What separates these from the pirate games in my pirate section? Quite a bit for most of them, however nothing at all for others.
In the beginning I thought these releases were for the entire country of China. Not so. This section covers all unique games found in the Asian market including Korea, Taiwan, and China.
During my research I've found that not only are there official games developed for the PC specifically for the Taiwanese market ALONE, but there are often pirate games for the PC there as well, even though they are sold at some legal stores! This is because the culture there is somewhat different than it is here ... in the Chinese market most games are Japanese and the player must buy walkthough guides to actually play most games! It's such that there's no distinction made between an official game and a pirate, at least from the marketers point of view. Sorting out what is official and unofficial is difficult since I don't actually HAVE any of these games, however I have done research and found out which of these are official ....... and which are no more than pirate copies of the games. And how do I know? Well, one very handy Chinese website actually lists which ones are official and so the rest must be bullshit. Most of the official ones are made by the same company and, as a further aid, most of the official ones feature the Rockman logo in Chinese characters as opposed to English ones. Official games also tend to be original (with original graphics found inside the game) as opposed to repackaging emulated versions of other games. Official games tend to be more spread out on the net than non official ones (you can find them popping up again and again). Finally, articles covering the games (usually in Chinese) list the games as licenced.
Taiwanese Originals |
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These games have the official nod from Capcom to be made thereby making them official. To review: A licence is what separates official megaman merchandise (such as the MM mangas) from bullshit merchandise (like doujinshi). Licenses do COUNT for something despite nutballs who like to disregard anything not directly made by Capcom (which means anything but the actual games themselves since Capcom makes GAMES). These games are Taiwanese-only. Originally Taiwan only had guides to walk players through Japanese or American games, but these were made when the Taiwanese (different than the greater Chinese) market began to open up. | |
洛克人IQ旋風 Rockman's IQ Challenge - A (guess what?) education game for children. Auto (from Auto's Rockman Robot Centre) used to have this game and he was kind enough to supply me with some information on it. From left to right, based on the screen shots, here's what the game's about: - 1998 Bigger box art Rockman's IQ Challenge Gallery |
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洛克人X數學旋風 Rockman X Mathematics Tornado - Judging from the name I'm guessing ..... a math game? Maybe? Note: There are minor differences in packaging. Mostly in where text is placed. - 1998 |
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Bigger Box Art Box art V3 Rockman X Mathematics Tornado Gallery |
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洛克人DASH拯救地球大冒險 Rockman Dash: To Save The World Adventure - Another IQ game. Involving puzzles and stuff. - 1998 Bigger box art Rockman Dash: To Save The World Adventure Gallery |
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洛克人黃金帝國 Rockman Gold Empire - It's a hybrid of Monopoly and SimCity with a 3D perspective. Read my article on Rockman Gold Empire. The is by Strawberry Software and Soft-World International as were the previous three. It's likely Capcom had a licensing deal with them at the time. -1999 |
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洛克人大戰 Rockman Strategy - I wrote an entire article on this, so read that for the game everyone should know. This game was made by the "Dream Come True" Corperation. - 2001 |
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洛克人123 Rockman 123 - Actually Rockman 1-3 for the NES! Judging fromt he layout of the back of the box, the serial number being the same, and it directing people to the same website (now nonexistant) it's probable that this game was also made by the "Dream Come True" corperation (who was also responsible for, at least, the Taiwanese release of Rockman Dash 2 for the PC).
- 2002 Bigger (different, more common) box art |
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Common PC games |
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These games share a release with other countries. They are not country-specific releases. | |
洛克人X Rockman X - This appears to be the same PC release we had here complete with a controller. |
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洛克人1-6 Rockman 1-6 Collection -Apparently by the same guys who made Rockman 123, this is the mainline Chinese version with all of the NES-era games! CD
A different Box front (and back), and disk sent in by Ninjaz_1. Featuring Megaman X!? Seems like Ubisoft is doing something fishy in the Asian market. |
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Thanks to Tyree_Cooper for all the info on this overlooked collection! It was tricky for him, but he managed to get screenshots by installing the game on a virtual machine running Windows 95. it took him half day to run it properly at 32 bit colors. The differences between this collection and the NES games include: These wallpapers appear during various loading screens. The one featuring 4, 5, and 6 bears a striking resemblance to Rockman 123's loading screen. Rockman 1 wallpaper - General change: colour palette is lighter for all 6 games - General change: all the Chinese ROMs use US ROMs except Rockman 1 |
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KOKO Capcom |
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Koko Capcom is the Korean division of Capcom and not a pirate fraud as originally thought. | |
록맨X6 The Korean X6. | |
The Pirated (or at least Questionable) PC Games |
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These games aren't official. They are complete bull, probably put together by emulators. Although they may be sold at legal stores, the market is so saturated with pirate crap that it doesn't count for much. If I can't find verification of a game's existence other than on store listing, it's usually a pirate. Also note that ALL of these games have the "Megaman" title and NOT "Rockman" in chinese letters. Coincidence? | |
Rockman 1&2 - A port of Rockmans one and two ...... maybe. The image was in their image directory, so no info was available. | |
The Power Battles - Thanks to Robert Glass (who owns this game) I know a little more about it. Apparently, it's a direct port of the Arcade game ..... including the "insert coin" thing! Confirming my suspicions that this is in fact an emulated version of the Power Battles. |
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Furthermore, according to Glass, "it has the various ROM checks as the game starts and then a Warning that This game is for use in southeast Asian countries only. Sale, export or operation outside these countries may be construed as copyright and trademark infringement (how?) and is strictly prohibited. ... " Various header lines in the ini file are: "// CPS GAME v1.0 Config File for the game Mega Man - The Power Battle (Asia) // CPS GAME v1.0 Config File" Hitting F2 brings up a diagnostic/setup screen, 1 and 2 are 1P and 2P start, 5 and 6 and 1P and 2P coin deposit, z, x and c are the 3 action buttons. Z shoots, x jumps and c swaps weapons. The game seems to run off the CD, it doesn't seem installable. The default program that runs brings up a screen with two options he can't read, the left button runs the ROM and the right option exits. I asked about copyrights and he stated that the copyright on the package (a cardboard backing is the sole artwork on the game) says "1996, 2001 CAPCOM - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED / MIRAE SOFT |
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Megaman X3 - Despite the title, this is a PC version of X4. | |
Rockman X3 - With the box art of Rockman X5. Which one could it possibly be?? Submitted by josteval@sbcglobal.net NOTICE that like Rockman Power Battles, it is also part of Capcom's "Premier collection." | |
An unlicensed game apparently containing the PC versions of X3 and X4. | |
Megaman X4 - A PC port of X4 with odd box art. | |
Rockman X4 and Dash - I have a hard time believing this is an official release. | |
Rockman X5 - Apparently a PC port of the game. There's not much information of games at these online stores, unfortunately. | |
Rockman X6 + 5 - An odd combination Back of the Box |
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Another "Premire Collection" title . Notice it is also made by Ssangyong. Possibly the best box art I've seen on one of these games. |