What’s on this $10 Handheld? Two: My Arcade Go Gamer Edition

[Kirin]

Homing Chicken is the name of my Aqua Bats cover band.

Also that Invincible Girl portrait has some real “How to Draw Manga!” energy.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Homing Chicken is the name of my Aqua Bats cover band.

NOT IF I DON'T GET THE COPYRIGHT FIRST!

 

[Beowulf]

36. Ice Hockey
It’s a hockey game, which the usual limitation that you can’t make the players get into a brawl on the ice. This was also released with the much cooler names Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey and Super Pro Hockey.

37. Jumping Kid
The full title here is Amusement Park: Jumping Kid, and we saw the sequel back as #11. It’s as simple as it gets: Walk right, jump over the animals. It’s a Circus Charlie clone that might actually be better than the original…not that that’s hard. Apparently there’s another version called The Worms, and I’m curious if you play as a jumping worm, jump over worms, or both.

38. Jumping Weald
First things first: No, it’s not “Jumping World”. “Weald” is definitely what it says and apparently that was intentional. It’s a basic platformer; you jump across various moving and non-moving platforms and collect the bonus items. You actually have a fairly floaty and very maneuverable jump, which is nice. I think some of the background graphics are stolen from Contra.

This was original from Nice Code’s “Nature Clan” series, where it was called Forest Adventure. They hacked it to remove the Nature Clan characters and made this, Robot, Caper Alone, and Little Krishna.

39. Knocking
Four-hole Whack-a-Mole, hit the devils but not the angels (or they’ll cry!). The music is very recognizably “Darlin’ Clementine.” It’s a hack of Hit-Mouse, which was also hacked into Monster Trouble, and the Angry Birds-knockoff Pigs & Bird.

40. Knock It
Nine-hole Whack-a-Mole, so you need to both move the mallet and press A to hit. This was originally released as Season Garden with the gimmick that the seasons changed as you played. That appears to have been removed for this version.

 

[Kirin]

What is that on the title screen of Knock It, some kind of mole-man?

 

[Torzelbaum]

38. Jumping Weald
First things first: No, it’s not “Jumping World”. “Weald” is definitely what it says and apparently that was intentional.

"weald \WEELD\ noun.
1 : a heavily wooded area : forest.
2 : a wild or uncultivated usually upland region."

 

[Beowulf]

What is that on the title screen of Knock It, some kind of mole-man?

That would make sense, wouldn't it? But I have no idea. The things that pop out of the holes are clearly supposed to be bugs.

"weald \WEELD\ noun.
1 : a heavily wooded area : forest.
2 : a wild or uncultivated usually upland region."

The area you jump through in this game meets neither of those definitions! (Though I was vaguely wondering if maybe it was supposed to be the name of the little robot dude. Perhaps he has a wheel instead of legs, so they named him "Wheeled"? Or they just liked the word--see below.)

41. Mad Xmas
The night Santa went crazy! Santa drops candy and presents and you need to have the little bear catch them in his bowl. Catching roller skates will make you move faster. But watch out, because Santa is also dropping bombs and lightning bolts which will kill you!

This is a clone of Kaboom! for Atari 2600, and I think Small Dinosaur was the version we saw on other devices. It was also called Angel, Care Bear, Cute Bear, Lucky Time, Mummy, and Santa Claus.

Waixing apparently developed a uniquely-coded version of Mad Xmas titled Xmas Gift, using graphics from the original. So there was a bootleg version of this bootleg game!

42. Man in Red
No, this one isn’t about Santa. It’s a Space Invaders clone where the “man in red” must shoot directly upwards to destroy the giant insects that fly across the screen in a descending pattern. (Or maybe they’re helicopters? It’s really hard to tell.)

This is one of many versions of Buzz Bombers; it was also hacked into Archer, Fighter, Hexadod, IQ Champion, Little Indian, Orchard, Orchard Kavass, Scuba Hunt, Sniper, and Weald Gunman.

43. Merry Christmas
I’m not quite clear on my goal here: A kid appears and turns into a down arrow. Clearly you’re supposed to maneuver Santa there before the timer runs down (and you lose a life), but you can’t interact with the arrow at all.

