Qiezei's Unlicensed Video Game Blog

Regarding my Download Stuff

2012-01-26T17:07:00.000-08:00

So, everyone's familiar with the whole SOPA/PIPA thing going on, right? Especially with the feds taking down Megaupload? Well, since my stuff was hosted on that particular site, that means all that stuff I uploaded is now gone. Best is, now other sites like Filesonic and Uploaded.to are caving in. but don't worry, because your other favorite sites like Mediafire, Rapidshare, and Depositfiles could be next on the chopping block! Yay!

So anyway, the reason for this post is to say that yes, I will be re-uploading all my old downloadable stuff. However, it won't be happening for a little while since it won't do much good to try and upload to a site that may be dead within the next week or so. So until this all settles, all my old stuff won't be available.

God Bless America!

Jurassic Boy 2 & 2000 Queen of Fighting Scans

2012-01-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

Two more scans up, first being the Taiwanese release of Jurassic Boy 2 for the Game Boy Color...

...Which seems to genericize the characters in the Chinese adaption similar to Thunder Blast Man (Chen is called "Little Dinosaur" or something in the manual). Another thing I want to point out is that the cartridge is a shiny silver color that's painted on, which you may not be able to see well in the scan. Next is Vast Fame's fun fighting game 2000 Queen of Fighting:

I swear half of those characters are stolen from somewhere. I've noticed that the staffers between this, Monopoly Madness, and Shi Kong Xing Shou are very similar. All three have Zu Zhenxin as one of the artists, Lin Bizhi as director, and of course Liao Yishen as composer. I've got the feeling that they're also the people behind their other titles like Shui Hu Shen Shou, San Guo Zhi: Lie Chuan, and more.

I plan on doing a video of 2000 Queen of Fighting in the near future, though not Monopoly Madness since it doesn't run on GB Player, unlike Vast Fame's other releases.

Monopoly Madness Scans

2012-01-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

See title. Planning on scanning 2000 Queen of Fighting and Jurassic Boy 2 next.

Magic Lamp Scans (English Release)

2011-12-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

~~Happy Festivus~~ Merry Christmas everyone! My present to you all are scans of the rare English release of Gowin/Hotkid's Magic Lamp, an Arabian-themed Megaman clone. Enjoy!

Collection Update #09 - 12/23/2011

2011-12-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

OH~ BABY~

I've hit the motherload! After FINALLY finding a site that can order from Ruten (I'm planning on doing a post on the site; it's called Taiwan Shopoholic if anybody's curious) and went crazy on some awesome unlicensed stuff. Awesome stuff such as:

-Jurassic Boy 2 [超音速迅猛龍2銀 - Supersonic Raptor 2 Silver]: Sachen's GB port of their NES title Jurassic Boy. The manual's in Chinese, and the cart is a shiny silver color. One thing to note is that they released the GB port of Thunder Blast Man as Rocman X Gold (which I have a copy of) so they were meant to be "version counterparts" with one another despite them not having anything in common. Another thing is that the title screen shows "Sachen (R)" in tiny white text at the bottom, but it seems to be the same as the ROM dump otherwise. Says "Sachen" at bootup.

-Monopoly Madness [瘋狂大富翁]: At first I though it was the same as the ROM dump, but it's actually a prequel! If you've played the ROM, you'd notice this...

...Which the name translates as "Monopoly Madness Gold Version" and the header to the ROM calls it "CRAZY RICHMAN 2"...This should've all been obvious, but I guess I was deceived by the Winsen copy (and the fact that unlicensed companies love to give their games life fifty different titles. For example, Rockman and Crystal also goes under the names Zook Hero 3, Battle Network Rockman Crystal, and Zook Man ZX4(?!) Imagine how annoying that is when you're trying to find a copy of the game.) The Winsen copy of the sequel has just "Monopoly Madness" on the label. The game featues a different intro, soundtrack, and four less characters than Gold Version. It also plays at a slower pace, which makes the game kinda boring at times. The title theme is the same song as the third level in Pocket Monster 2 for the Megadrive (that castle level), so I'm guessing it's the same composer in this game as that one. There's more differences to this game, both features and graphics, but I'm gonna try and do a video of it to show off everything. Says "V.Fame" at bootup.

-Gals Fighter 2000 [女王格鬥2000 - 2000 Queen of Fighting]: A fighting game by Vast Fame that features a bunch of female SNK characters. The gameplay is similar to E'Fighters HOT and Mark of the Wolves, two games assumed to be either Sintax (due to it plagarizing music from KOF '95, I believe) or Vast Fame. I'm guessing those two were co-developed like Harry Potter 3 is believed to have been. Anyway, the game features a great original soundtrack (like always) that features the first battle theme from San Guo Zhi and Shui Hu Shen Shou with a drum track added. Quite a bit of fun. I've noticed one character seems to be Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura, though I think it's supposed to be Clara Hananokouji from Power Instinct or someone similar (though the game simply calls her "Mia"). Says "V.Fame" at bootup.

-Magic Lamp: I actually got this by accident, while someone else on one of the forums I frequent got my game (it was a complete copy of San Guo Zhi: Lie Chuan/Aoshi Tianjia). Anyways, it's a platformer akin to Megaman, but not nearly as good. The manual and game are in (surprisingly!) good English, but the game itself is the same as the Chinese version otherwise. I plan on scanning this before I swap it with the guy for San Guo Zhi, probably the next update. Says "Hotkid" on bootup.

-Shi Kong Xing Shou [時空星獸 - Space-Time Star Beast]: An awesome Pokemon clone by Vast Fame. Features the same gameplay as Shui Hu Shen Shou, but with a more futuristic setting. The game's the same as the ROM dump from the multicart. Says "V.Fame" on bootup.

-Jurassic Boy 2 (again) - Another copy, since I wasn't sure if I'd get the complete copy before the listing ended. Doesn't feature the Sachen copyright, but it does have different physics. The best I can describe it is playing the game on a monochrome system, but without the lag. To be more specific, Chen doesn't jump as high or move as fast (though he's still pretty damn fast) as the ROM dump, and you can do short hops in this version. I want to say that it's a later copy that re-balances the physics to their appropriate level, but I'm not sure if this came first or not...You're weird, Sachen. Says "Sachen" on bootup.

-Digimon Crystal: Same as the undumped Chinese version of Digital Monster 3, but published by Winsen. Nothing else different about the game besides that, as far as I can tell. I also got another generic copy of this game, but whatever. Says "Nintoude" on bootup.

-Shui Hu Shen Shou Guidebook: A guidebook to Vast Fame's other fun Pokemon clone. This seems to be published by a third party, as it also advertises for two pages a guide for Jun Tei Tai Sen, Zelda: Oracle of Ages, and Keitai Denjuu Telefang. Has a complete walkthrough of the game, a list of monsters and their stats/attacks, attacks and their effects, character bios, etc. It's all in Chinese, but it's pretty thorough. I'll eventually scan all of this, hopefully before next Christmas.

Collection Update #08 - 12/04/2011 (Digimon Ruby GBC)

2011-12-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

Only one thing for the time being, but there will be a huge influx of spiffy Chinese crap coming in soon, including stuff from Ruten! For now, we have...

...Digimon Ruby! And no, the screenshots don't lie: it is in fact an Engrish translation of Digimon 3 Crystal, AKA Digital Monster 3. Interesting things to note: the music is the same as the ROM version, which steals its soundtrack from another game of theirs, Shui Hu Shen Shou. Another thing is that on bootup it shows a "Ruby" screen with three red diamonds on it, almost exactly like the bootup intro from Digimon Saphire. Speaking of Digimon Saphire, the cover art for Ruby is very similar to Saphire's; the logo, background, etc. making me believe that New Game published my version of Saphire. Lastly, I'm beginning to think that they might have published Pokemon Ruby as well. They both have the same bland cartridge mold, both stick out of my Game Boy a bit when inserted all the way, and Pokemon Ruby was an Engrish release as well. Edit: Codeman38 has confirmed that they DID publish Pokemon Ruby, and that my copy of Digimomn Yellow Jade and Digimon Amethyst have the same label design. Thanks, man!
Last thing I wanted to point out is that you start off with an oddball team. You have two Lv 99 Cyclopsmons and an Andromon, a Lv 50 Tanemon and Motimon (which is called "Sticky Biscuit" in this game, amusingly) and your starter Digimon at Lv 04 (since I was TK, it was Tokomon, or "Diker Beast"). All except for the starter Digimon have about 3/4 of their health depleted. I'm guessing they were meant for testing purposes but Vast Fame/New Game didn't bother resetting the team. Finally, the game says "Nintendo" on bootup, just like Digimon Saphire and Pokemon Ruby.
I'll put up a video sometime soon. It won't be so much of actual gameplay, but rather the different bits of dialogue from the characters. The game's pretty much the same as what we know, so it'd pay off more to show off the ridiculous Engrish writing than the dungeons and battles (I'll show at least one battle to give an idea of how the Engrish fits in). Until next time!

Feng Shen Banged

2011-10-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I discovered two things with Xin Feng Shen Bang that has ended up being both good and bad news. Bad news first; I seem to have glitched the game out in a weird way (it happens right after the hawk guy leaves your team...Dunno his name off-hand): after that event, if you backtrack to the first "world map" you'll get stuck there. If you keep going back to the first town, you can end up trapped in the upper area of town. AND on top of that, certain events/bosses repeat themselves over again, even though I cleared them ages ago. The second thing is that despite there being three save files, if you choose "new game" at the title screen, it'll erase all your saved data, even if you don't save. This doesn't happen in any other Vast Fame title that I know of, and is really stupid as hell. And thanks to those two things (regarding the first one, I'd probably have to restart anyway since not all the events are present.) I have to do the entire game over from scratch due to Vast Fame's rare occurence of incompetency.

...Fuck.

