that, with Zook Z music & the same title screen, but with saving still intact obviously. The other dump (same as the original Zook Hero 2 but with a crudely hacked title screen) is probably Li Cheng's release.

[codeman38]

taizou

Jun 30 2011, 10:54:01 PM

I think VFame did actually produce one version of DX3 themselves - as codeman pointed out somewhere the DX3 title screen (from the non-saving version with Zook Z music) uses PC Paint fonts, which some random hackers probably wouldn't have had access to. my guess would be that VF's version was the same as that, with Zook Z music & the same title screen, but with saving still intact obviously. The other dump (same as the original Zook Hero 2 but with a crudely hacked title screen) is probably Li Cheng's release.[/quote]As further evidence toward this theory: the all-levels-cleared dump of DX3 has the V.Fame boot logo, while the crudely-hacked-title version has Li Cheng's "Niutoude" logo.

Edit: And yeah, it was in this thread about undumped Rockman pirates where I pointed out the PC Paint thing. Both the "3" and the "ROCK MAN" text are in PC Paint's bold font (though the latter has been shrunk by one row of pixels).

[codeman38]

taizou

Jun 30 2011, 12:11:44 PM

Sky League says this one is unofficial but I dunno, I've seen loads of Vast Fame games with that same Chinese text down the side. in fact the only games released with that text seem to be VFame's and the occasional Chinese translation (and you can usually tell the difference, the Chinese translations usually have smaller PCBs but the VFame ones are full-length).[/quote]Just discovered that there's at least one Sintax game with the "全彩中國" text on it, though in the corner rather than along the side-- check out NusuttoSan's Chinese copy of Pokemon Carbuncle in this post.

[taizou]

ooh yeah, my Harry Boy IV has it too.