Vast Fame

Vast Fame Co. Ltd.廣譽科技有限公司
Vast Fame's logo.
Origin	Dali City, Taichung County, Taiwan
Years	1998-2003(?)
Consoles	Game Boy Color , Game Boy Advance
First game	Zook Hero Z
Last game	Unknown(?), possibly Battle Network Rockman Crystal / Zook Man ZX4 or Digimon Adventure
Sounds used	Mega Man V / Rockman World 5 (Capcom)
Engines used	Takara King of Fighters engine, own RPG Engine, Others
Aliases	V.Fame
Related companies	Gamtec, Chuanpu, Sintax

Vast Fame Co. Ltd. (廣譽科技有限公司) was an unlicensed developer of handheld games that was headquartered in Dali City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1998, and their last known game was published in 2003.

Sound engine

One common feature found in most of their games is a sound engine stolen from Mega Man V / Rockman World 5; in fact, the music for the second half of Dr. Meet's stage in Zook Hero Z is actually the music for Pluto's stage in Mega Man V / Rockman World 5 played at a lower pitch.

Confirmed games

These are games in which Vast Fame is explicitly credited or which they have otherwise been confirmed to have developed.

Game Boy Color

• Bai Wang Da Fu Weng Jin Ban (A.K.A. Millionaire, Monopoly Gold Version, Monopoly 2, Crazy Richman 2, To Be A Millionaire) - Sequel to Feng Kuang Da Fu Weng, featuring new music and more playable characters. 
• Feng Kuang Da Fu Weng (A.K.A. Crazy Monopoly, Crazy Richman, Super Taiwan Tycoon)
• Harry Potter 3 (contains menu graphics from Zook Hero 2, has a variant that was released on V.Fame's 8 in 1 multicart.)
• Queen Fighter 2000 (A.K.A. Gals Fighters)
• San Guo Zhi - Lie Chuan / San Guo Zhi - Ao Shi Tian Xia (A.K.A. 三国志-烈传,三國志-傲視天下,Shawu Story) - Has V.Fame boot logo and certain versions contain the Vast Fame screen.
• Sheng Shou Wu Yu
• Shi Kong Xing Shou (A.K.A. Space Time Star Beasts "Spatio Monoster,Spatio Monsters,Timer Monster", 時空星獸)
• Shui Hu Shen Shou (A.K.A. 水浒神兽,Suiko Monster,Mythos,Shawu Story)
• Super Fighters S (A.K.A. Super Fighters '99, The King of Fighters 2000) - not credited in-game but has V.Fame boot logo.
• Super Fighter 2001 Alpha
• West Story (Journey to the West themed shooter that uses the same music and game engine as Harry Potter 3.  Featured in V.Fame's 8 in 1 multicart.)
• Xin Feng Shen Bang (A.K.A. 新封神榜,Feng Shen Yanyi 2: Gold Version,封神演義2金版)
• Zook Hero Z (A.K.A. Zook Z, Rockman Z, Rockman DX6, Rockman DX8)
• Zook Hero 2 (A.K.A. Zook 2, Rockman DX3, Rockman X3, Rockman 3, Rockman Zero)

Sintax also made an unofficial entry in the Zook Hero series named Zook Hero 3 (or Zook Hero Legend 3) for the Game Boy Color, which is often confused with Rockman & Crystal/Battle Network Rockman Crystal. It seems to have been made without Vast Fame's involvement, though it is believed to have used graphics from the previous Zook Hero games. The HUD used in-game also superficially resembles Zook Hero 2's. Sintax later reused the engine for two games: New Crazy Arcade (新瘋狂阿給 泡泡堂) and Metal Slug X. The latter removes the stage select and is heavily modified to be linear, but still retains boss battles.

Accessories

• Fire Bird Cheat Card

Game Boy Advance

• Rockman & Crystal (A.K.A. Battle Network Rockman Crystal, Zook Man ZX4, unofficially known as Zook Hero 3)

Multicarts

Circa 2002 or later, Vast Fame would release two multicarts compatible with the Game Boy Color. Both would exclusively be comprised of color games that are either explicitly credited to Vast Fame or are strongly believed to have been developed by them, as well as unlicensed original monochrome Game Boy games, all of which were previously released as single cartridge games by Gowin circa 1993 and late 1998, some under different names from the ones in the multicart versions. The inclusion of these games, which were originally released by Gowin with copy protection, as well as a few mono games from the multicarts being earlier/debug builds of the Gowin versions or based on pre-Gowin releases of the games (i.e., Top Secret is based on the 1993 pre-Gowin release of Lost Trips credited to Songtly and Jumbo Team that goes by the same name, and still has Songtly and Jumbo Team credits in the graphics data), suggest that at least some staff from Vast Fame were involved in the development of the mono games.

