Gowin doesn't forget their roots

[codeman38]

So I was looking at NusuttoSan's latest blog post, in which he provides scans from the manual to Gowin's GBC game Dino Century. And I noticed a couple things:

1. The style of the character art in the manual looks very similar to character designs I've seen in Chuanpu and Vast Fame packaging.

2. Take a look at the last page of the manual, which is a promotion for Gowin's other games. Notice anything? Yep. Although the GBC games seem to have been developed by an entirely different team, they're still advertising their older monochrome games which seem to have connections to VFame (Magic Ball, YehRude, Lasama, Rainbow Prince, and Mi Tu de Lu). I'm especially curious about the two Binary Monster games; this image from taizou shows the first to be a mono RPG, while the sequel is a platformer with VFame-looking graphics.

Edit: OK, I'm really curious about Binary Monsters after squinting at the back of the box even closer. Could this be the first game to use what we now know as VFame's RPG engine?

Edit further: An already-sold eBay auction for Binary Monsters. And that is definitely a PC Paint font I see on the title screen...

[taizou]

Binary Monster 2 does look a bit V.Famey now you mention it, but its hard to tell without seeing (or hearing) more of it. I think Binary Monster 1 is a sort of monster-raising thing rather than a proper RPG though.

[codeman38]

taizou

Sep 24 2010, 12:12:02 PM

Binary Monster 2 does look a bit V.Famey now you mention it, but its hard to tell without seeing (or hearing) more of it. [/quote]Yeah, I'm really curious about that one - I wish there were clearer screenshots, and I really wish there were audio. The HUD looks more VFame than later-Gowin, at the very least.

Quote:

 

I think Binary Monster 1 is a sort of monster-raising thing rather than a proper RPG though.[/quote]Ah. The front of the box calls it an RPG, but yeah, I don't see any screenshots on the back showing any overhead view. I suppose it's still sort of "RPG-lite" even if the game play is just building up experience and battling other monsters-- and the battle and level-up screens look very VFame-ish...
Ooh. Just found out Gowin's site is accessible via the Internet Archive. Of course, half the image links are broken, and they barely use any text whatsoever on their site (no ALT text either, fail!), but yeah...

However, in the bit of text that did render, I found this:

Quote:

 

GOWIN was founded in 1993, and there are 50 employees who are located in Taipei and Shen Zhen. There are ten people working as artwork designers and 20 as engineers. All of our software is in-house-written and we have a very strong R&D team in Shenzhen, Mainland China.[/quote]Perhaps the earlier games were developed in Taiwan, while the later ones were farmed out to the team in Shenzhen, explaining the difference in style?

[Awesome Panda]

Looking at the picture, I'd say it'd be funny if the phone number at the bottom still works. Also, if the first Binary Monster is a psuedo-RPG or whatever and the second is a platformer, then what's the third one meant to be? Oh yeah, if Gowin were based in Taipei and Shenzhen and V.Fame were in Dali City (as well as the later Gowin games looking like V.Fame titles) then would the latter be formed of some of the employees from Gowin?

BTW, I find it funny that Binary Monster II has "Adventure of Hell" in the title. :lol:

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Sep 24 2010, 01:33:25 PM

Looking at the picture, I'd say it'd be funny if the phone number at the bottom still works. Also, if the first Binary Monster is a psuedo-RPG or whatever and the second is a platformer, then what's the third one meant to be?[/quote]The third one is School Fighter! No, really-- I'll have to go back and search for the link, but the full title is "Binary Monster 3: School Fighter."

Edit: Here's the proof.

Quote:

 

Oh yeah, if Gowin were based in Taipei and Shenzhen and V.Fame were in Dali City (as well as the later Gowin games looking like V.Fame titles) then would the latter be formed of some of the employees from Gowin?[/quote]Hm, good question. Dali is closer to Taichung than Taipei; maybe their R&D team was originally based in Taichung, but then they hired a new one in Shenzhen? ::shrugs:: I really have no idea.

[taizou]

i wonder if the mono games were originally developed for Gowin at all - most of them have hidden Syntek logos in the ROM that arent displayed normally (except one game's ending, but they probably just overlooked that one).

but no Syntek games have ever shown up anywhere to my knowledge, and they certainly don't look like a game company (in fact they made the chipset in my video capture thingy) so maybe they were developed by .. someone in Taichung for Syntek, and Syntek sold the rights to Gowin when they abandoned whatever plans they had to enter the games industry? then Gowin formed their own entirely separate development team in Shenzhen at some later point.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Sep 24 2010, 01:58:56 PM

Cheetahmen

Sep 24 2010, 01:33:25 PM

Looking at the picture, I'd say it'd be funny if the phone number at the bottom still works. Also, if the first Binary Monster is a psuedo-RPG or whatever and the second is a platformer, then what's the third one meant to be?[/quote]The third one is School Fighter! No, really-- I'll have to go back and search for the link, but the full title is "Binary Monster 3: School Fighter."

Edit: Here's the proof.

Quote:

 

Oh yeah, if Gowin were based in Taipei and Shenzhen and V.Fame were in Dali City (as well as the later Gowin games looking like V.Fame titles) then would the latter be formed of some of the employees from Gowin?[/quote]Hm, good question. Dali is closer to Taichung than Taipei; maybe their R&D team was originally based in Taichung, but then they hired a new one in Shenzhen? ::shrugs:: I really have no idea.[/quote]Well that certainly helps. Haven't really played School Fighter much but some of the screenshots remind me of that FFX - Fantasywar game. (the one of the boxing match reminds me of Ring King, but that brings back bad memories :lol: )

As for V.Fame and Gowin, I'm not sure about the connection with them. At a guess I'd probably say that some of the people at Gowin left to join V.Fame, or they might have shared resources although I somehow doubt that.

Also, what's with the binary on that image of School Fighter anyway? Doesn't seem to spell anything as far as I can tell.