The good news? Just so I don't have to bother with it later on, I will be posting up casual playthrough videoes of the game like I did with Rockman Z. I plan on working it to where I'll cut out backtracking and grinding to keep down the tedium, and I'll probably be doing it dungeon-by-dungeon, or whatever works best. I also want to try recording music from the game as well, but how I want to do it I'm not certain on yet. It would either be through my Game Boy Player (likely just the raw video to prevent the quality from downgrading a lot) or through an audio cable which would capture it in mono (example), so let me know which you would prefer (the cable would make it easier to do an MP3 soundtrack of the game, fyi). If I have to play through this entire damn thing again, I want to be sure that I can get everything out of it right then and there.

Collection Update #07 - 09/09/2011

2011-09-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

Due to things in real life, such as the pursuit for my own place sometime before the new year, my collecting has slowed down quite a bit. I still keep an eye out for interesting stuff, I'm just being more selective about it. Anyways, more games:

(Clockwise from top-left:)

Digital Dragon [数码暴龙4水晶 - Digimon 4 Crystal]: Waixing's port of Digimon 3 Crystal by Vast Fame, which also goes under the name Digital Monster 3. The manual is actually a full image manual rather than a handful of text pages like they normally do. Fun fact: these square-boxed Waixing games are actually fairly-recent reprints, while the rectangular ones are the original releases. They even have the same Izzy x Mimi box cover shown on their website where they advertise their other Famicom releases. Same as ROM dump.

Doraemon [机器猫小叮当 - Machine Cat Small Ding Dong]: The strange Chinese name is supposed to be a combination of the two different names Doraemon goes under in China. This is the Somari hack Waixing made that slightly improves the original game (and by that I mean it has better music, graphics, and slightly better level design). One funny thing about the manual is that it's literally two pages long; it's just the outer cover with a summary of controls and story on the inside. Same as ROM dump.

Bao Xiao San Guo [爆笑三国]: Also goes under the misname "Bao Xiao Tien Guo" and "Explosion Sangokushi". It's a comedy-based SRPG where you control the three main protagonists from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's kinda lackluster, honestly; none of your teammates can die (if you do, it's game over) and you have to heal them by skipping a turn, which revives about 10/15 HP a turn. One thing I've noticed about this game is that it has a big Dragon Co. vibe going for it, in terms of graphics, audio, and even the iffy frame rate. I'm not sure if it's a Dragon Co. game or if it's a pure Waixing project, but it sounds and feels very much like their Felix bootleg. Anyway, it's the same as the ROM dump.

Digimon Pocket [數碼暴龍口袋版]: Once again, I save the best for last. This recent Taobao find is a different revision from the game found on the Silver Version 12-in-1 multicart. Like with Digimon 3 Crystal, the only huge difference is that it shares the same soundtrack as their Pokemon Ruby game, with each track used in the same places as that game. The only other differences I noticed is that A: Pabumon's electric ball attack doesn't seem as effective as in the multicart version (on the multicart, the attack drains most of the enemy's health in one shot, no matter what enemy it is) and B: the main character sprite is a Gold-esique character that was an NPC in Digimon 3 Crystal, instead of Tai's sprite. Says "DIGI." on startup, exactly the same as in the link.

Collection Update #06 - 07/23/2011

2011-07-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Keep on truckin' with another update (in "Z" formation):

Digimon Crystal Version [数码暴龙水晶版] - It's Vast Fame's well-known Digimon RPG, but this one has all-original music! And as usual, it's quite good. Everything else about it is the same. This also has save files on it for the end of the game, so I'll put up the ending as well as gameplay footage in the near future. Says "DIGI" on bootup, though unlike the link it's in italics without the period at the end.

Digimon Crystal Version (again) - Just a generic bootleg of the previous game. Says "Nintendo" on bootup.

Rockman 2002 DX3 [洛克人 2002 DX3] - Is this an official copy of Rockman DX3?! Nope, another bootleg. It's the very common version we've known for years, with all save files cleared. Says "Nintendo" on bootup.

GB 2-in-1 - The first game is a hack of a strategy RPG (Fire Emblem?) with a poorly hacked Banpresto logo, and the other is Vast Fame's San Guo Zhi RPG. Says "Nintendo" on bootup. This is the last of the boring stuff, thankfully.

Spiderman 3 [蜘蛛俠3] - A platformer that tries to have beat-em-up gameplay but fails. Has Pokemon Pinball's music (which sounds hilariously out of place at times) and the first boss is, oddly enough, Wolverine of the X-Men. You can slowly climb up walls and launch a paralyzing web shot by crouching and pressing B. It's not too bad, though the bosses are very easy since the enemy becomes "transparent" from temporary invincibility after each hit. Says "Kwichvu" on startup, just like all of Sintax's games.

Metal Gear Solid 2 [合金裝備II] - This one has the same game engine as San Goku Shi - Act C, except without all the neat combos or the fourth part of the basic combo attack. You don't do much damage, but you can juggle the enemy since they don't go flying back without that fourth attack. There's also an overworld where you can select what stage to start, though at the beginning you can only select between two levels. And for some reason, Snake has a weird walk animation that looks like he's quickly tip-toeing around, which looks pretty funny. Haven't cleared a level yet, but they drag on a long time, just like in their Shin San Guo Zhi game. Says "Kwichvu" on bootup as usual.

Videos forthcoming at my Youtube channel.

Collection Update #05 - 07/04/2011

2011-07-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July everybody! And to celebrate, here's a collection update.

(In backwards "N" formation:)

Da Hua Shui Hu [大话水浒] - At first I thought that this was the knockoff of Vast Fame's awesome Pokemon clone of the same name, but it's actually a totally different RPG! Based off The Water Margin, of course, it has the same, if not similar, game engine as Wu Lin Wai Zhuan [NJ073] and shares the text system with said game and Feng Yin Dao [NJ072], a port of Link's Awakening. Unfortunately, the game has poor damage calculation, as I've seen the enemies do damage from 0 to 75. Another neat tidbit: this was developed by Nice Code Software, who's logo (along with SNT's) appear on startup. Weird thing is, their logos don't always show up. Like with the menus in GB multicarts, the logo doesn't appear if you reset or quickly turn the power on and off. I wonder why that is? Also, I thought it was Shui Hu Shen Shou, but it's called something different.

Little Red Hood [小紅帽 - Little Red Riding Hood] - The Chinese version to Sachen's infamous game. The back has an advertisement for Metal Fighter that I should probably scan soon.

2003 Pocket Monster Sapphire [2003 口袋怪獸藍寶石] - Well, look what we have here. It's Pokemon Carbuncle, except in Chinese. Weirder yet, it's based off of the Sapphire version, while Carbuncle was based off of the Ruby version. Haven't played around with this much, but it probably works better than Carbuncle.

Fantasy Life [幻想人生] - One of Waixing's rare Game Boy titles, this one's a mixture of board game and RPG. I don't really know what to do in this game, but...it's a board game. I doubt it gets more interesting than that. I gotta admit, though; this game seems better produced than their Famicom crap.

I have a couple more games coming in, which include some Sintax games (one has to do with Spiderman) and some possible Vast Fame stuff.

Magic Bubble (MD) & Feng Kuang Tao Hua Yuan Manual Scans

2011-05-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

More manual scans, courtesy of Pirateman! First is Magic Bubble for the Mega Drive:

And now Feng Kuang Tao Hua Yuan:

More to come!

Sintax GBA & Beast Fighter Scans

2011-05-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

More scans ahoy! First is Sintax's GBA (actually GBC) beat-em-up:

And a version of Sachen's Beast Fighter which I'm guessing is an official Taiwanese release:

I like how the box says there's English instructions inside and that they wrote "GOME OVER" in the manual. Oh well, as a (the only) Sachen fan this is a pleasant addition to my collection. Keep an eye out for video updates!

Barver Battle Saga & You Xu Shen Jie (Winsen Releases) Manual Scans

2011-05-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to my buddy Pirateman for these scans! First off is the manual from my copy of Barver Battle Saga...

...And the manual from a game called You Xu Shen Jie...

I've been trying to find that Megadrive clone that Barver Battle Saga advertised, but I've had no luck. It's probably extremely rare, as I haven't found info on the thing either. More to come soon!

Collection Update #04 - 05/29/2011

2011-05-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Another day, another update. I've been getting a good haul lately!

Final Robot [雷弩機神]: This game has been dumped, but it locks up after the intro segment. This one's a side-scrolling action game.

Journey to the West [悟空降魔錄]: Same game as in a previous post, except it's complete with box.

Xin Feng Shen Bang [新封神榜]: Awesome Vast Fame RPG based off of the Chinese novel. This also appears in the Silver Version 12-in-1 cart as well. This copy has the last few pages of the manual stuck together, but I'm gonna see if I can remedy that.

Magic Lamp: Don't have the Chinese characters for all of these, eh heh heh. This one is a horizontal platformer where you can double-jump and enemies take a ton of hits. I haven't gotten a chance to play much of these, so I don't have too much to say about them at the moment.

Hai Zhan Qi Bei: A Sintax SRPG that plays very similar to Pokemon Carbuncle, but there are some minor changes. I'll be showing it off in an upcoming video. Has music from RPG Maker GB, just like Final Fantasy 9 and another Final Fantasy RPG I've seen a dump of.

Beast Fighter: Sachen's Mega Duck port, which isn't terribly great, but still interesting. Weird thing to note is that even on a monochrome system, your jumps are shorter as if you're playing the game on a color system. My other two copies don't do this, so I'm guessing that this is a revision of sorts? It's a color game, despite having a grey cartridge.

Super Robot War X: Same gameplay as Hai Zhan, and has Dai-2-Ji Super Robot Taisen's music again. I believe I was told that this is one of their earliest SRPGs known, which makes sense when you think about it.

Metal Walker: Just a bootleg of the fun little RPG. This bootleg is of the Japanese version.

