Posted by taizou @ 2018-12-25 16:42:44Hey I pulled something together at the last minute because it's CHRISTMAS Four dumps that have been on the backburner for one reason or another but not anymore. Merry everything!!Shengui Diguo Zhi Emo Cheng (神鬼帝國の惡魔城)This is the original 2003 release of Sintax's Castlevania game, probably best known through the cut-down demo of a somewhat-revised 'DX' version which has been spread around the internet for a long time. Unlike the DX demo, the full game is here, and it's pretty much a Metroidvania-style Castlevania game on the Game Boy Color, which Konami themselves never attempted. In fact, from the small amount of it I've played, I'd say this is better than any of Konami's official Castlevania games for the Game Boy. The soundtrack is taken from Belmont's Revenge, which was a very good call.Thanks to AprkMk10 for lending me this cart!The cracked version will run in any emulator, GBX version will run in hhugboy, raw will run in hhugboy and probably in MAME if you configure it right.GBX: Cracked: Raw:Chaoji Yinsu Xiaozi II - Super Sonik II (超級音速的小子II)This is one of Sintax's later low-quality generic platformers, unfortunately.
Best Pokemon Fan Games 2019
Pick Knuckles, Sonic or Tails and jump around a few uninspired levels shooting at enemies. I don't know how to use the icons along the bottom or the MP gauge, if they're even functional at all. Still, at least the sprites are decent.Thanks to max for lending me this cart!I have a picture of this one, please enjoy the full glory of 'Sonik' the probably-not-legally-distinct-enough hedgehog:GBX: Cracked: Raw:Langrsr II / Fantastic Simulated BattleHere's an interesting one! An English version, for starters, which is rare enough. But an English strategy RPG, too, apparently based on the rarely-officially-localised Langrisser series (which I have never played).
But it's actually more readily obviously just a reskin of the unlicensed Fire Emblem GBC game previously published by SKOB, with the Chinese intro text, gameplay, music and map layouts all being identical. All the graphics have been changed and characters and in-game dialogue replaced, though, which I assume results in a confusing mashup of Langrisser and Fire Emblem which probably makes no sense to fans of either series. Fun times in Sintax land!Thanks to BigFred for this dump! (Which was sent to me so long ago that I can no longer find any of the original messages, so hopefully I haven't missed anything here. Ahem)The reason I never released this one before is it wasn't quite susceptible to my usual method of cracking Sintax games- unlike 99% of their GBC titles which initialise the protection at the start and then never touch it again, this one actually does it again when you open the menu in battle, meaning the data is encoded in two different ways in different parts of the ROM, which I could never be arsed to unpick. So, for now, I'm only releasing the GBX and raw versions, for use in hhugboy and probably MAME too.GBX: Raw:Menghuan Moni Zhan II (夢幻模擬戰II)The Chinese version of the above game. Basically the same, but in Chinese.
Same protection issues too.GBX: Raw. Posted by taizou @ 2018-09-12 18:44:31Rockman & Crystal is the English version of Vast Fame's genuinely-quite-decent Mega Man X clone and swansong for their Zook series, and it's been something of a holy grail for ROM dumpers for a LONG time. Just over two years ago, I dumped the Chinese-language Taiwanese release, Zook Man ZX4. So the game has been playable for a while, but what has always been missing is its fantastic English dialogue. Until now!Many many thanks to for lending me the cartridge!here's the ROM:It works in 0.5.0 and later, might work in other emulators if they've implemented support for Vast Fame protection in the meantime. I dunno, I'm not the sheriff of emulators. Posted by taizou @ 2018-09-06 22:48:48Back at it again with a weird GBA cart:Super Panda!
What could this be? I had my suspicions, but.Yep, it's a NES game running on GBA using the free PocketNES emulator, of bootleggers looking to stretch out their lineups. As with many of these carts, it has a newly-added 'intro' consisting of two static images that zoom into the screen, then launches straight into the emulator.
