GameKing clones

GameKing clones refer to a variety of handheld consoles that clone the hardware of Timetop's GameKing. The clone handhelds were first released in the late 2000s, with production continuing into the mid-2010s. They were succeeded by the "1.8" Handheld Games.

The consoles seem to be affiliated with the handheld LCD games commonly dubbed "POP Station" clones, despite running on different hardware; some are branded under the "PCP Station" name. Most GameKing clone consoles were produced by Yuan Da, or "YD" for short; a company who also produced POP Station-like handheld LCD consoles.

Overview

While the exact technical specifications of GameKing clones are currently unknown, they appear to feature an odd screen resolution of 56 x 31 pixels; in comparison, the GameKing's resolution is 48 x 32 pixels. A static bar is added across the top of the screen, using technology more akin to a handheld LCD game; featuring the ability to display lives, health, and/or a time limit. The consoles only output in black-and-white. Similar to the GameKing II, the consoles feature a backlight, and a colored background image is affixed behind the game screen(s). Some consoles feature a set of red LEDs that flash behind the screen when a life is lost.

As with the POP Station-like LCD games, these consoles often have the user swap out the LCD screens to switch between games; most consoles of this type come with four or five interchangeable screen "cartridges". A few later models, in a quite strange fashion, have the user swipe a plastic, imitation credit card to change games; these models can contain between 10 to 45 games. On some units, one swipe of the card equates to moving to the next game in the menu; meaning that, in high-capacity models like a 45-in-1 console, the player would have to ridiculously swipe the card 45 times to access the last game. A few consoles instead feature a standard menu select screen, similar to the GameKing multicarts.

The GameKing clone consoles reuse some (often hacked) games from the GameKing library, while others are originally created. Some later clone consoles feature bootleg ports of popular mobile games of the time, such as Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies. The GameKing clone titles later served as basis for the "1.8" Handheld Games, a set of proprietary color handhelds launched in 2012. As both hardware types were briefly produced concurrently, it is possible that some 1.8" games predate their GameKing clone versions; though others verifiably postdate them.

Games

Hacks of GameKing games

• Apache - Hack of the GameKing game Whirlybird.
• Racing - Hack of the GameKing game F-1 2004 Racing. There is a further hacked version titled Pursuit.
  • Some consoles feature a game titled Motor; a hack of the GameKing title Supermotor, which in itself is a hack of F-1 2004 Racing.
• Risk-King - Hack of the GameKing game Adventure Legend Carlo, which in itself is a clone of Super Mario Bros.. The player is replaced with a rabbit, whose title screen sprite is modified from the mouse character in the GameKing game Drifter. The music is replaced with the first few notes of Michael Jackson's "Bad".
  • There is a later revision that actually uses Mario in place of the rabbit (but is still titled Risk-King). The Mario sprite is much larger than the rabbit, resulting in the blocks and some platforms being moved higher up on the screen.
• Sea-Wolf - Hack of the GameKing game Sea War.
• Star War - Hack of the GameKing game 2004, which in itself is a clone of 1943.
• Tank - Hack of the GameKing game PocketTank; it is a top-down shooting game similar to Jackal.

