Sunday, December 25, 2011

Magic Lamp Scans (English Release)

 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!









Friday, December 23, 2011

Collection Update #09 - 12/23/2011

  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.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

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

  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!