Gowin

Gowin Technology Co., Ltd.高遠科技有限公司
Origin	Taipei, Taiwan (headquarters) Shenzhen, China (in-house development team)
Years	1993-2002(?)
Consoles	Game Boy (published only), Game Boy Color
First game	Sound of the Pipa (1993)
Last game	石器時代 掌機版 - 精靈王誔生 (July 2002)
Sounds used	Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy Color releases)
Published games by	AMind (Sound of the Pipa) Gamtec/Vast Fame-connected development team (most mono Game Boy releases) Chuanpu Technology (Lost Trips) In-house (Game Boy Color)
Games published by	Waixing (石器時代 掌機版 - 精靈王誔生, mainland China)

Gowin Technology Co., Ltd. (高遠科技有限公司) was a company founded in 1993 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Their primary business was publishing unlicensed Game Boy games, and later on, both developing and publishing unlicensed Game Boy Color games. They are notable for being one of the only unlicensed game companies in a Chinese-speaking region that released games that did not majorly rely on using other intellectual property without permission (barring sound engines and in one instance, an entire game soundtrack). Almost all of its earlier mono Game Boy games, with the exception of its first released game, were developed by teams connected to Gamtec and Vast Fame, while its later Game Boy Color games were developed in-house by a team in Shenzhen, China.

Apart from their Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, Gowin also released an LCD game.

Some of Gowin's mono games will only run on mono systems like the original Game Boy, due to the boot logo change. Others will not run on the Game Boy Advance line of systems, nor the Super Game Boy or Game Boy Player.

Staff

Taiwan

Directors

• Zhaolin Weng (翁兆林) - Head of the company. Likely credited as "Tsao-Lin Weng" in the manual of Magic Lamp and the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for planning and as a "Technology Supervisor" respectively.

Art team

• Dinghao Wei (魏鼎浩) (Alternate romanizations: Ding-How Wei) - Staff member who would work on all of Gowin's Game Boy Color games, primarily taking on art-related roles as well as acting as a supervisor and/or planner for a number of these games. His most notable work is as a character designer for the games Binary Monsters II: Adventure of Hell, Magic Lamp, and Binary Monster III: School Fighter. He would also be involved in the redesign of Gowin's mascot, Hotkid (瓜瓜龍 in Chinese), and would additionally sketch concept art for a completely new mascot that would end up being scrapped. He is credited in Amazing Robot and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as "Molosaki" for art; this alias is a username that Dinghao Wei would use online as far back as the early 2000s, and he would post art of characters from some of the games he worked on under this name in 2002
• Hakai Wang - Artist whose most notable work is on Amazing Robot. He is credited in that game as well as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as "Gear", an old alias Hakai Wang used to use online to post doujin works
• "BoBo" - Credited for art in Amazing Robot and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. This name was listed on a webpage on Gowin's Taiwanese website showcasing art pieces from presumably at-the-time employees working for them in Taiwan
• "LYGER" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for art and music. He is listed as "小江" on Gowin's art page

Shenzhen development team

• Li-Chieh Chen - Only confirmed work is as a programmer on Magic Lamp

Other

• Hsin Chung - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for testing
• Kai-Chung Wang - Credited in the manual of Magic Lamp for art design
• Kuei Hua - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for testing
• Tai-Ichi Lin - Credited in the manual of Magic Lamp for art design
• Yi Ling - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for testing
• "BASARA" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for software engineering
• "Cherry" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as a translator (English version only?)
• "DBL" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for software engineering
• "Dean" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for software engineering
• "Emily" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for music
• "FF-1" - Credited for art in Amazing Robot and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
• "GREEN" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for art
• "Jacky" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for testing
• "Joyce" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as a translator (English version only?)
• "Leo" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for software engineering
• "Lijay" - Credited for software development in Amazing Robot and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Possibly an alias for Li-Chieh Chen?
• "Ltd" - Credited in Amazing Robot for software development
• "Lyca" - Credited in Amazing Robot for art. Possibly an alternate spelling of "Lyger"?
• "ToTo" - Credited for software development in Amazing Robot and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
• "WINNIE" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for art
• "YU" - Credited in the ending of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for software engineering

List of games

Game Boy

Gowin's releases for monochrome Game Boy systems exclusively consist of games developed by third party development teams. Most of their games were likely developed by people connected to Gamtec and Vast Fame, notably due to the latter company releasing versions of most of Gowin's monochrome games on a few multicarts circa 2002. One of Gowin's monochrome games is confirmed to have been developed by Chuanpu Technology, which was primarily made up of staff that would later join Vast Fame.

