Super A'Can - Super Color

[CosmicMonkey]

If you don't know what a Super A'can is, check this (http://www.vanillaicemedia.com/acan/acan.htm).

Now, being a Taiwanese original games system, this isn't exactly the most common console in the world. As for finding games, that's even harder. These things dont seem to escape Taiwan. (Except for a load of systems that got sent to the US, that no-one brought.)

Ok, so now we have this
http://assemblergames.com/images/acan/acancolor1.jpg

http://www.assemblergames.com/

It's a 32X style unit for the A'Can. Surely the most rare thing in the world. Ever. As for software.........

Check the specs though, the standard A'can is impressive, this is amazing.

[Blanka789]

So what generation machine was the A'can? Any system specs?

[CosmicMonkey]

Released - 1995.
Processors - 16-bit Motorola 68000 @ 10.6Mhz & 8-bit 6502 @ 3.58Mhz
Graphics - 32,768 colours

And that's all the info that's known on the A'Can main unit. Add that to the specs for the Super Color and you have a very impressive system -



1. Enhanced Graphics Processing Ability

§ Lets you use up to 10 separate backgrounds
§ Simultaneous enlargement, reduction, rotation, and crystal ball effects on two backgrounds.
§ Character definition up to 640 animation units
§ Texture mapping and shadow drawing capability

2. Enhanced Operating System

High speed DSP: 28MHz (14Mps)
System VRAM increased to 256 bytes
3. Enhanced Geometrical Processing

3-D triangular flat-image paster (sic) for greater depth-of-field
Maximum calculation up to 2.25 million (750,000 polygonall / districts)
4. Enhanced Sound and Language Functions

Additional set of stereo ADPCM language capability?



But as for the actual A'Can itself there's no emulation, no ROM dumps, nothing other than those vague specs.

See what I mean, this is really, truly rare.

[slownerveaction]

So, in a nutshell... its capabilities are like a combination of the best of the Genesis and SNES? That's pretty schweeeeet.

If it's really based around a 68000 and a 6502, it shouldn't be difficult for a skilled emu programmer to whip up something for it. Finding and dumping the ROMs would be a bigger challenge, I'd guess.

[Blanka789]

That's pretty sweet, it looks like it could take genesis carts. Did it?

[Ed Oscuro]

That's pretty sweet, it looks like it could take genesis carts. Did it?
Of course not.

Anyhow, I'm looking at the data. Holy crap that is a huge palette - is that the possible number of colors selectable for a palette, as opposed to the working palette? I'm thinking it must be; N64 era machines only had that much (iirc), and the games I've seen on it certainly didn't make use of that many colors.

[goatdan]

I have a standard A'Can, as well as one game for it. I have been on and off seeking games for it for the last three or four years, but mostly there aren't that good of offers.

For as rare as they are stateside, I had a friend who I traded a lot of stuff with who was living in Asia. He got me a bunch of great stuff cheap including my Sega made Samba maraccas. He also got me my A'Can games. He told me that he sees them once in a great while, but they usually don't go for more than five US dollars because no one wants them.

I have a platformer. It's much like Sonic, except you're a dude with a baseball bat. It isn't very fun, but the system definitely was powerful. The main unit is probably a split between the SNES and Geni.

Then again, considering the release date it was rather far behind the times, I guess. Not too shabby.

I have some extra A'Can main units if anyone is looking for one. There's a long story behind how I got them, and they aren't complete -- missing the screws that hold them together, for some reason -- but I have about four or five left.

[Ed Oscuro]

He told me that he sees them once in a great while, but they usually don't go for more than five US dollars because no one wants them.
Heh. How long ago was that?

[goatdan]

He told me that he sees them once in a great while, but they usually don't go for more than five US dollars because no one wants them.
Heh. How long ago was that?

Two years ago.

I was actually going to trade two more games with him, but they only wanted to sell them in sets with A'Cans. Considering I was going to be trading about $25.00 worth of stuff for them... well, I was okay with that.

Unfortunately, he got transferred to another place and we lost touch :(

[mills]

that system looks very impressive, I would love to try one out.

