Play Vision Portable

Play Vision Portable, commonly abbreviated as the PVP or PVP Station, is the name of a series of handheld consoles that resemble Sony's PlayStation Portable system. The series is a part of a line-up of systems by Jncota and Nanjing which imitate popular handheld systems. Other systems in this line include the GB Station Light and the NBS Light. Many models exist, which are based on either Famiclone or Mega Drive/Genesis hardware depending on the unit. It is possibly based on the Europe-exclusive PSP-E1000 revision.

Many (though possibly not all) of the handheld's models were produced by Touch Game Player, and were often tailored for other clients and distributors. As such, numerous alternate revisions of the PVP console exist, including releases under slightly altered names (e.g. "PXP" or "PVE") and varying game lists. Some later models attempt to imitate the (at the time) more relevant PS Vita instead of the PSP.^[1]

Background[]

The first revision of the PVP was released around 2011. Most PVP consoles are Famicom/NES or Sega Mega Drive/Genesis clones with built-in games, some of which are accessed through bundled, proprietary cartridges (which are designed to resemble Game Boy Advance games). Each system has a rechargeable battery and, depending on the unit, uses either a (third-party) Game Boy Advance SP charger or a Mini USB charger. Some uncommon revisions feature the ability to use a wired controller through the charger port; it is unknown if this is mapped to the controls of player 1 or player 2.

As in older multicarts, the console menus will duplicate the included games thousands of times, generally to a four-to-six-digit number (e.g. 999999-in-1). The game selection menus will often feature preview images for each game, likely modeled after the AtGames Sega consoles, although earlier units do not have this feature. In some later variants, the menu is split into six categories, generally labeled Adventure, Fighting, Sports, Shoting [sic], Racing and Puzzle. The categorization of games is often poor (e.g. labeling Altered Beast as a racing game), and will feature an abundance of unsorted games in the Puzzle section. The menu layouts of PVP systems would carry over into many other Famiclones, including consoles that were released after the PVP line was largely phased out.

In most (if not all) cases, PVP cartridges do not actually contain ROM chips; they merely trigger a switch to load a second built-in menu for their original console (similar to the fake "discs" of the N-Joypad).^[2] As such, when a PVP cartridge from one console revision is placed in another console variant, they will not run the intended menu. However, some PVP models intentionally do not include a cartridge they are capable of running; seemingly so that multiple SKUs of the same hardware can be released with different game lists. In such cases, if a cartridge containing the necessary pins is put inside, another game list can potentially run.

Variants[]

Many different models of the PVP exist, and they are somewhat hard to distinguish from each other. Even systems that share the same name and box art can have a different game list, or potentially be based on an entirely different console platform. Quality can also vary between models, with several featuring problems such as incorrect screen sizes (leading to the graphics looking squashed or stretched) and charger malfunctions (which reportedly worsen over time).

The first revisions of the PVP hardware were released around 2011, and are based on Famicom/NES hardware. The majority of earlier, NES-based units use VT02 hardware, though some early models are possibly derived from the hardware of the OneStation handheld by JungleTac. Some console variations, often released under the names PVP Crash 9 and PVP Station Light, are based on VT32 hardware (though the majority of included games are still standard Famicom/NES titles). A variant known as the PVP Game uses a differently-shaped plastic shell without a cartridge slot, and features a truthful game list of 168 games (whereas all other models feature exaggerated menu listings).

A number of later models - most commonly under the names PVP 2, PVP 3, and PXP3 - are based on Mega Drive/Sega Genesis clone hardware. These models are generally based on Firecore architecture, a cheap and somewhat poor clone hardware popularized by AtGames. Some alternate models use Radica-based Mega Drive clone hardware (featuring menu systems designed by zhengyaxin_8bit), which is arguably more accurate than the Firecore architecture. There is also at least one known PVP-adjacent system which uses Sega Master System clone hardware and resembles the AtGames Gear.^[3]

Several Southeast Asian versions of the PVP have popular characters from various children's franchises printed onto the plastic of the console, or as part of a sticker (which may or may not be pre-applied). This includes characters from video games (e.g. Mario and Pikachu), cartoons and anime (e.g. Goku and Boboiboy), and animated films (e.g. Minions). The Indonesian company VCOM often produces Upin & Ipin-branded versions of the system, with the company claiming to have a "license" for the series. A very few South American versions of the PVP or related systems, also have stock art printed onto them ^[4].