The original version of this was Pizza Boy, where you logically had to deliver pizzas to customers while navigating a maze. There was a third version called Hen and Sons that apparently involved lost chicks. I’m guessing something went wrong with this version that made it unplayable.

44. Mike Pig
Mike the Pig loves cheese. Maneuver him through the maze and get all the cheese before time runs out. This is a version of Cookies Labyrinth, where you play as a mouse who needs to get all the cookies before the timer runs out.

45. Monster Chaser
Maneuver your car through the maze and ram the other guy. Is the other guy a monster? Are you a monster? How do monsters figure into this chasing? This is a hack of the wonderfully-named Police vs Thief - Violent Chasing, and there’s a third version called Cell Competition.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

"Where's the twerk button?"

 

[Beowulf]

46. Fire Man
This was a rare game that I couldn’t determine the providence of. (Though, honestly, it’s probably more Nice Code. It certainly feels like a clone of an Atari game.) In a very strange approach to fire-fighting, you fling one of three firemen into the air and bounce them around (in Arkanoid-clone style) while they grab people out of windows. Treasure or power-ups might float down from the windows to distract you from your bouncing fireman (who also might be colliding with birds or blimps). If you miss bouncing them, it’s game over and back to the title screen.

47. Octopus
I remember this from the other handheld. It’s a clone of the "Too Cool!" minigame from the PC game The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, where you need to avoid the octopus and eels while you go on and off the strips of land collecting coins and eventually a trident. This was also released as Brave Boy and Skateboard.

48. Outrun
A Frogger-clone, though you’re coming down from the top instead of up from the bottom. You’re trying to get your five guys free from some sort of prison by outrunning various guards. The bootleg wiki seems to think this is a separate thread of games from Nice Code’s other Frogger clones.

49. Patternmaker
You need to slide the top halves of various patterned disks from the center either left or right onto their bottom halves. I remember playing another version of this, too: The original, which was called Fruit Gift and involved matching fruits (which was honestly easier—the patterns and colors aren’t terribly distinct in this).

50. Poleaxe
This is a mediocre side-scrolling shmup. The only power-up I found was a small blue star that gives you a triple-shot; there aren’t that many different enemies; and the bullets are a dark color that makes it hard to see them against the background. (It’s also not clear to me what the meter on the side is for—my best guess it that it’s the length of the level?) This was originally releases as Vigilant, and there are other versions called Assault Force and Fairy.

Trivia: A somewhat advanced hack of Vigilant was produced titled Bumbee, in which the ship is replaced with a bumblebee. In this variant, the outer walls no longer kill the player upon contact, and the "Gas" meter is removed. Artwork of Maya the Bee is used on the game's title screen.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Is it just me or does that look like Mario's head pasted on another body?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The Super Mario Bros.

 

[Beowulf]

Is it just me or does that look like Mario's head pasted on another body?

...I can see it.

51. Pong Pong
In this game, you’re supposed to ram enemies with your car to push them into holes. The control scheme is awful: Up goes forward. Left and right rotate you…sometimes. A single press rotates you 45 degrees except when it rotates you 90 degrees. Getting hit randomly rotates you and only sometimes pushes you or the opponent. The physics are maddening.

This was also released as Afoul, Autoboat Contest, Bump, and Ramming.

52. Prey
Very clearly based on Atari’s Air-Sea Battle. You drop bombs from your helicopter at the various boats below you. The boats move at different speeds and some shoot back. The hitbox on your helicopter is bigger than you think it should be.

Nice Code’s original version was Submarine (where you do all of this as a submarine). This was also called Target Submarine and Whale.

53. Puppet Show
I’m certain I’ve seen this before. Originally called Fling Ball (and also released as Doll, not that any of these names really make sense), you take turns with the AI controlling the shooter and the goalie robot, trying to shoot balls to hit those screens behind him. It seems like the different pictures you can hit are worth different point values, but they seem pretty random to me.