Sintax Game: Don't have the name of this one on hand. It claims to be a GBA game, but it's just a GBC game in a GBA case. Lame. The game itself is a beat-em-up similar to Gowin's School Fighter, except you fight lots of goblins from FFX: Fantasy War.
Speedy Dragon [音速飛龍 - Sonic Dragon]: A platformer by AV Artisan, the makers of Earth Defense and Whac-A-Critter for the Sega Genesis. Game has iffy physics, no continues, and some tricky level design. Still, I've been waiting to play this game for ages and it's my personal favorite on the A'Can. I'm planning on a playthrough of this game, as it's only five levels long, but I might need to wait until I master the game better.

Scans for Beast Fighter and the Sintax beat-em-up will be up soon, as well as manual scans from my copy of Barver Battle Saga.

Collection Update #03 - 05/19/2011

2011-05-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Small update for now...

Carpenter Genzo - Robot Empire: Not a bootleg (for once) but still kinda interesting. This is one of several official Game Boy titles released over in Hong Kong. The back is in Chinese and the manual is both Chinese and English. The English is actually quite good, for once. I'm going to scan it sometime soon.

Digimon Sapphire: A Vast Fame(!) SRPG with more broken English. At one point, TK randomly shouts "bamboo hobby horse". I'm totally getting that into the video when I do it. It also shares music to their Taiwan Richman game.

Metal Fighter/Joyvan Kid [未来小子 - Future Boy]: Sachen's early shoot-em-up. I haven't fiddled with it much, but it's just the Metal Fighter version. Still nice to have, though.

I have some other stuff coming in from Taobao, which includes a Waixing GB game. More to come when it arrives.

Collection Update #02 - 05/05/2011

2011-05-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey hey, more GB bootleg stuff. Some of the Chinese characters for the games' titles aren't listed at the moment because I'm too lazy to look them up. I'll do it later (which may be never, knowing me, heh heh...) From top-left to bottom-right in "Z" formation:

-Digital Monster 3 [数码暴龙水晶版 - Digimon Crystal Edition]: Vast Fame's Digital Monster 3 game. I forgot how neat some of these Digimon bootlegs are.

-San Goku Shi - Act C: Same as San Goku Shi - Act C except it has True Thre Kingdoms' logo animation with Shin San Gou Zhi's title (with a three slapped in as well). Fortunately, it does function beyond level 4, unlike the current dump, but I haven't gone further than stage 5 yet. I'm hoping it isn't as long as the sequel, which I'm up to level 10 or 11 currently and each stage is like half an hour long. Oh god.

-"The Fate of Dragon": It does say that on the cart, but in tiny text. This is just Vast Fame's San Goku Shi - Aoshi Tianjia. It gives me a "SRAM TEST FAILED" message after boot up.

-Stone Age - Birth of the Goblin King [石器時代: 精靈王誕生]: A fun little RPG by Gowin/Hotkid. It's pretty much the same as the known ROM dump, except one of the characters is colored weirdly in the intro. Logo says top half "Nintendo" bottom half "Hotkid" on startup.

-Some Digimon Hack: See title. It's a hack off of some Tamagotchi game, but I have no idea which one. You hatch dinosaurs, if that helps, and it's a monochrome game.

-Final Fantasy X - Fantasy War: Same as ROM dump. Whatever, this game rocks.

-Shui Hu Shen Shou [水滸神獸]: A cool Pokemon clone by Vast Fame. There is a ROM dump of this game out there, and for some reason the game's known as "Shawu Story" along with their aformentioned San Goku Shi game. Seems more polished than Shi Kong Xing Shou, despite being released the same year. Your character also moves at normal walking speed rather than zipping around all over the place like in their other RPGs. The cart's supposed to be a bright green color, but once again my scanner doesn't pick it up right.

-Stone Age - Waixing Version: Wait, a Waixing version of the game? Yep, and it says "Nintendo" on startup, so I should be able to video capture it. I'm guessing it's either a bootleg by them (likely) or it was officially published by Waixing. Aside from the case, it's Stone Age unchanged. Kinda disappointed that it didn't say "Waixing" on startup.

Videos for these will be uploaded probably this weekend.

Collection Update #01 - 04/26/2011

2011-04-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Alright, in an effort to get off my lazy butt and update the blog with stuff I keep getting, I'll be posting the newest unlicensed games I've attained shortly after they're in my hands. I'll try to keep this up for as long as I can.
So to start this update, I've recently acquired six Game Boy titles from Sky League's Taobao page. Here's a scan of the games as well as a brief explanation about them (from upper-left to bottom-right, "Z" formation):

-Digimon Crystal Version II [數碼暴龍-水晶版II]: Remember 2003 Pocket Monster Carbuncle? It's the same game, except with crude Digimon sprites. They didn't even change all the graphics, as you find yourself fighting Mankies and Shroomish as you proceed. You'll also notice how some sprites are simple edits with the same animation; for example, Biyomon's sprites are animated the exact same as the character she replaces, Pichu. There's two saves on this cart at the end of the game, but I need to grind a bit to clear it. I'll post the ending up if the saves work this time (I'm still wary from Pokemon Carbuncle...)

-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon [卧虎藏龙]: An RPG by Gowin/Hotkid. Haven't played this too much, but you move around a 2D overworld and fight ninjas and whatnot. It's not too bad, though you have to constantly heal to clear the first battle (which is the first thing you do, might I add.)

-Wukong Jiangmo Lu [悟空降魔錄]: A platformer that plays rather similar to Dino Century that tells the tale of Sun Wukong's life from Journey to the West. Even though it looks like a generic bootleg, it's actually a board from an official copy in a generic case, which is evidenced by the "GOWIN" logo that appears on boot-up (and no, it doesn't work on GB Player, I've tried). One thing I want to add is that after playing these new Hotkid games, I've noticed how some of them come off as quite same-y, which also applies to...

-Binary Monsters II - Adventure of Hell [數碼怪獸-地獄大冒險]: Fun fact: the Chinese translates to "Digital Monster - Hell Adventure". Kinda knew it was very Digimon-inspired from the "binary" part of it's name (and the first game being a tamagotchi clone) but still. This one is a platformer where you control either the Gua Gua Dragon or that furry guy next to him. The sound engine is taken from the old monochrome Gowin titles and the game plays very much like Story of Lasama, for the one or two people who've actually played it. At the end of each level there's a monster gate and a boss to get by, though like in Lasama, you don't have to kill the boss, just get to the other side. Also gotta dig that Hotkid logo there.

-Pokemon Leaf Green [口袋妖怪葉綠]: Another Sintax platformer that controls much like Digimon Yellow Jade, Harry Potter, etc. I was pointed out that some of the graphics are from Tiny Toon Adventures for the NES and the music is from Parasol Stars. The game itself isn't that bad, though Sintax's platformer engine can be unresponsive near ledges. Another problem is that you can't move the screen up or down, so you're forced to make a lot of blind jumps. Very annoying when you add the fact that whenever you die, you have to start the level over from the beginning. Such a stupid problem, too.

-Shenqi Tie Jin Gang [神奇铁金钢]: An uninteresting game with an interesting presentation. It's just a Sokoban clone, except you play a "boss minigame" every five levels. It also features a bunch of cutscenes before and after the boss rounds and has a lot of digitized audio. There's audio of the villain chuckling, sirens, your mech starting up, and even a girl's voice when you continue or pick up a power-up. If you aren't tired of Sokoban yet, you'll enjoy this one quite a bit. The bosses range from shooting approaching enemies, "wrestling" a giant robot by approaching it from behind a throwing it against a wall, and diffusing bombs.

Another thing I got were Sky League cards. What they're for is beyond me, but I seem to have gotten three for each game I bought. They give info on the game/accessory on the card and have levels on them. Some kind of trading card game like Magic or Pokemon, I suppose?

In case anybody's wondering: yes, elephant shin-chan is the main thing shown on the game's box. Why that is is beyond me.

That's all for now! I'm expecting another package from Taobao with some Vast Fame games in them. Nothing new, but there is one Digimon game in the bunch I've never seen before, and it's a monochrome game. Hmm...

Unlicensed Goodness and Vast Fame Adverts

2011-03-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just a quickie while I get the Rockman Z videos edited. I stumbled across this site which has a ten-page list of posts of neat unlicensed/bootleg images. These range from a cart with Doki Doki Panic on it, World Heroes (the Famicom bootleg) and adverts for three of Vast Fame's titles as well as one for Sintax's awesome Final Fantasy X: Fantasy War game.

The top one is Final Fantasy X: Fantasy War, the second one is a Chinese Pokemon game by Vast Fame (I have the ROM of it, but I've been trying to find the name in text so I can try searching it on Taobao or something), the third one is apparently another Pokemon-based game by Vast Fame, and the last one is Shi Kong Xing Shou, which Taizou dumped a while ago. Check it out, there might be some useful stuff there!

EDIT: For those curious about the third one, it's a strategy-RPG similar to Sintax's Pokemon Sapphire/Carbuncle. Some screenshots I found online:

I'm guessing it was dumped somewhere? The site I found the images at didn't have any ROMs, otherwise I would've posted it here.

Qiezei in Taobao and Ebay Land

2011-03-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've been searching for bootleg stuff for many years now and unfortunately, while I've seen my share of interesting titles, I only own a fraction of what I spot. So going through my image folder of Bootleg Goodness, I've dug these up from my visits to Ebay, Taobao, and even other sites like GameGavel.

A U.S. copy of Super Bomberman 5? Apparently so, though the seller was asking for like $99 if I'm not mistaken.

Pokemon Stadium for the Mega Drive.

Here's a weird one: Earthbound for the PAL SNES. This was mentioned over at Earthbound Central, and the original price was really high, despite that it's obviously a bootleg.

Two multicarts and some DBZ bootleg. Says "New Game Color" on the side.

Super Pikachu Land on a regular cart. It's kinda common on multicarts, and it does have its own palette if you don't press anything on startup, Though it's not too amazing.

Golden Sun for the GBC. Apparently it's a hack of Azure Dreams or something similar.

I ahve no idea what this game is. The seller didn't show what the game's like, and there wasn't much of a description. I think he said it was an "adventure" game. Watch it ends up being another version of Somari.

Multicart with a Street Fighter game and Aladdin II.