The first five Game Boy games from Gowin were released in the early 1990s. While the headers of the ROMs for these games have names containing date codes with the year 1993, most of the known early 1990s-era releases have English packaging and list the year 1994 on the printed copyright info; these releases were likely intended for sale in areas outside of Taiwan. As of writing, the only game out of the initial five with a confirmed Chinese release is Sound of the Pipa. With the exception of Sound of the Pipa, these games would receive Chinese reprints in 1998 with different packaging, new cover art, and newly produced cartridges with updated shells. Three new games would also be released during late 1998. Further reprints of the games that received 1998 reprints, as well as reprints of the newer 1998 games, would be produced during the early 2000s, which updated the packaging to use a standardized "Hotkid Color" layout and featured new cover art. Despite this, most of these re-releases would use cartridges produced for the 1998 releases.

All of Gowin's monochrome Game Boy releases in the 1990s have a numerical "GSxx" ID printed on their boxes and cartridge labels (the 2000s reprints do not have these IDs printed on the box).

English name	Chinese name	ID	Initial release date (Chinese)	Initial release date (English)	1998 Chinese reprint?	2000s reprint?	Notes
Sound of the Pipa	琵琶行	GS01	1993(?)	1994	No	No	Also known as Song of the Pipa. Appears to be named after a Tang dynasty poem. A company named AMind is credited on the box and at the start of the game. Unlike the rest of Gowin's monochrome games, this game does not have any known reprints
Magic Ball	魔法球	GS02	1993(?)	1994	Yes	Yes (in Chinese)	The common ROM of the Gowin version is a cracked version with an intro added by "GYY Game Unlock Team". A version of this game was included in multicarts released by Vast Fame circa 2002. That version and a post-1993 reprint of the Gowin version of the game are dumped
Prince Yeh Rude	耶魯王子	GS03	?	?	Yes	Yes (in Chinese)	The common ROM of the Gowin version is a cracked version with an intro added by "GYY Game Unlock Team". A version of this game was included in two multicarts released by Vast Fame: Gold Version 12-in-1 (金版中文RPG戰略+動作+益智12in1) and Shishang Chaoqiang RPG + Gedou + Yizhi Ban Zuhe Ka 18 in 1 (史上超強RPG+格鬥+益智版組合卡18in1). That version and a post-1993 reprint of the Gowin version of the game are dumped
Story of Lasama	拉薩瑪傳奇	GS04	?	?	Yes	Yes (in Chinese)	A version of this game was included in two multicarts released by Vast Fame: Silver Version 12-in-1 (銀版中文RPG戰略+動作+益智12in1) and Shishang Chaoqiang RPG + Gedou + Yizhi Ban Zuhe Ka 18 in 1 (史上超強RPG+格鬥+益智版組合卡18in1). That version and a post-1993 reprint of the Gowin version of this game are dumped
Prince Rainbow	彩虹戰士	GS05	?	?	Yes	Yes (Chinese and English)	A TwinBee-inspired shoot-'em-up. Received a pre-Gowin release under the same Chinese name (彩虹戰士), with the English name used on the box reading The Rainbow. The 2000s reprint of this game would receive an English release, and is the only monochrome game from Gowin known to have gotten one
Binary Monster	數碼怪獸	GS08	November 1998	-	-	Yes (in Chinese)
Fire Dragon	瓜瓜火龍	GS06	December 1998	-	-	Yes (in Chinese)	The common ROM of the Gowin version is a cracked version with an intro added by "GYY Game Unlock Team" and the graphics for the Hot Kid splash screen blanked out. An early build of the game included on Vast Fame multicarts (named 龍行天下 on its title screen) along with the final Gowin release are dumped
Lost Trips	迷途之旅	GS07	December 1998	-	-	Yes (in Chinese)	1998 re-release of a 1993 Game Boy game credited to Songtly and Jumbo (the latter being more well known as Chuanpu) named Top Secret (最高機密) with updated Gowin copyrights. The common ROM of the Gowin version is a cracked version with an intro added by "GYY Game Unlock Team" and all original Gowin copyrights removed, which goes by the names Mi Tu De Lu and Puzzle Path. Some copies of it include the name Losing Trip on the title screen. The unmodified 1998 and 2000s Gowin releases are currently undumped

Multicarts

• KKL-01 - 3-in-1 with Fire Dragon, Prince YehRude and Story of Lasama
• KKL-05 - 3-in-1 with Fire Dragon, Lost Trips and Story of Lasama

