creatiVision

[MADrigal]

Hello, my first post here.

Hello everybody. My name's Luca Antignano, and some of you might know me as "MADrigal", the author of over 35 Game & Watch and other handhelds simulators.

I recently decided to put my old CreatiVEmu website back online (it was offline since 2003).

The site was originally designed to distribute the creatiVision emulator, named CreatiVEmu, but unfortunately my friend Roberto, the author, decided to never release it to the public. So the site simply became a sort of "informations repository" for cV fans with tons of articles and scanned manuals.

The site is at: http://www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu/

At this point I'm making a 100% brand new site design, and added a lot of new stuff. I'm planning to release the new site next week-end. In the meantime I'm trying to add more stuff to the site. I still lack scans from a few manuals, boxes and cartridges, especially infos regarding the "obscure" items.

With the new site, I'll also release my personal "unofficial" version of the FunnyMu emulator, with tons of bug-fixes, better sound quality, configurable, with graphics interface and compatible with all existing ROMs.

I'll also release all the ROMs I dumped in the past years and 2 BIOSes (one for creatiVision and the other for FunVision).

I invite all people having informations, articles, hardware, software on creatiVision, Wizzard, Rameses and Funvision to contact me at: lucantignano AT gmail DOT com.

Also, I have found a few "mistakes" and missings in the Digital Press creatiVision section. I'll list them below:

- all Japanese games having "strange" names as "Submarine battle" or "Out Chase". I believe the names are wrong. Well maybe they are the correct translation from Japanese but please notice that th Japanese releases had the same "joystick overlays" as the International creatiVision releases.
If you have a "G-2" Japanese cart ("Out chase" in your site), you'll find that it has "Auto Chase" in overlays. So that should be the correct translation
This way:
"Submarine battle" -> "Air/Sea Attack"
"Out chase" -> "Auto Chase"
"Tank battle" -> "Tank attack"
etc...

- Basic http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=887 there exist THREE revisions of BASIC (2 in 1982 and 1 in 1983) which I *personally* had on loan at my place.
I also dumped them but had little success with the 1982 versions, probably they were dumped incorrectly. I have the ROMs but they don't work very fine on emulators :-(
All 3 versions have black screen and green text. One of the 1982 versions has "light green" font instead of the "normal green" one (or at least it appears like this on emulators).
One of the 1982 basics showed something like "V1" on title screen, (not 100% sure of this, I don't remember now), and the other "1982".

- Car Action (Japanese G-11) http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=2838 never heard of this one. Could anyone provide more infos or pictures please?

- cassette module and rubber keyboard were both released and sold in Italy, both with "Zanussi" printing (Zanussi=italian distributor for creatiVision in 1982-1984). I should picture them sometimes soon, my friend owns them personally :-)

- Crazy Moonie is not mentionned but does exist. Dieter Koenig owns it and it's a clone of Crazy Pucker (pacman instead of chicken in the labyrinth).
Moonie, pucker, chewy and chicky all have cat. 8001.
Not 100% sure of this all, I'll ask Dieter more infos. :-)

- Crazy Pac (japanese) http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=619 is crazy chicky. check picture at:

- Deep Sea Adventure DSW has catalogue Y-1625; FunVision Y 2625.

- Ga... http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=892 might (probably) be "Galaxy Fighter", which appears to be a repackage of Planet Defender.

- Parallel IO module DSE release has catalogue Y-1606

- Mouse Puzzle appears to be released in 1982 not 1983

- Sonic Invader DSW release http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=608 has NO catalogue number, since it was given for free with the Wizzard console. Catalogue number never appears neither on box and manual.

- Stone Age http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=2801 - I had Dieter Koenig sent me a screenshot of it. It's been released in 1983 (console boot message shows "1983") and the game is actually a clone of Pengo.
I can provide screenshot if you need it. I should also dump the cart sometime soon, so I'll presumably be able to run it on the FunnyMu emulator. :-)

- Tennis http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=2803 catalogue number is 8004

- "Unknown title" game at http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=621 is actually Planet Defender in Japanese edition, cat. # G-5
I also discussed this with Winne Forster himself.
Picture:


Please take your time to check what I wrote, and feel free to contact me anytime, so I'll also show you my full database of infos. :-)

[NESaholic]

Welcome to the forums MADrigal first of all. Second, it's great to see people get back into it again. Great info you got there, looking forward to read/ try more of your stuff in the future.

[slapdash]

Also, I have found a few "mistakes" and missings in the Digital Press creatiVision section. I'll list them below:

- all Japanese games having "strange" names as "Submarine battle" or "Out Chase". I believe the names are wrong. Well maybe they are the correct translation from Japanese but please notice that th Japanese releases had the same "joystick overlays" as the International creatiVision releases.
If you have a "G-2" Japanese cart ("Out chase" in your site), you'll find that it has "Auto Chase" in overlays. So that should be the correct translation

Well, I think it should give the name from the box too, with a note that it is "also known as". The funny thing is, "Out chase" doesn't make any sense at all. Even the Japanese title is "Auto Chase", just phoneticized.

- Crazy Pac (japanese) is crazy chicky.

The Japanese title is phoneticized as Crazy Paku, and Paku is surely "Pac" as in "Pac-Man".

As an English site, Japanese titles present difficulties, but for accuracy, I think we should give as many as possible:

1) Japanese text
2) phoneticization/pronunciation
3) translation
4) "also known as"

Trying to pick just one thing or another can be misleading, or at least incomplete.

[MADrigal]

AFAIK Paku means "eat" in Japanese, and the English phonetics should be "puck" not "pac" (in fact the original name is "Puck Man", it became "Pac Man" in USA due to the similarity to "fuck man".)

