Publicaciones de blog

"Dead? No. We have but slept..."

5/30/2017

Right, apologies for the lack of updates and general radio silence this past month. No cause for concern other than being incredibly busy.

To put that right with immediate effect, we've added six new reviews to The Forgotten Abbey, one for the newly acquired Game.com and five for the GameKing! We've also added a hardware review for a little handheld I picked up a short while ago: the VG Pocket Mini.

In other exciting handheld news, I've also been able to track down another offering from our friends at Timetop. This time it isn't a GameKing variant but instead their attempt to expand into handheld Famiclones with the LTPS Handygame (not to be confused with the confusingly similarly named PCP Station).

Sadly, the seller appears to have lost the cartridges that came with it/were sold separately, so we'll be stuck with the built in games. Let's hope they are better than the ones that came with the VG Pocket! I'll be very disappointed in Timetop if at least one of them isn't a Super Mario rip-off featuring a mouse with 'Risk' in the title.
Anyway, expect a review/breakdown in the The Off Licence once it arrives on Obsolete Island for inspection.

Until then, keep checking back for updates and remember to follow us on Twitter @obsoleteworlds or leave comments about anything you'd like to see covered. We do like a good old chit-chat about tat!

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Gamedrop #8 - Here comes a new challenger!

4/22/2017

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The welcome sight of the postman lugging an over-sized parcel can mean only one thing:
The notorious Tiger Game Com has finally arrived to join its forgotten brethren here on Obsolete Island!

Speaking frankly, initial impressions are far from the horror show we were expecting from this universally panned device, while we currently only have two relatively simple games to play on it (plus the built in Solitaire) the screen, as usual, isn't nearly as bad to the naked eye as is made out in the videos of most youtubers and all three games are reasonably enjoyable, if unlikely to set the world on fire....which, of course, they didn't.

Once we get hold of some games that actually require scrolling and/or fast moving sprites that opinion may well change, but, for now, we're curious to explore and review the 20 available titles that the system offers.To that end, the Game Com now has its own dedicated page over at The Forgotten Abbey. With no truly rare or overly expensive titles available for it, we look forward to categorizing and reviewing the entire library over the coming months.

Speaking of reviews, the Supervision, GameKing and Gamate sections of the site have all had new reviews added to them in the past few weeks. Don't forget to follow @Obsoleteworlds on Twitter for updates each time we add something new to the website.

As always, thanks for reading and following our adventures in Obsolete Worlds.

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Well, this is odd...a clone of a Gameking?

4/9/2017

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As you may have seen, here at Obsolete Worlds we are big fans of the Timetop Gameking. The little low-res handheld that somehow managed to exist in a time when most people were enjoying the graphical delights of the PSP!

So when we saw this appear on ebay, we had to investigate. It arrived on Obsolete Island via Spain this week, sadly a little worse for wear and with broken parts rattling around inside it. After some tinkering we finally got it working again and now have to ask one question.

What on earth is this?

Firstly let's address what it isn't. It isn't a Gameking. In fact it seems to be something similar to the 45-in-1 Game Player (YD-G202) that we reviewed in the The Off Licence. It doesn't play Gameking games and doesn't appear to be manufactured by Timetop. Yet the case font and overall layout are clearly trying to invoke the Gameking II as seen by this side by side below. Note also the similarities in button layout the curve of the external speaker.

Like the Gameking II it also comes with one of those idiotic colour backgrounds (annoyingly glued in place here, unlike the GKII's removable lense). Although the screen is much bigger allowing for much larger and more detailed sprites. It also retains the backlight function of the GKII with a switch allowing you to power on the system with or without the backlight. It also takes the same number of batteries as a GKII (3 AAA's).
Unlike the Gameking II, cartridges are inserted into a slot in the left, although there appears to be some doubt over whether or not they actually contain any data or are simply triggering something built into the system's internal memory, as with many of the gimmicky methods used in YD Company's similar handhelds.
Anyway, let's have a look at what we found inside, shall we?

Here you can see how the 'cartridge', when inserted, touches some contacts and prompts the system to load the game 'Bomber'. Annoyingly, despite the system having '4-in-1' on it, in an inaccurate attempt to copy the Gameking's '3-in-1' tagline, there appears to be no way of accessing these games (of which there actually appear to be five) without the relevant cartridge being inserted. More on that in a moment.

