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3rdman
04-15-2011, 10:18 PM
The story: Back in 2005 Shanda, a Chinese electronics firm ( not as shady as it sounds: for what it's worth, they're traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange) decided the time was right for china to enter the videogame market in a serious and legitimate way. It was announced that they were going to challenge Nintendo and Sony, and develop a home console and a handheld.

They apparently test marketed the home console, the EZ Station ($800 retail?), and claimed to have had a very positive response. Then with much fanfare Shanda's handheld, known as the EZ Mini, was shown at a electronics expo in late 2005. And then.....nothing. Well almost nothing. Records seem to indicate that Shanda was forced to pull the plug on their entire video game venture due to a conflict of interest with one of their corporate partners.

So recently I friend of mine in China actually found a pair of production samples for the EZ Mini, and I bought them. They arrived today and here are my impressions:

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/P4040002-1.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/P1020084.jpg

Each unit appears brand new. They are both white, with removable plastic film still covering the screen. They each have a custom wall charger. No box was ever produced, so they came in plastic bags and soft pink foam. A small barcode sticker is on the back of the system. These appear to be enabled with both BlueTooth and WiFi, but I have not yet tested these features. There is a slot on the top, between the speakers, that accepts SD and MMC cards. The unit has a touch screen, and a small retractable stylus is included. The EZ Mini takes a second for the load screen to activate. The main menu offers games, Music, video, ebooks, and downloads. These menus appear in a combination of Chinese and English. As you can see, the EZ Mini is about the same length and thickness as a DS Lite, in it's closed position.

*note: screen protector-film has not been removed in some pics.

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17080.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17081.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17082.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17083.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17085.jpg

Shanda planned to develop 1500 (!) games which would have been downloadable from an online store, through the EZ Mini's USB port. Since the "store" never materialized, and I have no technical "hacking" experience, I assumed that actually using a Production sample of a canceled handheld to play games was out of the question. Yet much to my surprise, I quickly discovered that mine had a small amount of pre-loaded software included.

Some of the text is Chinese, but I've found a Kirby/Zelda hybrid, a beautiful medieval hack-n-slash (koei-esque), and a fun space shooter, which prompts you to hold the unit vertically, wonderswan style :) Also is a much appreciated pack a Taito classics including Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders, and many others. (the Taito games all contain the proper copy-write credentials and seem like fully authorized ports).

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17088.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17089.jpg

Everything looks surprisingly professional and it seems a real shame that Shanda didn’t get the opportunity to push things past the test phase. Some of the load screens seem incomplete and during boot-up some raw code-gibberish can be seen briefly, but otherwise things are very polished. I'm optimistic that with a bit of translation help from my friend, I can unlock more of the EZ Mini's potential. In fact I just made the menu background flip to green instead of default red.


Here's some links:
http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/portables/shanda_ez_mini.htm

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/new_handheld_straight_outta_china/

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-144912833/shanda-beats-retreat.html
3rdman
04-15-2011, 10:20 PM
one more shot of the menu for Space Invaders. There's at least 4 different unique arcade versions to play: Cabinet, table-top, etc.

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17090.jpg
dao2
04-15-2011, 11:36 PM
those do look surpingsly well made, nice find.
swlovinist
04-15-2011, 11:45 PM
Thank you for sharing, nice piece of history you have.
jcalder8
04-15-2011, 11:58 PM
Those like in great condition and even better that they have some games on them.

Nice score.
3rdman
04-16-2011, 12:10 AM
Yes, I was definitely not expecting to find games hidden in there. Delightful surprise.
swlovinist
04-16-2011, 12:17 AM
Sorry double post
Steve W
04-16-2011, 02:06 AM
There were so many handhelds announced around the release years of the DS and PSP that some more of these unreleased devices should start appearing soon.

They announced they'd have 1500 games available online at launch? I'm wondering if there was emulation involved. Either that, or you'd end up with loads of Flash games. It's hard to know, since they're a Chinese company and their country is known for its noncompliance of international copyright laws. That's possibly why it didn't take off, Chinese electronics companies don't exactly have the greatest track records. Plus, $800 for a handheld in a country where they would rather buy cheap pirate hardware than pay full price for a quality machine doesn't sound like a great business plan. Hell, if a handheld is more than the price of whatever Nintendo device is on the market at that time then that handheld is going to flounder and disappear, as history has shown.
3rdman
04-16-2011, 02:32 AM
The 800 $ was for the home console, which was marketed also as a PC. I't just a hunch, but the think the 1500 games business was more delusions of grandeur than shady emu.
NayusDante
04-16-2011, 11:15 AM
I can't see it doing terribly well in that time period. Today, however, I see a huge untapped market for something like this. If they could produce it for under $100 and let it run Android...
SparTonberry
04-17-2011, 12:13 PM
If this is a Chinese handheld, I wonder why Space Invader's menus are in Japanese. Unless they planned to distribute it there.
3rdman
04-17-2011, 12:26 PM
Ok, I think my EZ Mini has 2 original games, each in their own sub folder, then as mentioned a large pack of Taito titles. I read that before flirting with hardware development, Shanda was primarily known in China for making a hit online game called "The Legend of Mir". Perhaps that's one of these 2, I don't know.