54. Repair Urgently
You have until the timer runs out to get the car to the finish, but it can only drive over repaired road. So you need to pick the right piece of road (or bridge, or a helicopter to bomb obstacles) for each problem in turn. This is also called Road Worker and Road Man, both of which are vastly inferior names.

55. Reversi
Also known as Othello in other contexts, including the copy of it I grew up with. I feel like I should be better at Othello, but for some reason my brain never really wrapped itself around the strategies for it. I was able to beat the AI here, which says it’s worse at Othello than Babywulf.

 

[RT-55J]

10/10 title screen for Reversi. no notes

 

[Fredde]

46. Fire Man
This was a rare game that I couldn’t determine the providence of. (Though, honestly, it’s probably more Nice Code. It certainly feels like a clone of an Atari game.) In a very strange approach to fire-fighting, you fling one of three firemen into the air and bounce them around (in Arkanoid-clone style) while they grab people out of windows. Treasure or power-ups might float down from the windows to distract you from your bouncing fireman (who also might be colliding with birds or blimps). If you miss bouncing them, it’s game over and back to the title screen.

It's a clone of the Famicom game Flying Hero, a personal favorite.

 

[Beowulf]

It's a clone of the Famicom game Flying Hero, a personal favorite.

I learned something new today! Thank you!

56. Road Mound
It took me a minute to figure out what was going on here, and then I realized that this is a Pipe Dream clone! You’re just building road instead of pipes. It’s another one I couldn’t find mentions of online, and as such is also completely new to us.

57. Slots
This game brings about an interesting conundrum: Nice Code made two different slot machine games that were released as “Slots”. One was also released as Slot Machine and uses music from Destiny of an Emperor. The other was called Slots Casino and uses music from Don Doko Don 2. But I’m at an impasse, because this has no music!

58. Snow Ball
A clone of Sokuban (and really, a standard block-pushing puzzle game) That was also released as Boxworld, Hammal and Ranchboy. The big issue here is that the D-pad isn’t precise enough—and I’m not sure if that’s the handheld, the game, or both—so it sometimes don’t register presses and sometimes registers a single press as two. You might be able to guess how this can be disastrous.

Also, Frere Jacques plays incessantly in the background.

59. Spades
Another of Nice Code’s card games. Like the others, it assumes you know the rules. I haven’t played Spades in long enough that I think I have the rules to it and Hearts tangled in my head.

60. Speed Man
Did you notice that you have to PPRESS the start button?

This is a hack of Pobble, accurately described by the bootleg wiki as “A fast racing game where you must dodge obstacles. You die immediately if you hit something and there are no enemy cars.” In this particular version I’m not entirely clear what the rainbows do, but you need to collect the coins and avoid the bats and dragons.

We saw a few variants of this game on other handhelds, though the best was titled Awful Rushing. Nice Code also released it as (deep breath) Corridor, Devil Rider, Fish Journey, Fly on Cloud, Hot Speed, Lunation, Moto Rushing, Motoboat, Motorboat, Road Block, Swift Rider, and Turbulence.

 

[Kirin]

That Snowball title screen graphic looks super familiar, though I don’t remember from what ottomh.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

56. Road Mound
It took me a minute to figure out what was going on here, and then I realized that this is a Pipe Dream clone! You’re just building road instead of pipes. It’s another one I couldn’t find mentions of online, and as such is also completely new to us.

This just sounds like a euphemism if you see human feces in the middle of a highway.

 

[WildcatJF]

That Snowball title screen graphic looks super familiar, though I don’t remember from what ottomh.

Reminded me of Toaplan's Snow Bros.

 

[Beowulf]

61. Spring Jester
You’re a bouncing…jester? "Grasshopper" seems more appropriate, though I suppose he could also be a jester by trade. You can bounce to various heights, though the controls are suitably bad that I can’t tell what makes a short jump and what makes a high one. You have three lives, but there don’t appear to be any obstacles that could make you lose them. There’s also no timer. You just jump around grabbing coins until you get bored. Originally released as Power Robot, and also as Kangaroo.

