Matsushima: it's time to unveil the mysteries behind them!

MADrigal

I am (again) trying to figure out what company actually manufactured the games of the "Game & Time" series, such as "Grab Man", "Astro Destroyers" and "Bull Fight", like this:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Unknown/GrabMan.htm

Apparently there are 2 "Game & Time" series, probably made by different manufacturers. "Game & Time" is obviously a generic name for a series of handhelds having game and time features Smile

I have read several times that the games of the "Game & Time" series (those with a "G&T" logo in a black box with cut angles) were produced by Matsushima. This is an example:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Matsushima/Apple.htm

Apparently Matsushima also produced games of the "Pop Time" games, like this:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Matsushima/Barrier.htm

On the back of one of these games, there's a copyright to another company, named "K Hattori":

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Matsushima/Savanna.htm

What I would like to understand is: is there any proof that any of those games were ACTUALLY manufactured by Matsushima?

Was Matsushima a producer of games (I mean: design and manufacturing), or was it just a factory producing games for other companies, that made the design (a sort of "sub-contractor") ?????

I own the Grab Man game, and nothing is reported about Matsushima. The only connection seem to be the "Game & TIme" name, but with different logo and font. So to me, that means nothing about the connection between Grab Man and Matsushima.

Has anyone any games from the Pop Game or "G&T" series, and they can prove that the games were made by Matsushima? Any logo on the manuals, are they made in Japan or Taiwan, or where else??

I hope this thread will help everyone to understand something about this small mystery. Smile

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kisember · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:39 am Post subject:

Here are some more input:

That is another 'Game & Time' game not listed in Matsushima section on this site:
Convoy

There are also two more game in this series

Most of the 'Matsushima' games are distributed by different vendors, so it might be tricky to find out the designer/manufacturer if it is not clearly stated somewhere. Here are a few series:
gold
super scope
plastic
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Rik · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:32 am Post subject:

All of the 'Game & Time' Matsushima games I have (like Apple, Car Race, Submarine, etc) look like this on the back:

They all have the Matsushima Kogyo Co., Ltd. sticker on the back...

Granted, it's still just a sticker so could be applied by anyone, but all of the ones I have (they are all from Japan) have this sticker on them.

I'll open one and see if there's any other markings on the inside.

Rik

MADrigal · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 2:45 am Post subject:

Thanks very much for the great replies!!!

I have often been thinking that "Grab Man" and other games of the "Game & Time" series were somehow connected to Matsushima.

Now I'm definitely sure that those games have nothing to do with Matsushima. They are made in Taiwan, they have no Matsushima sticker anywhere, there's no copyright anywhere, and the "Game & Time" logo is different to all the Matsushima games.

So, apparently Matsushima was not only the manufacturer, but also the designer and producer of the games.

Today I came to know that Matsushima merged into Seiko around 1990.

Thanks much for the precious information.

**** EDIT ****

Looking at Handheldempire now.
I have found "Bull Fight", that's from the same series as Grab Man and Astro Invaders. It's reported that it was manufactured by "Zykkor", but no other games seem to have same manufacturer.

Ever heard of this "Zykkor" company anyone?
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kisember · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:09 am Post subject:

I don't think if they share the same series, look at these pictures:

The Bull Fight has the same form factor as the Shark Attack in the last image.
It is possible that Zykkor just brand the game and released as gift or such. There are many similar thing like Pokka, Bosch,... version of Nintendo games, even Wrigley's and Energizer logos appears on games.
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MADrigal · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 4:13 pm Post subject:

Hello!

What do you know about Zykkor? Were they producers of handheld games, or was it a completely different business?

Could that be they were distributors only, or do you know of any games produced by them?

==

Grab Man and Bull Fight all belong to the same series. I know this because I owned both of them, they both had the "INNO-HIT" sticker on them and, when I checked their PCB, they were exactly the same.

Also the plastic is the same, the buttons are the same, the switches and font... everything is the same, the metal plates, the screws... everything.

And also, they're both made in Taiwan and even the engravings on the back of the game are the same.