Game #1

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17148.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17149.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17150.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17151.jpg

and Game #2.....
http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17152.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17153.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17154.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17155.jpg

I've found an article from 2004 that also mentions that Shanda had developed two new games a MMORPG and a game called "The Sign". Genre unknown.

Here's a link...
http://www.chinatechnews.com/2004/08/16/1730-dubious-shanda-still-playing-games-with-investors
3rdman
04-17-2011, 12:30 PM
If this is a Chinese handheld, I wonder why Space Invader's menus are in Japanese. Unless they planned to distribute it there.

All the Taito games each display a disclaimer (in english) stating that the games were intended only for the japanese market.


Every article I've found on the EZ Mini said that Shanda had no plans to sell there products outside of China.

I think the Taito package of games was only there for the purpose of demonstration during development and the Expo in '05 when the unit was shown to the public.
3rdman
04-17-2011, 12:30 PM
oops. Double post.
Mayhem
04-17-2011, 12:31 PM
I have to say, it is rather good in the graphics department by the looks of it...
NayusDante
04-17-2011, 01:30 PM
This would have been a fun 2D console... The resolution is obviously higher than the GBA. It's like a Chinese GP32 or something like that. How's the build quality, weight, etc? Responsive buttons and easy d-pad, or is it a piece of trash like a Popstation?
3rdman
04-17-2011, 05:30 PM
This would have been a fun 2D console... The resolution is obviously higher than the GBA. It's like a Chinese GP32 or something like that. How's the build quality, weight, etc? Responsive buttons and easy d-pad, or is it a piece of trash like a Popstation?

Hmmm, well IMO the build quality is above average, but not up to the standards of say, Nintendo. It's comfortable to hold. It has good weight for it's size. The screen is recessed a few millimeters from the shell, as to resist scratches. The D-pad works well, but I think it would be more ideal if the "A", "B" buttons could stick out slightly more. The button responsiveness is good in-game, but slow on the menu screens, but it's my understanding that this can be adjusted. I would say the screen is excellent; better in fact than my camera can convey.
ccovell
04-20-2011, 12:40 AM
It looks cool, but isn't it basically just another Chinese media player, of which there are now half a dozen?

The Taito game is definitely arcade Space Invaders DX, most likely running in MAME. I cannot conceive of it being an official Taito release.
3rdman
04-20-2011, 01:15 AM
It looks cool, but isn't it basically just another Chinese media player, of which there are now half a dozen?

The Taito game is definitely arcade Space Invaders DX, most likely running in MAME. I cannot conceive of it being an official Taito release.

Perhaps it is. But I keep thinking, conceptually it has more in common with Iphone/dsiware in terms of game delivery (download only). And that's 2005. I've been doing a bit of reading through old article about Shanda and they were clearly out of their element here. And I think that failures like this are really instructive. I think this thing, would work in 2011, provided the company behind it was a competent one.
3rdman
04-20-2011, 01:19 AM
....and here are some screen shots from the Taito bundle.

I'm not familier with this one, but it's really fun. Anyone here know it?
http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17156.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17158.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17159.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17160.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17163.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17164.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/SNC17165.jpg
3rdman
04-20-2011, 01:31 AM
And again, my take is that the Taito bundle was thrown on for demonstration purposes during the Chinese Electronics Expo in '05 when these where shown. I've seen one pic of someone playing bubble bobble. It seems shady, these Japanese titles on this Chinese thing, but possibly it doesn't reflect the actual product as it would have appeared once it was released for sale . On the other hand, it was going to be sold in China only. So who knows. The first two games in the directory are Original.
M.Buster2184
04-20-2011, 03:33 AM
Wow. Very interesting find 3rdman. Have to admit I'm jealous. Always exciting to find new unknown systems. Too bad it wasn't given a chance, who knows how it would of done against the PSP and DS.
Policenaut
05-11-2011, 07:59 PM
Congrats 3rdman for such amazing purchase.
3rdman
05-11-2011, 08:16 PM
Congrats 3rdman for such amazing purchase.

Thanks for the compliment. Just right place at the right time. A good friend in China did all the leg work.