Slightlylessdumb — "Super Mario Bros. & Felix the Cat" intro, seen on a few early PVP models.

NES-based systems will often feature animated intro sequences, often based on media unrelated to the unit in question. These include infamous internet songs such as Gangnam Style, What Does the Fox Say, and Pen Pineapple Apple Pen; other systems have featured intros based on Angry Birds, and one combining both Super Mario Bros. and Felix the Cat. Genesis-based units do not feature these, presumably to save space; though some versions feature a single splash screen image.

Distribution in Indonesia[]

For unclear reasons, a large amount of Play Vision Portable systems were released exclusively for the Indonesian market, becoming a very popular "series" of handhelds in the region. These consoles were published by companies such as PD Wish Game (also known as "Jernih"), PT. LRJ (under the brand name "P2P"), and Evercoss (nominally a mobile phone manufacturer formerly known as Cross Mobile), among others; as well as VCOM, who commonly released their systems as tie-ins to the Upin & Ipin TV series. These consoles still seem to have ties to Touch Game Player, with some models (namely the PE-A) being highlighted on their now-defunct website.

Indonesian PVP systems contain a number of differences compared to standard models. A number of the Indonesian-sold systems boast inaccurate bit-counts on their boxes, generally 64-bit for NES-based systems and 128-bit for Mega-Drive based ones. Furthermore, it appears that the consoles could be purchased without boxes by wholesalers for unknown reasons.^[5] A number of these consoles, especially from Evercoss and VCOM, use the aforementioned decorative designs with an assortment of characters printed onto the consoles' plastic. Several additional console types were released by PD Wish Game that were not distributed in other regions, including two PVP Go systems that mimick the design of the PSP Go.^[5] Separately-sold accessories and peripherals were produced for the PVP systems in Indonesia, including wired joystick controllers.

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis-based consoles in Indonesia tend to use the Radica-like clone hardware over Firecore (though both hardware types are still utilized). Some of the Famicom/NES-based systems use an unknown hardware type; the menus resemble VT02 hardware, but feature a digitized splash screen reading "PVP Wish Game" (often displaying the console's false "bit count"). Unlike other regional releases, some consoles also feature Game Boy Advance games; it is unknown if this is via cloned hardware or emulation. Some models are fully emulation-based, using an "MP5 player"-like menu system, and support file loading via microSD.

Three known educational devices were released under the "PVP Wish Game" label in Indonesia. Two of these consoles (IDs DW-889 and DW-999) retain a PSP-like form factor, while the third console (ID PE-A) features a completely different design; it is flat and resembles a school bus, and features a keyboard. These systems feature a series of VT32-based educational software, which may have been developed by Nice Code Software.

List of included games[]

Due to the many PVP models, not every title can be documented; the following list(s) detail some of the more notable and/or interesting titles.

Famicom/NES-based systems[]

Custom hacks[]

Main article: List of Touch Game Player-affiliated NES hacks

The following hacks appear to originate from the PVP line, to some extent. The titles also appear on other consoles seemingly produced by Touch Game Player (e.g. the GB Station Light II); though it is unknown if the company was the developer of the hacks.

Hacks that are verified to appear on PVP-based systems include:

Crash Title screen — Title screen to *Crash*, a hack of *The Jungle Book*.

