As the Chinese New Year holiday quickly approaches, I've decided to use the time to organize some of the messier portions of my collection. I thought that I would post some pics and talk a bit about Whirlwind Manu, for those who are interested.
My personal interest in Manu game about after stumbling upon a product catalog of sorts for Whirlwind Manu, which had been offered for sale (at quite an expensive price). I took a chance and bought the catalog, and began dreaming how it would be sort of neat (and stupid too, I suppose) to try to collect all of the Whirlwind Manu carts listed in the book. I toyed with the idea for about half a year or so, but I never went out of my way to get any of their carts except when I stumbled upon them in the wild.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1437_zps5eb425de.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1437_zps5eb425de.jpg.html)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1438_zps53d0f264.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1438_zps53d0f264.jpg.html)
Fast forward to today, and I have about 1/4 of the known set of games to be released by this Whirlwind Manu company. I am always on the lookout for more titles for my ever growing collection, but unless I am buying in bulk, shipping just makes it so not worth it to try to buy these carts singly from abroad.
Basically, the Whirlwind Manu carts are broken down into various series', each starting with the letter L (and then a second letter and a number). Anyone that has seen pirated Famicom carts has seem some of these in their time, I think. Below are some pictures of the Whirlwind Manu carts I have:
LA Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1428_zpsd4178c4c.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1428_zpsd4178c4c.jpg.html)
LB Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1429_zpsa3f699e7.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1429_zpsa3f699e7.jpg.html)
LC Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1431_zpsc2158df8.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1431_zpsc2158df8.jpg.html)
LD Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1432_zpsea9cf6e9.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1432_zpsea9cf6e9.jpg.html)
LE Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1433_zpse4037b3f.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1433_zpse4037b3f.jpg.html)
LF Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1434_zpsa15e3b3c.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1434_zpsa15e3b3c.jpg.html)
LG Series:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/tracker465/IMG_1435_zpsb49d56c1.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/tracker465/media/IMG_1435_zpsb49d56c1.jpg.html)
The other question that many might ask is as follows: Was Whirlwind Manu really just one company? The answer to that, imo, is no. Besides the variety of cases found, I've discovered some Whirlwind Manu games with NTDEC credits in the game title screen, some with real credits intact, and I've even found one Whirlwind Manu-labeled game from Waixing (a Chinese translation of Dragon Warrior III I think it was). One guess would be that Whirlwind Manu just made the labels for these games, another guess would be that pirate outfits just copied the artwork from Whirlwind Manu, not having access to real/legit artwork. It's really hard to say, but I'd thought I would post about this mysterious company.
Enjoy!
I had that athena cart listed in the catalog. I cant find it now though... when I saw the picture I got excited because the game means nothing to me but possibly something to you. I totally was planning on just sending you it for free, but sadly as stated, I can't find it. Sigh...
Hey bro- no worries thanks for the thought though :)
I always like the bootleg carts where some company info is known
Have you scanned the catalogue in case anything ever happened to it? That's a museum piece right there...
I just went through my Famicom cartridges and noticed I have what I believe to be 7 Whirlwind Manu cartridges.
LA40 Battle City
LB07 Mach Rider
LB35 Dream Mary
LC04 Mighty Bomb Jack
LC10 Arkanoid
LD07 (???)
LF40 (???)
LB07 LC04 LC10 and LD07 are all branded with Whirlwind Manu. I'd be happy to take a picture.
Quote from: L___E___T on February 09, 2014, 03:42:45 am
Have you scanned the catalogue in case anything ever happened to it? That's a museum piece right there...
vote for scanning. pleeease! ;)
Glad somebody raised it - but totally understand if it's not preferred. In addition, if you decide to sell it on, you know who to call :)
Quote from: L___E___T on October 17, 2014, 08:19:23 am
if you decide to sell it on, you know who to call :)
yeah! ;D
If I can scan this, I will guys. To be honest, I gave up on my Whirlwind Manu collection, as I just hadn't found any new carts for that collection in about six months, and then I also ended up getting most of those games on official Famicom carts as well. I think my girlfriend would have shit a brick if she saw that I had an official Pac Man cart, and then a Whirlwind Manu version, etc. And to have this for 400 different games, where they are almost identical (even in quality...the old Whirlwind Manu carts are of superb quality, some almost identical to the real thing). I know I would have a very hard time trying to justify this to my girlfriend, and an even harder time trying to justify it to myself, so I decided to let them go and sold a large amount (generously) to a buddy of mine in Poland, and some others to a great guy in Chile. :)
As for the catalog itself though, that is a really special piece to me. I love this sort of paper material - adverts, fliers, unused labels, old catalogs, etc, though I have only been able to find very few pieces of this sort. So I am going to hold onto that one for a long time; however, I agree with you guys that it would be nice for something like this to be scanned, so that is a project I will at some point do. It all comes down to time though, and the catalog is probably 60 pages or so. The other factor is whether I can scan it without damaging the spine, something else that is important to me.
