Hummer Team (悍馬小組, Hanyu Pinyin: hànmǎ xiǎozǔ) was a pirate game developer that originated in 1992 after a few members left C&E. They were known for making what many consider decent NES ports of games that were on more advanced consoles along with having games published by many different companies including SuperTone, Yoko Soft, J.Y. Company and NT. 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) and some XaviX games. Hummer Technology closed doors in 2010.
Aliases
- Somari Team (used before 1995) - Supertone misspelled Somari Team as Someri Team on both AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting and Somari covers.
- Jing Tay Team (Seen in Tiny Toon Adventures 6) - As a reference to J.Y. Company.
- Copyright (As seen in Super Mario World & Aladdin - technically not an alias but still an identifying factor, most developers don't write the word "Copyright" in full)
- Hummer Technology Co., Ltd. / Simmer Technology Co., Ltd. (2005-2010)
Staff
- Hummer Cheng - Head, composer, programmer. One of the remaining staff members in 2006.
- Silvers Lin - Programmer, producer, was part of C&E. Name can be found in Aladdin through a hex editor. "Hung Hsiang _ Lin" in Donkey Kong Country 4.
- Kathy Chen - Graphics, was part of C&E. Credited as Kathy Chiang in Tiny Toon Adventures 6. Acording to Hummer Cheng, she designed all of the Hummer Team characters.
- Carroll Wu - Graphics. One of the remaining staff members in 2006 (ZDog graphic artist).
- Chris Ho - Programmer, first credited on Titenic and one of the remaining staff members in 2006.
- 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.
- Say Lee - Graphics, credited in Tiny Toon Adventures 6, and SAY appears next to YAO in SFZ2'97.
- Y.Y.C - Graphics, was credited in Earthworm Jim 3 and Donkey Kong Country 4. Possibly credited as "Huei Fan" in Mortal Kombat 3
This is a list of people who have appeared in Hummer Team's credits. However, it is 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. Likely Hummer Cheng.
- 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 Mortal Kombat 3. 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 known to be made by them.
NES/Famicom
SuperTone, Ge De Industry, and Yoko Soft era:
- 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 (Ge De Industry Co.) - 1994-5
- Somari (Someri Team, released by Ge De Industry Co.) - 1994 (With its hacks being published by Ka Sheng in 1996-97)
- AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting (Someri Team, released by Ge De Industry Co.) - 1994
- AV Jiu Ji Ma Jiang II - 1995 (Published by Ge De Industry and later reprinted by KaSheng)
- Garou Densetsu Special - 1995 (Later published and hacked multiple times by KaSheng)
J.Y. Company and Ka Sheng era:
- Dragon Ball Z - Super Butoden 2 (JY) - 1994
- Mortal Kombat II (JY) - 1994 (Hacked to produce an '18 Peoples' version)
- Aladdin (JY) - 1995 (Hacked multiple times to produce title screen hacks, as well as Popeye II: Travels in Persia)
- Mortal Kombat II Special (JY) - 1995 (Hacked to produce Mortal Kombat III Special and Mortal Kombat 3 Special 56 Peoples)
- Power Rangers III (JY) - 1995 (Hacked to produce Power Rangers IV)
- Super Mario World (JY) - 1995
- Shin Samurai Spirits 2 (JY) - 1996
- Sanguo Chunqiu: Sichuan Sheng (Ka Sheng) - 1996 (Modified and rereleased by ABAB Soft in the 2000s)
- Tekken 2 (JY) - 1996 (Bundled with a hack called Toshinden)
- Yuu Yuu Hakusho Final (Ka Sheng) - 1996 (Exists in both English and Chinese, hacked multiple times)
- Donkey Kong Country 4 (JY) - 1997 (Bundled with a hack called Jungle Book 2 which was also sold on single cartridge.)
- Earthworm Jim 3 (Ka Sheng) - 1997
- Street Fighter Zero 2 '97 (Ka Sheng) - 1997 (Later hacked to produce Street Fighter Zero 2)
- Tiny Toon Adventures 6 (JY) - 1997
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 4 (Ka Sheng) - 1997
- King of Fighters '96 (Ka Sheng) - 1998 (Made for JY Company, but published by Ka Sheng)
- Final Fight 3 (JY) - 1998
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 鴻景 (Hong Jing). 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. Some of the games made by them seems to be made for the Dance Map Pheripheral. But this is yet to be confirmed.
- Dragon Running (A Racing Game Similar to Track & Field's 100 Meter Race. Only uses the DPad.)
- Dance Y2K (May be the game below)
- Finger DDR (A Dance Dance Revolution game with Butterfly as the only celectable game. Only uses the DPad.)
- Panda Adventure/Pink Jelly/Rings (A game where you walk from side to side.)
- Ping Pong (Table Tenis Game.)
- Soccer of the World (uses DKC4 music; later released by Waixing as Penalty Kick)
- Space Shuttle Exploration (A shooting game. the game over screen sound similar to Tekken 2's Character Selecting Screen's music.)
- The Egg / The Duck (Duck Hunt clone with DKC4's music)
- Titenic / Harry's Legend (A Beat-Em Up game. Originally going to be published by NT)
- War (A game you kill enemies crossing above. uses DKC4 and Earth Worm Jim 3's music and graphics. Also uses Titenic's Enemy Graphics.)
- War of Strike Mouse (A Whack-A-Mole game. Only uses the DPad.)
XaviX
- Acording to Hummer Cheng, Hummer Team helped and designed some XaviX Game.
- XaviX Ping-Pong (SSD) - 2005
Plug & play consoles
Zdog
These consoles were produced by Zechess Co., Ltd., 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 and mascot
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J.Y. Company's logo
In numerous Hummer Team 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.
A common misconception is that this is Hummer Team's logo, but it is in fact J.Y. 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
Hummer Team itself is not known to have had a logo, but from 2005-2006 they used a horse named Hummer as its mascot (a play on the Chinese characters for "Hummer" which mean "brave horse") designed by Kathy Chen. Hummer's first known appearance was in a hack of Somari on the Super New Year Cart 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.