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|caption = Example of a Hummer Team copyright. |
|caption = Example of a Hummer Team copyright. |
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|location = Taiwan |
|location = Taiwan |
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− | |years = 1992- |
+ | |years = 1992-2006 |
|consoles = Famicom, [[VT03]] |
|consoles = Famicom, [[VT03]] |
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|firstgame = [[Jing Ke Xin Zhuan]] |
|firstgame = [[Jing Ke Xin Zhuan]] |
Revision as of 23:01, 15 March 2013
Hummer Team (悍馬小組, Hanyu Pinyin: hànmǎ xiǎozǔ) is a pirate game developer that originated in 1992 after a few members left C&E. They're known for making decent NES ports of games that were on more advanced consoles along with having games published by many different companies including SuperTone, Yoko Software, Ge De Industry Co., JY Company and KaSheng. The team seems to have significantly reduced in size during the 64-bit era, but the remaining members continued to make games until at least 2006, mostly for multicarts and plug & play Famiclones (later VT03-based). Hummer Technology (the later team) may still exist today.
Aliases
- Someri Team (Used before 1995)
- Hummer Team (Used once in 1992, 1995-1997)
- Jing Tay Team (Seen in Tiny Toon Adventures 6)
- Copyright (As seen in SMW & Aladdin - technically not an alias but still an identifying factor, most developers don't write the word "Copyright" in full)
- Hummer Technology Co., Ltd. (2006 ? - present ?)
Staff
- Silvers Lin - Programmer, producer, was part of C&E. Name can be found in Aladdin through a hex editor. Probably Hung Hsiang _ Lin in Donkey Kong Country 4, may also be Light Lin in Street Fighter IV (although Light Lin is credited for graphics which Silvers Lin is not known to have worked on in other games).
- Kathy Chen - Graphics, was part of C&E. Credited as Kathy Chiang in Tiny Toon Adventures 6. Could be Lidia Jam in Street Fighter 2.
- Hummer Cheng - Sound designer, programmer in Titenic. One of the remaining staff members in 2006 (ZDog director).
- Carroll Wu - Graphics. One of the remaining staff members in 2006 (ZDog graphic artist).
- Chris Ho - Programmer on Titenic and one of the remaining staff members in 2006 (ZDog programmer).
- Stevin Hseih - (Engine) programmer. S.S Hsieh in Donkey Kong Country 4.
- Terrissa Mao (Yao ?) - Graphics, Yao appears on the background of the first stage in Street Fighter Zero 2 '97. Possibly credited as Sakula on DKC4 (pronounce: Sakura).
- Say Lee - Graphics, credited in Tiny Toon Adventures 6 and SAY appear next to YAO in SFZ2'97. Possibly credited as Freeman on DKC4.
- Y.Y.C - Graphics, was credited in Earthworm Jim 3 and Donkey Kong Country 4 He/she could be "Huei Fan" credited in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 4
This is a list of people who have appeared in Hummer Team's credits. However, it's unknown if these are real people or just nicknames:
- Alex Yeu - Sound designer, never seen in JY games but was credited in Earthworm Jim 3 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 4 for music.
- Barbara King - Sound designer for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and Street Fighter IV (under B.B. King).
- Ming June - Programmer, only appeared in Earthworm Jim 3. A "Chen Ming Jiun" is credited in C&E's Sheng Huo Lie Zhuan & Hwang Shinwei used a similar nickname for Block Force (Hwang Jiun Ming)
- Juing Long - Programmer in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 4. Probably the same as above.
All the names used before J.Y. Company era (particularly in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and Street Fighter IV) are too hard to track because they are a lot more generic and different than the ones used in 1997.
Games
These are games that are definitely known to be made by them:
SuperTone, Yoko Soft and Ge De Industry Co. era: The game are listed as: Title - Company in the copyright - Year of copyright.
- Jing Ke Xin Zhuan (SuperTone) - 1992
- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Yoko Soft) - 1992
- Master Fighter VI' (Yoko Soft) - 1993
- Street Fighter IV (Gouder Co.) - 1993
- Kart Fighter <?> - 1993
- Somari (Someri Team) - 1994 (with its hacks being published under NT in 1996-97)
- AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting (Someri Team) - 1994
- AV Jiu Ji Ma Jiang 2 <?> - probably 1994 (although dumped ROM uses a Kaising board)
- Garou Densetsu Special <?> - 1994 (Later published by NT under Mortal Kombat 6 title hack)
JY Company and KaSheng era: Games are listed as: Name - comment - publisher in alphabetical order.