I will see what I can do though, and might even experiment with it a bit this afternoon, as long as something else doesn't come up. But I will try to scan it before the year is out, so that is something you guys can look forward to :)
the words of a man! 8)
hello everyone!!
so, i am "the great guy from chile"
my attempt to collect the more whirl~manu carts as possible seems to be a little bit impossible (considering that these carts never exist in my country) this is a infinite collection!! but i am glad to meet this great man, giving to me the chance to get a huge part of his collection (I didnt know he was collecting this set too, is a very heroic act on his part).
so, i think that "whirlwind manu" are the "pirate-original" set of games. because i have a lot labeled as "cassette" and "tv game cart" (lacks whirlwind manu word) so, the LXX carts without whirlwind manu texts maybe pirates of pirates!!
some games were credited as NTDEC (software and plastic case).. idk why, lol, another ones are title removed, but taiwanese carts has no software mods.
also, i have a theory about whirl~manu carts worldwide:
asia=good quality
rest of the world=globs
it is because shipping maybe
i got a interesting portion of my W-M colelction from argentina. the plastic cases are different, great quality. but 100% of PCBs are globs.
seems to be that taiwanese sells PCBs and labels only (note that PCB has the game code printed on it), in order to do a cheaper and small shipping. it replying at the poor intelligence to put the labels in the plastic cases
by other side, some taiwanese W-M carts are assembled by kaiser or something, because the PCB and ICs says KS, same as my salamander clone credited as KAISER instead KONAMI. the kaiser cassette is the "namco-like" cart with counter-label in japanese language) that is odd
please note that argentina in 90s was the same way as russia
not dendy, but froggy!
not steepler, but electrolab katon and edu!
and off course.. all from asia, and re-labeled/boxed
(http://mla-d1-p.mlstatic.com/4070-MLA118813802_8774-F.jpg)
lol. a lot of words, a few picts of my humble collection
(and please forgive my awful english)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1908057_1035903166426997_7773127065815741359_n.jpg?oh=e9a8ded9812aaec48e534943e061f910&oe=5524CCB4)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10420129_1035903159760331_6645926585992679089_n.jpg?oh=54f53075384d32d6400c6ca475b9ba58&oe=555F203E)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10882350_1035903163093664_5614678327402266942_n.jpg?oh=bb5c75c8c3c8d6d2d962cf21d4c8426a&oe=556ADC9C&__gda__=1432448023_d5d7659fd13b523e7786902f9745f711)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10454485_1035903216426992_3005799611217937589_n.jpg?oh=cc2a08571fd352c50a1fb12a2b445e25&oe=555C85EB)
(https://scontent-b-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10929032_1035903233093657_6284783277245891566_n.jpg?oh=6539f6d9af0b133a06d44f9de7c4798c&oe=5521F0CE)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10922443_1035903243093656_2536258884272188182_n.jpg?oh=32e8e2519d917e0fe7c15af1e33f0be0&oe=555BF12F&__gda__=1432356223_e51b0611c9df2b6d4e9da57c53686fe6)
(https://scontent-a-mia.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10924798_1035903349760312_1813852532757676187_n.jpg?oh=b739067e37515912fe07056ec232aca5&oe=55674AD5)
Good to see you on here, my friend :)
As for the catalog, as some of you know, I got a kitten towards the end of last year, and around that time my scanner stopped working. I think there is a correlation, i.e. from his constant jumping on the scanner / my computer. But I got a new computer for Christmas, so I will try to see if I can get it to work with the new computer, and then scan the catalog.
So the catalog will be scanned, at some point, I just need to find a work around to the scanner issue.
hella yellah! your catalog is a masterpiece.
some W-M games are IMPOSSIBLE to find. i am planning to do via repro carts, your catalog is a huge database of W-M labels
we are impacient!!
I also have a Honey Bee catalog, though it is much less interesting (very little Famicom stuff in it)
FCgamer do you know what company these are from?
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a348/icemanxp300/hkomario.jpg) (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/icemanxp300/media/hkomario.jpg.html)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a348/icemanxp300/100_1329.jpg) (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/icemanxp300/media/100_1329.jpg.html)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a348/icemanxp300/100_1330.jpg) (http://s14.photobucket.com/user/icemanxp300/media/100_1330.jpg.html)
More here:
http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=56&threadid=57932
Those are from Hong Kong Game Cartridges, Inc. They made a lot of NES games and quite collectible these days, pretty cool items.