Final Fantasy IV! I don't own this game, but it's numbered NJ098 and it's likely the same as this ROM dump.

Another multicart. Mario & Sonic 2, for those who are wondering, is just a graphic hack of Chip & Dale 2 by Capcom.

Sonic 3D Blast 5 and a 60 Person version of Street Fighter.

Multicarts, again. I wonder what Beast Fighter is. It would be cool if it were Sachen's game.

Multicart with Sonic 8 and others.

Pocket Monsters Go! Go!!

Now we're starting to enter Taobao territory. Taobao is like the greatest place for unlicensed/bootleg crap (if you know the game's Chinese name, that is.)

DBZ 2005. Generic bootleg.

A strange Pokemon bootleg. Not sure what the title says...

These look interesting, but I own a copy of one of these "Pokemon X Version 3" games and it's a lazy hack of the NES Jackie Chan game running on VisualNES. Boo.

Pokemon: Pocket Monster Version. What?

Pokemon Blue Diamond. It shares similar art to Vast Fame's Pokemon Ruby and Pocket Monsters Go! Go!!

Digimon 2001. Probably the aformentioned Primal Rage game.

The counterpart version to the copy of Pokemon Jade that I own. And yes, it's that god-awful Yong Yong hack.

More of the U.S. Super Bomberman bootlegs. Again, inflated price for an obvious bootleg.

I believe this is Super Game's version of Boogerman. I'm rather surprised that people actually bootlegged Boogerman of all games.

Pokemon Adventure Gold 2. I've been dead curious about what this game is, but it's probably just regular old Pokemon Adventure.

This one came from GameGavel, and I never saw it again. The instructions call it Vietnam War 2001, yet the box and cart call it Metal Slug: 2nd Mission. I wonder if this is an English version of Sintax's Metal Slug game...?

Super Game's Boogerman game. Now with 8x more exploding butts.

Sky League sells games over on Taobao, and this is one of them. The auction calls it "Digimon Crystal II".

Likely just Digimon 02, but with different art.

Digimon 03: Crystal Version. Yep, it's another version of that damn Yong Yong game.

A Family Famicom system? Yep, and this was on Ebay not too long ago. I need to get a job.

English Ghost Hunter. superior_stock of Ebay had this for sale at one point, but for whatever reason I didn't get it. The English on the back says:

Chinese ghosts are all in fear of Chung Kwei. In this game we find him fully armed in battle array charged up and ready to go. He was originally sent by the King of Hell so China to work around the slack exterminating evil ghosts, carrying flying spinning tops and with roving corpses in tow.

Different degrees of skill are required and various crisis crop up all the way through each of the 60 stages. The player requires high level response and highly skilled technique to maneuver this character, so as to exterminate all the balloons and complete his mission as early as possible.

This game was created with the indication of placing a well-known Chinese character in a scenic setting creating a Chinese style visual experience. In the creation of the game, every detail, everything from pictures, quality in demand of quantity (subject matter), was put to the grinding stone. We repeatedly weighed our choices in your favour. Please feel free to comment on our product if unsatisfied on any way.

Non-bootleg release of Magic Girl by Gamtec. I actually owned this at one point, but it's currently with a friend. Kinda disappointed that it wasn't covered in some neat official art.

Megaman X8 on the GBA. The seller said it was just Rockman 4 for the NES.

Pokemon Leaf Green by Sintax. Once again, take from Sky League's Taobao page.

Somari, with box. I swear that little bit at the bottom-left corner was taken from an official version of Sonic.

Super Bomberman on the Game Boy. I know that Taizou listed some Sintax games, one of them called 疯狂阿给3 - 超级炸弹人 (Crazy Arcade 3 - Super Bomberman) and tried to snag a copy, but the seller was apparently sold out, despite the listing. Dammit. There's a couple of other auctions for this on Taobao, so maybe the next time money rolls in...

Some Famicom Pokemon game. Not sure if it's Henggdianzi or Shenzhen Nanjing.

Tiny Toon 6.

Another Pokemon GB bootleg from Taobao. I keep thinking they're something neat like a Sintax game, but they're probably just Pokemon Red or something.

And lastly, what I'm guessing is a label variation of Wucom Legend. Again, this one is pretty common on Taobao, and comes up if you search for "悟空外傳" (Wukong Sidestory, Wucom Legend/Legend of Wukong's Chinese name.)

That's all for now! Maybe I'll get a proper update posted soon.

Bulk Soundtrack Post

2011-02-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

Five unlicensed game soundtracks for you to enjoy! Three Sachen games, one Yong Yong game, and a Mega Drive game:

-Jurassic Boy 1 & 2
Featuring music from both the NES Jurassic Boy game and the Game Boy one.
-Pocket Monsters (Mega Drive)
The first Pocket Monsters game for the Sega Mega Drive.
-Pokemon Adventure
With four bonus songs from Digimon 02 Jade I recorded a while back.
-Q-Boy
With all the songs used in the game, including one (the title theme) that isn't in the sound test or NSF rip.
-Tasac (NES)
The NES version, not the Watara Supervision version. Though to be honest, the NES version's way better. Features the ending jingle that's not in the NSF rip of the game.

Enjoy!

New Blog: The Thieves' Den

2011-02-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

Like I need anymore crap, but I've got a new blog for non-unlicensed stuff. It'll be for scans and other media related to mainly obscure games and merchandise. Expect future soundtracks, tribute posts, and Unused Sprite Examinations (well, the ones that aren't of unlicensed games) to be posted there. Let's see how long it takes to update THAT.

The blog along with an FAQ about why I made it.

A Look At: Shenzhen Nanjing Packaging

2011-02-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

I've said before that I was going to scan images of my Shenzhen Nanjing and Waixing collection, and I still am. It turns out, though, that editing over 60 images for posting takes a long time. That, and I forgot about some games that I wanted to put up (Dragon Ball RPG). So in the meantime, here's something a little different.
For anyone who's visited Cinnamon Pirate's old blog noticed that he did occasional articles of Chinese/Taiwanese unlicensed games, and actually helped out with the Super Fighter Team release of Beggar Prince. I then remembered him talking about the packaging for Waixing's games and Shenzhen's games, and looking back at the articles, I came across this:

"I have far more Nanjing Technology cartridges than I do Waixing cartridges. I can firmly say that Nanjing’s cartridges are much better produced and show touches of tender loving care. The final page of most Nanjing games is a note from the company telling about why it made the game and some final impressions for the customer, similar to the messages found in the former Working Designs’ game manuals."

I know, old post is old. Still, since it was something I was going to do eventually (and with other companies like Sachen and Waixing) I figured I would share my viewpoint on Shenzhen's products. And to start it off, let me say this about that second sentence...

BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Keep in mind, this is not meant to insult Derrick Sobodash in any way, as he does give us some nifty info about these companies and does a pretty good job at it, but to say that Shenzhen's products are made with care is like saying Satan would make an excellent pope: it's pure blasphemy. I consider Shenzhen Nanjing to be the second-worst unlicensed company, only second to Yong Yong (Waixing is third, for anyone who's curious) and being one who owns over a handful of both companies products, I can reassure this.
Let's cover the juicy part first: the cartridges are the flimsiest pieces of crap I've ever handled. The plastic is cheap as all hell and is quite slim compared to even my Waixing carts. Evidence One: when I was playing Samurai Spirits RPG on my FC-Portable (back when the communist garbage was working for a full WEEK.) I had trouble getting the damn thing out. By the way, for some reason, Shenzhen and Waixing's boards are thicker than a normal board. They're thicker than my Power Joy multicart, my legit Famicom carts, everything. It makes it a real pain in the ass to pull stuff out when the slight addition of thickness is there, suprisingly enough.
Anyway, I tried pulling out by gripping the broad side of the cartridge. Big mistake, as I ended up cracking the fucking cartridge.

Now, again, none of my other carts do this. Not Power Joy, not Waixing, especially not my licensed carts. They all can stand the death grip of an adult, yet Shenzhen's break like nothing from everyday use. Evidence Two: this is a more common scenario, and it has happened to half of my collection. One thing that I hate when any company does this is when they try to hold something together using a shitty, thin piece of plastic (even $30 headphones, which is why I only use neckphones anymore, even $5 ones that last longer. Fuck you Sony, Phillips, etc. all). Add to it when someone like SNT here does it using the cheapest plastic imaginable, and you can guess what happens:

See those tiny plastic pegs? Those are meant to hold the board in place. What happens is that the thinner piece (usually, though as you can see, even the thicker pieces aren't safe) snaps because again, the plastic is cheap and flimsy. When that snaps, the board can't sit still, meaning you can't insert the board unless you insert it yourself with the board bare. Imagine trying to pull that out. Now imagine pulling it out when it goes in and out with a struggle due to the extra thickness, with no proper gripping spot to hold. Now try doing that with the fear of snapping the damn thing, because everything else of theirs so far is so damn flimsy and cheap.

This looks so safe, seriously.

That above is a Waixing board, to be fair, but the same argument applies. They're both weird like that. What's worse is that I've gotten my Harvest Moon game with a peg inside already broken, so it's not like I'm being clumsy with them (and I'm not, honest).

The boxes are made of a similarly cheap plastic. None have snapped in half yet, but some tabs (such as the ones that hold the manual in place) have already broken. The boxes use a smooth plastic that's different from the plastic that normal companies use for their boxes. It fells like the kind of plastic you use in a binder or something, that cheap film that you could probably rip with your bare hands. The label is, as you could probably guess with bootleggers like these, lazy at best and confusing at worst. Don't be surprised if you see randomly-photoshopped shit on these boxes. The back shows either more art or, if you're lucky, screenshots for something completely different (and definitely not 8-bit).

The manuals are the best thing in the package, which is rather sad, really. I'm surprised they put the manual together properly rather than putting a fucking staple in the center of the page. I don't read Chinese, so I can't go into the contents too much, but it does outline gameplay and characters, if they bother to. There's images that are of the actual game, so they're a step up from Yong Yong. Some of them apparently have a message on the last page (I've seen this in my copies) that have a short message from the company as well as a reason for making it and stuff, but I'm kinda dubious about that. Unless it says "Thanks for buying out shit and making us filthy rich, fuckers!" it's just lying bullshit at best.

