China – paradise poor retrogamer…
…mais pas that !

Today it is commonplace to find reproductions or pirated cartridges on eBay and other online shops. Sometimes these versions are very useful when the originals have become very expensive and not found (otherwise it is the solution of the Everdrive). I think for example some Megadrive titles like Twinkle Tale or Eliminate Down. However, in this jungle “Bootlegs” il faut distinguer more categories. The first classification can be compared to the quality of manufacture (Plastics, PCB), the second with respect to the appearance (box, notice…) and finally he must dissociate the original games without a license and Hacks (often come from Taiwan, see this entry).
Today I will introduce you Bootlegs Game Boy and Game Boy Color particularly well, some are positively surprising hacks.
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Les productions Taiwanaises originales pour Megadrive

After my shopping in China, I thought it would be good to do a little update on all informal productions Megadrive Made in Taiwan. While some of these cartridges have been translated and republished (Begard Prince, Legend of Wukong…), others are a little obscure. Some have not even been to Dumpées ROM format emulator and the originals are relatively hard to find and often expensive. I own just one of these original productions but I'm trying to address here a maximum of them, including those who are not in my possession. Continue reading

Pirates & Design, WTF !

Here's a humorous little note compiling a selection of musical design of cartridges pirates. You will see, our pirates have some herbs “talent” to select various images and assimilate them into a game no matter how. But no matter how REALLY ! This is obviously distressing but often very funny, and I'm sure you've never seen Sonic, Mario or Batman, Scrooge and the Ninja Turtles in this light… Something to look like our boxes PAL NES Megaman to works of art !
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X in 1 Pc-Engine

Did you know ? The PC-Engine NEC was also hijacked in his time. Though far less popular than its sister 8 or 16bit and a lot less well distributed outside Japan (France, UK and U.S. being the exceptions), it is rather surprising that the most cute of all consoles have also retained the attention of Asian bootlegers. She not only had its own copier to run games on diskette, as was done by its competitors, but she was also entitled to its Hu-Cards X in 1 pirates.
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Megadrive games Chinese / Taiwanese / Russian

Last post on my purchases of retro games in China with a ticket filled with photos securities in box & notice. Pas mal of Bootlegs (unlicensed pirates) of course but also some exclusive titles developed in Taiwan in the late years 90 and some were allowed to exit via the English SuperFighter Team (Beggar Prince, Legend of Wukong… ). We will also see how, while being non-official, Cantonese Society in a ended up becoming, at least locally, itself to be copied later with products of lesser quality. Finally I will touch briefly on Russian market, country or Megadrive seems to have unofficially hardback after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This would explain why some cartridges produced in China have a label in Russian (I found a carton of Contra Hard Corps like this, you will see after the jump in ticket). A busy schedule but a priori, I think should interest, the most hardcore retro-gamers !
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GB Games & FC Chinese Box !

Before last ticket on my shopping-entertaining video made in China with this time of games in box. You should know that this is something quite rare to have games in box and with instructions found in China and more often only pirate cartridges. I will present here my selection 4 Famicom titles and 3 cartouches GameBoy. In this selection we will find 2 hacks, one is a port of well done Phantasy Star IV sur Famicom (yes, you read ! ) and the other a hack GameBoy Color based on the series called Akumajo Dracula Castlevania DX.
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Hacks et X into 1 Megadrive

Today I will present some of the cartridges that I brought back from China for Megadrive. I've shown you some Famicom for a few days ago but know that these cartridges are also available for 16bit Sega. I dug up two 4 in 1 and a 8 in 1 (it is really excellent). But be aware that in China (and Russia, but we shall see in a future post), there is another phenomenon : that of Rom-Hack. The Rom-Hack is, at the base, to rip sprites and sets a variety of games to create new from a motor home. Often you end up with games not really terrible, but some still deserves to stand out. I will present four right here, for better or for worse…
Giggle
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Chinese Famicom cartridges 小霸王 and x in 1

To explain in detail my retro-gaming purchases made during my last trip to China, I decided to open the ball with a clone Famicom mint and boxed with excellent workmanship with a few cartridges say X in 1 (include several games in an). Before entering it into the thick of it, I want to digress and say that most of the things I'll show you in the coming days are obviously not official (except games Ique), and besides, I'm sure some of you will not hesitate to claim that these objects therefore have no value in terms of collection. I should mention that I'm not entirely agree with this concept because, as a true retrogamer I am also interested in different markets of video games in the world and their history. These versions, While pirates, are an integral part of the history of video games in China (countries where they are still officially banned!) and therefore in my view their place in my collection and my culture videogame. In addition it is very cool objects, exotic, and not very common in our region. Now I close this digression to introduce you to my new famicom.
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