After removing more screws, here's what we found under the hood (including the full code name of the product), if anyone can translate those Chinese characters to reveal the manufacturer name then that would be of particular interest.
Now let's look at what the system actually does.

Booting it up with no game inserted brings up the legend 'Multigame © JDRIGHT, which is interesting since it suggests a western designer. You then get this image of a completely different device, suggesting that the software running on this may not be exclusive to this machine.
Further evidence that the games in question are probably built into the unit rather than the 'cartridges' comes in the appearance of five little icons at the top of the screen: A jet plane, some blocks, a man with a gun, a race-car and finally the same 'Bomber' found on our cartridge.
Oddly there are slots for both 1 and 2 players as well as some screen rot that we might be able to remove with the old soldering iron trick. The 2 player mode might explain this port being on the back of the console:

We're not sure what this port is for. Could it be an external power adapter or a 2 player link up cable?
Anyway, from the menu screen you can adjust contrast and volume with the relevant buttons on the face of the device.
Next step: playing a game on it!

Perhaps it was due to the piece of loose plastic we found rattling about inside it, but inserting the cartridge was a precarious job. Pushing it too far in meant it got stuck inside the unit so we had to gauge carefully where it should be resting. On doing so, the game loaded up 'Bomber' and, in fact, we discovered that the cart can be plugged in while the system is turned on, further suggesting that the games are merely being booted by the cart triggering some contacts. Presumably the system retailed with five such carts and the seller simply lost the others. This is annoying as it means that the other four built in games are permanently locked off, despite them almost certainly being present in the system memory.

And Bomber? Well, it's a Bomberman clone isn't it. Quite a primitive one, very similar in style to the Gameking games 'Popper' and 'Miner'. The sound effects and some of the graphics definitely feel familiar to seasoned Gameking veterans.

One of the most fascinating thing about the GameKing to us is the number of questions it asks.
Why manufacture such a technologically inferior system in the era of the PSP? Who made and coded the near 80 titles available for it? Why did Timetop keep releasing so many iterations of it? Who was buying them all?

Now, with the discovery of this odd clone, we have a new riddle to solve. Why was anyone attempting to clone one?

If anyone can help us solve this mystery then we'd love to read your thoughts.

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Duck Tales...Woohoo!

4/9/2017

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Big thanks to reader 'BossHogg' who contacted me over the sad disintegration of my Megaduck's screen and offered to not only sell me a replacement for very good community rates but also supplied me with a working copy of 'Trap and Turn'.

This means that: (a) Megaduck reviews can now continue and (b) we only need to find 4 more carts to complete the entire set!

It's always nice when the community helps out in this way, especially for a site like this one that aims to provide a resource for these obscure devices.

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Gamedrop #7

3/5/2017

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Well, that's a lot of GameKing games isn't it? 24 of the buggers to be precise! Most of which, I don't already own in some form.

These 4-in-1 carts arrived from Spain earlier in the week and have now given us an incredible backlog to work through for the GameKing section of the website. More importantly though, it now means we are up to 63/90 in terms of obtaining all of the known GameKing games we've been able to confirm exist and another step closer to our goal of reviewing every single GameKing game released.

In other news, the cry for help we put out for a new Megaduck console has been nobly answered and a replacement Duck is winging (groan if you will) its way to Obsolete Island as we speak. Thanks very much to the folks at Racketboy and the user 'BossHogg' for not only offering me a replacement unit but doing so at reasonable community rates! Top Guy!

I've added two new reviews in the meantime: Suleiman's Treasure for the Megaduck and Cyclone Action for the GameKing.

Due to the ever increasing number of reviews in The Forgotten Abbey, I'll be making some changes to the way they are displayed shortly, probably by alphabetizing them all and breaking the reviews down to individual pages so that you can find them more easily.

Well, that's all for this update. Happy Gaming and thanks for reading and being awesome.

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Two Snakes, a dying Duck and the Grail King!

2/11/2017

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It's been an interesting few weeks to say the least.