I can only wonder what that bird's thinking, and I can certainly guess.

As for the games themselves...Oh, you should know this already. Try to guess how good they are. The only good thing I have to say about their games is that they actually work when you actually manage to get the board in the system. Saving hasn't been a huge problem and none of them have randomly died on me, so that's something, I suppose...

Dynamite Dux (Arcade) Soundtrack

2011-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here's something for old-school arcade go-ers: an MP3 soundtrack of a personal favorite of mine, the classic Sega game Dynamite Dux. This actually came about trying to find an MP3 rip of this game (even the Master System version) and finding nothing. What I did this time around was download the original Youtube videos (made by Robochaoxx and SUTOruin, huge kudos and credits to them) then convert the MP4 files to MP3 audio. The end result came out very nice, so here it is without mindless searching around.

Download (via Megaupload)

(P.S. Sorry I kinda "hijacked" your videos, guys.)

2003 Pocket Monster Carbuncle Scans

2011-01-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all, I got some scans of my copy of 2003 Pocket Monster Carbuncle by Sintax. I originally showed some photos of the game on my Livejournal page, but I decided to redo everything here. A new review of this game will be up in the future, but in the meantime, enjoy some higher quality scans!

Expect scans of some Shenzhen Nanjing stuff in the (near) future as well, as I plan on doing Harvest Moon and Naruto RPG. Also, the next installment or two of Rockman Z should be up before month's end.

Magical Doropie Birthday Megapost

2010-12-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

Today is December 14, and 20 years ago on this exact day, Magical Doropie was released in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom. Magical Doropie was developed by Vic Tokai, a sibling company of TOKAI Inc., a natural gas company. Vic Tokai (Valuable Information & Communication) is a telecommunications company that from 1986 to 1998 made video games for various systems as well as the PC.
The plot of the game is that Earth has been attacked by the Akudama Empire (Fun fact: Akudama is Japanese for “Bad Guy.” At least Akudama sounds pretty cool...) All of Earth’s weaponry, even the most advanced, are unable to harm the Akudama’s robots. Their only hope is to summon the last remaining witch that hasn’t been sealed away: Doropie. A mercenary named Kagemaru is sent out to recover her staff, and manages to summon Doropie just in the knick of time after being chased and surrounded by the Akudama’s scout robots. It’s up to Doropie to fight against the robotic army and save the Earth from a complete takeover.

The gameplay is similar to Mega Man, between the abilities, the color changing, the main character’s sprites (not exactly but they do bear a slight resemblance) and even the charge ability. Interestingly, this game came out before Mega Man IV, meaning it came up with the idea of a charge attack first. It isn’t implemented as well as in Mega Man, though, since cancelling the charge halfway won’t launch an attack. It also stops charging if Doropie gets hit or descends to another “section” of the level.
One thing I like about this game is how the different abilities are used. Rather than like Mega Man where the weapons are primarily meant to outmuscle a foe, here they’re used in the strategic sense, introducing a puzzle element to the traditional run ‘n gun fare. Of course, you’ll spend most of the time using the Ball and Broom abilities more than the others, but still.
The game’s much harder than a Mega Man title, as the enemies are harder and the level design can work against you. It seems kinda unpolished in some places, as when the screen scrolls downwards you can find yourself guaranteed hit by an enemy or falling into a pit of spikes you couldn’t see beforehand (the beginning of 3-1 is a good example.) Still, it’s a fun game if you stick with it, and could definitely use a sequel that enhances its fine points.

Speaking of unpolished, Magical Doropie managed to get released into the U.S. as The Krion Conquest.

Not much was changed. The title was altered, Doropie was redrawn in the intro and renamed Francesca (Kagemaru, the orange-haired mercenary, is unmentioned in The Krion Conquest,) removed the continue ability, which means losing all your lives leads back to the title screen, and the biggest thing: They removed the cutscenes. The cutscenes are considered to be the best thing about the game, done similarly to Ninja Gaiden, featuring gorgeous anime spritework of the characters and events. This leads to the game not having much of a story outside the manual and intro. In fact, the credits just scroll over the final boss’ battlefield.
Magical Doropie also got released by Genki Mobile in Japan for mobile phones though the Vodafone service on January 14, 2004. It features scaled down graphics, but looks pretty faithful. The game got edited to be much easier, especially since this was on dinky cellphones.
And now, to celebrate 20 years of Doropie, here’s some neat stuff I found/put together. First off…Another Unused Sprite Examination, since it turned out there wasn't as much there as I originally thought:

So even the Japanese version had much more in plan (More on this later...) First off, there’s Kagemaru, complete with sprites that mirror Doropie’s. This tells us that he was planned as a playable character. He even has his own hi-tech broom! He just uses Doropie’s life icon, but I put together my own for him for the fun of it (And for something else at the end of this article.) Next is…An unused character! Again, the sprites say that she was meant to be a playable character, but unlike Kagemaru, she never made it into the final game. She has her own life icon, which is that goofy smiling face similar to the one Doropie makes in 2-1’s cutscene. I don’t have any programming or hacking knowledge, so I’m not sure what else there is with her in the game, like a name or anything. To make life much easier (and because I’m not going to retype “Unused Character” a dozen times) we’ll just nickname her Aiko for now. Also note how she seems to be a cupid-type character of some kind, judging by her broom.
The other thing is that unfinished Doropie sprite. That’s all the tiles that remain of it, which is why it isn’t complete, but I’m guessing it has to do with the Clone Doropie you fight on the Space Station. Its palette is differently done than the Doropie sprites (hence the coloring from the tile editor, which was set to Doropie’s normal color scheme,) and there’s none else like I could find.

Aiko sprites and life icon, two of which I put together. Doropie’s cutscene sprites for comparison.

Kagemaru’s sprite set. His eyes are the same as Doropie’s and Aiko’s, rather than the more blank eyes used in the intro and cutscenes (last minute change?) I think it’s pretty cool how his weapon is the bigass gun from the Japanese box. Kinda wonder why the U.S. version didn't bring him back? He would've been more appealing to them if it featured a guy with a giant gun.

The weird Doropie sprites with her holding the gun. To the right is some tiles I found of I guess Clone Doropie phasing in, which I believe is used in the game. Not all of it seemed to be there, though. That, or I couldn't find it. Some of the sprites are stored oddly in their vicinity.

Tiles from the “Round # Start” screen that’s absent in The Krion Conquest. Notice the “Magical Kid’s” graphics… The game’s Japanese name is Magical Kids Doropie, which certainly explains the two unused character sprites earlier. Again, more was planned for this game than originally led on. Those tiles might still be there, just blackened out, though I’m not fully sure.

Video of Aiko and Kagemaru in action

Next up, Bootlegs!

Bootleg Doropie Carts. Interestingly, the game achieved a cult status among Japanese gamers (not too surprising, since it combines everything Japan loves: robots, cute witches, nonsensical action...) so bootlegs are to be expected. The blue one uses art taken from the Japanese version’s box backing. The yellow one features art from something else, though I’m not sure what exactly.

Japanese gamers could see the similarities to Mega Man, and one person even made a ROM hack of Magical Doropie featuring Mega Man! The palettes and Doropie sprites were altered, but the cutscenes were omitted. It somehow saw a bootleg release. Why do I act surprised?

Now for images of the Japanese version’s cart, box, etc.

Magical Doropie wasn’t originally going to be called The Krion Conquest for its U.S. release. It was supposed to be called Francesca’s Wand:

Francesca looks a bit more “goth” on the title screen. Also that gameplay screenshot features a different level layout than either version. By that I mean there’s more of a slope over to the left. Maybe they were going to edit the levels and make them easier? Or I’m stupid and forgot that it’s actually in the game. Either way. Is it me or is Francesca’s sprite different? Her pose seems a bit different and it looks like she’s wearing black shorts. Is there a better scan out there somewhere? Dammit, this screenshot’s got me curious now!

Finally, various images and videos by fans, officials, etc.

Images

By SuperNaturalFlavour

Following Three by Ryuu Majin

Videos

Perfect Run by JokerTH08

Let's Play by DigitalNinja21

Links

English translation of Magical Doropie, the way it should've been.

Wikipedia article of The Krion Conquest. Has info and links which include a fan page with an interview with the developer.

High-Quality scans of The Krion Conquest's Box, Manual, and Cartridge.

ROM bundle of Magical Doropie and The Krion Conquest

(Includes the Kagemaru and Aiko edits, different language variations so far, etc.)

Magical Rockman (Magical Doropie Hack)
Thanks, Pirateman!

Like the music? Here’s my personal Soundtrack release for the game, featuring some songs that went unused in the final game! Tagged to be a parody of Japanese soundtrack listings (like Mega Man 9). File names help tell you what the songs are used for.

Magical Kids Doropie UOST Download

That’s all for now! I’m gonna play The Krion Conquest to celebrate even further.

(Note: If there's something here that's yours and you want credit, let me know. I found some of these things during 2-hour Google searching and forgot where they came from.)

Daze Before Christmas - The Prototype

2010-11-19T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here's something new: a prototype cart for the obscure (and ungodly expensive) Daze Before Christmas game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. I've never played this game before, so I'm not sure what's different about it gameplay-wise (refer to video at the end) and I know almost nothing about programming and technical stuff, but I might as well share what I did manage to document. I was originally going to do a deep investigation to see what's different about it, but I couldn't get the energy or interest to do it. So here's some useful stuff:

Ignore the DBZ cart; that was just sent for a new case. Anyway, the one on the left is Daze Before Christmas and the one on the right is apparently a Karaoke prototype. It doesn't have any screw holes in the board, so I can't get it into a cartridge. Even if I removed the screw pegs in an empty cart, it likely wouldn't hold the board in place for insertion (I know this from my Shenzhen Nanjing carts). Here's a little blurb from my text file scoping up the protos and getting them into a sturdier case:

Daze Before Christmas' board is [2 7/16 inches] (6 4/5 MM) tall and [3 7/8 inches]

(9 7/10 MM) wide. Original Cart is {U.S. Genesis} style and is held with two (2) phillips head screws (+). Board was put into

Sonic 1 cart and fits perfectly. Back of cart has the usual warning on right side

of space, while left side has patent info:

Patents: U.S. Nos. 3,332,466/

4,454,594/4,462,076; Europe No.

