Bit Corp carts dumped, incl. (finally!) NTSC Snail Vs Squirrel

[Ballblaɀer]

I've hunted down some pretty unusual 2600 stuff over recent years of collecting. Much of what I focus on these days are international releases, and lately I have a special affinity for 2600 stuff from SE Asia. There are still unusual and unknown things to be found, somehow, even after all these years. Some things aren't found because they're legitimately scarce, some things are hard to track down due to language and other similar barriers, and still other things remain hidden unless some nut like me comes along and spends far too much to import them from far-off lands.

 

Bit Corporation was a trademark of developer/publisher 普澤股份有限公司 (Pu Ze Company, Limited), founded in 1980 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to manufacturing clone consoles, they produced nine original games for the 2600 between 1982 and 1983, as well as four ColecoVision games and a handful of titles for the Famicom/NES. While their 2600 titles are comparatively unknown in North America, the rest of the globe is more familiar with them; Bit Corporation licensed and otherwise distributed their products to numerous countries over multiple continents.

 

Thanks to Bit Corp's licensing agreement with CCE in Brazil, NTSC versions of all nine games were already dumped and available... but CCE re-programmed them with their own logo/copyright, so they were not the "original" releases. Last year I dumped a Bit Corporation 8-in-1 NTSC multi-cart. Before then, ROM dumps of only three of Bit Corp's nine games were available in their original NTSC format. After I shared my dump of the multi-cart, one Bit Corp game remained unavailable in its original, unaltered form: Snail Against Squirrel. No NTSC cartridge from Bit Corp containing this game was known to exist.

 

I'm very glad today to be able to share a previously unknown -- and very odd! -- 3-in-1 (?!) NTSC cartridge featuring... Snail Against Squirrel!

 

Bit Corporation - CN407 - 3-in-1.zip

 

 

 

The first two games on the cartridge are byte-for-byte matches with the known Bit Corp NTSC versions of Space Tunnel and Bobby is Going Home. Snail appears to be identical to the CCE release apart from the copyright -- it would be great if someone with more time than me right now could confirm. Regardless, by dumping and sharing this ROM, the known library of NTSC games from Bit Corporation is now complete!

 

A few notes:

 

- The title on Bit Corporation boxed games and standalone carts (PAL) is "Snail Against Squirrel", but this new cart's label reads "Snail On Squirrel". My guess is that it was shortened for space/design reasons only; the game's title also appears as "Snail On Squirrel" on a Bit Corp sales flyer for their nine games.

- Odd that they used artwork for Space Tunnel and Bobby is Going Home on the label, but they used a screenshot for Snail Against Squirrel. One wonders why they didn't use the SaS artwork here.

- The cartridge part number (CN407) implies that other similarly numbered NTSC carts (CN401, CN402...) may exist. The hunt never ends!

 

AS A BONUS HOLIDAY GIFT...

 

Bit Corporation - CP405 - 4-in-1.zip

 

 

 

I've also dumped and shared (PAL) Bit Corp cart CP405 -- this contains three new ROMS:

 

- Laser Blaser (PGP223) -- a hack of Home Vision's "World End" or... maybe vice versa?; finally (among other changes), you can play this game without listening to the 13-second intro tune every time you reset!

- Turtle Race (PGP211) -- a hack of Activision's "Freeway"; unusual in that it's both a significant graphics hack (guide your turtle past sailboats... sailboats that make motor noises...) AND an audio hack (Freeway's horns are removed).

- Snow Hunter (PGP225) -- a hack of Home Vision's "Ski Hunt" or again... maybe vice versa? -- all the non-player, non-playfield graphics are slightly different.

 

Eskimo Jump (PGP224) is identical to the known ROM "Frostbite (Unknown) (PAL).bin" but is included for completeness' sake.

 

Season's greetings to all who are celebrating!

Edited December 25, 2020 by Ballblaɀer

[+Al_Nafuur]

@Ballblaɀer

 

?

