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Ex-Sachen developers refers to two unknown but similar contract development teams that mostly consist of ex-Sachen staff. Both have worked on a number of bootleg ports and other unlicensed games for the Famicom in the mid to late 90s.
Overview
Around 1995, Sachen's Famicom development seems to have halted, only releasing a few titles (such as Gaiapolis and Rocman X) that year. The team seems to have completely disbanded and as a result 2 Famicom development teams would be created, Sachen itself would remain however and occasionally contract out development to some of their original members.
One of these 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 but then became a major developer for Ka Sheng. Much of their earlier output (with the exception of Chu Da D) mainly relied on The Dragon's engine 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 being the only game listing any members.
The other team seems to be 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. Ei-How Yang also seems to be the lead programmer, having a hidden credit in his leftover debug menus. Ei-How Yang's team originally worked for J.Y. Company but possibly due to a contract breach on that team's part (Contra Spirits was supposed to be published by them but never was, and Mickey Mania 7 never saw a J.Y. multicart release), they would start working with Hosenkan Electronics and eventually Ka Sheng. Much of the team remains obscure, as the names between both Mickey Mania 7 and Toy Story seem to be inconsistent and some may have been 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.
Both teams share certain features with each other, such as fonts, sound and graphics storage methods but both use different engines. Yueli Wang (王樂禮) was the composer for both teams, as he is credited in Bao Qing Tian as well as Mickey Mania 7 and Toy Story (as "Uo Lee" and "U.L. Wang" respectively). Outside of Wang Yueli, it is unknown if either team shared any other members or even worked together at any point.
Staff List
Common
- Yulei 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.
Wenguang Yang's Team
Confirmed
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.
- Nianzhen Wang (王念珍) - Graphic artist
- Ruici Liu (劉瑞慈) - Graphic artist
- Zheng Luo (羅政) - Tester
Unconfirmed
- Eric Wu - While not known to have been credited in any games developed by Wenguang Yeng's team, he 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 Eric Wu 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.
Ei-How Yang's Team
Staff list was derived from Mickey Mania 7 and Toy Story.
Confirmed
- 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.
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
- 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.
- 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.
Games
Wenguang Yang
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bao Qing Tian | Famicom | 1996 | Published by Ka Sheng. | First print had no ID.
NT-658 |
| Chu Da D | Famicom | 1995 | Published by Fortune Power in Taiwan. Game credits this company as well as a company named Jichang. | |
| Earthworm Jim 2 | Famicom | 1997 | Published by Ka Sheng. A hack called Earthworm Jim 4 was also published by them featuring new levels. | NT-849 NT-855 (reprint?) |
| Earthworm Jim 4 | NT-868 | |||
| Super Donkey Kong 2 | Famicom | 1997 | Published by Ka Sheng, credited to Family & Gold Leopard. | NT-866 NT-869 (reprint) |
| The Dragon | Famicom | 1995 | Published by Ramar International (Rinco)/Tony Tech). | NT-614 (reprint) |
| The Panda Prince | Famicom | 1996 | Published by Ka Sheng. Super Lion King 2 also released by them features new levels. | NT-858 NT-879 (reprint?) |
| Super Lion King 2 | 1997 | NT-6093 |
Ei-How Yang
| Name | Console | Released | Description | Cartridge No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contra Spirits | Famicom | 1995-1996 | Published by Realtec, was originally intended for J.Y. Company. | H-C1 |
| Mickey Mania 7 | Famicom | 1996 | Published by J.Y. Company. | JY-077 |
| China Rabbit Baby | JY-076 | |||
| 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) |
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:
- Jungle Adventure
- Survival of the Fittest
- Pit Boss
- Lair's Secret- A hack of Rockball by Sachen, using music from Panda Prince.
- Magic Block - A Tetris clone. 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 - no further details are known.
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 Yulei also assisted with the music.