JungleTac is a Chinese company that produces 8-bit and 16-bit consoles and games.
Its business & technical team is located in Shenzhen, its software development team in Fuzhou & finance and export office in Hong Kong.[1]
Products
Most JungleTac consoles are either handhelds or controller-based plug & play systems, usually with a large number of built-in games and no cartridge port (with the exceptions of the OneStation and Vii). Often similar looking consoles are released by various international distributors under different names (dreamGEAR, vs. Maxx, etc.) with a different combination of games. Some of its products include:
Controllers
- Game Vision 50 - Racing wheel controller with 50 games
- 25 Games - Standard Controller with 25 games
- Silverlit Electronics 35 in 1 Super Twins - Standard Controller with 35 8-bit games
Handhelds
- Classic Max - available in both horizontal and vertical orientation, with 12 games built in
- 30-game versions of both consoles (sometimes with different case designs) were also produced under various different names, including HiQ Classic, Zone Fusion and Heeha 100/300. Some include versions of the 12 games from the respective Classic Max plus 18 more, but using Jungletac's 8-bit sound engine instead of the 16-bit MIDI-esque music found in the Max; others (including the Zone Fusion) have a completely different selection of games.
- Cyber Arcade Center- 8-bit handheld with 100 Jungletac games and 20 Nice Code games
- M3 Pocket - 16-bit handheld with 50 games
- One Station - A handheld console, most cartridges released were multicarts containing Jungletac's own 8 and 16-bit games or (mostly) official Famicom/NES games. An adapter was also released allowing it to play MD Max cartridges.
- VG Pocket series (handhelds manufactured by JungleTac for Pelican Accessories)
- VG Pocket Mini: 30 built-in games and a 1.5" screen. This game unit had poor sales, and has been discontinued.
- VG Pocket 50: 50 built-in games and a 2" screen.
- VG Pocket Max: 75 built-in games and a 2.5" screen.
- VG Pocket Caplet: 35 or 50 16-bit games, including licensed versions of Space Invaders, Bust-a-Move, and BurgerTime.
- VG Pocket Tablet: 25 8-bit games, including a licensed version of Frogger.
Consoles
- Vii aka Sport Vii/威力棒 (2007) - A 16-bit console with motion controls (for the built-in games only). Released by KenSingTon. Accepts "VC" cartridges containing generic JungleTac 16-bit games.
- Zone 60, Zone 100 (software at least, though the console itself resembles systems made by Subor.A variant of the Zone 60 is called the Wireless 60 Gaming System.
List of games
8-bit
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16-bit
"Classic Max Pocket" hardware type 1
The unknown 16-bit hardware used in the 12-in-1 Classic Max Pocket
- Hero Legend
- Mini Golf
- Night Wings
- North Salvation
Connections to other companies
Nice Code
Some games credited to JungleTac were developed by Nice Code Software according to their website, such as Abey's Dream, Dingle Hunt and Jig Chick[2], which are designed for a vertically oriented screen and as such have only appeared on a very small number of consoles. At least one console, the Lexibook Cyber Arcade Center 120 in 1, contains 8-bit games made by both companies which do not usually appear together.[3]
Shenzhen Nanjing Technology
Early instances of JungleTac's games in their 8-bit production line use music sampled from unknown sound files that were ported to their custom sound effect and MIDI sound engine using in-house conversion tools. The same sound engine would be paired with Nanjing's first published RPGs, although the company's later titles would switch to a different sound engine under an unknown composer. Some OneStation carts also use the title screen music from Nanjing's Super Robot Wars A in their menus. Despite that no evidence has yet to be found, the connection could be hypothetically be related to Nice Code as they are known to have developed games for both companies.
Cube Technology
Cube Technology was previously called "Cubetac", and at some point seems to have employed Wise Wang, who is credited in the EmuVT OneBus Famiclone emulator copyrighted to DJ-Jungle.
Senca
The title screen and some sports games from the Zone 60 console, credited to JungleTac, bear extreme similarities to those from the Family Sports series by Senca.
Waixing
A handful of JungleTac's Handymax multicart games[4] have ended up with Waixing's game library under different copyrights, art and additional music. While indicating a legal connection, it is unknown if they were stolen or bought out.
Trivia
- Most, if not all, of JungleTac's consoles and OneStation carts have a test screen which appears if you hold A and B while turning the power on. Its functions vary depending on the hardware but these screens usually contain at least a controller test and a checksum (some systems require you to press Up & B to calculate this).
- The Classic Max Pocket (and possibly some other JungleTac systems) has been seen with different brandings. The product is even available in some in-flight shops, and can be purchased during an airplane flight. One example is the 30-in-1 version licensed to Premier Portfolio in the UK, under the ZipStar brand name, which is available in British Airways' long-haul flights (it retailed there for £60). Another 12-in-1 version was seen in a different flight, which is also distributed by Premier Portfolio, but with "(c) 2007 Junglesoft " on the back.
- Many of JungleTac's games contain graphics stolen from Nintendo branded games, like Mario, Kirby, Zelda, and Pokémon.
- Ren Yongming, one of Waixing's composers who worked during the early days of the company, moved to JungleTac to work for creating the music present in their later titles.[5]
References
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