80244; Canada No. 1,183,276;

Hong Kong No. 68-4302;

Singapore No. 88-155; Japan

No. 82-205605 (Pending)

Karaoke's board is [4 inches] (10 3/10 MM) wide and [2 inches] (5 3/10 MM) tall.

It doesn't have screw holes on it, making it impossible to put into a regular cart.

Jap MD Carts & US Carts won't fit with it because of the screw notches that go into

the screw holes on the board. Filing the notches would have the board loose, so

this isn't recommended, but was considered.

Lastly, images and scans of the two protos:

Daze Before Christmas

Karaoke Prototype

Video of Daze Before Christmas

That's all for now! I plan on sending these back to their original owner sometime after the weekend, so if you have any questions, ask me now while I still have them. EDIT: And they're gone! I couldn't get the Karaoke game to work at all, even on my MD2 console. Plus I had these games for like a month or two, which is much longer than I planned and I'm surprised that the guy was so patient, considering that he sent me two prototype games... BUT! I do have an image from the original auction, for whatever it's worth:

Exciting. But hey, at least it wasn't a Sonic 1 Prototype or something.

Qiezei's Unlicensed Game Collection - Part 01

2010-11-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of unlicensed junk, many of which are games that are either unknown or undumped. For the curious and the collectors, I figured I would start sharing scans of my vast collection of games. Keep in mind, this is just a portion of all the stuff I have. Some of these are even games that I haven't made videos of, either because I haven't gotten around to it, or they won't work with the technology I've got at the moment. For this installment, I'll be showing off most of my Game Boy collection. I'll add a link to a video of the game if one exists (mainly on my video channel)

-Digimon 02 (Just see Digimon Diamond but with Agumon) - A blue sparkly cartridge of the common Yong Yong title. Game is in English and actually saves your progress, interestingly enough.
-Final Fantasy IV - Just Final Fantasy Legend 3 in Chinese.
-Digimon Yellow Jade - A Sintax platformer very similar to their Harry Potter platformer.
-Beast Fighter - Sometimes called Base Fighter, it's a game where you control one of five giant monsters in a slow horizontal action game. It tries to be more like a fighter/beat-em-up, but it doesn't accomplish this very well. Endings and credits are pretty amusing; The ending shows what the five playable characters (whichever one you're playing as) are doing after ruling the world. Kuskli catches a cold, Bill (yes, Bill) decides to sunbathe against the pyramids, and Dackla gets stuck in an archway in France. The credits have a news reporter mentioning little blurbs about each staffer too, like Sunny Chen aspiring to be an idol sensation. My favorite is Amadeus Wang's: "Likes young girls, and his favorite measurements are 32, 28, and 36." I think there's mention of what age range he prefers (like 18 to 35), but I forget.
-Super 32-in-1 - Proudly proclaims "Multi-Game with Digimon 2." It has the same Digimon 2 game as previously mentioned, except it also has some "meh" GB games and maybe like one or two GBC titles. Also has Super Pika Land on it, which is a game that was originally a hack project (or vice-versa. Hell if I know.)
-Digimon Amethyst: The Dangerous Journey of Deviloom - A Hack of Donkey Kong 5 which I'll show later (or it's a hack of this.) Made up plot involving little dinosaur's sister getting kidnapped by some evil guy during a TITFUL storm. Yes, titful. Funny how you start as the guy from Bubble Bobble (Bub, I think his name is?) and then you grow into Agumon.
-School Fighter - One of the awesome games by Gowin (AKA Hotkid) for the GBC. You can control one of the three characters on the cover (including that green guy, the Gua Gua Dragon) and you fight against sports-themed demons. It plays very well and is a lot of fun.
-Pokemon Adventure - Another Yong Yong bootleg, this time an "upgraded" version of their Sonic games (Sonic 3D Blast 5, Sonic Adventure 7, etc.) The lack of moving platforms makes this a million times more playable, and isn't too bad as long as you're patient. This specific copy freezes when it tries to load the dragonfly enemy from Stage 2.
-2003 Crash II Advance - Another Sintax game that uses music from Kandume Monsters like their Ice Age game did. Has iffy controls.
-16-in-1 Advance Game Color - Just some multi-cart. I probably won't show most of them unless they have something interesting on them because they're very same-y.
-Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - I tried getting a video up of this, but my GB Player made it work only once out of about 60 tries. Grr. It's another Yong Yong title, hacked as Digimon Pocket and the levels mixed up. Fun fact: The first boss is Mewtwo, while the others are just enemies from other games (especially from Mega Man). You can't gain extra hight after bouncing on enemies like in other Yong Yong games (by holding A,) so it can makes things a bit tricky, though fortunately you don't get launched backwards when you get hit.
-Harry Potter 2 - Just the Sintax Harry Potter platformer but with a slightly different intro. I'll get a video of it up one day.

-Donkey Kong 5: The Journey of Over Time and Space - A port of Super Mario Bros. meant to cash in on Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. It has sorta-unresponsive controls (mainly for when you're trying to do a running jump or something) and collision detection isn't perfect. Also: the Ending.
-Super Robot Wars F Final - Based off the Sega Saturn game of the same name. It's a strategy-RPG made by an unlicensed company named SKOB who did some SNES titles and others.
-Digital Monster 2001 - Some fighting game with dinosaurs by Time Warner Interactive and Probe Entertainment. Yep, just some title hack. (EDIT: It's Primal Rage. Thanks codeman38!)
-Digimon 02 5 - Another ANOTHER version of Yong Yong's platformers that are up to nearly 15 now. Jesus Christ.
-Digimon Diamond - GUESS.
-Pokemon Perfect Silver 2003 - Title screen hack of some GBC Zoids game. I was hoping it would be a Sintax game or something, but no.
-Pokemon Diamond (Platformer) - A hack of Yong Yong's Super Mario 3 Special. It not only removes the stage select, but starts you on Stage 4, which is the one unbeatable level in the game. Dammit, Yong Yong.
-Pokemon Jade - I'll post a video of this up sometime in the future. It's a hack of Sonic Adventure 7, which is a hack of Sonic 3D Blast 5, which is a shitty Yong Yong game. I have two copies of this game, and both crash when you touch the end level sign. I've been trying to get footage of that, but the moving platforms have a 50-50 chance of actually WORKING, so it's been a pain in the ass.
-Pokemon Diamond (RPG) - Yep, the infamous Telefang hack. I think Sintax did the Engrish translation of this game.
-Digimon Ruby - A cool RPG by Vast Fame. This is the Chinese version of the game.
-Pokemon Blue Diamond Advance - Dunno what this is. It won't work on my GBA...
-Digimon Sapphire - Awesome GBA plaformer by Vast Fame. I gotta beat this game.
-Pokemon Jade (Again) - See above. The cart's actually supposed to be neon green, but my scanner picked it up weird. Only works with a GBA or GBA SP, since it's a scaled-down GBC board.
-Super 32-in-1 - A multi-cart with Sonic 3D Blast 5 on it. Not much else special otherwise.

The front and back of the manuals for the Yong Yong Diamond/Jade games. The insides are just half of the English manual for Pokemon Gold/Silver. Pokemon Diamond has the first half, and Pokemon Jade has the second half, awkwardly explaining the items first over everything else. There isn't even a table of contents.

-Rockman X4 - A HORRIBLE hack of a horrible game (Rockman 8 by Yong Yong). Throw in Sonic Adventure 7's palette and you have this sin of nature. BARF. (BTW, sorry for the crappy scan of it. The cart's supposed to be yellow and the label is taken from Rockman X4, the real one.)
-Digital Monster 6 - Low-quality Tamagotchi game. Nothing special.
-Pokemon Gold Version 2 - Pokemon Adventure again, except it works this time.
-Pokemon Blue - Chinese translation based off of the U.S. version.
-Lufia: Ruins of Lore - Chinese translation. By the way, don't those overworld sprites look...familiar?
-Metal Gunslinger - Chinese translation of an awesome, yet little-known action game.

-Super Mario 4 - AKA Super Mario Land 4, this is a hack of Crayon Shin-Chan 4 without cutscenes, Mario graphics, and hellish level design. It's very common in multi-carts.
-Jurassic Boy 2 - Sachen's port of their NES game. It's actually a pretty decent port technical-wise, but the small-as-hell screen hampers the game. If you're playing on a monocrome system, Chen's rebound and jump height are lessened since the game seems to program certain stuff differently (so instead of, say: "rebound-move 10 pixels reverse," it's instead: "rebound-move reverse for x seconds." Features bosses, unlike the NES version.
-Pokemon Ruby - An RPG by Vast Fame based off of their Digital Monsters 3 game. It's pretty damn good with an excellent soundtrack.
-Digimon 02 (again) - Yep. I love how they put "Don't Open" stickers on their carts.
-Rocman X (Gold) - Another version of Sachen's Thunder Blast Man, believed to have been outsourced (or stolen) from Yong Yong, as it plays as the Pokemon Adventure equivalent to Rockman 8. The box and title say Rocman X, but the cart says Rocman X Gold. Interestingly, I've seen more media/images of the physical copy of this version but only two carts of the TBM version...
-Sachen 4-in-1 Version 9 - Contains Zip Ball, Crazy Burger, Final Mission Deep, and Small Gorilla. Zip Ball and Crazy Burger are the best games on here.

Box for Digimon 02. It basically explains what's in the game's intro. Notice how there's no screenshots on the box...Bootleggers tend to do this, especially Yong Yong.

