Nice Code Software/8-bit plug & play console games (B)

This is a list of 8-bit (NES/Famicom and enhanced VT) games made, assumed to be made, or otherwise distributed by Nice Code Software, organized by original game names that start with the letter B.

Index • Intellivision & Atari ports • Nature Clan games • Casino and casual games • Olympic games • Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin level clones • 8-bit educational programs • VT32 educational programs • NES/Famicom hacks • Famicom cartridge games
Plug and play console games: 0-A • B • C-E • F • G-L • M-O • P • Q-S • T-Z

Balloon Shoot

Shoot balloons using a crosshair before they reach the top of the screen. The game features heavily corrupted music; in actuality, the music is intended to be the same song used in the hacked variants of Matching, but was overwritten by a few bytes, breaking the song.

This game may be a carry-over from an "educational computer" Famiclone, and appears to have possibly used CHR-RAM for graphics originally (as remnants of graphic tiles can be seen in its PRG). The game also features an "Exit" button, which may further indicate an educational computer connection.

The name would later be reused for a 32-bit lightgun game with the same gameplay concept developed by Nice Code, which would be included on the Wireless Hunting Video Game System released in the US circa 2011 (the hardware for this system was manufactured by Qi Sheng Long).

Bar Room Shootout

A lightgun game where the player shoots criminals who planned a shootout at a bar. The title logo is written in the Joe & Mac font. Credited to Power Joy Ltd.

Beach Ball

The player plays as a bubble that must absorb puddles of water while avoiding obstacles. As the bubble absorbs water, it begins to grow bigger (somewhat similar to Shark! Shark!); after reaching its maximum size, the bubble must collect three-to-four stationary objects to advance to the next level. All known versions feature no copyright notation. This game's music would later be reused in Nice Code's bootleg ports of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies.

Star

Changes the bubble to a star outline that collects smaller stars; most of the obstacles are unaltered.

UFO (VT03)

A VT03 conversion; changes the player to a red UFO that collects flashing orbs.

Water Ball

Basic title screen variant of Beach Ball.

Bird Eggs (VT32)

The player controls a bird from a top-down view, and must collect eggs while avoiding bald eagles. It is VT32(?) only.

Blocks World

Originally produced for (and credited to) Power Joy Ltd. A game similar to Daedalian Opus or the Gamtec game Wisdom Boy. The player must put the matching Tetris-like pieces in the correct slots.

Aether Puzzle (Qi Sheng Long)

Changes the playing piece designs and adds an animated starfield behind the piece cutouts.

Bubbles Puzzle (Qi Sheng Long)

Changes the pieces into bubble shapes. This game originally featured a two-player mode, but it is zeroed out on some one-player only plug & plays. While this is common for Nice Code titles in general, it is one of only eight Qi Sheng Long VT02 variants to have this distinction.

Puzzle Blocks (VT03)

A VT03 conversion; the graphics are completely redrawn in comparison to other versions.

Bomberman

An original Bomberman game, somewhat based on Bomberman '93. As in the original games, the player must bomb all enemies on the playfield before escaping through a door. There are three playable characters (two of which are seemingly original), boss battles (against what appears to be a banana), and a map screen shown in between levels. The game's music is a rendition of "Jammin' Jungle" from Bomberman '94. The game appears to have originally featured a "200[x] Copy Right" legal notice (either 2000 or 2002), though the currently dumped revision removed this notice.

This game is uncommon, and is only known to appear on the "Retro Station NX-85" (1280-in-1) console; where it is incorrectly listed as Bomberman II (an official Famicom/NES release), with its menu preview image also taken from that game.

Bomberman 2002

Named 2002 Bomber Man on the title screen. A simplified version of Nice Code's Bomberman game. In this game, the only playable character is the blue Bomberman from the original game, and the world map from the original game is removed, so as soon as the game starts, it immediately goes to the first stage. Most of the graphics are unique to this game. The first stage is set in a snowy Christmas-themed area.

Bomber Man 2002 credits Nice Code as "Dongxin Soft", similar to some of the Alienis hacks. The game may have been intended to release as a "pair" with the Tank 2002 version.

This specific game would have multiple variants produced with different names and graphics. This game along with its variants are more common to find on 8-bit multi-game systems and multicarts compared to the original Bomberman game.

Dejectil

Changes Bomberman to an army man wearing sunglasses; all further enemies and background graphics are also altered.

Dejectile

Basic title screen and minor color variant of Dejectil (changing the player's clothes from blue to green).

