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ZDog is a multi-game plug-and-play console released in 2006. The hardware was manufactured by Zechess and the software for the console was developed by Hummer Technology, who are better known by their previous name Hummer Team. The ZDog console uses the VT03, an enhanced single-chip Famiclone developed by V.R. Technology in collaboration with Hummer Technology[1] that would also be used in low-cost plug & play systems by various companies throughout the 2000s. It contains 44 games, some of which are repurposed Famicom games previously developed by Hummer Technology. Some of the games included on the ZDog are present in another plug & play system produced by Zechess and Hummer Technology, the Samuri.
The ZDog reportedly only had around 300 units produced in total[2], making it the rarest of the Zechess/Hummer plug & play systems. It is known to have been sold on eBay and Yahoo! Auctions Taiwan during its initial release year of 2006.[3] It is unknown if the ZDog was sold physically during this time.
Overview[]
The system has three modes of play, each of which leading to the same 44 minigames. After completing each minigame, you get a star, which is stored in the Star Bank. When the player gets all 44 stars, the ZDog will display a credits sequence featuring stills of various recurring characters from the games on a stage and a dancing ZDog alongside them.
All of the sound is digitized, and the games that ZDog shares with Samuri have their sound redone in comparison.
List of games[]
- Space Cruiser - A shooter, uses the same engine as Air Combat from the Samuri
- UFO Carrier - A variant of Space Cruiser.
- Space Fort - A variant of Space Cruiser.
- ZDog Hero - A fighting game starring ZDog, Hummer, Pink Jelly & Panda.
- Hummer Hero - ZDog Hero, but you play as Hummer.
- Jelly Hero - ZDog Hero, but you play as Pink Jelly.
- Benthal - Another shooter, but this time it’s set underwater.
- Sea Serpent - Another underwater shooter.
- Octopus - Another underwater shooter.
- Submarine - A single screen shooter, you must go underwater to avoid missiles headed your way by other subs.
- Diplopod War - Another underwater shooter.
- Pterodactyl - A crosshair shooting game, defend the house from Pterodactyls.
- Duck Runaway - What appears to be a VT03 enhanced version of The Egg.
- Space Ball - A game where the player tries to catch a ball from between to people throwing a ball to each other.
- Harpoon -
- Surfing - you control Pink Jelly on a surfboard, and you have to avoid sharks
- Hunting - similar to the hunting game on the Samuri, but with multiple stages and different animals mixed in together
- Fly Eater - Greedy Frog on Samuri
- Seals
- Knock the Roots - variation on Big Hammer, etc.
- Puppy Saver - save puppies from falling off a table by putting them into an endlessly-deep basket
- Cross Street - a frogger clone where you have to guide ZDog across the street without getting hit by oncoming traffic
- Cute Headsc - a matching game similar to games like "Candy Crush"
- Matching - Match cards with various Hummer Team Superstars on them
- Venice Mugs - variation on Tomatina from the Samuri but the player is throwing mugs at people in Venice
- Moose and Water - You are a moose and your goal is to drink enough water before time runs out, beware of being attacked!
- Honor Ribbon - Arkanoid clone
- Mad Jumper - variant of Jelly Motor Boat
- Shipwreck - Titenic variant
- Heroine - Titenic variant
- Cat vs Dogs - Pac-Man clone
- Pingpong - a game of Ping Pong with voice acting, most of which being most-likley being computer synthisised (also known as text to speech)
- Foredeck - Titenic variant
- Double Decker - Titenic variant
- Elevator - Titenic variant
- Ocean Hero - Titenic variant
- Panda Hero - another fighting game starring you as the panda
- Mad Dogs - variant of Crazy Cats on the Samuri
- Samurai - Slice enough watermelons and apples before time runs out, beware of the possible assasination attempts by throwing stars by dodging them...
- Butter Fly - a clone of the "Fly Swatting" game from Mario Paint
- Lobster - try to save your Lobster-Youngins from being eaten by a giant Snake/Eel
- Lion vs Zebra - A chase game where you are a Lion trying to scratch the Butt of a Zebra
- Monkey - it is basically like Moose & Water but with a monkey in a tree
- Star Bank - after every game is complete, you earn a star, this is where you can view your progress
Trivia[]
- The game Mad Dogs is a variant of Crazy Cats on the Samuri plug and play. In the Samuri manual, it lists it as Mad Dogs instead of Crazy Cats.
- This is the last known release by Hummer Team.
- VDog, which seems to be an early version of ZDog, appears in the documentation for EmuVT.
Early Development[]
Originally, Hummer Team had plans to make ZDog a more "Virtual-Pet" based game, without featuring any minigames, demos (that can be found on the EmuTV website link shown above) made by Hummer Team show that these where the original intentions and date back to as early as 2002, but sadly this style of ZDog never saw the light of day, and while there is a Virtual-pet style menu in ZDog, it's clearly not as extensive as Hummer Team probably planned to make it.
References[]
- ↑ Personal correspondence with Hummer Cheng, head of Hummer Technology.
- ↑ Correspondence with someone speaking on behalf of Handel Liao (founder of Zechess).
- ↑ Xuite.net blog post (archived)