Cube Technology

Cube Technology立方科技有限公司
Origin	Shenzhen, China
Years	2004-present
Consoles	generic 8/16-bit consoles
Sounds used	various
Aliases	CubeTac, Yimeike, YMK, Imaigoo
Games published by	Waixing / Subor, Macro Winners, Advance Bright Ltd.
Related companies	JungleTac, Biikoo

Cube Technology (立方科技有限公司), also known as CubeTac, is a Chinese developer of game software for VR Technology's OneBus hardware.

Cube Technology claims to have been founded in 2004, but only adopted its current name in 2008. It is likely that the company was known prior to 2008 as Yimeike (usually shortened to YMK in-game) or Imaigoo. The company is based out of Shenzhen.

Some sort of relationship exists between Cube and JungleTac; a developer named Wise Wang is credited on Cube's English Alibaba page, but is also credited in JungleTac's EmuVT emulation software. Wise Wang may also be connected to a company called Shenzhen Biikoo Technology Co. (深圳市碧空科技有限公司) - archived versions of its website from 2008 contain references to EmuVT and game development and the name appears in a VT168 demo available from VR Technology's site.

Cube's games have appeared on consoles manufactured by Macro Winners, Subor (in which case they usually contain a Chinese copyright number registered by Waixing), and Advance Bright Ltd..

NES and Onebus Games

The first Cube Technology systems, released around 2004, were Onebus-based, and contain a single, originally programmed sports game (such as Tennis or Boxing) and a number of NES hacks. Each sports game was the main feature of its respective console, and they utilized motion control. The hacks are somewhat generic compared to companies like Inventor, often replacing the characters with generic human protagonists.

Standard 8-bit hacks were being made around the same time. Few are original, and most are just regular games or already existing Inventor hacks with removed or modified title screens, and occasionally different colors. Most of them got mixed in with Inventor titles at some point, and will appear alongside them. The only known dedicated system featuring these hacks exclusively is the Just Plug 'N Play 120-in-1 system.

"High Resolution" games

Around a decade later, very advanced NES hacks began appearing on plug 'n plays and handhelds, which are suspected to be from Cube Tech. The graphic capabilities of the NES are upscaled, almost resembling a PlayStation game in appearance. On plug 'n plays, the screen ratio is doubled, making the graphics look larger and less pixely (although the size is downscale for handheld devices). The music is sampled from various royalty-free songs, along with the sound effects.

An upscaled game compared to the original version.

TV-based systems will often bundle these with some generic sports titles, some lightgun games (the gun notably uses an external sensor, allowing it to work on modern TVs) and a Dance Dance Revolution clone. Handhelds, which are usually shaped like mini arcade machines, fill more game slots with earlier Cube Tech releases and several Waixing and Nice Code games, some of which feature sampled audio.

The hacks usually feature similar graphics to the originals, with a few slight changes, making them almost look like official upgraded versions. The games chosen are mostly earlier NES releases, along with small-sized bootlegs like The Penguin and Seal (Sachen) and Magical Kitchen (Waixing). The amount of lives the player is given is often increased, and is sometimes infinite. A handful of games with weird control schemes, like PAC-LAND and Gyromite, have had their controls altered to be more standard.

The games are far more common on handhelds than plug 'n plays. The handheld versions, however, feature many glitches and render some games unplayable. For example, in Jungle Max I, a Donkey Kong Jr. hack, the game crashes after the first level is completed. These handhelds also often don't contain hacks of very famous games (PAC-MAN, Ms. PAC-MAN, Super Mario Bros., and Tetris).

Unlicensed Music

One notable feature of many of Cube's 16-bit (VR168) games is that the music in them is directly sampled, likely without a license, from popular dance music; more specifically, a large majority of the music is from Memory Records' italo-disco recordings.

A listing of games with corresponding soundtracks that have been discovered so far:

Game	Context	Song
Apex Fighter	Title	Heller & Ohlen, "Round & Round"
Aqua Mix	Title	The Chemical Brothers, "Block Rockin' Beats"
Farm Keeper	Title	TM Revolution, "HOT LIMIT (T8-Floor P-Mix)"
???	In-game	Phaeax, "Talk About"
Harry	In-game	Ken Laszlo, "Hey Hey Guy"
Loop Legend	Title	David Lyme, "Bambina"
???	Scene Select	Patrick Colby, "Mandrill"
Pets Crossing	Title	Roy, "Shooting Star"
???	In-game	Michael Fortunati, "Give It Up"
Rugged Hammer	Title	Albert One, "For Your Love"
Super Ping Pong (VT03)	Title	Robert Miles, "Fable (Dream Version)"

Subpages

List of hacks List of all hacks produced by Cube Technology.