Khresna (2010) - Donald Land hack
Crash (2011) - The Jungle Book hack
Crash 2 (2011) - Monsters in my Pocket hack
Crash IV: The Dream Master (2011) - Little Nemo: The Dream Master hack
Bernat: The Dream Master (2011) - Little Nemo: The Dream Master hack
Shaun The Sheep (2012) - Little Nemo: The Dream Master hack
Anger Bird 2 (2012-2013) - Flipull hack
Angry Cow (201?) - Hack of Moai-Kun, built off of the preexisting Angry Birds hack
Angry Cow 2 (201?) - Hack of Flipull, built off of Anger Bird 2
Pokoyo Pokoyo (201?) - Bubble Bobble Part 2 hack
Ra.One (201?) - Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain minor hack

The following hacks are likely to have been designed for "PVP" consoles originally, but are not 100% verified to have appeared on any PVP models:

Crash III (2011) - Mitsume ga Tooru hack; appears on the GB Station Light II
Gangnam Style (2012) - Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain minor hack
Weslie 'n Betty Rescue Rangers (201?) - Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers hack

Other hacks[]

Similar hacks which originate from other sources, though are common to find on PVP releases.

Angry Birds (Moai-kun hack) - some consoles alter the title screen to read "Anger Bird"
Angry Birds (The NewZealand Story hack) - often labeled as "Angry Birds 2" or "Angry Birds 4"; some consoles alter the title screen to read "Anger Birds"
Crash Bandicoot - hack of Super Mario Bros.; unknown if it originates from the same developer as the other Crash hacks
Dance Gangnam Style - a hack of Inventor's Street Dance with Gangnam Style as the only music track. It was likely created by Nice Code Software directly, but it has only ever appeared on PVP systems.
Lively Boy - A hack of Super Arabian with altered graphics. Appears to be an Inventor hack, but has not been seen in other plug & plays.
UFO Tennis - A hack of Tennis with altered graphics. Appears to be an Inventor hack, but has not been seen in other plug & plays.
Bounce - An Inventor ROM hack of Mappy, with some graphical and music changes. Unlike the prior two titles, this hack is common in other plug & play consoles.

Other games[]

Super Mario Bros. trilogy (in many cases, the original Super Mario Bros. is the PAL version forced into NTSC, making the game run faster than it should. Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 are less common, likely due to them utilizing PRG-RAM)
Donkey Kong trilogy
"Numbered" Mario pirate hacks (6, 9, 10, 14 and 16)
Felix the Cat (uncommon on later units, likely due to the game utilizing PRG-RAM)
Adventure Island 1 and 2
Angry Birds (usually listed as "Angry Bird 3" to go in line with the aforementioned Angry Birds hacks numerically)
Super Angry Birds (seems to sometimes be hacked into an "Angry Birds Space" graphics style; further details about this version are unknown)
Plants vs. Zombies
Contra
Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six (cut-down "mapper hack" version with removed graphics)
Super Contra (often leads to a weapon select menu)
Contra Force (sometimes uses the Super Contra 6 hack)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (JP version)
Sonic the Hedgehog ("Sonic 3D Blast 5" variant starting in Spring Yard Zone)
Tecmo World Cup (most versions are based off a title hack known as FIFA 2000)
The King of Fighters '97 (Rex Soft)
Street Fighter VI: 12 Peoples
Tom & Jerry 3
Tetris (Tengen)
Pikachu ("Poké Tetris")
Choujinrou Senki Warwolf (featured on early units under the name "Crash"; seemingly used as a psuedo-Crash Bandicoot game before the hacks were created. On some versions, the copyrights simply say "A A A".)
Upin & Ipin hacks (somewhat uncommon on standard models; they appear more often on VCOM's releases. Upin & Ipin 3 is known to appear on early, non-VCOM-affiliated PVP systems.)
Many other titles which are of either 24KB or 40KB in size; this also includes games from Nice Code Software and Inventor.