With a lot of these companies, they are all related to each other, but this one seems to be Hong Kong based.
Thanks for the answer! :) I have one HK game, other than the different coloured boxes and labels so they don't seem that much more exotic than NES games to me - but I can see how if NES is your thing, these can be exciting.
I just added pics of the catalog to my blog. Unfortunately they are just taken with a camera, but my scanner is still broken. Pics are better than nothing though, I think. Enjoy :)
Thanks for doing this! It's amazing.
"Like the slime of onion" and "ODY is a lovely poppy dog" are my favorite quotes!
Amagon = Legion of Convertible Tarzan
Great stuff.
Yeah there are one or two pages that I need to retake pictures of, since they came out blurry, but I had discovered that last night and was too lazy to do anything about it as I just wanted to get the pics up. I might replace those pics tonight or other time this week though.
Dude, pull yourself together and find a scanner if you really want to share it with your comrades.
All these photos are just terrible, it has no other use than take a single look.
This is the best than can be pulled out of it:
(http://i.imgur.com/sPxqR6V.jpg) (http://imgur.com/sPxqR6V)
No way to get rid of blur and glares.
"Beggars can't be choosers" - didn't you find it a bit too rude? Are we beggars here??
^^^Okay, if you want to buy me a new scanner, then so be it...otherwise, it goes on my list, somewhere behind things like an electric guitar, new camera, brewing equipment, more pieces for my game collection, etc. Hell, one of the air conditioners in my apartment drips water and only works some of the time (summer is coming in Taiwan, a bad time to be without an air conditioner), and if you've seen the TV I have at my place, it is quite small too...would be nice for an upgrade. My point is, getting a new scanner is on the lowest end of priorities for me, and if you want to know why, here is why.
I am not a rich man, and the last scanner / printer I purchased (around three years ago) wasn't exactly cheap. It suddenly stopped working around the time I got my kitten, I'm not sure what happened, but that's the situation. The real kicker though is that I barely used the damn thing. I certainly didn't get my money's worth, and that just makes me feel even less inclined to get a new one.
As for beggars can't be choosers being rude or whatever, that is just a common English phrase. I've never heard of it having rude undertones, it is just a casual phrase that gets used from time to time. While I agree that the pics are not as good as high res scans, at the same time, they give the curious a chance to read the humorous text and peak into the book. If you wanted to print it out and make repros or something, well these pics won't allow you to do that, but then again, I wouldn't be happy if someone were to do that either.
Post Merge: May 04, 2015, 06:25:54 pm
On another note, I just wanted to throw out a few more comments. Even if I did have a working scanner, it would probably take me months to scan the thing, if I ever got around to it. I am not a lazy person, but those that know me also know that I work four different jobs, and also have a few other hobbies and responsibilities that occupy my time.
And in regards to my blog's appearance (no one has commented yet, but just want to throw this out there). I know my blog doesn't look as pretty or professional as someone like Sean's, but I basically wanted something simple, a bit sloppy, basically as a throw back to the shoddy sort of websites we saw back when the internet first started up...quite informative, but not looking the best, since they were designed by fan boys and lay people. I think the info on my blog way outdoes any sort of lack of appearance it has. ;D
oh, come on, Dave. I'm not a rich person too, but my multifunctional device from HP costed about 60$ to me and it's quite good for my purposes. I can make decent scans in any resolution. Also I have a few scanners on my work or among my friends. I believe it's a common thing for Taiwan too.
There is no talk about printing repro or something, it's about comfortable reading and respecting people whom I make it for. I can easily make low-res scans just "for educational purpose only", like this:
http://dendy-steepler.narod.ru/booklets/cat_dendy.zip
(http://i.imgur.com/DkjEL9v.jpg)
sorry for being insistent
My scanner was a multifunctional from Canon. I got it about three years ago so I don't remember the exact price, but it was at least 3000 - 4000 NTD, over $100. My work only has two oldish computers, and certainly not a scanner. I don't have any scanner available to me, and as for my friends, I have no idea if they have scanners or not. I think to invite myself to their house to scan the catalog might be asking too much of them though, something I am not overly comfortable with.
The reason I posted pictures was out of respect for everyone that was curious to see the booklet. I paid over $100 for it, and could have just hoarded it for myself, but people from around the globe had been asking me to see it. Originally I wanted to do scans, but my scanner broke during my Waixing game list project, if you remember.