62. Swing
This was originally one of Nice Code’s “Nature Clan” series of games, titled Spring World. You need to navigate the maze of deadly obstacles and collect items. Interestingly, which obstacles are which (flames, hammers, snowflakes, or steel balls) seems to re-randomize every time you die. There’s a version of this called Cool Baby, too. This one should have been grouped with the other Christmas-themed games, if the creature's Santa hat is any indication.

63. Symbol Puzzle
Another variant of Shanghai, the matching game played with Mahjong tiles. The Family Sport had a version called Fruit Family. Nice Code originally released this one as Animal Blockes. This was a particularly difficult version to play, because the symbols are all the same color and hard to differentiate on a small screen.

64. Team Star
You have a stack of three stars, and little blobs will pop out of the top tubes and call for help. You need to fling a star up to rescue them, but not get hit by the fuzzies flying across on your way. The original version of this was Brother Ball (where they were balls instead of stars) and there’s also a version called Ellipsoid where I can only assume you have a stack of three vaguely ellipse-shaped creatures.

65. Tower
You need to climb the tower and not get murdered along the way. There are broken ladders that force you to hover across to the other sides (I think the kid has wings that fold out, or something?), and there are various missiles, blimps and other obstacles trying to kill you. The princess will pop out of windows and (I think?) award you points, but she’s also an obstacle because you can’t swap ladders across the windows. This was also released as Climbing and High Tower.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

61. Spring Jester
You’re a bouncing…jester? "Grasshopper" seems more appropriate, though I suppose he could also be a jester by trade. You can bounce to various heights, though the controls are suitably bad that I can’t tell what makes a short jump and what makes a high one. You have three lives, but there don’t appear to be any obstacles that could make you lose them. There’s also no timer. You just jump around grabbing coins until you get bored. Originally released as Power Robot, and also as Kangaroo.

What Halloween Spirit labels it's April Fool costume.

 

[Beowulf]

66. UFO
Another hack of Beach Ball, the gobbler game we also saw as Star (#15). This has the honor of being the first duplicate game on this device. (But not a true repeat! I’m betting we’ll make it to 300 without actually seeing the exact same game more than once. No dozen copies of Super Mario 16 on this device!) You need to collect the small orbs until you grow and can grab the blobs, then the little glowy satellites. Catch something before you’re big enough and you explode.

67. Highway Racing
Top-down racing where you get points specifically for passing other cars. (There’s no finish line.) You can hit enemies and crash as much as you want (there are far more than the six cars that show in the starting line), but that costs you fuel, and that’s your real restriction, because there aren’t that many fuel tankers to ram and refill, and running out of fuel gives you a game over. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be a direct hack of Pobble or Lightning, it’s an independent third top-down racing game.

68. Warrior
A hack of Nice Code’s Spider-Man game, and this is very clearly Spider-Man: You go up and down on a web-line and shoot web-balls to blow up enemies. Nice Code also released versions called Cowpoke, Masked Man, and Rocketman.

69. Worm Dream
And a new contender for favorite title arrives! This is a hack of the Nature Clan game Pindable Crystal Ball, which is extremely similar to Swing/Spring World we saw as #62. Roam the map collecting prizes while avoiding obstacles (and have fun guessing which is which!). There was also a release of this called Adventurer.

70. Echo Chamber
This is a memory game that is very obviously a clone of the electronic board game Simon. This is on the list of unconfirmed Nice Code games. The bootleg wiki notes an odd connection between the unconfirmed games: They only use D-pad control in gameplay, not using the A or B buttons. This may indicate they were originally designed for some sort of special controller setup, possibly a Dance Dance Revolution clone pad.

 

[Kirin]

That or I wonder if there could’ve been some micro-handheld that just had a big Simon-style pad as it’s only control?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

69. Worm Dream
And a new contender for favorite title arrives! This is a hack of the Nature Clan game Pindable Crystal Ball, which is extremely similar to Swing/Spring World we saw as #62. Roam the map collecting prizes while avoiding obstacles (and have fun guessing which is which!). There was also a release of this called Adventurer.