Things started off rather sadly with the emergence of screen rot in my Mega Duck handheld. Starting off as just a couple of pixels this sadly this appears to be spreading.
If you don't know what screen rot is then Guru Larry covered it in his most recent Youtube video.

In essence it looks like this:

See that reddish substance that appears to be something under the screen. It's actually a patch of rot that will, over time, expand until the whole screen is useless. :(
Sadly this "screen cancer" is unstoppable and a plague on early handhelds.

The deteriorating condition of this unit (the external speakers went kaput earlier in the year) is what has led to a slowing in what I had hoped to be a comprehensive Mega Duck section of the site as, while I now own 98% of the system's software. I've been trying to secure a replacement unit to play them on to no avail.

I did manage to review the above pictured 'Snake Roy', however and you can find it by clicking here.
As I was in a snakey mood I also added a review of Sssnake to the Supervision section of the website.

I want to get on to the really exciting news though. As you may know from reading this site, here at Obsolete Worlds we are huge fans of the Timetop GameKing and currently own multiple iterations of both the original monochrome unit and it's backlit successor the GameKing 2.

Many people don't realise, however, that a third GameKing unit did manage to sneak out onto the market before Timetop crumbled under the weight of its own obsolescence. The GameKing III is so mythical that only about five pictures of it exist on the internet and there are zero videos of it to substantiate it's actual existance as anything other than a prototype.

I was bemused then, to see it listed one pop up on ebay's UK website a few weeks ago and even more amazed to secure it for the not at all Kingly sum of just £16.99!

Finally after a convoluted shipping route the system has arrived here on Obsolete Island and this Holy Grail of handheld obscurity can finally be explored and documented.

Unlike the GameKing 1 and 2, this final iteration of the GameKing is special for a number of reasons.

Like its predecessors it is its own proprietary system and, if this promotional screenshot found on the internet can be believed, had at least a handful of games released for it.

The version that we've obtained comes in metallic purple and takes 3x AAA batteries to power what appears to be a 64 colour TFT screen. Unlike the original monochrome GameKing systems which featured 3 built in games, the GameKing III only has one, a vertical shooter called Galaxy Crisis, that plays very similarly to previous Gameking shmups such as Ares.

I fully expect that tracking down GameKing III cartridges will prove to be even trickier than tracking down the harder find multi-carts of the original GameKing has been, however the GameKing III does have one more interesting use: It is fully backwardly compatible with ALL existing GameKing carts...and it can display them in COLOUR!

The original GameKing titles were programmed in four shades of grey, this can lead to rather mixed results on the GameKing III. Some like Lanneret are definitely improved with a nice mix of green and brown seeming to fit well with the Choplifter clone. Others are more randomly assingned and end up looking like a garish LSD flashback or at best a Dragon 32k game running in "Buff" mode. Some game's become legitimately unplayable due to the random colour assignment. Now you see why Nintendo chose pre-set palettes for the GBC!

What this does mean is that we now have another option for capturing screenshots for the Gameking review section of the website. For future reviews we'll try to include screenshots from the monochrome game running on a GameKing 2 and the colourised version running on the GameKing III.

Well, that about wraps up this update. Now if anyone can point me in the direction of a healthy Mega Duck for sale it would be appreciated.

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Festive Gamedrop #6

12/29/2016

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First of all, happy whatever you celebrate!

Like most people we didn't get a NES Mini for Chrimbus. But we did get another equally nice little console in the form of this dinky little PC Engine from our friends at Japanyouwant.

Unfortunately, being dunderheads we blew up the mains adaptor by not properly checking the voltage so will now have to wait a week to start playing it, while a new one wings its way to Obsolete island!

That's not too bad though as another parcel arrived from Spain bringing with it a whopping 12 new GameKing titles (via 3 multicarts), including one of the most audacious Street Fighter 2 "ports" we've ever seen. Review coming soon because it really does deserve it!

I also managed to track down another elusive Mega Duck title on ebay and my New Years Resolution is to get that section of the website up to speed by reviewing the backlog of games I've recently acquired for the little green and white beast.

The Off Licence has also been updated with a new review of the 45-in-1 Game Player (YD-G202), which is a dot matrix style gameplayer similar in technology to the GameKing.