These are pics from my Bull Fight game: http://handheldmuseum.com/Misc/InnoHitBullFight.htm

Believe me, they belong to the same series. Smile

Also the "catalogue number" matches the same criteria, that is:

SW-11 Snow White (11th game)
SB-12 Sleeping Beauty (12th game)
BF-14 Bull Fight (14th game)
AD-15 Astro Destroyer (15th game)
GM-16 Grab Man (16th game)
SR-17 Sea Rescue (17th game)
PD-21 Pandamonium (21st game)
AS-22 Astro Blitz (22nd game) *ADDED 22/02/2015 *
SK-23 Shark Attack (23rd game)
PR-24 Punch-A-Roo (24th game) *ADDED 22/02/2015 *
JM-25 Jumble (25th game)

When the code has 3 digits, ex. GM-116, this means the game has the calculator functions. Smile

All the information comes from the "usual" online museums such as Handheldmuseum and Handheldempire.

Anyway the question remains unsolved: who manufactured these cool games? Must be a Taiwanese company. What are the "famous" Taiwanese producers of handheld games?

PS: Inno-hit was a retailer of car radio's, and occasionally they sold a VERY limited amount of electronic games. I have never seen games with Inno-hit rebranding other than Grab Man and Bull Fight. NO other game companies were distributed by them.
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kisember · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 1:24 am Post subject:

I know nothing about zykkor, a quick search shows that it produces lens filters. The Bull Fight with zykkor logo is almost exactly like yours except the model number at the top is 'GBF' instead of 'BF14' and it has a logo like this. (sorry, probably this will be broken link soon)

Inno-hit also released a few other games, see this. There are a few small transparent sticker at the front and back of the boxes, and a more noticable at the edge.

I think we just have different definition of 'series'. In my iterpretation: games in a series (usually) share exactly the same form factor.

Back to the original topic, the manufacturer is still a question.
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MADrigal · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 1:30 am Post subject:

MADrigal · Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 5:50 pm Post subject:

PS: looking at the Shark Attack sprites, and the buttons (shield/shoot) I am reasonably sure that it's the SAME EXACT game as Bull Fight, with only graphics changes.
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kisember · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:18 am Post subject:

It is common in handheld games to use the same 'gameplay' with different sprites.
I think each game of this series has the same game pattern and form factor too.
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MADrigal · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:21 am Post subject:

Oh sure it's very common indeed!
And I know this by experience. I have programmed all the games from VTech Time & Fun series, and sometimes you could even find 3 games with the same gameplay, but different casing, series and LCD.
Also Mattel D&D and Masters of Universe, same thing
Or Elektronika games, 1 only gameplay for 20 games
So many... Smile

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MADrigal · Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:22 am Post subject:

A new version of the Grab Man Simulator has been released!

And new version of Pac Man (Tomy) and Tron (Tomy) have been released as well!

URL: http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/

Enjoy! Smile

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Rik · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:08 pm Post subject:

Out of curiosity, does Grab Man and Tomy Pac-Man play the same? I've noticed they have the same screen (although one is VFD, the other LCD), so I figure the game play is probably the same, but never verified it...

Like, can you only the dots going in one direction on Grab Man?

(Ooo, feature request: Cheat mode on Tomy Pac-Man that makes Pac-Man eat the dots he crosses over no matter what direction you are going... Smile

Just to make it like _real_ Pac-Man.)

MADrigal · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 12:25 am Post subject:

Yes they have the same gameplay but the CPU is different. I suppose the Grab Man manufacturer cloned parts of the CPU from Pac Man and added/changed many things, keeping just the "basic" structure of the former and changing everything else.

Grab Man has time and alarm, that Pac Man hasn't.

The lives panel, and th "Stage n. xx" panel are different.

The score panel is made of 6 digits on Grab Man, and 4 in Pac Man, so does every bonus score you get, for example:
dot: 2 points (Pac Man), 5 points (Grab Man)
power pill: 50 points (Pac Man), 100 points (Grab Man)
cherry: 100-400 in Pac man, 200 to 2000 in Grab Man
ghosts: 100-400 in Pac Man, 200 to 400 in Grab Man

Music and sound fx differ in the two games (this means different software)

Intermissions are different (the blinking "good" label), also in Grab Man you get 1000 bonus points when the intermission occurs

Bonus lives: one in Pac Man at 2000 points, even if you have 3 lives, you'll get a bonus one. In Grab Man you can never have more than 3 lives, and you'll get a bonus one at 5000 and then at every 20000.

In Pac Man if you get to 9,999 points, the score resets to zero. In Grab Man the game is over if you get 999,999 points.

You can pause Grab Man. When you do so, 1,000 points are subtracted.
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MADrigal · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 5:31 pm Post subject: