Nice Code Software, known as 西安东信软件公司 (Xi'an Dongxin Software Co.) in Chinese and formerly known as Nature Color, is a former video game developer based in Xi'an, China that was founded in 1999. Their main output consisted of games designed for Famiclone-based "plug & play" hardware, although they would also develop games for more advanced hardware. Many of their games were primarily developed as generic games designed to be licensed out to various Chinese manufacturers of game consoles, but they also appear to have been contracted to produce games for several American plug & play consoles (particularly Techno Source systems), and would later license its games to further companies such as Waixing, JungleTac, and Qi Sheng Long.
The company was founded by an artist, and a lot of its early staff were from Dragon Co.[2]; they took their resources when they moved to Nice Code, and it led to a number of platform games designed with Dragon's engine. As of 2024, Nice Code is still in business, but it appears that they stopped developing games altogether some time in the 2010s and have since exclusively focused on developing government computer software.[3] Their game-nc.com website would stop being maintained after 2013 before going offline some time after the start of 2014.
Games overview[]
Most of Nice Code's games are simplistic and were designed for plug & plays, handheld systems, and multicarts. As early as the year 2000, Nice Code would begin producing 8-bit games intended to be licensed out to other companies for use on these platforms. Nice Code would later develop games for more advanced platforms. These include but are not limited to VT168, 16-bit and 32-bit Sunplus SPG, and Generalplus GPL162xx systems (classified on Nice Code's website as 32-bit). These games compared to most of Nice Code's 8-bit offerings tend to have more depth in terms of gameplay mechanics and/or presentation, and are also very hard to find, with the 16-bit and 32-bit games typically only appearing on uncommon multi-game systems from Qi Sheng Long.
8-bit games[]
- Main article: /Index of 8-bit games
Nice Code's 8-bit titles are the most prolific of their game library as well as the most infamous, with the company having produced an extremely large amount of individual games for 8-bit systems. Most of these games are commonly found on plug and plays, multicarts, and dedicated handhelds. Most of Nice Code's 8-bit games are programmed for Famicom/NES-based hardware and were primarily designed to be included with Famiclone systems as either built-in games or on a bundled multicart. Nice Code would also have several Famicom games released on cartridge for standard Famicom/Famiclone consoles by Nanjing Technology in mainland China some time in the mid-2000s, including versions of their plug and play games as well as a few original RPGs such as Alien vs Predator and Tomb Raider. Nice Code would later develop games for VT03 hardware, which is an enhanced Famiclone chipset from Taiwanese electronics company V.R. Technology with support for 16-bit like graphics. Many of these VT03 games are simply conversions of Nice Code's existing Famicom/NES games with updated graphics, although they would also produce a handful of games exclusive to the hardware. Some later 2010s releases are programmed for VT32 hardware. Nice Code and its affiliates are also credited in a handful of ROM hacks, based on both official NES/Famicom games and contemporary unlicensed releases for the systems (circa 1990s).
Many of Nice Code's Famicom/NES-based output was primarily developed for systems manufactured by Trump Grand Manufacturing, the producers of the Power Joy plug & play series and many earlier consoles by dreamGEAR (now known as "My Arcade"). The relevant games were initially developed for Trump Grand's later Power Joy plug and play systems in the early 2000s, commonly featuring a "Power Joy Ltd" copyright byline on their title screens and/or a secret credits screen with the letters "PJ" at the top of the screen, which can typically be activated with a button combination entered on the title screen. A significant number of Nice Code's 8-bit games in general (both original games and hacks) are also variants of certain titles developed by themselves, with some of Nice Code's 8-bit games having upwards of 20 variants. Some of these variants were initially exclusive to other Chinese game companies, such as the versions of Nice Code's 8-bit games developed in-house for Qi Sheng Long and variants published, and in some cases, developed, by Waixing. Typically, only one set is used per console, which is most commonly Nice Code's original selection in the U.S. and Qi Sheng Long's versions in Japan; both the Nice Code and Waixing sets are equally common in China.
