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Ex-Sachen developers refers to two distinct but connected contract development teams that mostly consist of ex-Sachen staff. Both have worked on a number of original titles and backports for the Famicom in the mid to late 90s.
Background
Around 1995, Sachen halted Famicom development, only releasing a few titles (such as Gaiapolis and Rocman X) that year. The company likely closed its internal development studio. Some employees left the game industry, but others went on to be independent developers. Sachen itself would remain however and occasionally contract out development to some of their original members.
Wenguang Yang and Eric Wu Team
One of the teams that formed seems to be led by Wenguang Yang (楊文光). This group started off making a few games for short-lived publishers (most notably Ramar International) but then became a major developer for Ka Sheng around 1997. Much of their earlier output (with the exception of Chu Da D) mainly relied on the engine of the unlicensed Famicom game The Dragon or at least, each game was built off of it or its successors. However, this seems to have been dropped by Earthworm Jim 2. This team has often gone uncredited with Bao Qing Tian and The Dragon original release being the only games with credits.
Games
| Name | Console | Publishers | Description | Released | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 in 1 | Famicom | Ramar International (Rinco) | Multicart containing original educational games. | 1995 | Unknown |
| Bao Qing Tian | Famicom | Ka Sheng | 1996 | First print had no ID.
NT-658 | |
| Chu Da D | Famicom | Fortune Power and Jichang | 1995 | No ID | |
| Earthworm Jim 2 | Famicom | Ka Sheng | Earthworm Jim 4 is the same game with different levels. | 1997 | NT-849 NT-855 |
| Earthworm Jim 4 | NT-868 | ||||
| Super Donkey Kong 2 | Famicom | Ka Sheng | 1997 | NT-866 NT-869 | |
| The Dragon | Famicom | Ramar International (Rinco) | The version included in Talkman consoles features digitized speech. | 1995 | No ID
NT-614 (unauthorized print?) |
| The Panda Prince | Famicom | Ka Sheng | Akin to Earthworm Jim, Super Lion King 2 is a revamp of The Panda Prince with levels included but not playable in Panda Prince. | 1996 | NT-858 NT-879 |
| Super Lion King 2 | 1997 | NT-6093 |
Plug & Play Games
Several games have appeared built into Famiclones dating from around the mid-late 2000s, such as the handheld D-Cat 8 and AtGames' Millennium Super Arcade (a hybrid Firecore/Famiclone system, albeit with only a Mega Drive cartridge slot) which appear to exhibit connections with Sachen and its former developers. This game set seems to be connected to Wenguang Yang/Eric Wu's team rather than Ei-How Yang. Known games connected to this set include the following titles:
- The Panda Prince variants:
- Lair's Secret - A hack of Rockball by Sachen, using music from The Panda Prince.
- Magic Block - A Tetris clone, using music from Silver Eagle and Rocman X. Not known to be a hack of any previously released game, but uses the same sound engine as these games and a text font seen in many Sachen games.
- Attack Force - no further details are known.
- Space War3 - A hack of Sachen's Silver Eagle, albeit only known to contain the single-screen shooter segments.[1]
Eric Wu was likely behind the development of the related plug & play games Lair's Secret and Jungle Adventure. Lair's Secret in particular is a hack of the Sachen game Rockball (where he is credited as a developer) with new level layouts and reused music from The Panda Prince. The level layouts from this hack would be reused in a 2011 Android mobile game named Rolling Ball - this game is credited to "Makon Mobile Studios", strongly suggesting a connection to Makon Soft, a Game Boy developer with known ties to Sachen.
Staff
Staff list was derived from Bao Qing Tian.
- Wenguang Yang (楊文光) - Director and planner for Bao Qing Tian. He may have also been the head of the team judging by his roles.
- Zhenhong Wu (吳振宏) - The only known programmer. Also known as Eric Wu.
- Nianzhen Wang (王念珍) - Graphic artist
- Ruici Liu (劉瑞慈) - Graphic artist
- Zheng Luo (羅政) - Tester
Ei-How Yang Team
The other team seems to have been led by Ei-How Yang (楊逸豪, also known as E.H.Y. and variations such as Yi-How Yang), who mostly worked on Game Boy titles for Sachen. He was likely the main programmer of his team, going by leftover hidden strings in the debug menus. His team was initially contracted by J.Y. Company but quickly moved to Hosenkan Electronics and eventually Ka Sheng. The composition of the team remains obscure, as the in-game credits in both Mickey Mania 7 and Toy Story seem to be inconsistent and possibly inserted as jokes. An example of this is "Lee Dan Fai", who has shown up as a programmer and director. This is actually the Cantonese romanization of Lee Teng-hui, the then-current president of Taiwan.