Super Mario 4's Box. It's a Crayon Shin-Chan hack, with Super Mario Bros. Deluxe's description, and Squirrel King/Super Mario World screenshots... I doubt Gamtec had anything to do with this. EDIT: I can't believe I forgot this, but one of the screenshots (the upper-right one) appears to be from a prototype version of Super Mario World. That level, along with the street level, were from Squirrel King, but they were replaced with the Mario-themed levels in SMW. I believe the box to SMW has this screenshot as well. This isn't completely uncommon, as the box for the U.S. Sonic 2 game (Genesis/Mega Drive) and Super Mario 64 (from what I've heard) have prototype screenshots on the back.

Box, cart and instructions of both Beast Fighter and Street Hero. Street Hero is the GBC port of Sachen's Street Heroes for the NES. It's not that bad, really, but it does away with the voice clips, which is the best thing about the game. Beast Fighter is apparently INTELLIGENT!! and CHALLENGE!!

Box, manual, and instructions for Jurassic Boy 2 and Rocman X. I don't know what's with the strange clipart on the back of JB2's box.

And finally, box and cart scans of three of Gamtec's Mega Drive titles!

Bomboy didn't come with a box (I'm keeping an eye out for a complete copy) and Magic Girl seems to be a reprint. I got the game from "ps3gouken" on ebay, who apparently, according to some message board, makes his own unlicensed games. (Psst! Hey! Will you make me a boxed Bomboy game?) Either way, it's doesn't seem to be an official re-release. I wonder what PC Doujin game they got that box art from? It'd be funny if it were from a Touhou game, seeing that they have a few similarities. Adventurous Boy is apparently extremely rare, so I'm happy to own a copy of it. Magic Girl and Adventurous Boy are the same as the current ROM dumps.

That's everything! I'll show off my Famicom and Mega Drive collection in the future, as well as some GB games I missed (such as Pocket Monsters Go! Go!).

Magic Girl Unofficial Soundtrack

2010-10-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of new unlicensed videos. They are coming, I've just been busy with stuff. Anyway, here's the first of many old soundtrack recordings of mine that I'll be uploading in the future. Some are of unlicensed games like Pocket Monsters, Sachen, and Super Boogerman, and others are of official titles desperate for a soundtrack like Super Bomberman, Bomberman II, Air Zonk, Bonk 1-3 (including the CD tracks) and more. For this post, it's Magic Girl, developed by Gamtec of Taiwan. The sound engine is based off of a Sunsoft title called Shi Kin Jou, and actually sounds very fitting and nicely composed for the engine used. Magic Girl is a fun game with some great music and graphics, so it's worth checking into if you like this sort of thing. Included in the ZIP file is a thrown-together bonus I made. Nothing fancy, but neat.

Download (via Megaupload)

Unused Sprite Examination: Jurassic Boy 2 (Sachen, NES/GBC)

2010-10-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Something new that I wanted to try out. As many of you probably know, video games are often turn out not to be what they were originally planned as. One popular example is Sonic the Hedgehog 2; just one of the prototypes alone contains enough unused stuff to probably warrant it to be an entire game. These unused, prototype mechanics, graphics, etc. sometimes end up hidden in the final commercial release's code, just not used by the game. I plan on doing at least two other games (Magical Doropie and the NES Rocman X game) that showcase what hidden graphics lie inside these games. Believe it or not, there's a ton of unused stuff in these games, and while I know dick about programming, I can at least show what graphics are hidden with Tile Layer Pro and rip them into sprite sheets (for anyone who gives a damn). For this installment, it's Jurassic Boy 2.

Forgive me if the layout's rather sloppy. Here are all the unused graphics for Jurassic Boy 2 found in the NES ROM. There's 10 used sprite sets and 21 unused sprite sets for Chen alone. Yikes. There's also two unused objects (they're just variations of what's in the game) and three unused enemies. The slime enemy is easy to figure out, but the other two...I'm guessing they were planned as bosses? Oddly enough, there's no other unused enemy graphics for the last two worlds. Also, that skeleton rex doesn't have a jump(?) sprite like the caveman does. Back to the Chen sprites, they certainly planned this game to match the calibur of Sonic 2 or Sonic CD, seeing as there's sprites for a peelout skill, and also how he would've been much more animated during gameplay. Shame this never came to fruition, huh? I haven't come across anything relating to the unused stuff mentioned in the NES manual, such as the powerups. If they're there, they're likely compressed in a way TLP doesn't pick up.

Another interesting find, digging around the ROM, was this:

Beta Popo Team stuff! This is actually hidden in the Popo Team ROM as well, and likely in other late TC-XXX and SA-XXX titles. Looks like they base their games off of a previous one. I couldn't piece the beta title together (not everything appears to remain) but it looks like it was even going to be called something else, judging by that "S". "Po * Po's World"?

The GBC ROM? (Look to the left) Nothing new. It seems to repeat its tile set repeatedly, with only one of them actually used. Chen's animations and the caveman are still there, but the skeleton rex is MIA. They were probably too lazy to erase the beta remnants from the NES version.

Last thing to mention: It turns out that some of the sprites used in the game are actually animated. The moving platforms are an example. All Sachen did was paint each animation the exact same so it looks static. Maybe they meant to animate them? (This could possibly explain the slightly-choppy framerate in the game; there's a ton of stuff happening but it's not visible.) Below are examples, with red circles showing the sprites on the arranger and in the tile viewer:

The Original Platforms used

Platforms re-drawn with seperate animation frames

Video showing the newly animated platform in action

I don't think I missed anything. If I did, it's minor stuff. My next U.S.E. won't be for a while, as it took long enough to put this together. Stay tuned for more! By the way, if anybody's wondering about using the ripped sprites: go nuts. Use them for whatever you'd like (though I'm not sure how many people care about Jurassic Boy 2) and have fun with them. Seems kinda stupid to mention, but people care about this stuff when it comes to sprite sheets. Hm.

Bomboy [轟炸小子 - Explosion Kid] (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive)

2010-10-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

The year is 1993. The super-popular strategy game series Bomberman has released possibly its biggest installment ever: Super Bomberman. Gamtec of Taiwan noticed this game’s popularity and that Sega Genesis (Mega Drive to everyone else) was missing out on the action. Mega Bomberman was only released in the U.S. and Europe, while Japan got the Turbografx (PC-Engine) version called Bomberman ’94. Mega Bomberman wasn’t released for another year, mind you, and Japan missed out on the Sega installment, so it was the perfect game to score in on. Three of their staff members pulled together and released Bomboy [轟炸小子 – Explosion Kid].

Bomboy, as you can probably guess, is based off of Super Bomberman. The game plays like Super Bomberman’s story mode does: you travel to different “worlds” and cleared all of its stages by defeating every enemy in that stage. There’s 10 worlds to travel to, which ranges from typical places like ice worlds and a haunted mansion, to more interesting worlds like one with gold “? Blocks” and mushrooms (Mario reference, most likely) to one with cows (moo!). Seeing their eyes bug out when you blow them up is priceless.
The graphics, especially the portraits for things like the ending, are what you expect from Gamtec: relatively simple in design and style, yet nicely drawn out. It’s kinda like a budget Ken Shugimori look (Ken Shugimori is Game Freak’s character designer/artist who did Pulseman, Mendel Palace and the Pokemon titles, to name a few.) The in-game graphics do resemble Super Bomberman’s in-game graphics, with a pseudo-3D (whatever you would call it) feel to it. Nothing fancy, but it works very well in its own right.
The music doesn’t compare to Super Bomberman, but it’s still pretty good. I know it seems kinda unfair to keep comparing this game to Super Bomberman (and I am judging it in its own right) but it’s obvious Gamtec wanted a Bomberman game and didn’t hide it, so I’m judging it by both. The music sounds similar to Gamtec’s other games, like Magic Girl and Adventurous Boy. The sound engine used seems to be based off of a Sunsoft title called Shi Kin Jou (it even steals sound effects from it!) but like Vast Fame with the Rockman World 5 sound engine, they actually composed some great music with it. The music is mostly upbeat and is fun to listen to while you play.
The controls work very well. Though it’s not like a normal Bomberman game where you move pixel-by-pixel rather than tile-by-tile, it’s functional enough. I encountered no problems with controller responses, and the bombs work and explode like the official title. It’s better than the NES Bomberman game, at least.
Gameplay is the biggest downfall to this otherwise excellent game, and basically where I’ll be listing the Cons. First off, there’s no Battle Mode. One of the biggest things about Super Bomberman was the multiplayer mode. Hell, they even bundled a Multi-Tap with some copies of the game! I know this was the first Bomberman game with real multiplayer (Bomberman II had it as well, but this was the first big multiplayer mode) but they should’ve known that this was important, seeing as they knew a lot about Super Bomberman to begin with.
The other problem is the level design. Instead of a grid-pattern to the level like almost every other Bomberman game made, they instead have hard blocks scattered in random patterns. Sometimes they’ll form a small “room” in one portion of a stage and in another there’s none, leaving you with a huge, empty space for enemies to waltz around in. The same goes for some of the soft blocks, though they still do their job properly. It’s a pain to attack enemies when they can just sidestep to avoid death. Anyone who’s played Bomberman Quest or Bomberman Tournament’s over world can relate to this.
Lastly, the enemies move in random-as-hell patterns. Normally in Bomberman, an enemy would move in a straight line, only changing directions when they hit an obstacle, with the occasional exception in some games that they change direction when you’re in sight or something. Hell, even the first Bomberman for the NES was more tolerable. But here they sometimes move back and forth on two tiles, or they just beeline around without any sense of direction. Try killing an enemy with random movement in open space with weak firepower (especially after you die, since your firepower starts back at one when you lose a life.) Also, if they happen to be trapped between a bomb’s explosion and a wall, they’ll actually pause to avoid walking into the fire. Worse are some enemies later on that will move through everything, even hard blocks, and chase you if you’re close to them…At various speeds, no less. This is very bad when you first start a stage and have no room to move. Combine this with the previous problems, and you’ll be definitely sure to jot down the passwords for each level.
Overall? It’s very frustrating to play, namely in the later levels, but it’s still not too bad. For a game made by three people, it’s pretty impressive, though you don’t need more than one person to realize that the enemy and level designs are a bad idea. It’s much like Mendel Palace in the fact that it’s very hard and not too fun to play alone, but it’s fun with a friend. Great audio, visuals, and controls, but bad design. As long as you have a friend and aren’t too serious, it’s a nice title.