VT168 games[]
Classic Max Pocket 30 in 1 displaying the title screen of Dingle Hunt, which includes a 2007 copyright to Jungle Soft.[4]
Nice Code is known to have developed games for the VT168, a system-on-a-chip platform in V.R. Technology's VT line that, while using a 6502 processor like their NES-based VT platforms, uses different graphics and sound hardware on par with a contemporary 16-bit game console. Nice Code would offer a list of some of the games they developed for VT168 hardware on their website, although the only archive of this list is from an earlier iteration of their website in 2011 (archived link). Nice Code's VT168 games are very uncommon, with only nine of their confirmed games known to have been released as part of game libraries on two vertically-oriented versions of JungleTac's Classic Max Pocket handhelds (specifically 12-in-1 and 30-in-1 models).
Nice Code's confirmed VT168 games for the vertical Classic Max Pocket systems use a pixel art aesthetic, notably in their title screens, and some feature high score tables with default names, with some names being references to Nice Code staff. The games were likely also commissioned by JungleTac directly, as in addition to being included on unique, vertically oriented hardware, most of the games have visible 2007 copyright notices crediting Jungle Soft on their title screens. For more information on these games as well as additional games from the "vertical resolution" sets on these systems, see Classic Max Pocket/Vertical games.
The below lists feature the following notation:
- "[12]" indicates a VT168 game that is featured on vertical Classic Max Pocket 12-in-1 systems.
- "[30]" indicates a VT168 game that is featured on vertical Classic Max Pocket 30-in-1 systems.
Confirmed[]
Dingle Hunt gameplay screenshot (from the Arcade Classic MX manual).
Title screen of Abey's Dream.[5]
Title screen of Pocket Crisis.
Names in bold are the official English names of the games. Names in italics are rough translations from the given Chinese name if no official English name is provided.
- Abey's Dream[30] - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Ardor of Riptide - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Bubble World - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Cloven - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Dingle Hunt[12][30] - A clone of Detana!! TwinBee. The default high score table names are "Angell" [sic], "Lucia", "Jony" [sic], and "Wayne"[7][4]; all four names are identical to names of known Nice Code staff members ("Angell" in particular is credited as a programmer in various 8-bit Nice Code games). Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Gem World[12][30] - The default high score table names are "Peter", "Sleet", "Alex", and "Leo"; "Sleet" is known to have been credited in some 8-bit Nice Code games as an art designer and appears as a playable character in the 16-bit Nice Code game Battle of Freekick.
- Jig Chick[30] - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6] This game is connected to their VT03 game of the same name as its title screen features elements related to it.
- Ocean Fantasy[12] - Only confirmed to have been included on the OEM MX-10 release of the vertical Classic Max Pocket 12 in 1. The default high score table names are "Jason", "Amy", "Chrise" [sic], "Wayne", and "Who".
- Ocean Quest[12] - Only confirmed to have been included on the OEM MX-10 release of the vertical Classic Max Pocket 12 in 1. The default high score table names are "Cleric", "Amy", "Chrise" [sic], "Wayne", and "Who"; "Cleric" is a name known to have been credited in some 8-bit Nice Code games as a programmer. The "STAGE" font looks identical to one used in the 16-bit Nice Code games Crazy Kart and Flying Dream.
- Pocket Crisis[30] - Title screen features a character shown on the homepage of Nice Code's website in 2011 (blue character holding up a sack).
- Space Craft[12][30] - Clone of Galaga 3/Gaplus. The default high score table name list is identical to the ones in Dingle Hunt ("Angell" [sic], "Lucia", "Jony" [sic], and "Wayne").[8] A sound effect in the game that plays when enemies fly into the screen is identical to one from Nice Code's 16-bit game Crazy Kart.[9] A game using the Space Craft name and a similar gameplay concept would later be developed for a set of multigame handhelds (notably distributed in Japan under the Game U, PSV108, and Color Game Award names) that use a newer derivative of 16-bit Sunplus SPG hardware; this particular game is believed to have been developed by Nice Code themselves.
- Tennis - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- Zodiac Dreamers[12][30] - A zodiac-themed Arkanoid clone. The default high score table names are "Sting", "Ann", "Alex", "Wayne", and "Leo"; "Sting" in particular is a name known to have been credited in some 8-bit Nice Code games. The "STAGE" font is near identical to one used in some of Nice Code's VT03 games, such as Commando and Curly Monkey 2.[10][4]
- Drums (打鼓) - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
- One stroke painting (一笔画) - Listed on Nice Code's website in 2011.[6]
Unconfirmed[]
The following games are known to be included on JungleTac's vertical Classic Max Pocket handhelds and show strong signs of likely being developed by Nice Code, but are otherwise not confirmed to have been developed by them.