Others

• 2010 World Cup - A full soccer game with a scrolling playfield.
• 2014 World Cup - Much simpler than the 2010 version; features a "Match" mode and a "Penalty" mode. In Match mode, the player navigates in between moving players until reaching the goal, almost like Frogger; Penalty mode is an otherwise-distinct goalkeeping game. Some consoles title the game Football.
• Angry Plants - A Plants vs. Zombies clone.
• Birds vs. Pigs - An Angry Birds clone.
• Boxing - A one-on-one boxing game.
• Bright Stone - A puzzle game where the player must clear all tiles within the allocated steps.
• Bullets Fly - A game based off the Ricochet Kills series of games.
• Clear Map - Clone of Lights Out.
• CS - A Contra-like game based on Counter-Strike. Note that it is unrelated to the GameKing game CS-I, despite being of similar concept.
• CS (2) - A first-person shooting game based on Counter-Strike; it is unrelated to the GameKing game CS-I nor the above title.
• King Boxing - A one-on-one fighting game; it is possibly derived from the GameKing game Fighter.
  • The game was later hacked to create MatchStick Man, which features stickmen, and Trans, which features Transformers characters. The latter is somewhat infamous for its name, as "trans" is commonly shorthand for transgender.
• Gunfignt - A first-person shooting game.
• Me Want Bamboo - Port of the mobile game of the same name. It is an auto-scrolling platformer where a panda must fart to hop over broken parts of a bridge. The amount of farts are limited, but more can be gained by eating bamboo sticks.
• Melons Bowling - The player must launch melons from a conveyor belt into the oncoming Zombies.
• Recieve Apple - Clone of a game from Bandai Tamagotchi Plus Color. The player must catch the apples without letting them fall.
• Risker - Loosely based on NS-Shaft/NS-Tower, but the screen scrolls left rather than up or down; making the game play like a side-scrolling platformer. Some versions feature the rabbit from Risk-King while others use Mario. The music is the map theme from Adventure Island II.
  • There is a hacked version titled Gangnam Style, in which the player controls Psy with an off-sync rendition of Gangnam Style playing in the background.
  • The GameKing clone version likely postdates the 1.8" game titled Risker; the 1.8" version is a port of the Mario Bros. arcade game.
• The Same - A card matching game; reuses sprites from Birds vs. Pigs and Angry Plants.
• Shoot Ball - Clone of a game from Bandai Tamagotchi Plus Color. The player must hit the heart balloons while avoiding the skull balloons.
• Taxis - A slide puzzle game.
• Tetris - Port of the original, based on a Brick Game version.
  • The same "Brick Game" coding was reused to create a game titled Cubix (a clone of Quarth).
• Tic Tac Toe - Not Tic Tac Toe, but instead based on Nine Holes, a similar ancient table game. Oddly, the GameKing clone port deceivingly uses pieces shaped like Xs and Os; whereas the 1.8" port uses black and white tiles.
• The Wall - An Arkanoid/Breakout clone.
• Zuma - A loose clone of Zuma. Due to the limited hardware capabilities, the player controls a tank that moves across the bottom of the screen, rather than a rotating cannon in the center. Additionally, since the screen isn't in color, the balls are shaded slightly differently to differentiate them from each other.

List of consoles

Note that this list is likely incomplete.

PCP Station consoles

• LTPS Handy Game: PCP-926 (5-in-1) - Modeled after a PSP Go, uses a proper selection menu but with a fake "cartridge". Possibly from Timetop themselves, as the LTPS Handy Game name was used on an earlier Famiclone handheld by the company.
• PCP-936 (6-in-1) - Modeled after a PSP Go, uses a proper selection menu but with a fake "cartridge".
• PCP Station Value Pack: PCP-8068 (6-in-1) - Loosely modeled after the original Game Boy; uses a fake "cartridge" with an unknown menu system.

Yuan Da consoles

• YD-959 (4-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses interchangeable screens.
• YD-963A (4-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses interchangeable screens.
• YD-965 (5-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses interchangeable screens.
• YD-968 (5-in-1) - Resembles a Blackberry phone, uses interchangeable screens.
• YD-995 (7-in-1) - Resembles a laptop; game selection method unknown.
• YD-G101 (12-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses fake credit card.
• YD-G102 (8-in-1) - Resembles a laptop, uses fake credit card.
• YD-G103 (12-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses a proper selection menu.
• YD-G105 (15-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses a proper selection menu but has a fake USB drive as a "cartridge".
• YD-G106 (20-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses two fake credit cards; swiping them loads two proper 10-in-1 selection menus.
• YD-G202 (45-in-1) - Generic handheld design, uses fake credit card.

Trivia

• With the exceptions of the World Cup games, Apache, Boxing, Gunfignt, and the F-1 2004 Racing variants, all of the GameKing clone titles are known to have a variant on the 1.8" handhelds.
• There is a console with an ID of "YX-2036" that is labeled "GameKing I", with almost identical casing to the GameKing II; it appears to feature built-in software with faux-"cartridges", similar to the GameKing clone systems. It is unclear if it is based on the same GameKing clone hardware as the comparable clone units.