Images

Videos

Gameplay

Last Level & Ending

Thanks to “pirateman” for finding this game.

Dino Century Scans (Gowin)

2010-09-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

As an apology for assuming that I could show footage of Dino Century when I couldn't, here are some scans of the game's manual, box, and instructions. Have fun!

More scans to come!

R.O.C. Man X?

2010-09-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Stupid post time! I just felt like this should be mentioned, as it's an interesting observation at least. So, you probably know of Sachen's game Rocman X, also known as Thunder Blast Man.

Normally, this is considered to be a poor misspelling of Rockman X, which makes sense as the game's Chinese title (on the Game Boy, at least) is 波克人 (Luo Ke Ren, which apparently translates to Rockman. Strangely, in Google Translate, it's actually "Bō kè rén" and translates to "Polk Man.") One thing that crossed my mind, though, is that it's evident in the NES version that they seemed to try and make it more of an original title than planned. The manual mentions controls similar to the Game Boy version, yet it has completely unique gameplay, involving a boomerang weapon and the ability to glide in one of three directions to reach difficult places.

I've noticed that "ROC" has been used in at least two of their other games: Silent Assault (shown on a plane in level 3) and Millionaire (as the most expensive country you can buy.) R.O.C. happens to stand for Republic of China, which is another name commonly used for the country of Taiwan, and Taiwan happens to be where Sachen is located at. What am I trying to get at? What I'm thinking is that maybe, just maybe, Sachen, even in an indirect way, thought of having Rocman's name stand for "R.O.C. Man," AKA Republic of China Man. Think Captain America with this. It's a long shot, especially since Sachen didn't try to hide that it was inspired by Mega Man, and that they aren't the most fluent English speakers in the world (THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMING!) but hey, it's a thought. The name Rocman X is mainly used for the Chinese version of the game (Game Boy and Famicom,) while the English version uses Thunder Blast Man (Game Boy and NES,) so it would make sense for Asian audiences to relate to R.O.C. Man than English audiences (keep in mind Sachen has made English and Chinese equivelants for a lot of their games.)

Hey, it's a ridiculous idea, but it's a possibility. Sachen has proven, even in their later TC-XXX games, which are more knock-off-ish than their earlier titles, that they can be more clever than they appear (Q-Boy, anyone?)

Yong Yong Titles! (Maybe)

2010-09-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Heyo. So I picked up a lot of three Game Boy games about a month ago containing a shoujo mini-game GBA title, Zelda: Four Swords for GBC (it's just a Chinese translation of Zelda DX,) and Sonic DX. Four Swords didn't come with a manual, though Sonic DX did, and that's why I'm writing.

So, we have Sonic Advance 3 screenshots on the back, and Harvest Moon art on the back of the manual. The game itself? Just Sonic 3D Blast 5 again. That game seems to be common in multicarts, as I have four or five with this game on them. But what's interesting is what's INSIDE the manual! (Click for bigger pics)

Notice how there's multiple titles of the same series, being differentiated by numbers. What's also worth noting is that most of them are labeled as RPGs. As usual, translations are appreciated and will be credited. Be sure to leave a comment or e-mail me if you can translate the manual. I know I know, I should just learn the Chinese language if I'm going to be centering a hobby around it, but I have little free time, and an art career in France is more important than a Chinese video game hobby.

Sachen Famicom Backings

2010-09-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I've always wanted to do a Sachen fansite, filled with info, images, etc. on the Taiwanese company. But it turns out that most of Sachen's stuff has already been recorded, but it may happen one day. So, I've been getting a good collection of Sachen stuff started, and I happened upon this: the neat stuff behind the Sachen Famicom carts!
It seems that the back of these carts, unlike the NES ones, have various stuff printed on them. I've discovered at least three different things. First off, the English Title List:

Nothing terribly interesting, except for the mentioning of Puff Kid. Puff Kid is the prototype name for Q-Boy, what I consider to be Sachen's greatest game. What's also interesting is that it's labeled TC-025, which is actually Silver Eagle. My guess is that Q-Boy was being developed first, then later on Silver Eagle was made, probably in place of Q-Boy which might've been delayed.

Also interesting to note is Bridge: it's given the numbering TC-024, which actually belongs to Rockball. Bridge ultimately went unreleased, but it's mentioned in the "LNNTELECTUAL" (intellectual) game series, which lists board games, gambling games, and puzzle games. Not much else is known about it, unfortunately. Lastly, SA-020 is actually Tasac, not Bonus Tiles Mahjong. I believe that Mahjong game got released, but I'm not 100% certain. There's like five jillion of these Mahjong games alone, not including Poker games or non-unlicensed ones, and I certainly don't give much of a shit since they all seem rather same-y. Again, it was probably developed first before Tasac.

Next up is the Chinese Title List. Since I don't know Chinese, I can't say what they translate to or what's different about it from the known numbering. If you do, please tell me! This was actually overlaid by the lntellectual label on the back of my Chinese Academy cart. Hmm... Oh, and a translation of it all would be nice, since I know some Sachen games have different names in Chinese and English.

Last are the advertisements! Again, a translation of these would be nice. One is an advert for Jurassic Boy, found under the Adventure Series sticker on the back of my Q-Boy cart. The other seems to be a generic advertisement, but it features art from Little Red Hood. Maybe an ad for it? It was put on the back of a Raid (Silent Assault) cart.

And that about wraps it up! Puff Kid and Bridge images from a scanned Sachen manual over at the awesome Nintendo Age and the Little Red Hood image from some site I can't remember. If you have posted this image originally and come across this site, let me know so I can give you credit!

Street Heroes by Sachen (Game Boy Color)

2010-08-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't know Sachen? Also known as Thin Chen Enterprise, Joy Van, and Commin, they are what I consider to be the biggest unlicensed company ever. Seriously, they supported the Watara Supervision and Mega Duck/Cougar Boy, made games for the NES, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy, and had their games published in almost every continent in the world (U.S. by Color Dreams and American Video Entertainment, Brazil by Milmar, Australia by Home Entertainment Suppliers, and Europe by Color Dreams and some other company I can't think of. They published their Game Boy games. Toy Tec Electronics?) Some of Sachen's games are still a mystery, such as some of their Game Boy games and the unreleased Bridge (TC-024)...Until now. Presenting: Street Heroes for the Game Boy Color.

Street Heroes was originally released for the NES and Famicom in 1994. It also went under the name Samurai Spirits, featuring a different intro and title. Sachen ported three of their later Thin Chen numbered games to the Game Boy: Jurassic Boy 2, Thunder Blast Man, and this. A lot of the original game remains intact in this port, but not everything.

Street Heroes is a fighting game, very similar to Street Fighter (and likely based on it.) The options screen lets you select difficulty and time allowed for each fight, but the game is always the same difficulty no matter what you select. I haven't tried 1P VS 2P yet, so I'll omit it from this article. It's likely a link-cable VS mode. The manual instructs you each character's special attack (some are easy to figure out, like quarter-circle-B) that are unique to each. It's pretty easy to win if you abuse their specials (which I did because I suck at fighting games.)

The graphics are actually faithful to the original's, both in style and palette. There's less flicker during a fight since the Game Boy Color can handle the character objects better. Sound is a bit more subdued than the original, even though the NES game has subdued music as it is. Sadly, there's no voice samples, which gave the original a bit more flair. Also, the music starts to repeat itself after about 4 stages. Boo. Controls work fine enough, can't really say much about it.

The ending shows all the characters' endings instead of just the one you're playing as. Can't say much else about it. A lot of it is similar to the NES version, so if you liked that game, you'll enjoy this one. Sadly, it's pretty rare, like all non-NES Sachen stuff.

Images:

Packaging:

Interesting that Dark Moon is listed, as he isn't playable in 1P mode. Probably meant for multiplayer mode.

Video:

Stay tuned for more!

Erm...

2010-08-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, uh, remember when I said that I would be showing off Dino Century by Gowin? Well...That's not gonna happen right now. I know I know! But I was intent on showing this game! You see, the problem is this: I screen-capture my Game Boy stuff off my TV via a Game Boy Player for the Gamecube. Sadly, the Game Boy Player seems to be more strict than the GBA with lockout protection. Something like this: http://fuji.drillspirits.net/?post=87
So when I load up the game on my Game Boy Player, I get this:

And that's it. It stays that way. Nothing else happens. Now for good news: last I checked, jayhui1986, the guy I got this from, has another copy of this game (complete) on his ebay page!

http://shop.ebay.com.hk/jayhui1986/m.html

He's also where I got Bomboy and a bunch of other stuff from, so if you're into unlicensed stuff like myself, you MUST check this guy out!

Back to business, this doesn't mean we'll never see this game! It just means I'll be needing to find a new way to do this. Don't ask me how (though I'm open to ideas) but it'll happen. Stay tuned for more...

New Blog!

2010-08-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Mr. Burglar here. I decided to move from barely-livejournal to blogspot since I can actually UPLOAD IMAGES HERE! So my old blog will be abandoned. Since there's only one post there, I'll just redo that game with video and a better description. My Youtube channel is still the same, just this blog is different.

My old livejournal page: http://mr-burglar.livejournal.com/

Also, more new games which includes...

Yes, those are Gowin games. Yes, I'll be showing at least the right one. The left one is some monochrome tamagotchi game, and isn't nearly as interesting or easy to video capture as the other one. And yes, you'll be seeing the box and instructions for it, the gameplay, and EVEN THE ENDING! Stay tuned for more!

And to Blogspot:

YOU BETTER NOT DISSAPOINT ME LIKE LIVEJOURNAL DID.