The translation should be "crazy eating"...

By the way I agree. The "aka" method should be more correct

But the most important thing is: if you use "pac" (phoneticized paku") why don't you also use the "phoneticized" names for "submarine battle"? "Submarine battle" sounds much as a "translation" for me. And, being a translation, "submarine" could also be translated as "air/sea".
Same as "attack" and "battle", might have the same meaning in Japanese.

So what's the solution of this riddle?

[slapdash]

Right; I actually meant that "Pac" is more of a translation/AKA. The trick is, in this case, not translating literally, but to meaning, where "Pac" applies.

What I mean about phoneticization is just as a pronunciation guide... If the name was "Submarine Battle" in katakana, then that would be the translation. And technically, "submarine" can NOT be translated as "air/sea", because "sub-" means under, i.e. not in the air. :-)

And like I said, the only real "solution" is multiple titles, each in tune with a different kind of accuracy... To REALLY be accurate, you'd have to give variations between box, box spine, game, instructions, overlays, etc... Oy.

[MADrigal]

I understand your point of view, though I don't agree 100% of it

If the actual translation/phonetics is "crazy paku" (crazy is "written as it's pronounced, and paku is the japanese verb)... well that should be Crazy Paku. Stop. Otherwise you're adding a "aka" inside of a translation...

My opinion is "Crazy Paku" AKA "Crazy Pac", though the game actually is "Crazy Chicky".

But again... AKA="also known as"... who else knows it as "pac" since the game is actually "paku"?

I believe the problem with Japanese translation/phoneticisms/aka will never be actually solved

Now I read your name... Russ Perry Jr... this reminds me very much about the Atari 2600 scene. I take the chance to congratulate you for all you've done for us Atarian fans

Take care.

MAD

[slapdash]

Well, with this particular example, you're taking a very literal angle to translation, which is generally not the way that makes for good translation. The game, being a Pac-Man clone, was obviously titled after Pac-Man, therefore translating it as "Crazy Pac" is entirely appropriate. There will obviously be games were the intention won't be as obvious, but where it is...

But, despite the difference in opinion (hey, let's resolve it by adding ANOTHER title category -- literal translation vs intended translation! :-), you're welcome, though I'm not sure I've really done that much for Atarians. When it comes to the 2600 Connection, Tim Duarte deserves much more credit than I do, and my big game list got overshadowed by Digital Press a long time ago (though I was good competition for the VGR list until he added rarities).

[MADrigal]

A quick reply.

The new site is ready at www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu/

I also released the "FunnyMu" emulator, v0.44 "unofficial by MADrigal".

The downloads page also has the BIOSes, ROMs and a very useful GUI named "CreatiVe-UI" for use with FunnyMu 0.44.

Still a few bugs to fix... next days...

[MADrigal]

Hello I have some news regarding the Japanese translations of a few CV games.

Thanks to a friend of mine, who's very good in translating Japanese, I added the following infos to my creatiVision database. I showed him the pics available in the page http://www.tv-gamekan.com/creatv.html and this is what he's been able to read:

"SABUMARIN" (Submarine) is Air/Sea Attack
"O-TO CHEISU" (Auto Chase)
"KURE-JI PAGGU" (Crazy Paku) is Crazy Chicky
"PORISU JAMPU" (Police Jump)
"SONIKKU INBE-DA-" (Sonic Invader)
"TANKU BATORU" (Tank Battle) is Tank Attack

Unfortunately he couldn't translate the "Planet Defender" box accurately, since the JPG image is very tiny.

All infos are now reported in my database list at http://www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu/releases.php

[MADrigal]

a quick news.
I just received 5 boxed carts from Australia, and I scanned boxes, manuals etc, and put them on my website :9

Games are:
- BASIC first issue from 1982!!!! This means that ta-dah! cart has 3 4KByte EEPROMS, and it's quite different to the 1983 version I also have dumped. I'll have it dumped (and emulated) within a few days - also manual is slightly different and reports the "first edition" writing
- Tennis (Dick Smith edition), having different bkground graphics
- Planet Defender
- Auto Chase
- Sonic Invader

All manuals/boxes etc can be downloaded from my site: www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu/releases.php ("releases" page)

[MADrigal]

A *great* news! I finally got a scan from a German catalogue depicting the game "Skiing" and marking it with catalogue number as "8007".

This doesn't mean that the game was actually released (I still never met anyone actually *owning* it) but this adds another piece of info to cV story!

1. Ski is known as being released in Japan only.
2. Skiing and has an "international" catalogue number (8007) which differs to the Japanese releases, numbered G-1, G-2 and so on. This means that it's not a "Japanese only" game.
3. it was scheduled in 1982, since it stands in the middle of Auto Chase (8006) and Air/Sea attack (8008)

This is the image:



Anyone having more infos, please drop me a line or contact me via MP.

Thanks,

MADrigal

[MADrigal]

Large site update at the CreatiVEmu site:

http://www.madrigaldesign.it/creativemu/

1. loads of pictures and scans for console, hardware, peripherals, game boxes, manuals, etc.

2. a full "creatiVision history" in English and Italian, also featuring a few unreleased docments (click to enlarge pics)

3. scans from the "international" pamphlet, date 1982, in 4 languages, also showing a screenshot for the "Skiing" game (then unreleased?).

Any suggestions or addition is appreciated!

[MADrigal]

Crazy Pucker dumped!

Read the whole story here: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...12&postcount=1

[MADrigal]

lots of news, more games (and rare proto/sampler) dumped, new emulator, loads of scans and pictures (also of rare Japanese creatiVision and "black box" Wizzard), and MULTICART about to be complete!

All infos on this thread:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101676

[zikuta]

Keep doing that huge job!!!