Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co., Ltd

Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co., Ltd (Chinese: 深圳市纽泰科技发展有限公司) is a Chinese developer of games for various 16 and 32-bit plug & play consoles.

Overview

The Shenzhen Niutai games were produced on various different forms of hardware, most prominently Sunplus SPG and "Firecore" Mega Drive systems. The Sunplus releases appear on several Wii clones (from Qi Sheng Long and other companies), as well as on the German "Millennium Arcade" handheld consoles. The Firecore releases appeared on many of AtGames' Sega Genesis consoles, often referred to as "bonus games" on the packaging.

NES-derived VT03 (?) games were also developed by Niutai; however, they are seemingly very uncommon. Additionally, several VT03 hacks of Nice Code games were produced by Niutai; though they are often mixed in with the original (i.e. unhacked) Nice Code versions and Qi Sheng Long variations. An Italian system known as the "Virtual Joy 112-in-1" is known to feature Niutai's VT-based titles;; they also appear on the U.S.-distributed G Factor cartridges. The "Overmax 151-in-1" plug & play also uses a Niutai game set, but only includes the Nice Code hacks and not any originally-programmed games.

Comparison between a Family Sport game and a Shenzhen Niutai port.

Many of Niutai's games are, strangely, clones of other plug & play titles from companies like JungleTac, Nice Code Software, and Cube Technology. The most bizarre case of this is with clones of Senca's Family Sport series; the games' visuals appear to be poorly recorded off of a television, with visible interference in the graphics. It is unknown if these ports were authorized by the original companies, though the strange nature of them may indicate they were unlicensed (making them somewhat "bootlegs of bootlegs"). Of note, however, is that Niutai's aforementioned VT03 hacks of Nice Code games were seemingly licensed by the company.

DDR clone consoles

Shenzhen Niutai has also developed games of an unknown, high-resolution hardware type. These games are only known to appear on several Dance Dance Resolution clone consoles (such as the "FWFX Dance Mat"); these systems are often very expensive, retailing around $200 USD.

In addition to the built-in DDR clone, there are more standard plug & play games included; many of these are direct (and surprisingly faithful) ports of the Sunplus/Mega Drive Niutai titles. Some consoles also feature a built-in camera, allowing it to play motion-based games similar to the Kinect.

Games

It is difficult to confirm exactly which games are Shenzen Niutai creations. The company often goes uncredited; to the point where many title screens have a copyright notice of "© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED", without listing a company. Ironically, this copyright is the easiest way to identify a Niutai produced or published title.

Due to the particularly unusual nature of Niutai's titles, only the most notable games will be listed.

• Adventure in the Park/Magic Key - clone of JungleTac's One Day of Mr. Potato (or "Mr. Onion"); the graphics are entirely redone. [SPG and MD hardware]
• Bubbles Master/Bubbles - clone of Zuma, with similar graphics to the original game (even saying "ZUMA" on-screen around the frog). [SPG and MD hardware]
• Crashing Party - the player controls a marble and must push off all other marbles from the stage. The marbles feature Sonic's face and levitating hands. [SPG hardware only]
• Cross the Road/Cross Street - clone of Frogger, with original graphics. [SPG and MD hardware]
• Curling 2010/Bump Bump - clone of Penguin-kun Wars, with original graphics. [SPG, MD, and VT hardware]
• Dance Party - a Snake-like game where the player controls a girl, and must group together people on the dance floor to form a line behind her. [SPG hardware only]
• Dancing Challenge - the Dance Dance Resolution clone seen on the DDR consoles. The game steals countless actual songs from well-known artists (not cover versions), with their music videos playing in the background. It is divided into two modes: "MTV Mode" (featuring more general music, and using the MTV logo), and "Cartoon Mode" (which seems to solely feature Hatsune Miku songs). ["DDR" hardware only]
• Delicious Foods - a camera-based game, where the sensor will place giant cartoon lips over the player's actual mouth. The player must move their mouth to eat the happy food, while avoiding eating garlic. ["DDR" hardware only]
• Friends (Always Stick Together) - a direct clone of the Adobe Flash game of the same name, with identical graphics. An action game where the tortoise and hare team up with each other. ["DDR" hardware only?]
• Fruit/Super Fruit - a Fruit Ninja clone. The regular "Fruit" version is for standard controllers, while the Super Fruit version uses the camera sensor. ["DDR" hardware only]
• Invincible Little Warrior - a Super Qix clone. The background artwork for level 1 is taken from One Piece, while level 2 uses Doraemon. ["DDR" hardware only?]
• Jack's Pea/Sky Up - a game where the player must jump up platforms. Possibly based on Nice Code's Frantic Mouse or Cube Technology's Pop Monster. [SPG and MD hardware]
• Jewel Master/Jewel Magic - clone of JungleTac's game of the same name, which in itself was a hack/clone of Magic Jewelry. [SPG, MD, and VT hardware]
• Ping Pong - direct clone of Cube Technology's 8-bit ping pong game, with the same options ("Knocks Exercise" and "Smash Exercise") and even the same song (Robert Miles' "Fable") on the title screen. [SPG and "DDR" hardware]
• Poket Man - An original (?), Pokémon-themed game, somewhat similar to Breakout. The player controls Pikachu, who must throw balls upward to hit the numbered blocks; the numbers dictate the amount of hits needed. The blocks will shift downward if not destroyed; the game is over if the blocks reach the bottom of the screen. ["DDR" hardware only?]
  • Possibly by coincidence, the game uses the same music as the title screen of Pokémon II for the Mega Drive.
• Numerous clones of Nice Code Software titles. Some notable examples include "Fish Journey" (clone of a VT03 Pobble variant), "Earth Defence" (clone of Gallagant), and "Hit Mouse" (clone of Rural Goblin). [SPG hardware only]
• Numerous clones of the Family Sport series titles, with the "TV captured" graphics. Some of these ports use music from Sonic Advance. [SPG hardware only]