I get today a Peter Penguin (Prototype?)

[MattyXB]

Hello Tempest, or someone else who know about Prototypes. I get today a Peter Penguin from Home Vision. Normal is the black case with the picture lable and only the text Home Vision 4. But this one is totally diffrent. White Home Vision Case and only a small sticker. Here some pictures:

 

Case Front:

Inside Front:

Inside Back:

 

It has an extra ROM at the back, is this a Prototype?

 

It looks like that something is under the white sticker, but I can't read it. And it look like there is something on the front ROM. And it has the same number as the ITT Family Games Peter Penguin.

 

Home Vision: 554 373 38

ITT Family : 554-37 338

 

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: MattyXB ]

[Atarian7]

Where do you find this stuff?

[MattyXB]

Ebay. But tell noone.

[Marco(2)]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattyXB:

Hello Tempest, or someone else who know about Prototypes. I get today a Peter Penguin from Home Vision. Normal is the black case with the picture lable and only the text Home Vision 4. But this one is totally diffrent. White Home Vision Case and only a small sticker. ]

---

 

Actually, the white Homevison case is the regular release. The ones you are talking about are the cheap releases of #4, #6 and #24, that are very common in Germany. The "real" Homevision games in the white cases with the Homevision logo molded into the back are a lot harder to find. I can't see in the pics of your case has indeed the logo on the back tho.

 

I don't know if this is a prototype or not. I don't know either what the relation is between ITT and Homevision. IIRC some of the ITT titles are (pirated?) Homevision games, but since many of the Homevision games have not been found/dumped yet, that's difficult to confirm.

 

No matter what it turns out to be, it's an interesting find

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

 

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: Marco ]

[Marco(2)]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattyXB:

Home Vision: 554 373 38

ITT Family : 554-37 338

---

 

That is not a regular Homevision serial number. It should look something like VCS831xx

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[MattyXB]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marco:

The "real" Homevision games in the white cases with the Homevision logo molded into the back are a lot harder to find. I can't see in the pics of your case has indeed the logo on the back tho.

---

 

Yes, on the back is the Home Vision Logo too. But is Peter Penguin too release in the white case with Picture Lable?

 

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: MattyXB ]

[Marco(2)]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattyXB:

Yes, on the back is the Home Vision Logo too. But is Peter Penguin too release in the white case with Picture Lable?

---

 

*If* Peter Penguin is indeed a Homevision game, it was probably released in a white case, yes.

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[jahfish]

i've seen it on ebay ... and i'm quite happy my connection broke down just before the end

 

 

nice find. good price!

 

matty is a cool guy. he infected his mother with atarimania that much that she's now even bidding for him through the phone when he's not home

 

 

 

the cart seems to me some kind of either loaner carts given out for gametesting or press reviews, or it might be a test cart comming from the manufacturer that was sent to the distributor.

for the origin i am not sure: i think homevision was also imported by quelle. somehow the small sticker reminds me those S.S./quelle "protos".

 

 

the only company ever mentioned is on the homevision copy cart, a belgian company named GEM. i've done an intensive research about them on english and french websites and i found out: nothing!

 

 

has anybody ever seen ads from homevision?

no matter if germany or australia.

[MattyXB]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jahfish:

nice find. good price!

 

matty is a cool guy. he infected his mother with atarimania that much that she's now even bidding for him through the phone when he's not home

 

 

---

 

I have tell her before I go, and she has bid at the last moment. Thanks that you not bid more before. My mother has wonder ahy I bid so high, because nothing happen at the end.

 

Its very sad when you computer crash before you will bid. One time in the past 3 minutes before an auction ends ebay was down. 6 minutes later ebay go again, but the auction was over. I have get the games later. But its sad at all if this happen. I hate this too.

 

And for me it is too a Prototype or something like that.

 

But I will know, what Tempest (The Master of Prototypes) mean to this.

[Tempest]

I honestly don't know if that's a prototype. It very well could be, but if ti is it's a final release. If it was a WIP they wouldn't have solder an RF shield over the chip. I don't know enough about PAL protos to give you a firm answer.

 

Tempest

[MattyXB]

Ok, Thanks. Then I count this as Prototype.

 

It look so strange that this is for me a Prototype. I have never seen one like this.

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Matty:

The chip at the back is not an extra ROM, but a 74LS04 inverter chip. It is needed, if the game comes on an EPROM chip instead of a ROM chip. What's also strange about this cart are the four jumpers at the front side. Without knowing what pins they connect it's hard to tell what they are for, but my guess would be that they let you choose between 2K and 4K game and between ROM and EPROM chips.

 

The serial number really looks like an ITT number. Maybe this cart is an evaluation copy for ITT to approve before Homevision starts the production. Or maybe Jahfish is right, and the game was sent to Telematch for review.

 

Marco:

My theory is that ITT was officially distributing Homevision games in Germany under their own name. IIRC ITT cartridges have been found where there was a Homevision label under the ITT label.