Best prog rock album name and cover

 

[Beowulf]

Follow my brief spring break hiatus (I read comic books, played with my other handhelds, and taught my son to play Magic: The Gathering), we’re back on the horse with post #50.

71. Caribbean
This is “Caribbean Poker,” which appears to be a five-card variant with one round of betting and no draws—that is, you bet, you get cards, you either bet more or “surrender”, and then you compare cards.

72. Crystal
Clear the field without retracing your steps or getting stuck; you have three shovels with which to clear the otherwise-impassable blocks. I don’t love the all-red color scheme that makes it hard to tell the two block types apart. Nice Code first released this as Assart, and the original game was a good old racist caricature of a black man effectively doing plantation work; in later revisions, this was changed to a cartoonish miner character. This was also released as Miner I, Pathway, and Radish Field.

73. Toy Bricks
I’ve never seen this one before! It’s a simple painting and drawing program (hobbled by the need to use a D-pad instead of a mouse). The bootleg wiki thinks this was among Nice Code's first titles, dated 2000.

74. Earth Fighter
A simple top-down shooter; fighter planes rain down from avoid and you need to shoot and avoid them. Three lives, no power-ups, relatively few bullets, no frills. This is hacked from Nice Code’s official port of Astrosmash for the Intellivision. Other variations include Aether Fighter, Air Alert, Cannonade, Defend Homestead, Star Fighter, Trooper, and War of Space.

75. Falling
Immediately followed by Falling, a very similar game based around committing war crimes. You need to use the tank to shoot down the paratroopers before they hit the ground. This was originally created as Bubble (similar to Astrosmash but not based on the same code), and hacked into Burbles, Danger Zone, Surface to Air, and Undersea Base.

And that’s the one-quarter mark! I have no idea if this process is going to speed up significantly as it goes on. I might just run out of things to say about various games.

 

[Beowulf]

76. Five Days
A never-ending flood of enemy soldiers stream around the buildings, and your non-moving soldier can shoot in five directions (but not through the obstacles) to get them. Some soldiers require multiple hits to kill; they change colors into the weaker soldiers as you hit them. Occasionally, soldiers will shoot at you if you let them get close enough and cost you hearts. Oddly, there’s no point total. This was also released as Final Man, Last Man Standing, Penta Base, and Strafe.

77. Ghost Palace
Your little ghostbuster can only shoot upwards; you need to dodge the arrows that drop from above and jump over the big fireballs while you shoot up at the smaller red, green and blue fireballs (ghosts?) that cross the screen. Getting enough points increases the level.
This was originally Polar Bat, where the character needed to shoot up at bats and avoid snowballs. There were also versions called Enchanter and Panzer Attack. This game runs on the same engine as The Archer.

78. Girl
The titular girl automatically walks until she stops at a sign, and you need to choose when to turn to navigate her through the maze. Note that the signs don’t turn the girl in that direction, they turn her left or right from the direction she’s currently moving. And this is all in real-time so you don’t get a lot of time to think before you have to make decisions about turning. Originally released as Maze Maid, but also made into Labyrinth, Robot, and Way Out.

79. Harbor
This is a VERY hard first-person shooter. Planes and missiles fly at you and you need to move the crosshairs and shoot them down fast. I rarely made it more than a few seconds. Originally Space Battle and hacked into Aimless, Airial Hero, Close Quarter, Fighter Jet, and Pearl Harbor.

80. Aviator
This guy was originally named Through-Man and we definitely saw him on other devices. He’s a flying superhero who needs to shoot and avoid enemies and obstacles. In practice, this means you need to pay attention to maneuvering while also shooting like crazy because touching anything means restarting the level.

 

[Beowulf]

Turned up a few things we've never seen before in this batch!

81. Hunter Alone
You have to shoot up at the two domes until they turn green, while dodging and jumping over the rocks that fall from the big holes. (You can see how this is similar to #77 Ghost Palace.) The original of this was The Archer, but it was also called Dragon Den, Happy Adventure, and Phantom Archer.