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis-based systems[]

Sonic The Hedgehog trilogy and Sonic & Knuckles (typically limited to one game per system, which is most commonly Sonic 1)
- For unknown reasons, PD Wish Game consoles often use the "Simon Wai" beta of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 instead of the final version.
- Some consoles mistakenly (?) use Sonic ROMs that merely load a Sonic & Knuckles "Blue Spheres" minigame, starting on the "NO WAY!" error screen.
- Some early PVP 2 systems erroneously feature a ROM of Sonic the Hedgehog that starts in Scrap Brain Zone Act 2; rendering much of the game unplayable unless the player uses the level select cheat and chooses the bonus round. This may be connected to duplicate menu listings that are present in some AtGames plug & plays.
Sonic Spinball
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic Eraser (originally available through Sega's Meganet services for Mega Modem owners in Japan; ROM based on Sega B-Club release whose ROM was extracted by Sonic CulT)
Super Mario Bros./Super Mario World (Squirrel King hack)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (sometimes uses the Sonic Jam 6 variant)
Angry Birds (minor variant with an Angry Birds Seasons-based splash screen)
Bubbles Master (Shenzhen Niutai; typically listed as "Zuma Bubbles", possibly ported over from the AtGames plug & plays)
Tekken Special (specifically the Tekken Special 3 title hack)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Global Gladiators hack)
Crash Bandicoot (Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel title hack)
Joshua & The Battle of Jericho (Wisdom Tree)
Bible Adventures (Wisdom Tree)
Pac-Mania
Streets of Rage trilogy (most commonly Streets of Rage 3)
Double Dragon series (usually 2, 3 and/or V)
Earthworm Jim 2
Contra: Hard Corps
Super Street Fighter II (more common in later-released models)
Shinobi 3
Columns 3
Alex Kidd in The Enchanted Castle
Tetris (prototype)
Sunset Riders

Subpages[]

List of models

An incomplete list of Play Vision Portable console variants.

Gallery[]

Consoles (standard)[]

Consoles (PD Wish Game)[]

Menus[]

Trivia[]

On a number of PVP models, the back of the box features a text blurb poorly modified from the the Game Boy Advance SP box. This includes the phrase "Play all the Game Boy Color and Game Boy games you already own!", with "Game Boy" substituted with "PVP" or a similar name (despite that individually-sold cartridges never existed), and altering the multiplayer Game Link cable description to refer to AV cables. This is also present on some GB Station Light releases.
The menu systems for Radica-based models were designed by zhengyaxin_8bit. This menu interface was originally designed for the "PXP" line, with a zhengyaxin_8bit credit and a 10-in-1 "sample" list being present in the ROM data of consoles using these menu systems.
- Systems using this menu layout use the demo track "Crystalin" by Jobro,^[6] with attribution included in the code.
A screenshot of the Sega Genesis version of Ms. Pac-Man appears on the back of the box of most "PVP 2"-branded units, but the game itself is not included on any console revisions (though it would later appear on some "PXP3" models).
Oddly, a majority of Mega Drive-based units feature Wisdom Tree games, such as Joshua & The Battle of Jericho and Bible Adventures. They are likely only included due to their small file size compared to other games.
Assets from the "Game Zone Classic Arcade" (a rebranded PVP system) appear used and unused in MSI Entertainment plug and play systems.^[7]^[8]

References[]

[1] ttps://x.com/401_db/status/1885312075863363880

[2] ttps://team-europe.blogspot.com/2014/11/pxp2-8bit-slim-station.html

[3] ttps://unauthorizon.org/product/recz3IW9itT3XHAye

[4] ttps://unauthorizon.org/product/recIzfJQ5O6RTF7Od

[pvpgo-5] 5.0 ^5.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C2cfJSqEWA

[6] ttps://zxart.ee/eng/authors/j/jobro/crystalin/

[7] ttps://youtu.be/W7nP06p8xkQ

[8] ttps://tcrf.net/MSI_Entertainment_Plug_%26_Plays

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