Have a great New Year and we'll have more new reviews and content to come as we continue to celebrate the defunct videogames of the past all through 2017!

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New content and some Gameking tinkering...

12/4/2016

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Well the colour transparency (fake background image) in my new Gameking II was really beginning to annoy me. I read online that it was easily removed and so today I began the process of dismembering the unit to get it out.
Despite some rusty and stubborn screws I was able to get the thing open and succesfully yank out the silly background image.

The screen now displays exactly as I had hoped it would, like a proper backlit GameKing with nothing getting in the way of the original picture.
I've already started using it to take screenshots for reviews, something I've always struggled to find online. That means that the Gameking review archive, which had stalled somewhat, should now be moving again.
I've added two new mini-reviews today, for Drifter and F1-2004 Racing and plan to add more throughout the week.

In addition I've also been playing some Supervision this week and have new reviews up in that section for Thunder Shooting and Magincross...both of which are predictably dire! However a third game, Po-Po Team turned out to be a bit of a hidden gem!

Keep checking back for more reviews and new content over the cming weeks. If you read an article/review and like it, please leave a comment or follow the site on Twitter @obsoleteworlds. It's nice to know that someone else is out there sharing these low-fi adventures in gaming!

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Gamedrop #5 Bonus World!

11/28/2016

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So, a package from Taiwan arrived today with a nice surprise included.

Here's the backstory. A little while ago, I was doing my regular search for Game King titles on ebay when I saw a guy selling a Game King 2 console (the one with the backlight and the screen obscuring "colour" insert that completely obfuscates gameplay). What intrigued me was a non-labelled multicart I'd never seen before containing the games: Lanneret (Hawk), Happy Ball, Trojan Hero and Super Motor.

Despite owning all of these games on their individual carts, the unknown nature of this multi-cart made me curious and I ended up buying the unit for around $20.

Well today the package duly arrived and the GameKing 2 tumbled out, yet it seemed curiously thicker than I was expecting it to be, beneath it's bubble-wrapped shell. On opening it, this was revealed to be because the seller had also sent me an original Game King handheld, free of charge, as a surprise bonus!

While the unit in question was suffering from a cracked screen and some other screen issues that made visibility poor (even for the Game King) it was cased in a translucent dark green casing that is completely new to me as a Game King collector, making it a wonderful bonus gift!

While the green doesn't quite show up in the pictures above you can see that's it sitting comfortably among the Game King family I have somehow amassed without ever really trying! I'm not sure what is more incredible, that a sub-quality Game Boy knock-off was released to compete alongside the Sony PSP or that it was released in so many different coloured shells!

Anyway, here's what the actual device i ordered looks like. I'm going to open it up and remove the transparency so that I can finally play Game King games in the dark without ridiculous looking mountains in every game!

One final note: The ebayer who sent it to me has since replied to my message thanking him and said that he figured he couldn't get anything for the Green Game King so might as well send it to someone who appreciated it! What a wonderful attitude and the kind of thing that might yet see retro collecting recover from the price-jacking doldrums that it currently finds itself lost within.

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Slowly adding to the reviews....

11/21/2016

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As well as adding a new Gamate section to The Forgotten Abbey, new reviews are being posted sporadically. You can read reviews of the two Gamate games that came with our new system, Boom! and Bomb Blaster in that section but the Mega Duck section also continues to expand with a review of Magic Tower now live and reviews of the 4-in-1 cart and Suliemans Treasure coming in the next few days.

We're expecting a third Gamate game to arrive any day now as well as a Backlit GameKing 2 which should make it much easier to take screenshots of that system's games instead of hunting them out on the web!

Keep checking for updates and happy gaming.

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The Banyan Tree

This is where we'll post news, opinion, gaming pick-ups and updates regarding the website and the world of Obsolete gaming in general.

"Dead? No. We have but slept..."

Gamedrop #8 - Here comes a new challenger!

Well, this is odd...a clone of a Gameking?

Duck Tales...Woohoo!

Gamedrop #7

Two Snakes, a dying Duck and the Grail King!

Festive Gamedrop #6

New content and some Gameking tinkering...

Gamedrop #5 Bonus World!

Slowly adding to the reviews....

The Banyan Tree

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