- Egypt Legend[12][30] - Shares music and sound effects with Ocean Fantasy.
- Stack Master[12][30] - Uses the same music, sound effects, and "STAGE" font used in Ocean Quest.[11]
16-bit games[]
- Main article: /Index of 16-bit games
At some point in the 2000s, Nice Code would start developing games for proper 16-bit hardware (as opposed to VT03 and VT168 hardware, which only have 16-bit graphics). Many of these games were developed for the 16-bit Sunplus SPG series of system-on-a-chip.
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive[]
At least one Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) game is likely to have been developed by Nice Code. The game in question is Fish Story, a port of Nice Code's 8-bit game of the same name designed for Firecore Genesis-on-a-chip clones. This game is notable for being included on some AtGames Genesis systems, with its first recorded appearance being on the Sega Genesis Arcade Motion Dual plug and play system released in 2010. Later Genesis systems from AtGames would remove this game, possibly for licensing reasons.
WiWi 65 promotional image, which includes a picture of the title screen for its version of Fish Story.
The strongest evidence linking this game to Nice Code is the existence of a game with the same name on the 32-bit WiWi 65 plug and play console from Qi Sheng Long, which also contains games that are confirmed Nice Code titles or are otherwise strongly connected to them. A promotional image for the console from Qi Sheng Long (shown on the right) includes a thumbnail for the title screen of this game, which strongly resembles the title screen from the Genesis game. A page on Nice Code's website also had a Sega Genesis game listed that looked very similar to the Genesis version of Fish Story.[12] This page was not archived before Nice Code's website shut down, so it is not entirely clear how similar Fish Story is to the game listed on the page. It is unknown if any other Genesis titles were produced.
Shenzhen Niutai ports[]
Several games clearly based on Nice Code NES/VT releases were produced by Shenzhen Niutai Technology on Sunplus SPG hardware; it is unclear if these ports were actually licensed by Nice Code or not. These include:
- Base Defense (based on Five Days)
- Battleship (based on Seaport Guarl)
- Deformable Car (based on Deformable, a variant of Lightning)
- Earth Defence (based on Earth Fighter, a VT03 conversion of a licensed Famiclone plug & play port of the Intellivision game Astrosmash)
- Farmer/Rampart Guard (based on The Farmer)
- Final Blood (based on Final Blood, a generic variant of a licensed Famiclone plug & play port of the Atari game Battlezone)
- Fish Journey (based on Fish Joumey, a variant of Fly on Cloud)
- Hit Mouse (based on Rural Goblin)
- Lightning (based on Extreme Rally)
- Santa Claus (based on Mad Xmas)
- Shark Story (based on the Intellivision game Shark! Shark!, which Nice Code developed a licensed Famiclone plug & play port of and would later use as the basis for various generic versions)
- Super Archer (based on The Archer)
- Trooper (based on Falling)
32-bit games[]
Confirmed[]
Title screen of Crisis of Nuke.
Title screen of Waka Bong, another 32-bit Nice Code game that also includes their logo at the top left.
The following list of games are general 32-bit games confirmed to have been developed by Nice Code. Some of the information on these games was sourced from archived versions of webpages from their website, specifically from their 2013-14 homepages and 32-bit games page, while others are based on similarities they share in known gameplay screenshots with other games produced by Nice Code. Games that have known official English names will have them in bold and provided first, otherwise the Chinese name will be provided first along with an approximate translation that will be italicized. Pictures were provided for all catalogued games on Nice Code's website before it shut down, but all images for the 32-bit games except for the ones on the home page are now lost.
Nice Code claims to have developed games for the "GPL293" and "GPL16258" 32-bit platforms. It's not entirely clear what "GPL293" is supposed to be, although it may be referring to the Sunplus SPG293, an enhanced version of the SPG290 hardware (used in the Mattel HyperScan) that adds support for high-resolution 16-bit color sprites and sprite scaling and rotation. GPL16258, however, is a system-on-a-chip in the Generalplus GPL162xx family, an evolution of the Sunplus SPG series that uses upgraded hardware and an updated version of the µ’nSP architecture, µ’nSP 2.0. If these games were released, then they appear to be very uncommon even compared to other 32-bit plug and play games made by bootleg companies. The only known record of any of these games being included on a console is Qi Sheng Long's WiWi 65 console (original product page here), which is only known to have been sold in Crimea in early 2013.[13]
At some point in time, Nice Code's website featured multiple 32-bit games whose associated images had visible co-credits to "Octopus Studio".[14] As the page that featured these games was not archived before Nice Code's website shut down, and the pages featuring their games that are archived either do not have images matching the described "Octopus Studio" ones or have broken image links, it is unknown what these games were. It is also unclear if "Octopus Studio" was an alias of Nice Code or connected to them in any way.