 

[Tempest]

There's a well known bug in Ski Hunt that causes the game to become unplayable after a while, does this version have the problem?

 

http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/vcs/26skihunt.html

[Ballblaɀer]

@Al_Nafuur - ? ?

 

@Tempest - I tested for that (P0 collisions off, emulation at 1000%), and Snow Hunter does *not* have that display bug... but then again, I don't think Mountain Man (ITT Family) has it either.

[Supergun]

Thank you very much for your relentless pursuit of these overseas games and especially for your additional research and information on Bit Corp. And thank you for contributing them to the community as well.

[Omegamatrix]

On 12/24/2020 at 4:38 PM, Ballblaɀer said:

Snail appears to be identical to the CCE release apart from the copyright -- it would be great if someone with more time than me right now could confirm.

I took a quick look and yes, logo is the only difference. That doesn't diminish it's importance in any way though. Great find!

 

Like you've pointed out, I'm very certain too that other NTSC carts probably exist given that your cart is CN407. Ballblazer, what game do you get when both switches are in the left position? Did that dump match one of the other switch position rom dumps?

[Ballblaɀer]

5 minutes ago, Omegamatrix said:

what game do you get when both switches are in the left position? Did that dump match one of the other switch position rom dumps?

I was not able to get the dumper (or my 2600) to recognize anything in the double-left switch position. If I was confident that I could get the cart open without damaging the label I would certainly try -- I'd love to see what's going on inside a 3-in-1.

[Omegamatrix]

1 minute ago, Ballblaɀer said:

I was not able to get the dumper (or my 2600) to recognize anything in the double-left switch position. If I was confident that I could get the cart open without damaging the label I would certainly try -- I'd love to see what's going on inside a 3-in-1.

Yeah I'd leave it shut then. I don't think anything is connected there electrically.

[Omegamatrix]

You know they did some great stuff with Turtle Race. It looks like the Activision logo was hacked to be some shapes, and then the routine was changed from using GRPx to PFx to display them across the whole screen.

 

[Rom Hunter]

Thanks for dumping these, Ballblazer!

Great to have all the Bit Corp. originals now in NTSC format.

The new ones are added to the V17 collection (replaced the Unknown Frostbite with Eskimo Jump).

 

Love Turtle Race.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Rom Hunter

[Rom Hunter]

On 12/25/2020 at 2:16 AM, Al_Nafuur said:

@Ballblaɀer

 

?

 

Slightly related, but different cart.

Belongs here:
http://www.atarimania.com/pgelstsoft.awp?system=2&type=G&publisher=3281&step=200

[CaptainBreakout]

Does anyone know how Homevision and Bit Corp. were related?  (If this information is already available elsewhere, please forgive me I just really like these games. )

 

An NTSC version of Lilly Adventure was recently found and dumped as well. I thought this was Bit Corp, since Bobby always seemed to be, and  Lilly sure looks a lot like Bobby.  Does anyone know if it's the same programmer, or was this hacked and reworked by another party?

 

Thread for the Lilly find here:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rom Hunter]

6 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Does anyone know how Homevision and Bit Corp. were related?  (If this information is already available elsewhere, please forgive me I just really like these games. )

 

An NTSC version of Lilly Adventure was recently found and dumped as well. I thought this was Bit Corp, since Bobby always seemed to be, and  Lilly sure looks a lot like Bobby.  Does anyone know if it's the same programmer, or was this hacked and reworked by another party?

Plate Mania, Tanks War, Cosmic War and Teddy Apple from Home Vision are Bit Corp originals.

The never released (but reviewed and ad shown) Jacky Jump from Home Vision is a Bit Corp original.

Lilly Adventure looks gameplay wise a lot like Bobby is Going Home, but that's the only connection so far.

However: traces of a Bit Corp logo have been found in Ultravision's Karate, and there's a lead that Condor Attack is a Bit Corp original as well.