• Silver Version 12-in-1 (銀版中文RPG戰略+動作+益智12in1)
• Shishang Chaoqiang RPG + Gedou + Yizhi Ban Zuhe Ka 18 in 1 (史上超強RPG+格鬥+益智版組合卡18in1) - Similar to Silver Version 12-in-1, but removes Digimon Pocket ("Digi Monster") and adds the following games: Shui Hu Shen Shou (Suiko Monster), Sheng Shou Wu Yu ("SANCTITYMONSTER"), Feng Kuang Da Fu Weng (Crazy Monopoly), Bai Wang Da Fu Weng Jin Ban (Crazy Monopoly2), Zook Hero Z ("Zook"), West Story, Prince Yeh Rude

Unconfirmed Games

Game Boy DMG (all of these appear on the Vast Fame 18-in-1)

• Fire Dragon
• Magic Ball
• Prince Yeh Rude
• Rainbow Prince
• Top Secret
• Story of Lasama

Game Boy Color

• Devil Island (same sound engine as other V.Fame games; found on Silver Version 12-in-1 multicart. Reuses several resources from Digimon 3 Crystal Version and Shui Hu Shen Shou.)
• Mo Jie 3 - Bu Wanme De Shijie (This is the name of the Li Cheng release and may not be accurate to the original version) (Appears to use the same engine as Devil Island)
• Digimon 3 Crystal Version (Some versions such as the English "Digimon Ruby" game have music from Shui Hu Shen Shou while most of the original Chinese releases have original music.)
• Digimon Pocket (same sound engine and similar interface to other V.Fame RPGs; found on Silver Version 12 in 1 multicart with other V.Fame titles.)
  • Also its hack Pokémon Ruby, which is a significant hack of this game.
• Digimon Saphire (also called Digimon Sapphire, Digimon - Final Battle, Digimon Emerald, Digimon Pearl on its title screen; uses the same music as Bai Wang Da Fu Weng/Crazy Richman 2 and Sheng Shou Wu Yu plus the UI from the latter.)
• Pokémon Ruby (same engine as Digimon Pocket.)
• Soul Falchion (A version has leftover graphics, music and ROM ID from Queen of Fighting 2000 & Super Fighter 2001 Alpha) (This game appears in the manual for Zook Hero 2 alongside other Vast Fame titles)

Game Boy Advance

• Digimon Ruby (a.k.a. Digimon Rury) (reused music from Digimon 3 Crystal/Digital Monsters 3, Crazy Richman 2, Devil Island, Shui Hu Shen Shou, Zook Hero Z, Zook Hero 2 and Shi Kong Xing Shou) 
• Digimon Sapphire (same sound engine and dialogue font as Zook Man ZX4/Rockman Crystal. Most of its graphics are stolen from Digimon Battle Spirit.)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Jue Zhan San Guo
• Super Robot Wars: Ultimate Edition

Sintax Connection(?)

• Digimon Zhi Hong Lan Dui Jue / 口袋妖怪 (which is actually a Digimon game)之红蓝对决 (same HUD as Digimon Adventure)
• Digimon Adventure and its reskins:
  • Has the same sound engine used in some of Vast Fame's GBA games.
  • Uses a remixes of the cave theme from Shui Hu Shen Shou, the victory theme from Soul Falchion and a battle theme from Super Fighter 2001 Alpha.
  • Uses a sound effect from Zhen San Guo Wu Shuang by Sintax.
• Mario Cart and Disney Cart has the same sound engine and music as Digimon Adventure.

Trivia

• Many of Vast Fame's credited developers, including producer Lin Bizhi and sound designer Liao Yishen, formerly worked for Chuanpu Technology.
• A game called Final Fantasy IX is labeled New GB Color on the left side of the sticker, which is a trait of Vast Fame games, and boots with a TD-Soft logo, which is seen in Devil Island. This game is not widely considered a Vast Fame game however.
• Certain revisions of several of Vast Fame's games have the soundtrack changed to that of another Vast Fame game, usually a previous game in the same genre. These games do have their own soundtrack in the original? releases by Vast Fame. Examples include:
  • Digital Monster 3/Digimon 3 Crystal - Shui Hu Shen Shou music
  • Soul Falchion - Silver Version 12-in-1 version uses Super Fighter 2001's music
  • Pokémon Ruby - Chinese "Chong Wu Xiao Jing Ling : Jie Jin Ta Zhi Wang" version uses Shi Kong Xing Shou's music
  • Zook Hero 2 - "Rockman X3" version uses Zook Hero Z's music
• All the games, especially the GBA ones, have a particular glitch where when a certain sound effect plays, a sound channel for the music mutes until the song is either restarted or changed.

Gallery

Some Custom Logos of Games Associated With Vast Fame.

External link

• Official Chinese website (Wayback Machine)