Bomb Time 2004

Extensive graphical hack of the original game. All graphics are replaced and the player character is now a man wearing a cap. The graphics for the first level are completely different.

Bomb Time 2004 (Play Vision/Fun Station)

Virtually identical to the above version, but the floor tiles are changed to solid brown (whereas the original version uses brick patterns). This variant originates from the "Play Vision"/"Fun Station" game set; it was later featured in Waixing's set with no further changes.

Bomb Time (Waixing, VT03)

VT03 conversion based on the Bomb Time 2004 variant. The playable character is now wearing green clothes instead of blue clothes. The first level, while still using a border similar to the one in the first level of Bomb Time 2004, uses the Christmas themed graphics from the original Bomberman 2002 for the playfield.

Undersea 2004

The level graphics are changed to take place in the ocean. The playable character is an octopus and the enemies are various aquatic life.

Undersea (Waixing)

Published in Waixing's game set; virtually identical to the above version. Removes the "2004" from the title and adds a copyright notice on the title screen ("2005SR09632" in some revisions, "200518241" in others).

Undersea (Waixing, VT03)

VT03-enhanced version of the 8-bit Undersea 2004; graphics are given added colors/shading. This variant introduces a glitch where an audio channel for the game's music will cut out a few seconds in.

Detonation

Basic title screen variant of the original Bomberman 2002 game.

Parkinof

Graphics are completely replaced, with the playable character now being a dog and the enemies being various types of animals. A revision of this game, likely the original, uses bright colors for the level graphics, which end up making the game hard to see.

Parkinof (alternate revision)

The border in stage 1 is changed and the colors in the first level are tweaked to be less bright. Many of the graphics are redrawn, with the player being larger in size.

Bomb Kid (Shenzhen Niutai, VT03)

A VT03 conversion; changes Bomberman to a spherical character with a green nose. The enemies are heavily scaled-down sprites of Pinky and the Anubis enemy from Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (likely from the GBA version).

Boxworld

Clone of the 1992 Windows 3.1 shareware game of the same name, which in itself is a direct clone of Sokoban. The graphics are closely modeled after the Windows game. Features a "Copy Right 2002" legal notice.

At least two other versions of this game retaining the Boxworld name are known to exist, but the version described earlier is likely the original version of this game; due to it using the Windows game's graphics, as well as it having unused (?) large tile graphics for an animation of what is presumably the player character from this version. The latter graphics are either unaltered or blanked out in most other variants.

Some variants of the game (mainly the "bear" version and certain revisions of Snowball) are reduced in file size from 40k to 24k. To accommodate for this, numerous levels are either removed or have their patterns simplified (e.g. removing some of the boxes).

Boxworld ("Barrels" variant)

Variant of the original game. The player character from the original version is replaced with a man wearing overalls and a cap, the boxes are replaced with barrels, and the spots the barrels need to be placed in now depict stars. In addition to this, the border for the playfield also uses different graphics. The stage select and "Copyright 2002" notice are left intact on the title screen.

Boxworld (Waixing)

Basic copyright revision of the "Barrels" variant, adding an erroneous "2665SR06885" legal notice (the first four digits are meant to read 2005); the game is otherwise unaltered.

Boxworld ("Bear" variant)

Variant of the original game. The player character is replaced with a bear, who is also now depicted on the title screen in place of the box from the original version. In addition to those changes, the boxes are replaced with circles and the spots to place them on now depict a hand making a peace sign. The border for the playfield is changed to use a brick pattern. The game is reduced in file size; it only features the first 5 levels, and the level select is removed from the title screen.

Snowball (Power Joy)

Variant of the original version of Boxworld. The player now controls a snowman that has to push snowballs into holes (the snowman is also depicted on the title screen). Credited to Power Joy Ltd, though it is also known to appear on Qi Sheng Long consoles.

Hidden in the graphics data of the ROM of this variant is Nice Code's logo - whether this variant was released with a visible credit to Nice Code is currently unclear. The area containing the large graphics of the player character animation from the original Boxworld version are cleared out in the ROM of this variant, suggesting that Boxworld was the basis for this game.

Snowball (Power Joy, alternate revision)

A variant of Snowball that is reduced in file size, similar to the "Bear" version of Boxworld. This version only features the first 5 levels, and the level select is removed from the title screen. The first level layout is also slightly different compared to the original version. The colors for the HUD are also changed, seemingly from copying the color values of the "Bear" version.

Hammal

Based on the full version of Snowball. The snowman sprite is modified to wear a beanie cap and overalls, with slight resemblance to Toad from Super Mario Bros. This variant originates from the "Play Vision"/"Fun Station" game set; it was later featured in Waixing's set with no further changes.