- Aladdin (Hacked to produce many title screen hacks, as well as Popeye II: Travels in Persia - JY) - 1995
- Donkey Kong Country 4 (Bundled with a hack of it called Jungle Book 2) (JY) - 1997
- Dragon Ball Z - Super Butoden 2 (JY) - 1994
- Earthworm Jim 3 (NT) - After 1997
- Final Fight 3 (JY) - 1998
- King of Fighters '96 (Made for JY, released by NT) - 1998
- Mortal Kombat II (Hacked to produce a 18 Peoples version). (JY) - 1994
- Mortal Kombat II Special (Hacked to produce Mortal Kombat III Special and Mortal Kombat 3 Special 56 Peoples) (JY) - 1995
- Power Rangers III (Hacked to produce Power Rangers IV) (JY) - 1995
- Shin Samurai Spirits 2 (JY) - 1996
- Street Fighter Zero 2 '97 (Later hacked to produce Street Fighter Zero 2) (NT) - 1997
- Super Mario World (JY) - 1995
- Tekken 2 (Bundled with a hack of it called Toshinden) (JY) - 1996
- Tiny Toon Adventures 6 (JY) - 1997
These were made by only a few members of Hummer Team after 1998. Their original publisher is unknown, although some of these games were rereleased by ABAB Soft, and some were only released on a 15-in-1 multicart by an unknown company. Panda Adventure on the Super Cool Boy 4-in-1 has a Rinco (Ramar International) logo in the tiles, and Ramar produced some game cartridges around 2000 that were only sold in mainland China,[1] so they may have been the original publishers. Some of these games later appeared on Trump Grand Famiclones such as the Power Joy Supermax.
- Dragon Running
- Panda Adventure/Pink Jelly
- Ping Pong
- Space Shuttle Exploration
- The Duck/The Egg (Duck Hunt clone with DKC4's music)
- Titenic / Harry's Legend
- War
- War of Strike Mouse
These games could be made by them, but, as of now, there isn't enough evidence to prove it.
- Dance Y2K (on ABAB multicart with War of Strike Mosue and Dragon Running)
- Rings (Seems to be based off of Lord of the Rings. The only original on a 4-in-1 that it is found on. Usually there is only one original on Abab's multicart not counting the dance pad multicart)
- Shisen Mahjong 2 (NT) (Similar sound engine, uses music from Jing Ke Xin Zhuan and graphics from AV Jiu Ji Ma Jiang II. Has appeared on one of ABAB Soft's multicarts)
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 4 (NT) (Use the same engine as their fighting games but the quality is rather questionable. Mortal Kombat 4, one of its clones, has appeared on one of ABAB Soft's 4-in-1 carts. Also, Mortal Kombat 4 contains coding from Titenic and an unknown RPG (Rings?) which can also be found in Harry's Legend. Also Alex Yeu from Earthworm Jim 3 is credited here.)
- Yuu Yuu Hakusho Final (Uses similar engine to many of their fighting games, commands are similar to Shin Samurai Spirits 2 although it predates Samurai Spirits 2.) (NT)
Plug & play consoles
These consoles were produced by Zechess, a Taiwanese company that existed from around 2005-2006 run by Handel Liao - whose name also appears in the source code of ABABSoft's website - and they contain the last known games developed by Hummer. They are largely VT03 based although each contains at least one older game which still runs in standard Famicom mode.
- Samuri - 60 games, includes individual levels from the "Hummer" hack of Somari plus newer VT03 mini games.[2]
- ZDog - comes with a toy dog which carries the actual console unit in its backpack. 44 games, which can be accessed through one of three modes: a standard game list, a map screen or a virtual pet style mode. Games include levels from Titenic, the Ping Pong game listed by ABABSoft plus similar VT03 mini games to the Samuri.
Logo & mascot
A common misconception of Hummer Team is that in their games, there is a three eyed sun/sea urchin hidden in the ROM, it can generally found by a button code and/or a sprite editor such as Tile Layer Pro, although sometimes (such as in Aladdin) it is incorporated into the level graphics.
This isn't Hummer's logo but rather JY Company's, who published many Hummer games as well as numerous other pirates. This is why it isn't present in Hummer's games that are published by NT (Earthworm Jim 3 and Street Fighter Zero 2 97) but is present in Ei-How Yang's games published by JY, such as Mickey Mania 7 and Contra Spirits (which was published with a Hosenkan Electronics Co., Ltd. label).
Hummer Team itself is not known to have had a logo, but from 2005-2006 used a horse called Hummer as its mascot (a play on the Chinese characters for "Hummer" which mean "brave horse"). Hummer's first known appearance was in a hack of Somari on the 15-in-1 multicart, and he would later go on to star in many games on both the Samuri & ZDog plug & play consoles, as well as appearing on both consoles' intro screens. A pink cat called Pink Jelly also features prominently in these games, again having appeared first on the 15-in-1 cart.