82. Lawn Purge
You need to clear as much of the grass as you can without cutting the flowers or breaking your mower on the rocks. (I think—I couldn’t successfully complete the level.)

This appears to be one of the games made by an "unknown developer" who makes games for JungleTac, sometimes published by Waixing. They were also responsible for #67 Highway Racing and #46 Fireman. This appears to be another “bootleg of a bootleg” situation, as JungleTac produced a nearly identical game called Grass Cutter.

83. Access Block
A fairly generic match-3 puzzle game. You’re just trying to make matches to refill the bar, that slowly decreases as time passes. There’s a slight delay after matching before you can click again. It’s not terrible, but I’m spoiled for match-3 games.

This was made by Cube Technology / CubeTac. Apparently it was later re-published by Waixing; the Waixing version uses a rendition of Terriermon's theme from Digimon Battle Spirit, but I’m not familiar enough with that to tell you if it’s the same here.

84. Basketball
Originally released with the much better title Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball, this is not a particularly good basketball game. You control one guy and which actions he does at any point are somewhat random. The animations are weird (the guy you control does a lot of running in place), there’s no sound, and there’s no ability to pause.

85. Magic Pond
Bait your line with a pair of granny panties and try to catch a bone fish or a mermaid. I’m unclear on how you actually catch or reel in a fish.
We might remember seeing the original, Antiquarium, in earlier devices. This was also released as Cute Fish and Fishing.

 

[Violentvixen]

82. Lawn Purge

Yet another strong contender for best name

 

[Kirin]

And what I increasingly want to do to my yard in suburbia.

 

[Kirin]

Also that last title screen mascot looks like a hybrid between a dolphin and a blobfish and is kind of terrifying.

 

[Beowulf]

86. Black Jack
A fairly standard blackjack game, one player (you) versus a dealer. Have a ranted about Blackjack? It feels like the most mechanical of the standard casino table games. There’s a reason nobody has a regular blackjack game with their buddies.

87. Fishing Challenge
Originally released as Atlantic Fishing Tournament 2005, this was the “updated” version with the title changed to 2009. It’s another fishing game, though this one has you catching actual fish, and you can choose your spot and it keeps track of what fish and how much overall weight you’ve caught.

88. Penguin
Originally released as Frantic Mouse, where you were a mouse trying to jump from cloud to cloud. (There’s also a version called Jumping Kid.) Here, you’re a penguin trying to jump from ice block to ice block, but the mechanism is the same. Miss a single jump, it costs you a life. This is a game of mostly waiting patiently for the floes to align.

89. Colliding
This was new to me and unexpectedly so: You move around the city map as a tiny car, and running into another car brings you to a mini-arena where you need to play bumper cars until one of you breaks down. I’m not entirely clear on how you win beyond taking down a lot of cars before dying, but it was amusing nonetheless.

90. Cookies Labyrinth
We saw this as Mike Pig (#44). In this version, you’re a mouse gathering cookies.

But it does take us down a rabbit hole: Techno Source released a licensed "Elmo's World" plug & play. Despite the Elmo's World system seemingly not being Nice Code-developed, a number of Nice Code's generic titles seem to be more advanced versions of the Elmo's World games; River Jump (upcoming at #197) being the most obvious (as it quite literally still features Elmo), though this also includes games such as Meccano, Aquarium, and Goal Keeper.

At least two further Nice Code games - Cookies Labyrinth and Happy Match - seem to curiously share some design formats only seen in the aforementioned titles (similar fonts/HUD, a "rainbow" title screen effect, etc.); potentially suggesting they were intended to also be included in the Elmo's World system. Happy Match in particular features a character graphic that appears to be traced over Elmo's body. (It’ll be #132; we can see what we think.)

 

[Torzelbaum]

88. Penguin
Originally released as Frantic Mouse, where you were a mouse trying to jump from cloud to cloud. (There’s also a version called Jumping Kid.) Here, you’re a penguin trying to jump from ice block to ice block, but the mechanism is the same. Miss a single jump, it costs you a life. This is a game of mostly waiting patiently for the floes to align.

So you're trying to get into a floe state?