Hammal (Waixing, VT03)

VT03-enhanced version of the 8-bit Hammal; graphics are given added colors/shading.

Ranchboy

Based on the "Barrels" variant of Boxworld. The player character is the same as the one from the aforementioned variant, but the barrels are replaced with cows and the spots to put them in resemble cow pens. A cow is now featured on the title screen.

Snowball (Power Joy, VT03)

VT03 conversion of the full version of Snowball with updated graphics. Uses similar background sprites to the original, with a fully-redrawn player sprite and title screen. The title screen artwork appears to be modeled after Snow Bros. Credited to Power Joy Ltd.

Snowball (Shenzhen Niutai, VT03)

A VT03 conversion; based on the Power Joy VT03 variant, but features a different title screen and slightly modified in-game sprites (e.g. giving the snowman a Santa hat). This version also uses smaller Snow Bros.-derived sprites on its title screen.

Boxes World (Waixing, VT03)

VT03 conversion of the full version of Boxworld featuring a bear as the playable character. Unlike the 8-bit "Bear" variant of Boxworld, the player still pushes boxes and the spots to push them to look similar to the ones from the original version of Boxworld. The title screen is unique to this game, featuring a drawing of a bear leaning next to a box and a "2005SR06885" copyright notice at the bottom of the screen. The HUD in this variant looks near identical to the one in the VT03 Snowball variant, suggesting that this variant was built off of that version or a relative to it that has yet to be documented.

Boxes (Waixing, VT03)

Basic title screen variant of Boxes World. The original "Boxes World" title is still intact in the game's graphics data.

Brian Lara 2003: International Cricket

An unauthorized port of the Mega Drive version of Brian Lara Cricket. This game uses the same Konami sound driver used in games developed by Dragon Co., and the music in particular has a similar composition style to music in Dragon Co.'s games. The earliest known revision of this game is credited to Indian game company Mitashi; this is likely not the initial release of the game (see below). It opens with a splash screen reading "Brian Lara 2003", followed by a menu screen reading "International Cricket", featuring the Mitashi logo and mascot (which is a modified version of Mario from the Super Mario All-Stars promotional artwork).

It is likely that this game is a modified version of an otherwise-undocumented 8-bit cricket game commissioned by Mitashi for the Indian market. The original release was likely titled International Cricket 2000; going by unused "2" and "0" characters in the title screen data, and a reported copy of the cartridge using this name (which was not visually archived).

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. The Managing Director of Mitashi at the time, Rakesh Dugar, would mention that the success following Mitashi'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 named Profine that was based in Xi'an, China, the same area where Dragon Co. and Nice Code operated. 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). Whether Profine and Nice Code are directly related to each other or are the same company is currently unknown, but all currently known details surrounding Mitashi's 8-bit cricket game strongly hint at some form of connection. The Mitashi cricket game is also described as having recorded voice clips - if this is true, then it appears that the "2003" release and its variants completely remove these.

The game features three unused splash screens advertising two Famiclone systems, the Mega Kid and Little Wonder; alongside a screen featuring the somewhat oddly-phrased text "Own a One and Have a Fun".

"Little Wonder" splash screen

"Mega Kid" splash screen

Text splash screen

Cricket World Cup 2003: International Cricket 2003

Title screen.

Titled Cricket World Cup 2003 on its splash screen and International Cricket 2003 on the main menu. This version evidently postdates the known Mitashi release; as the "3" character on the title screen was added in post (using a different tile layout), while reusing the (unused) "2" and "0" characters. This version of the game is known to appear on a 362-in-1 plug and play system, alongside several VT369-based mini arcade systems.

International Cricket

A cut-down version of Cricket World Cup 2003. The "View Team" and "Quit Match" options are removed from the main menu in this version, and the theme that plays up until a match starts has been changed. Any other changes compared to the original version are unknown. Currently, it is only confirmed to have been included on a 362-in-1 plug and play system.

International Cricket (Waixing)

A variant of the above version; it features different music, and changes the building seen on the coin flip screen with different architecture resembling Russian castles. This game is only known to have been released as a ".wxn" file conversion for use on Sunplus SPG293 systems. Its copyright ID is not stated in game, though is likely "2006SR02148" going by Waixing's list of copyright registries.

This version features unused CHR data showing a large Pikachu, alongside two strange animals in wagons with balloons. This may be leftover data from a multicart the game was ripped from.