Note also that for the second of the images they managed to fuck up transparency and make the white areas black - is what it probably should have looked like.The game being emulated here is 'Panda World', a platformer running on the same engine as the better-known Pocket Monster and equally-poorly-known Super PoPo's Adventure, likely developed by entities related to Gamtec or Super Game. This game has been dumped for a while, so I figured the GBA cart was nothing too special - just a ROM from the internet with a couple of images slapped on the front - and didn't pay too much attention to it.But then I realised something: the Panda World ROM was only in 2010. That's pretty late for a new mass-produced GBA cart. Not to mention the general condition of the cartridge made it appear much older.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/37261870/pokemon-black.0.0.jpg "Pokemon roms pc")
So I opened it, and inside found a sticker on the PCB indicating a 2004-2005 date! So this was made well before the ROM became widely available. Not only that, on the back of the PCB was the code '4351-XB'; Panda World was dumped from a multicart with the ID XB-F812. 'XB' there is though to stand for 'X Boy', a brand name of.
So I believe this is probably a GBA cart produced by the original publishers of Panda World, using their own ROM.That's already interesting enough for a nerd like me, but you may be wondering if there's really anything different from the existing dump. The version on the multicart apparently had some weak copy protection, which was disabled by Cah4e3 in order to make it run on the common MMC3 mapper. But since PocketNES doesn't support this protection, the ROM they used here is already MMC3, either the original version before the protection was added, or an 'official' hack removing it.Here's the GBA ROM:But of course it's a NES game, so we can extract the NES ROM too, we don't have to be restricted to playing it in an emulator-inside-an-emulator:Once extracted, it seems to work exactly the same as the existing dump. There are differences in the ROM, so there may be in-game differences somewhere, but I haven't verified this either way. (although one large difference is apparently accounted for by the presence of a block of Tengen Tetris graphics in this version, for some reason, almost certainly left in by accident and unused).Here's the NES ROM:So that's it for this. Variation of a panda game.
But one final point of intrigue is that the ID of this cartridge is 'LC022', probably implying the existence of others in the series - I've never seen any, but is it possible X Boy (or whoever) released other unique games in this line? Maybe Super Popo's Adventure, or other unknown titles? Leave a comment if you know anything!
Bootleg Pokemon: Fake Games & ProductsBootleg Pokemon: Fake Games & ProductsAs with many very popular series, Pokemon has spawned itsfair share of knock-offs, ripoffs, and bootleg merchandise. While someof these items are decent quality, others are very cheaply made. Everyoneknows about the fake Pokemon cards that were everywhere a few years ago,but did you know that there are also fake Pokemon Game Boy games? In addition,be careful when you browse sites like Ebay for Pokemon merchandise - manysets of action figures and toys are very badly-done bootlegs!TOYS: Check that the characters look right.
If theyare badly painted or misshapen, they're probably fakes. Look for the officialPokemon logos and trademarks (not just the words 'Pocket Monster'with random kana around it).
The Japanese Pokemon logo is shaped likea green downwards arc. TOMY and Bandai make Japanese Pokemon toys, solook for that logo on your toy.
Also check for logos from Nintendo, GameFreak, etc. Additionally, check that the packaging looks real. If thepictures on the package look too bright or overexposed, there's a goodchance they were printed on a color copier (which tends to add too muchbrightness to images). You can also check for official packaging of theseproducts and compare what the real toys look like.If you're buying loose figures, make sure they 'look'right.
I once purchased a set of 2 figures (Skitty and Delcatty) fromEbay in a single auction - the Skitty was official, but the Delcatty wasnot.MUSIC CDS: Authentic Japanese Pokemon CDs are produced by Pikachu Records. CDs produced by SonMay or EverAnime are fakes. The CD may have all the music tracks, but you will not get any of the extra materials, which include mini-posters, trading cards, stickers, and books.GAMES: The following games are real: Pokemon versionsBlue, Red, (Japanese: Green), Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire,Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen.
Fake Pokemon CrystalLaura writes: 'I bought a Pokemon Crystal game forthe Gameboy Colour only to discover when I played it it was a fake! ThePokemon were called Elfs, instead of saving you wrote a report and whenyou tried to catch an Unknown it was called a funny name, a whole lotof jumble came up and it reset! The Pokemon looked like the ones you geton Pokemon Green and Professor Oak was called The Elf Monster! It wasquite humerous to play (Like when 'Mom' told me how to use the phone 'Plugin the Xazafier and select the Holy Figure') and the only name you couldcall your character was LS.
It was in perfect English (Though not verygood grammer) but it looked like someone had made it themselves at homeby changing around a proper version. Has anyone else got a version likethis or is it just me?'