- 3 Point Shootout - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Shares a name with a 16-bit game of the same name, which is included on the Wiii3 205 in 1's 7 in 1 cartridge.
- Ace Goalkeeper - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Altar Puzzle - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Baseball - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Battle of Freekick - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Shares a name with a 16-bit game of the same name, which is included on the Wiii3 205 in 1's 7 in 1 cartridge.
- Block Numbers - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Blocks - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Bounce Balls - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Bowling - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Brick Seascape - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Cadence - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Checkers - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Color Memory - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Cooking Master - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Crazy Dart - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Crazy Penguin - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Crisis of Nuke (核子危机) - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Cube Lines - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Curling - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Dingle Hunt - Shares a name with Nice Code's VT168 game. Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Dream - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fantasy Tour - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fill Color - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Find Out - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fish Story - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Shares a name with the 8-bit and Sega Genesis games of the same name, and features a title screen that bears a significant resemblance to the one in the aforementioned Sega Genesis game.
- Fishes - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fixer Killer - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fling Ball - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. The game's title screen from the WiWi 65 game list image looks near identical to the title screen of a game with the same name on the "Play Portable Color" Game U 108 in 1, which contains 16-bit games developed by Nice Code.
- Flying Sheep - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Likely a port of the 16-bit game Flying Dream (or a derivative thereof), as its title screen is based off of the one in Flying Dream.
- Free Kick - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Fruit Puzzle - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Funny Fishing - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. A port of this game would also be developed for 16-bit hardware used in a series of proprietary handhelds (sold in Japan under the Game U, PSV108, and Color Game Award names).
- Guess Direction - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Hami Adventure - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. The animals on the title screen of the game (shown on the WiWi 65's packaging) look identical to one in a game screenshot on Nice Code's 2013 website and to a playable character in Nice Code's 16-bit handheld game Magic Tour. A 32-bit game listed on Nice Code's 2013 website is named "哈密熊", which loosely translates into English as "Hami Bear". This game is likely related to Hami Adventure.
- Hot Tennis - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Hula Hoop (呼啦圈) - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Indentation - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Kongming Chess - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Let's Golf - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Magic Eidolon - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Mobile Blocks - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Shares a name and title screen with a game on certain 16-bit handhelds with games developed by Nice Code.
- Most or Least - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Non Stop - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Title screen depicts characters from Patapon.
- Number Orders - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Pala Pala - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Partner Line - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Picture Puzzle - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. A game with the same name appears on certain 16-bit handhelds with games developed by Nice Code.
- Pop Cricket - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. Shares a name with a 16-bit game of the same name, which is included on the Wiii3 205 in 1's 7 in 1 cartridge.
- Pounce - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Reverse Sandwich - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Reversi - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Right Direction - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Rope Skipping - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Rotary Puzzle - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- The Shadow - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Smart Chick - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Smile Collector (微笑收集者) - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Starship Troopers - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Step Step - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Sum - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Table Tennis - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Tetris - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Totem Puzzle - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Toys War - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console.
- Waka Bong (哇塔蹦)
- X'mas Present - Included on the Qi Sheng Long WiWi 65 console. The title screen of the game from the WiWi 65 game list image looks near identical to a screenshot of the title screen of a 16-bit game on the Color Game Award 50 handheld with the same name.
- "Curly Monkey" - A pre-rendered 3D game starring Curly Monkey from the aptly named VT03 games. This game was listed (in Chinese) along with a screenshot supposedly from the game on a 32-bit game list from Nice Code's pre-2013 website, which is now lost. On this list, Nice Code claimed to develop their 32-bit games for the Sunplus SPG293 platform.
- 保龄球 - Bowling. Whether this is the same as the Bowling game included on the WiWi 65 is unclear.
