Thursday, September 16, 2010

Dino Century Scans (Gowin)

  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!

Friday, September 10, 2010

R.O.C. Man X?

  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?)


Thursday, September 9, 2010

Yong Yong Titles! (Maybe)

  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.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Sachen Famicom Backings

  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!