[poloplayr]

Have been thinking of picking up an ACan for quite some time...looks cool.

[dojosky]

Yea i want to buy one and collect for it !!!! :D

[vintagegamecrazy]

Definately cool info, thanks for sharing that with us. It would be cool to come up with a list of carts for the console, a database section would be cool too.

[rbudrick]

It would be cool to come up with a list of carts for the console, a database section would be cool too.

Man, that would be a feat. Someone would have to be very dedicated. Maybe if someone came across some brochures or ads?

My interestr is certainly piqued. I know I've heard of the name "A'Can" before, but I don't recall ever hearing even what it was. Very cool info. Thanks!

-Rob

[goatdan]

It would be cool to come up with a list of carts for the console, a database section would be cool too.

Here is a site with some more information on it, including screenshots:

http://www.vanillaicemedia.com/acan/acan.htm

Here's a screenshot of the game I have from there:

http://www.vanillaicemedia.com/acan/photo/f004e.jpg

I was told by the person who I got the games from that he believed that 12 came out. I had a list of all of them from him at one point, but I don't know where it went. Of them, the RPG (Son of the Demon) is probably the rarest, and the puzzle game (game F001 on that site) is easily the most common.

Oh, and to add to this, I seriously doubt that 32X-like thing was ever released. Since the console only had a total of 12 games, I doubt that thing ever went beyond prototype stage.

[ClubNinja]

Everytime this system comes up, I feel the need to point out that I'd do all sorts of dirty things for a complete console and a nice copy of Sango Fighter.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Anyone know the power supply voltage? I just got my console and it doesn't tell you what it requires. Thanks

[max 330 mega]

WTF! i totally remember having a shareware version of sango fighter back when i was like... 6 or 7 years old on our computer @_@
now my head hurts and im trying to figure out how the hell a demo for a game like that ever wound up on a forum where my dad would have downloaded it.
lol im surprised after 10 to 11 years that just that character select screenshot made me remember having the demo

[ClubNinja]

WTF! i totally remember having a shareware version of sango fighter back when i was like... 6 or 7 years old on our computer @_@
now my head hurts and im trying to figure out how the hell a demo for a game like that ever wound up on a forum where my dad would have downloaded it.
lol im surprised after 10 to 11 years that just that character select screenshot made me remember having the demo

The Sango Fighter PC demo was fairly common in its day. I, however, may be the only person who ordered the full versions of Sango Fighter and Sango Fighter 2 back then, which took about three months to arrive from China. They were so awesome.

[Blanka789]

Did they ever experiment with a CD-rom add-on? That would seem like a more logical step than the Super Color, just like Sega CD came out before the 32X.

[goatdan]

Sorry to everyone that I sent one to and haven't updated yet...

It should use a Genesis 1 power supply. That's what I've been using, and it works fine :)

Any standard RF / composite hookups will also work.

[CosmicMonkey]

Did they ever experiment with a CD-rom add-on? That would seem like a more logical step than the Super Color, just like Sega CD came out before the 32X.

Not as far as anyone knows. I'd have assumed they'd go for CD too. But strangely, there is some sort of expansion socket on the side of the A'can. Maybe CD Rom was initially planned during the dev phase?

[Blanka789]

So, id I'm thinking right, the A'can, Super Color, and if there ever was one being developed, would have been more powerful than the PSX?

[goatdan]

Guys, they made less than 20 games for the system. I'm pretty sure that they weren't stupid enough to release a CD system add on and a 32X-like thing for it too.

I've never had confirmation of any of those things, except for having seen the back of the box. It is probably like the SNES Playstation -- announced, but never released.

[TurboGenesis]

Where in Asia is a good place to possibly find these consoles? My mother is going to Vietnam next month and I had asked her to locate one of these while she is shopping about.

[Pete Rittwage]

Is it possible that it's a pirate MegaDrive with different cart port and hacked games or is this original?

[Pete Rittwage]

I guess not. Neat. Hard system to collect for, I guess. :)

http://darkwatcher.psxfanatics.com/console/acan.htm