- 足球射靶 - Soccer Target
- 高尔夫 - Golf
- 打章鱼 - Hunting Octopus
- 缉毒神探 - Narcotics Detective
- 抢滩登陆 - Landing on the beach
- 宝石方阵 - Gem Square
- 跳酷 - Jump Cool(?)
- 太极 - Tai Chi
- 瑜伽 - Yoga
Unconfirmed[]
- Virus Attack - Dr. Mario clone with somewhat-original graphics that is included on the 32-bit Zone 3D console (which uses Sunplus SPG293 hardware and otherwise mostly comes included with JungleTac games). The generic character's artwork on the title screen is repurposed from a Dr. Mario 64 Mario render, while the menu artwork is based on the Dr. Mario Famicom cartridge label. The "COMPLETE!". "PAUSE", and "GAME OVER" font look similar to fonts used in some of Nice Code's 8-bit games, notably a generic variant of their licensed plug & play port of the Intellivision game Vectron.
Lightgun games[]
A set of 32-bit lightgun games were released on a handful of systems. They seemingly originated from the "Hamy Top Hunter" console, which was later distributed in the US by Kids Station Toys as the Wireless Hunting Video Game System. It can be assumed that Nice Code produced these titles, as references to their logo appear in some of the games (namely Balloon Shoot).
- Angry Pirate - Also named Angry Power on promotional images for a Qi Sheng Long lightgun system[15]
- Avatair (stylized as AvatAIR) - Also named Avatar (stylized AvatAR) on promotional images for a Qi Sheng Long lightgun system[15]
- Balloon Shoot
- Be Careful
- Delta Force
- Dream Forest
- Duck Hunt - Uses a rendition of a song that was previously used as the title screen music for Nice Code's 16-bit game Flush Ball.[16]
- Freedom Force
- Ghost Shooter
- Happy Darts
- Net Power
- Open Training
- Penguin War
- Predator
- Secret Mission
- Super Archer
- Toy Land
- Trophy Season
- UFO Shooting
- Ultimate Frisbee
Trivia[]
- The majority of Nice Code's VT02 games originally had copyright bylines on the title screens; however, many releases (both official and unofficial) remove all copyright notices. The most common name used in these credits is "Power Joy Ltd". Power Joy was a brand name of the UK-based company Master Chemicals Ltd., who would release consoles produced by Trump Grand under said brand name in the early 2000s.[17] Other common names include Nature Color Game, "TWLS" (exclusively on Intellivision hacked variants), or just "Copyright 200[x]" without a company listed; the Nice Code name is rarely, if ever, used.
- Several Nice Code games (such as Burrow Explorer and Maze Maid) claim to be "Licensed by Gameventer" in their copyright information. It is unclear who Gameventer is, though it may be an alias of Inventor.
- A handful of early games are credited to "Dongxin Soft" or "Dongxin Techno", a literal Chinese-to-English romanization of the company name.
- On many of Nice Code's 8-bit titles, entering the code Up, Down, Up, Left, Right, Left, B on the title screen will show a hidden credits screen. There is a giant "PJ" at the top, which likely stands for Power Joy, and a Nature Color Game credit; along with the producer (typically listed as Robin Song), director, programmer, and art designer of the respective game.
- This can also be used as a method to determine counterfeit/hacked Nice Code games, as these screens will often be messed up or removed entirely if it is not the original version of the title.
- While some of Nice Code's games use their own sound engines, a few of them take sound engines from other video games by different companies, Micro Genius's Chinese Chess being the most common example. Some of the songs using Nice Code's own are 8-bit renditions of various other songs, either from a nursery rhyme, video game or an anime.
- Nice Code games published by Waixing and Qi Sheng Long usually have different titles, music and graphics to the versions released by Nice Code themselves. This was seemingly done so that Waixing and Qi Sheng Long could register the copyrights separately from Nice Code. On more modern systems (from the mid-2010s onward), all three companies' games are often mixed together; possibly indicating the rights are now less enforced (the Nature Clan games being a possible exception, as they are often stripped of the Nature Clan name outside of dreamGEAR systems).
- A few games included in the generic Nice Code game catalogue - such as Candy Workshop, Ice Ocean, and Little Witch - are close clones of Atari 2600 games produced by Activision and/or Imagic. Going by the licensed Atari and Intellivision ports produced by Nice Code, this may indicate that a plug & play with Activision/Imagic Famiclone ports was planned at some point; however, it does not appear that such a system was ever released.