Games
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contra Spirits | Famicom | 1995-1996 | Published by Hosenkan Electronics via Realtec, was originally intended for J.Y. Company. | H-C1 |
| Mickey Mania 7 | Famicom | 1996 | Published by J.Y. Company., re-released by Hosenkan Electronics via Realtec | JY-077, M-Y7 |
| China Rabbit Baby | JY-076, K-R6 | |||
| Pocohontos | Famicom | 1997 | Published by Hosenkan Electronics. | |
| Super Donkey Kong | Famicom | September 1996 | Published by Hosenkan Electronics. | |
| Toy Story | Famicom | March 1997 | Published by Ka Sheng. | NT-889 NT-308 (reprint) |
Staff
Staff list was derived from Mickey Mania 7 and Toy Story.
- Ei-How Yang (楊逸豪) (Copyright Yang in Mickey Mania 7, E.H.Y. in Toy Story) - Lead programmer, possible sound designer and the head of the team. He originally worked for Sachen as a programmer and a sound designer for their Famicom and Game Boy games.
- Douglas Y E (Douglas Y.E?) - Programmer for Mickey Mania 7.
- Ton Chen Jan - Programmer for Toy Story.
- Tom Wang - Programmer for Toy Story.
- Steve Hon - Graphic artist for Toy Story.
- Yueli Wang (王樂禮) (UO Lee in Mickey Mania 7 and U. L. Wang in Toy Story) - Composer and possibly sound designer for both teams. He originally worked for Sachen, often under the name Amadeus Wang.
Similar Credits
- Mindy Lee (Mickey Mania 7)/Sammy Lee (Toy Story) - Programmer for both games.
- David Chen (Mickey Mania 7)/L.S. Chen (Toy Story) - Programmer for both games.
- Little Fat Yang (Mickey Mania 7)/Little Fat Wang (Toy Story) - Graphics artist for both games.
Unconfirmed
- Big Henry - Graphic artist for Mickey Mania 7. (Might be a joke alias for Steve Hon?)
- W.C.W. - These initials appear along with Ei-How Yang's initials in Toy Story but don't seem to match any known names.
Deconfirmed / Jokes
- Lee Dan Fei - As stated above, this is the Cantonese romanization for Lee Teng-hui. He's listed as a programmer for Mickey Mania 7 and a director for Toy Story, possibly making this another alias for Ei-How Yang.
- Fat Goo Goo - Director for Mickey Mania 7, most likely another joke alias for Ei-How Yang.
Atlon Technology
Both teams were connected to an entity named Atlon Technology Co., LTD. They were credited in The Dragon release with extended audio, found exclusively on certain Rinco consoles sold in the Middle East, as well as in source files and documentation included in the development kit for the UM6578, an enhanced Famiclone chipset with PCM audio playback and a color mode with increased color depth compared to standard NES/Famicom hardware.
Developer Involvement with UM6578 development kit
Ei-How Yang is credited for engineering the Picasso Painter System 1.0, a graphics editor included in the software development kit for UMC's UM6578 enhanced Famiclone chipset. Said development kit also contains documentation for the audio and graphics tools written by Atlon as well as the sound engine source code used by both ex-Sachen teams throughout the year, the development of the latter being attributed to "Wu,Cheng-Hung". Atlon Technology would also develop sample programs and demonstrations provided included in the said kit.
"Wu,Cheng-Hung" is seemingly a pseudonym for Eric Wu (also known as “Zhenhong Wu” in Bao Qing Tian’s credits), as “EricSoftStudio” also makes an appearance in other source files—what would possibly become the MakonSoftStudios alias later on, a name which numerous Makon Soft gameboy games write to RAM.
It was likely Eric Wu who made/lead development on the sound engine included with the UM6578 development kit judging by credits in associated source files, and being the lead/only-known programmer in Wenguang Yang’s team.
Other connections
- Fonts used in games by these developers have appeared in Makon Soft's Game Boy games, as well as Sachen's Game Boy Color ports of their NES games. The letter blocks on the game over screen for Makon Soft's Super Donkey Kong 3 were reused in Jungle Adventure as well.
- Sachen itself did not release any original games from about 1997 until 1999, when they released their Game Boy Color port of Jurassic Boy 2, Rocman X, and Street Heroes. While Rocman X appears to have been developed by Makon Soft, the other two are higher quality than Makon Soft's games. Two other fighting games for the Game Boy Color, Street Fighter Zero 4 and Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2001, share certain similarities with Street Heroes. These may have been developed by the same or a related group of ex-Sachen staff, most likely Ei-How Yang.
- The Game Boy Color port of Jurassic Boy 2 also features Buzz Lightyear directly from Toy Story as a boss.
- Street Fighter Zero 4 reuses tracks from not only Jurassic Boy 2 but The Dragon and Contra Spirits. While Ei-How Yang is known to have made Contra Spirits, The Dragon was developed by the other unrelated team. It's possible either Ei-How Yang may have also helped with The Dragon or Wang Yueli also assisted with the music.
- Street Heroes reuses a font for the text present in the options menu, which can be found in various Ei-How Yang developed Famicom games made prior to Street Heroes, further suggesting a connection to Ei-How Yang.
- Fonts, sound and other software components were shared in games made by the two teams.