Hwang Shinwei (黃信維) is a Taiwanese man notable for programming unlicensed games for Famicom/NES systems from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Many of the games developed by Hwang for these platforms are bootleg ports of other games, notably including arcade games and games for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
Overview[]
Hwang Shinwei is the only person credited in most of his games. Many of his games also credit RCM Group, who were likely the publishers. Some of his games also mention "Taiwan ROC" at the title screen, although this likely refers to "Taiwan, Republic of China" (where Shinwei was presumably based) rather than being a company name.
Most games made by Hwang Shinwei appear on multicarts, and some might not have been released stand-alone. Most of his games are also based on existing NES/Famicom games. Some games were released on NES cartridges, such as Block Force and Magic Jewelry II.[citation needed] His games also seem to have been produced quickly, with 3D Block and Magic Jewelry being released the same year as the games they are based on.
It is likely that Hwang Shinwei's games are common on multicarts because of their small size as well. Unlike many unlicensed NES/Famicom games which took up more storage than the average licensed title, none of Shinwei's games exceeded 64 KB. For example, Magic Jewelry is 16 KB, a size matched only by the official Famicom port of Galaxian and Xiao Ma Li.
Hwang Jiun-Ming[]
Hwang Jiun-Ming is a different individual known to have at least programmed a single unlicensed Famicom game affiliated with Hwang Shinwei, Block Force. The game explicitly credits Hwang Shinwei for "layout and music", which confirms that they are different individuals.
There are a handful of pirate releases of official Famicom/NES and PC Engine games that had their title screens modified to credit "JMH", "JMHWANG" or "Jiun Ming Hwang".[2] His most known edit may have been the NES version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge, as it was extensively bootlegged.[citation needed] Hwang Jiun-Ming would later work for EMAGSOFT to develop PC games, notably including A.D Cop and SideLine.
Games developed by Hwang Shinwei[]
Full games (Single cartridge releases)[]
- 3D Block (1989/1990) - Port of Blockout.
1989 version credits Shinwei, 1990 version credits RCM Group. - Mi Hun Che / BB Car (1988/1991) - Based off Rally-X.
The 1988 release, Mi Hun Che, was published by Chi Chi Toy Company, a prolific manufacturer of pirate Famicom carts in Taiwan (its logo is often mistaken for "Chui"). The 1991 version was renamed BB Car and may have been published or re-released by J.Y. Company. Notably, Hwang's name is romanised as Huang Hsin-Wei in Mi Hun Che, while his name is rendered in Chinese characters only in BB Car. - Block Force (1990) - Based off Quarth. Hwang Shinwei is only credited for "layout and music" in this game. "Program and character" are by Hwang Jiun-Ming.
- Brush Roller (1990) - Based off Make Trax.
- Magic Jewelry (1990) - Based off Columns.
- Magic Jewelry II (1991) - Hack of the previous game which adds extra options and a 2-player mode.
- Magic Giral (1991) - Port of the unlicensed Famicom Disk System strip rock-paper-scissors game Emi-Chan no Moero Yakyuuken, using graphics ripped from that game but apparently coded from scratch. The background music also seems to be an approximate recreation. Named Wildball on multicarts.
Multicart-only games[]
These games are usually much simpler than those that received single cartridge releases, and some seem unfinished. Most of these appear on the 260 in 1 Multicart, but some are also included in the Tetris Family series (6-in-1, 9-in-1 and 12-in-1) by RCM. Some may still have been released on a single cartridge, but none have yet been discovered.
- 2 Turn Pair (1991) - Mahjong solitaire type game.
- Black Jack (1990)
- China Chess - Banqi (Taiwanese variant).
- F18 Race (1990) - A simple overhead racing game similar to Road Fighter.
- Face Tetris - A simplified port of Faces...tris III, with only two portrait graphics available.
- Frog River (1990) - Based off Frogger, a graphics variant exists as Jewelry.
- Guess Numbers (1990) - Generates a random number and help the player find it with indications.
- Magic Sound - Very basic NES synthesizer. Possibly part of the tools the developer used to compose his tunes.
- Memory Pair
- Piano
- Picture collect (1990) - Puzzle game using Adventure Island sprites.
- Punch Sprite (1990) - Also known as Punch Pipe, a whack-a-mole type game using graphics from the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 game.
- Sky Shot (1990) - A space shoot'em up in which you fire at bricks coming at you.
- Soha Poker (1990)
Trivia[]
- Brush Roller was later hacked by NTDEC to make Bookyman, which appeared as a game on the Caltron 6-in-1. It is unknown if this version was produced or authorized by Hwang himself.
- An editor at website The Cutting Room Floor discovered the picture of an unknown man hidden in the ROM of the a release of Block Force that lacks copy protection. In 2025, it was discovered that the photo was specifically of Hwang Jiun-Ming, after he was asked directly.[3]
References[]
- ↑ Only seen on BB Car of a specific multicart, possibly not an alias Hwang Shinwei chose himself
- ↑ PC Engine game with explicit Hwang Jiun Ming credit
- ↑ Direct confirmation from Hwang Jiun-Ming that he is the person pictured in the non-copy protected version of Block Force
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