I try to do a lot of research and contribute to guys in this community and others, just for the enjoyment and spirit of Famicom itself. It is just a hobby, and the more I contribute, the more I also get out of it.
The pictures aren't the best, but they are certainly better than nothing, right? Getting a new scanner is at the bottom of my list, since as I said before, I barely used the other one and it broke. To spend such money on an item that I rarely use is just a waste imo, especially when there are other (expensive) purchases that are more dear to me (i.e. electric guitar for example).
Probably if I did have a scanner and made scans, then someone would be displeased if a page were to be crooked, since I refuse to break the spine to scan the pages perfectly flat. I guess you can't please everyone.
There is a gap between LH55 and LH78, did you missed two pages of they was absent in the manual?
Quote from: CaH4e3 on May 05, 2015, 12:50:27 pm
There is a gap between LH55 and LH78, did you missed two pages of they was absent in the manual?
Hmm, it was probably an uploading mistake. I will have to double check and correct if need be. Also, nice to see you here. I really like your work and online research.
so?
Quote from: CaH4e3 on May 31, 2015, 09:27:49 am
so?
Just checked now, it is a human error. I will take some pics from those pages and upload
Quote from: CaH4e3 on June 15, 2015, 07:23:58 am
Quote from: fcgamer on May 31, 2015, 10:46:25 am
Quote from: CaH4e3 on May 31, 2015, 09:27:49 am
so?
Just checked now, it is a human error. I will take some pics from those pages and upload
so?
I am very busy, something I think you know and can attest to yourself, from what I have heard. Today for example, I worked from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM, with maybe only 10 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for dinner. Thank you for reminding me about the pictures, I will try to do it sometime soon, but as with everything, there are just so many things I want / need to do in life, and so little time.
I think we can all attest to that my friend - thanks for uploading everything so far and recording all of this, it's a truly unique collection.
Quote from: L___E___T on June 15, 2015, 08:06:42 am
I think we can all attest to that my friend - thanks for uploading everything so far and recording all of this, it's a truly unique collection.
I appreciate this comment, and just wanted to highlight it.
I know there was some backlash initially when I posted the pictures of the catalog, and in some aspects, I do understand Oreanor's point. Aside from needing a new scanner (or fixing the old one), then it would also take a lot longer to scan each page in high def, crop it, etc.
Likewise, I have been on the other side of the coin many times, making requests for scans or pictures of some rare / unique / interesting items, and having to wait for weeks on end, or even never receiving them, so I know what that's like, and the truth is that I have probably been guilty of that as well, just due to forgetting or being busy until the point where it has been forgotten about.
@CaH4e3: I will try to get the pics as soon as I can. Luckily, summer schedule is coming soon, and that should give me more free time to do my own thing. Just keep bugging me about it so that I don't forget and I'll do it.
@Everyone else: Same situation, I'll likewise make nice scans of the catalog at some point, but to be honest it just isn't at the top of my priorities. I guess you could say that I am a workaholic sort, and since this is just a hobby of mine, it takes a backseat.
so...
I thought he was just being rude at first, but...
Quote from: fcgamer on June 15, 2015, 08:16:25 am
@CaH4e3: I will try to get the pics as soon as I can. Luckily, summer schedule is coming soon, and that should give me more free time to do my own thing. Just keep bugging me about it so that I don't forget and I'll do it.
Quote from: fcgamer on June 15, 2015, 08:16:25 amJust keep bugging me
Yeah honestly L__E__T I thought you were being a bit brash. I mean CaH4e3 has put together an Extensive list of almost all whirlwind manu, Kaiser, and jy carts. with tons of pics for reference if you haven't seen his site here is the link http://cah4e3.shedevr.org.ru/cartsbase.php i think this thread is like his bible to collecting. Also his English is not the best.
Yeah it's okay guys, from my part anyway. I got my scanner up and running again (it just needed ink...so stupid, I know!), so now it is just a matter of time. Maybe I'll try to scan some of it when I get home from work tonight.
I think L__E__T was more referring to the one word posts that don't actually add anything useful to the convo which in that case I agree that he shouldn't be doing that. I don't see anything brash about it.
Just a harmless bump to a great thread I think.
Jay says I'm brash? Blimey I must be getting harsher! ;)
Yeah I don't think there's an attitude by the way, I think that's just Russian 'coldness' - it's a cultural thing but it's often mistaken for rudeness.
Still, I think we can do better than one word updates... Max knows the feels.
not forget about the scans ;)
so what about the page that seems to be missing?
annual reminder