 

I also think that at least some of the games were programmed by Homevision too, maybe even in request by ITT. Look at the two Pumuckl games for example (the ROMs are known as Zoo Fun and Farmyard Fun). These games feature the main character and even the title music of a populat German children TV series at the time. It wouldn't make much sense for a non-German company to base a game on this, and ITT seems to have had an official license for Pumuckl games. At least I have heard about ITT advertisements for Pumuckl games.

 

But if you look at the Zoo Fun game, you can clearly see that is was written on the base of the Panda Chase source code. For example if you loose a life in Zoo Fun, you are shown the number of remaining Pandas. But while the screen display is quite similar in the two games, the gameplay is very different. So it can't just be a simple hack. And AFAIK Panda Chase never was released by ITT, only by Homevision.

 

And while there still are some holes in the Homevision release list, there also are some obscure PAL games, like Clown Downtown or Parachute, which are unaccounted for. It might be possible that these were created by Homevision as well.

 

I'm not sure if Homevision also sold pirated games, but there still are those German label Frogger carts in the Homevision style cartridges. And if Parker Germany really had Homevision build some carts for them, it would seem unlikely that Homevison was a pirate company.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eckhard Stolberg:

At least I have heard about ITT advertisements for Pumuckl games.

---

Yes, there where some ads in Telematch.

 

quote

But if you look at the Zoo Fun game, you can clearly see that is was written on the base of the Panda Chase source code. For example if you loose a life in Zoo Fun, you are shown the number of remaining Pandas.   But while the screen display is quite similar in the two games, the gameplay is very different. So it can't just be a simple hack. And AFAIK Panda Chase never was released by ITT, only by Homevision.

You're right, according to CloneSpy, Panda Chase and Zoo Fun are about 50% identical.

[MattyXB]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eckhard Stolberg:

I also think that at least some of the games were programmed by Homevision too, maybe even in request by ITT. Look at the two Pumuckl games for example (the ROMs are known as Zoo Fun and Farmyard Fun). These games feature the main character and even the title music of a populat German children TV series at the time. It wouldn't make much sense for a non-German company to base a game on this, and ITT seems to have had an official license for Pumuckl games. At least I have heard about ITT advertisements for Pumuckl games.

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

---

 

I think Peter Penguin is too a Pumuckl game. Because he is on the lable from the ITT game.

 

And I think I have seen an add (or sticker) from ITT with Pumuckl on Jah Fish's site. But the sticker site don't work in the moment from Jah's site.

[Rick Weis]

i have a homevision cart Parachute in a white case...(and instructions)

 

 

Take care,

 

Rick

[jahfish]

ok, ok, i know you all want to see my sticker

 

 

i have the same one with perry rhodan also

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattyXB:

I think Peter Penguin is too a Pumuckl game. Because he is on the lable from the ITT game.

---

Hm, but then why did ITT advertise the games as Pumuckl I and Peter Penguin (not something like Pumuckl II) on the same ad in TeleMatch 7/83 page 15?

 

BTW:Peter Penguin is aka Brick Kick, and both games seem to have stolen large parts of their code from the original Pac Man.

[MattyXB]

Look here on my Peter Penguin site. On the ITT version is Pumuckl and that this is from the Pumuckl Serie. This is no sticker, this is 100% on the lable.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattyXB:

Look here on my

Peter Penguin

site. On the ITT version is Pumuckl and that this is from the Pumuckl Serie. This is no sticker, this is 100% on the lable.

---

Ok, I see. You mean it's from a Pumuckl series, not a game where Pumuckl is acting in, right? But why did they call the other game Pumuckl I?

 

BTW: After having a quick look at the source codes, I have found enough evidence to say:

 

Brick Kick (aka PeterPenguin) is a (very deep) hack of Pac-Man (based on the original NTSC version).

 

Zoo Fun and Panda Chase share are a lot of code too, but are not hacked. So whoever made the second game had the source code of the first available.

 

[ 04-20-2002: Message edited by: Thomas Jentzsch ]

[Eckhard Stolberg]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Thomas Jentzsch:

But why did they call the other game Pumuckl

I

?

---

 

Farmyard Fun also has Pumuckl and the title melody from the TV series in it. Maybe ITT planned to release this game as Pumuckl II, but stopped to produce video games before the game was ready?

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[Thomas Jentzsch]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eckhard Stolberg:

Farmyard Fun also has Pumuckl and the title melody from the TV series in it. Maybe ITT planned to release this game as Pumuckl II, but stopped to produce video games before the game was ready?

---

So is Farmyard Fun a prototype? Or why does it have the Pumuckl music? Where does the name come from?

 

BTW: The game displays 281 lines and the colors look like PAL. Weird!

 

[ 04-20-2002: Message edited by: Thomas Jentzsch ]

[MattyXB]

I know Farmyard Fun only as the Quelle game Tom's Eierjagd. And on the lable is too Pumuckl. I own this.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Yes, but games are 99% identical. The only difference are the number of lines they produce:

 

- Farmyard Fun 281

- Tom's Eierjagd (=Egghunt) 326