(removing "last game", since theyre still operating, and i'm not sure if i'd count Rex stuff anyway) |
|||
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
|consoles = Famicom/NES |
|consoles = Famicom/NES |
||
|firstgame = Pokey |
|firstgame = Pokey |
||
| − | |lastgame = |
+ | |lastgame = |
|sounds = NTDEC |
|sounds = NTDEC |
||
|aliases = Mega Soft, Caltron, Multi-Idea Co., Ltd, Rex Soft(?) |
|aliases = Mega Soft, Caltron, Multi-Idea Co., Ltd, Rex Soft(?) |
||
Revision as of 03:40, 4 November 2010
NTDEC (Nintendo Electronic Co., 任天堂電子有限公司) is a company that produced pirate Famicom and NES cartridges from 1989 to 1991, and numerous unlicensed original games from 1991 onwards, although the company itself has been active since 1983. Since 1993 it has operated under the name Asder (亞斯德科技有限公司), and currently produces children's educational products.[1]
History
Early history
According to Asder's website, the company was founded in 1983, but its activities at this point were unknown. The Famicom was released the same year but widespread piracy of its games had not yet begun. It may have been involved in Atari 2600 games, or non-gaming products.
NTDEC pirate copy of Life Force (Salamander name on cartridge but Life Force in-game)
Piracy (1989-1991)
NTDEC produced a large number of pirate copies of Japanese Famicom games between 1989 and 1991 (and possibly earlier), which were sold worldwide. Unusually among pirate cartridge manufacturers, NTDEC cartridges are often identifiable by the company logo on the cartridge and the in-game copyright noticed modified to read "NTDEC", as well as the rear label featuring a green "QUALITY GUARANTY" (sic) stripe (although this label was also used by other companies).
Two NTDEC employees were arrested in 1991 for the company's activities distributing cartridges in the US, and legal action was brought against the company by Nintendo shortly after for copyright infringement, as well as its use of the "Nintendo" trademark in its company name. [2][3]
NTDEC original games (1991-1993)
Before 1991, NTDEC is only known to have released one original game, Pokey (1989). However, between 1991 and 1993, NTDEC published many more original games in Asia, some of which were distributed in parts of South America and Europe. Most of the games released in 1991 used the "Mega Soft" name, but the "Caltron" name was used for several releases in 1992, including the Caltron 6-in-1. This is possibly the most well-known of NTDEC's products as it received a release in many more countries than their previous games, including the US. Caltron itself listed a Los Angeles address and phone number on a survey card included with the game; this was presumably the address also used by the US "Mega Soft" company named in Nintendo's lawsuit. However after this point NTDEC appears to have abandoned both the Mega Soft and Caltron names, and simply used its own name in its games.
Asder (1993-present)
Nintendo's legal action of 1991 concluded in 1993 with Nintendo being awarded $24,059,062 plus attorneys fees of $108,829.00 and costs of $709.80, and a worldwide permanent injunction preventing NTDEC from infringing Nintendo's intellectual property rights. At this point the company ceased operations under the NTDEC name. However it appears to have simply renamed itself to Asder Electronic Co., Ltd, which continued to produce NTDEC's Famiclones, and released educational computer systems and TV game joypads containing Mega Soft games, as well as several original Famicom titles continuing NTDEC's CN-xx numbering.
Asder is not known to have developed any original Famicom games since 1994, although it released the Famicom based PC-95 keyboard presumably in 1995, and another Famicom-based keyboard, the PC-2000, possibly in 2000.[4] It currently produces educational products such as children's "laptops" with simple low-res mono LCD screens, as well as a keyboard-based plug & play TV system and its own educational game console, the "A.Smart", but the latter two systems appear to be based on a 16 or even 32 bit architecture rather than Famiclone hardware.
List of Games Produced By NTDEC
As NTDEC/Mega Soft/Caltron
- Adam & Eve (1991) (NTDEC)
- Balloon Monster (1991) (Mega Soft, Caltron)
- Bookyman (1991) (NTDEC, Mega Soft) (Hack of Brush Roller by Hwang Shinwei)
- Caltron 6-in-1 (1992 (Caltron)
- Chik Bik Ji Jin - Saam Gwok Ji (NTDEC)
- Cosmos Cop (1991) (Mega Soft, Caltron)
- Destroyer (1992) (NTDEC, Caltron)
- Dream Fighter
- Fighting Hero (1991) (Mega Soft)
- Fighting Hero III (1993) (NTDEC)
- Go! Benny! (1992) (NTDEC, Mega Soft)
- Hit Marmot (1991) (Mega Soft)
- Magic Block (1991) (Mega Soft)
- Magic Carpet 1001 (1991) (Mega Soft)
- Hack: Turbo Magic Carpet 1001 (on Asder 20-in-1)
- Master Shooter (1993) (NTDEC)
- Pokey (1989) (NTDEC)
- Porter (1991) (Mega Soft)
- Sea of Dreamland (1992) (Mega Soft)
- Skate Boy (1992) (Caltron)
- Super Gun
- Tank (1992) (NTDEC, Caltron)
- War in the Gulf (1991) (Mega Soft)
As Asder
- Asder 20-in-1 (1993)
Games that have so far appeared only on this cartridge and Asder Famiclones, but may have received single cart releases earlier:- Benico
- JP Ronny
- Top Hunter
- Cobra Mission (1994)
- Huang Di (unknown date)
- San Guo Zhi - Qun Xiong Zheng Ba (unknown date)
- Zhen Ben - Zhi You Ji (1994)
Unknown
- Dragon Palace Adventure (unreleased)
- The Pearl Turn (listed on a Famiclone box with other Mega Soft games)
The Pearl Turn screenshot
Related games
- Elfland (1992, credited to "Tip Top")
- Lethal Weapon (unknown date) (actually a port of Lethal Enforcers; unrelated to the film of the same name)
Other products
- Famiclones (NT-xx series)
- NTDEC Stick Turbo Jr.; clone of an ASCII product
Rex Soft
Rex Soft was a company that released a number of pirate originals for the Famicom around 1997. These games share a sound engine and fonts (the latter taken from Borland BGI) with most of NTDEC/Asder's original games, so were probably created by at least some of the same development team, but it is unknown whether they were produced under Asder.
At least one of the games was released on a board containing a Huang-1 chip usually used by Someri Team[5] which indicates it may have been manufactured by Ge De Industry Co - if Asder had published this game they presumably would have manufactured their own board. As Asder itself appears to have stopped developing Famicom games after about 1994 to focus on educational software, Rex may have been composed of developers who left around that time.
Games
- Boogerman II (1997)
- Dragon Ball Z 5 (unknown date)
- King of Fighters '97 (1997) (later hacked to make KoF98 and KoF99)
- Samurai Spirits (aka Samurai Shodown III)
References
External links
| This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors). |