International Cricket is a cricket game for Famicom/NES hardware developed by Dragon Co.[1]. It is an unlicensed port of the Sega Mega Drive game Brian Lara Cricket, and it is notable for having many hacks produced, most of which have their development attributed to Nice Code Software. These hacks are primarily found on multi-game systems and multicarts, and nearly all of which using slightly different names. The original, un-hacked version of this game has yet to be found.
Original version[]
This game was originally produced for and commissioned by Mitashi, an Indian game company notable for their role as a key player in the Indian gaming market. According to an NDTV article on the history of Mitashi, they are described to have produced a cricket game, presumably for their own Famiclone systems, simply titled Cricket.[2] The Managing Director of Mitashi at the time, Rakesh Dugar, would mention that the success following the company's distribution tactic of bundling copies of Brian Lara Cricket with their Sega Mega Drive consoles was a big inspiration for pursuing the idea of an 8-bit cricket game. He would also provide information on who would develop the game - a company under the name Profine, likely being an alias of Dragon Co., as not only does this game share similarities with past-Dragon titles, but a trademark filing was registered by Dragon for a "cricket" game.[1]
The mention of the success of the 8-bit cricket game being followed by the release of the PSone in India in the article suggests that it was released before 2002 (the PSone was released in India on January 24, 2002 and the trademark filed by Dragon was in January of 2001). The Mitashi cricket game is also described as having recorded voice clips - if this is true, then it appears that all currently-dumped variants of International Cricket completely remove these.
While it is unknown how Mitashi's original 8-bit cricket game was distributed, the original release was likely titled "International Cricket 2000", going by unused "2" and "0" characters in the title screen data of International Cricket/its variants, and a reported sighting of the cartridge using this name (which was not visually archived).[3]
Hacks[]
| Name | Hack Info | Main Menu |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Lara 2003/International Cricket (Mitashi) | This hack opens to text reading "BRIAN LARA 2003", featuring a logo for Mitashi (who originally published this game) on the title screen. The rest of the game is seemingly un-hacked (or atleast has only subtle changes made). While this game is the closest to the original version, it sadly is not. | 
|
| Cricket World Cup 2003/International Cricket 2003 (Nice Code) | This hack starts up with a splash screen with text saying "CRICKET WORLD CUP 2003". In the main menu, the Mitashi logo is removed from this version, the selections are centered and "2003" is added to the International Cricket logo. | 
|
| International Cricket (Waixing) | This version has no opening text and removes the "View Team" and "Quit Match" options on the title screen. The music for the title screen/match options has been changed to a more generic theme (more akin to music found in multicarts), the stadium background has been changed to a building resembling a mosque and the rest of the modifications made to the game are color palette modifications. | 
|
Trivia[]
- The title theme in the Brian Lara 2003 version is a rendition of the title music to the Mega Drive version of Brian Lara Cricket.
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.ipyear.cn/search/copyright_ap.php?keyword=%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%BE%B7%E9%87%91%E8%BD%AF%E4%BB%B6%E6%8A%80%E6%9C%AF%E6%9C%89%E9%99%90%E8%B4%A3%E4%BB%BB%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8
- ↑ Tracing the Origins of Gaming in India: 8-Bit Cricket, Sega, and Cloning, Gadgets 360
- ↑ "there was a Famicom port of [Brian Lara Cricket] listed on Famicom no Tobira (which seems to have disappeared unfortunately) called International Cricket 2000, or something like 'Brain Lara Crieket' [sic] on the label. which had baseball players on it. naturally. for the longest time I ignored it because I assumed it was just a hack of some licensed cricket game or other, but it actually isn't." (http://bootleg.games/BGC_Forum/index.php?&topic=1713)