- An obscure "Activision" plug & play was released by Techno Source in 2005; however, this console reportedly uses actual 2600 emulation rather than NES-based hardware.
Appears after finishing a level, Happy Match.
- Techno Source also released a licensed "Elmo's World" plug & play, featuring software developed by V-Tac. Despite the Elmo's World system not being Nice Code-developed, multiple of Nice Code's generic titles seem to effectively be more advanced versions of the Elmo's World games. River Jump and Goal Keeper are the most obvious as their original versions quite literally still feature Elmo, though this also includes games such as Meccano and Aquarium.
- At least two further Nice Code games - Cookies Labyrinth and Happy Match - seem to curiously share some design formats only seen in the aforementioned titles (similar fonts/HUD, a "rainbow" title screen effect, etc.); potentially suggesting they were further (scrapped) game concepts for the Elmo's World system. Happy Match in particular features a character graphic that appears to be traced over Elmo's body.
- There are two Nice Code titles that originally featured multiple game variants in their coding, with altered graphics and gameplay rules. These include Fly on Cloud, which features Hot Speed, and Space War, which features Defensive. Additionally, Five Days and Falling are connected to each other; which are otherwise distinct titles in gameplay mechanics. Due to these games' code, multicarts could theoretically run two games off of one file; however, very few multicart menus actually did this, instead just using two separate files (presumably as it wouldn't save much ROM space anyway).
- Despite Fly on Cloud and Hot Speed having dozens of further hacked variants, very few of the hacked releases feature a second game code (at least by intention). Generally, the second game is still present, but is unhacked and zeroed-out.
- Curiously, Five Days and Falling feature a third coded game in their shared data, with a title screen reading Final. However, the game does not run when loaded via hacking, suggesting it may have been left unfinished.
- Several Atari Flashback titles have "prototype" versions, which were leaked on the AtariAge forums in the mid-2000s; minor differences can be observed within them compared to the final releases (e.g. missing sound effects).
- A variant of the "Turbo Charger Super Game Box" (ID XA-118), a Famiclone plug & play manufactured by Sinango, shows a Nature Color Game splash screen upon bootup. The console features 18 built-in games, all of which are Nature Color Game or "Copyright 2004"-credited versions of Nice Code titles. The Turbo Charger also comes with a Funtime 76000-in-1 cartridge with pirated Famicom/NES games.[18][19]
- An alternate version of the console titled the "Play Vision" features a 49-in-1 list of Nice Code titles.[20] Most of the game variants on the Play Vision console are otherwise uncommon, and are only known to appear on one additional Nice Code-affiliated console (the "Fun Station" 50-in-1). However, the games from the "Play Vision"/"Fun Station" set were later re-copyrighted and redistributed by Waixing, through unknown means.
- The majority of Nice Code's 8-bit games do not have a defined ending or congratulatory screen; often abruptly cutting to the title screen after a set amount of levels are completed. In some cases, Nice Code's 8-bit games are effectively infinite, though will ultimately crash or softlock after a high level count is reached (e.g. level 100).
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Nice Code's website (archived)
- ↑ Correspondence with former Dragon Co. employee Tommy Xie, conducted by BGC Forum users taizou and Barver
- ↑ Qichacha profile for 西安东信软件有限责任公司
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Classic Max Pocket 30 in 1" thread on BGC Forums
- ↑ JungleTac's website (archived)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 VT168 game list on Nice Code's website (archived)
- ↑ https://youtu.be/gWV8gNFdzJQ?t=270
- ↑ https://youtu.be/gWV8gNFdzJQ?t=215
- ↑ https://youtu.be/utHNiP-x4Z4?t=60
- ↑ https://youtu.be/4AW-zb0jXCQ?t=196
- ↑ https://youtu.be/4AW-zb0jXCQ?t=340
- ↑ http://bootleg.games/BGC_Forum/index.php?topic=307.0
- ↑ http://bootleg.games/BGC_Forum/index.php?topic=1298.0
- ↑ Correspondence with taizou on the BGC Discord
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Qi Sheng Long catalog with a lightgun system featuring 32-bit Nice Code games
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGSkuDM4lPE
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20021208174805fw_/http://www.power-joy.com/help.htm
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWbnQfafgb0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_labunEWank
- ↑ https://imgur.com/a/play-vision-chinese-console-UufU8Vz