Unused sprites featuring Pikachu

Trivia

• Nice Code would continue developing cricket games after Cricket World Cup 2003 for other hardware, most notably developing the 16-bit game Pop Cricket for Qi Sheng Long's Wiii3 205 in 1/WiWi Cricket system.

Brother Ball

Originally produced for Power Joy Ltd (though the title screen features no direct credit). The player controls three balls stacked on top of each other, who must jump up to rescue other balls who come out of tunnels at the top of the screen. The player's balls (or a rescued ball) can be captured if they get caught by obstacles that fly across the screen. Occasionally, evil balls appear that disguise themselves as needing to be rescued; if the player "saves" an evil ball, they will lose one of their lives. Evil balls can be identified by them hesitating to leave the tunnel. If the player collects a pink-bottomed ball with eyelashes, they will gain an extra ball (if one had previously been lost).

The game is seemingly intended to be a follow-up to Nature Clan: Escapeway, though it does not use Nature Clan branding.

Team Star (VT03)

A VT03 conversion; the graphics are completely redrawn in comparison. The player's balls are changed to stars; the characters who need to be rescued are still balls, but are different in appearance. The game takes place in front of islands with palm trees. The music is also altered.

Ellipsoid (Qi Sheng Long)

Basic title screen variant of Brother Ball; the originally-animated title screen is replaced with a static one.

Bug Catcher

Originally produced for (and credited to) Power Joy Ltd. A creature must collect worms of the same color as its skin, filling its life meter; collecting wrong-colored worms reduces the meter. After collecting a set amount of worms, the game advances to the nest level. The game takes place in a darkened forest.

Blob Man (Power Joy)

Originally produced for (and credited to) Power Joy Ltd. This variant takes place in a sewer; the playable character is a glass container, and the bugs are changed to colored drops that come out of taps from the top of the screen. In each stage, the container will contain a small amount of a certain colored fluid, which correspond to the colored drops that need to be collected to fill up the container. It is possible that this version actually predates Bug Catcher, but this cannot be determined.

This game was also present in the "Play Vision"/"Fun Station" game set, and as such was later released by Waixing (with an altered copyright notice).

Blob Man (Waixing)

Basic copyright revision adding a "2007SR01479" legal notice; the game is otherwise unaltered. The Power Joy secret credits screen is fully intact in this variant.

Experiment (VT03)

A VT03 conversion; the graphics are completely redrawn in comparison. The player is changed to Nature Clan in a science lab; as he collects droplets, he transforms into different creatures.

Bug's War

A game similar to Battleship, except the game only allows the player to attack a computer and does not have the ability for the player to have their own "ships". The player attacks bugs in a grass field. Features a "Copyright 2004" legal notice.

Undersea Arena (Power Joy)

Changes the theme to have the player attacking sea creatures underwater. Credited to Power Joy Ltd.

Burrow Explorer

Navigate through a dark maze, which is only partially visible from the character's helmet light, while avoiding obstacles. The player sprite in this game is lifted from the NES port of Boulder Dash. Features a "Copyright 2004 - Licensed by Gameventer" legal notice.

Burrow Explorer (Power Joy)

Basic copyright revision adding a "Power Joy Ltd" legal notice; the game is otherwise unaltered

Angler Fish

The player is changed to an anglerfish, with its headlight as the point of illumination. Features a "Copyright 2004" legal notice.

Angler Fish (alternate revision)

Basic title screen revision; adds a large graphic of an anglerfish, with the title written in Comic Sans. The in-game font is also altered.

Burrow (Waixing)

Changes the player to Santa Claus. It is unknown if this is a version fully customized by Waixing, or if it is an obscure preexisting variant.

Burrow (Waixing, VT03)

VT03-enhanced version of the 8-bit version; graphics are given added colors/shading.

Labyrinth

Uses the mouse character from Little Samson ("K.O."). Features a "Copyright 2004" legal notice. This game was also present in the "Play Vision"/"Fun Station" game set, and as such was later released by Waixing (with an altered copyright notice).

Labyrinth (Waixing)

Basic copyright revision adding a "2007SR01492" legal notice; the game is otherwise unaltered.

Labyrinth (Waixing, VT03)

VT03-enhanced version of the 8-bit version; graphics are given added colors/shading.

Busy Bar

Originally produced for Power Joy Ltd (though the title screen features no direct credit). A game where the player serves the bar customers the drink they request; the player must slide the drink across the table with precise timing.

Soda

Basic title screen variant of Busy Bar; the "Soda" title is written in plain text. Likely tied to a bulk-retitling of games for the European market; presumably changed to avoid referencing alcohol.