Game Boy Color

Chinese name(s)	English name(s)	ID	Chinese release date	English release date	Notes
數碼怪獸-地獄大冒險 (original release) 數碼怪獸II 地獄大冒險 (re-release)	Binary Monsters II: Adventure of Hell Binary Monster II	GS10	January 2000	?	The first game by Gowin to be released for the Game Boy Color and to be developed by their in-house development team in China. Despite Amazing Robot preceding this game in IDs, it would be released a year after Binary Monster II's Chinese release. Cartridges of the game are known to have been manufactured as early as 1999, suggesting that development of the game ended that year
封魔神燈	Magic Lamp	GS11	July 2000	2001	Platforming game with gameplay inspired by Mega Man/Rockman. Both the Chinese and English versions are dumped in MAME, but are unable to be emulated in any Game Boy emulator as of writing due to copy protection
雷弩機神	Final Robot G.D335	GS12	October 2000	2001	Original Chinese and English releases from Gowin are undumped. A deprotection hack of the Chinese version is dumped and goes by the name "Lei Nu Ji Shen"
熱門高校 數碼怪獸III	Binary Monster III: School Fighter	GS13	January 2001	2001	Beat 'em up game using the Binary Monster name that features Hotkid/瓜瓜龍 (Gowin's mascot) and two original human characters as playable characters. The common dump of this game is a raw dump of the Chinese version, which partially works in emulators and crashes upon starting the first stage due to copy protection. The English version is currently undumped
神奇鐵金鋼	Amazing Robot	GS09	May 2001	?	Puzzle game that directly expands on the gameplay concept from Gowin's monochrome game Prince Yeh Rude. Notable for its extensive use of sampled audio and voice clips. Both a Chinese and English version were released, with the English version being extremely rare, undumped, and its differences from the Chinese version currently being unknown
悟空降魔錄	Journey to the West	GS15	July 2001	?	Both a Chinese and English version were released, with the latter reportedly being extremely rare. The common dump of this game is a raw dump of the Chinese version, which partially works in emulators and intentionally game overs past the intro stage due to unemulated copy protection. The English version is currently undumped
恐龍創世紀	Dinosaur Genesis	GS16	August 2001	?	Side-scrolling adventure game with branching paths. Both a Chinese and English version were released. Currently undumped in any form
臥虎藏龍	Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon	GS17	January 2002	?	RPG based on the original novel of the same name. This game was licensed by 皇統光碟科技股份有限公司, known in English as Summit, who at the time had obtained the game development rights of the property from the family of Wang Dulu (the author of the novel) and had planned to release games based on it for various platforms. Simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and English versions of this game were released. The Chinese version was originally slated for a release in December of 2001, and the English version is significantly more uncommon than either Chinese version. The only version of this game dumped as of writing is a deprotection hack of the simplified Chinese version released on the Chinese-speaking internet
石器時代 掌機版-精靈王誔生	-	GS18	July 2002	N/A	Name roughly translates to "Stone Age Handheld Version - Birth of the Goblin King". Tie-in game for the MMORPG Stone Age officially licensed by Waei. Plans of this game's development were announced as early as August 2001. A ROM of this game is known to exist that works in most Game Boy emulators, but it is unknown where it originates from

Trivia

• Gowin's games are numbered with IDs GS-01 through GS-18. However, it is unknown whether or not a GS-14 exists.
• Eight English Gowin games were listed on their website. In addition to these releases, there was an English release for GS-17 (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).
• Gowin advertised their monochrome game multicarts in the Wolf Weekly (疾風快報) gaming magazine in Taiwan. Later on, their color games would be featured as proper games in these magazines.
• Older Gowin games were also released (and likely developed) by companies other than Gowin. An example of this is the pre-Gowin version of Lost Trips named Top Secret, which was made by Songtly and Jumbo Team.
• Binary Monster borrows its soundtrack from the Game Boy game Another Bible by Atlus. This makes it the only Gowin game known to have taken its music from a licensed Game Boy title.
• Some of Gowin's older games were trademarked by a semiconductor company called Syntek.
• There were multiple iterations of their mascot 瓜瓜龍.
• The first five Gowin games have circuit boards with the year 1993 listed on them.
• On the boxes for 2000s reprints of monochrome Gowin games, the games are depicted in color. The games do not boot in color when loaded into a Gameboy however.
• Some of their English releases were sold on the website of a company known as Crystal Interactive. Prince Rainbow is notably absent from their site.

Gallery

An early version of Gowin's mascot

A Picture of Magic Ball's English Box.

A list of games Gowin was selling in English during the early 2000s.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon by Gowin in English

Highlighting some charcteristics common to a Gowin cart and the Superbee box

The box for a Superbee LCD game by Gowin

External link

• Official Chinese Website (Wayback Machine)

Gowin games

Game Boy (monochrome): Sound of the Pipa (琵琶行) (1993) · Magic Ball (魔法球) (1993) · Prince Yeh Rude (1993) · Story of Lasama (拉薩瑪傳奇) (1993) · Prince Rainbow (彩虹戰士) (1993) · Binary Monster (數碼怪獸) (1998) · Fire Dragon (瓜瓜火龍) (1998) · Lost Trips (迷途之旅 / 迷途の旅) (1998) Game Boy Color: Binary Monsters II: Adventure of Hell (數碼怪獸 - 地獄大冒險) (2000) · Magic Lamp (封魔神燈) · Final Robot G.D335 (雷弩機神) (2000) · Binary Monsters III: School Fighter (熱門高校 數碼怪獸III) (2001) · Amazing Robot (神奇鐵金鋼) (2001) · Journey to the West (2001) · Dinosaur Genesis (2001) · Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2002) · 石器時代 掌機版 - 精靈王誔生 (2002)