Unknown - 27 games

[Red2048]

I've placed these images in a single directory for better viewing and/or downloading the entire directory, each game has a prefix that matches the series in your "Unknown" section.
I made sure to filter out identical games that are allready listed on that webpage, some new variants are included.
All photos are homemade and preformatted to 1600x1200. If anything can be used then feel free to do so.

Images : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... _2VUdBvYNy

Notes:
- Brandable series 9 : listed is a game (Road Race) that has a different shell, I've included 2 different games with the same shell and named it "Brandable series 9B".

[paccy]

Thanks for all these unknowns. Alwasy struggling how to list them .

I added 8.1 UFO and noticed that mine did not have the dots in the title, so I made yours with like the other 3 and renamed my own.

When a game has no title on the shell and no box is available I keep it to unknown even when it is probably pretty clear what the title might be. For that reason I named your soccer in brandable series 8-5 to unknown 1. In the comment I sometimes explain that this is a soccer game.
Good to see that this series gets extended now.
Also the screen images are a nice addition. I started that in the beginning but sadly gave up because of the amount of work. Sometimes the screen quickly goes away again. Will add them for sure as well.

I agree with splitting the 9 series into 2 separate series because of the shell. Thanks!

[Red2048]

Also the screen images are a nice addition. I started that in the beginning but sadly gave up because of the amount of work.

Thanks, I thought it would be important to know, I still add the displays with all segments turned on in my listing,
with these unbranded games I discovered more games (like the Submarine) that are same on the outside but have a total different LCD display, not just a minor difference but a big one. Like those 2 Submarines, they have different gamelogic (ROMs).

(I think that's why those manuals often show titles like "Title II", "Title III", but the II and III's are never printed on the games.
This is very problematic when seeing games for sale in off-mode, you never know which games variant it is.)

I always try to solve them for emulation/simulation purpose.

Sometimes the screen quickly goes away again

Yes, but actually almost all games have a "Display Test Mode" (this is not always the ACL button), it's often the case of finding the proper hidden button combo's, or more complex;
I think the games like the Submarine's above, it was: press and hold LEFT, insert battery, and the full LCD display is enabled as long as you keep LEFT pressed. (note, this is from top of my head, I need to verify this, I took notes for the games I have)
I have indeed a few games I could not find any way of turning on all segments on, (like you said) a 1-sec flash at boot when inserting batteries, I had video-record those, I'm always to slow taking a photo.

[paccy]

Ah interesting this LCD test.
I noticed one race game in series 9 is actually a duplicate of a game I put in there, so I did not add it. If I was wrong let me know and I will add it.

Yuo also added some Savie games in the unknown section. I will create a Savie page and add the game you provided in another topic as well.

I could now also create a new unknoen series with the police game you provided in unknown. Same shell as basketball in misc .

I noticed you marked "basketball" as series 2B but I think it belongs to series 2. I do not spot a difference. If I missed something please tell me.

I also noticed in the filename you mentioned "avispace itv". Is that a publisher I should add?

[Red2048]

I noticed one race game in series 9 is actually a duplicate of a game I put in there, so I did not add it. If I was wrong let me know and I will add it.

Oops, sorry, my fault, it is the same.

Yuo also added some Savie games in the unknown section. I will create a Savie page and add the game you provided in another topic as well.

Ok. Maybe for the "Secondary category"? It's not a manufacturer, but more a importer/distributor for multiple games. (I know, this can be annoying to classify)

I noticed you marked "basketball" as series 2B but I think it belongs to series 2. I do not spot a difference. If I missed something please tell me.

Yes, I forgot to say this, it's a shell variation.
The front plate (yellow) has molded "stars with a circle" and "cylinder shaped tubes" on them.
More like these do exist.

I also noticed in the filename you mentioned "avispace itv". Is that a publisher I should add?

I'm unsure, but maybe yes. I've seen these with at least +20 different titles, but always those same titles list you find in other cheap brands.
The uncommon thing here is that the brand(?) is molded in the shell, other publishers just have their brand printed on them with ink.

On a sidenote about the cheap games list, I'm working on a list of 50 game titles, that re-appear in all those cheaper game series and are published by numerous publishers.
This looks like a base-set of games that could be bought and published by anyone.
Many of the publishers have a part of the specific game-id in their own list, like 24, 024, WG-2224... (#24 is Football) and the games have the same titles, or a small variation of it.
Not only that, but alot of these different games share the same gamelogic, the manuals often reveal which games are using the same gamelogic (ROMs).
It might be confusion what I try to explain.
The image below is a quick example to show what I mean: (and sorry for the quick cheesy composition)
image: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... Ja0oDbsWCD ( image will be removed later )

Currently I identified almost 40 of these IDs and titles, the highest ID found is #50 wich is "Motor Cycle".
But more about this later if you are interested in the information, I'm going off-topic here.

[paccy]

I leave Savie in primary category for now. I have more distributors listed there.
I did not define a clear definition for the secundary category, more a gut feeling, but maybe we could think of one. Currently I place publishers/dirtributors there that only publiched 1 or 2 games. I also need to move some more from the primary to the secundary category. I am working on that in the background.

Great that you noticed the shell difference in the unknown series 2. I split them now. I might update the website sooner this time with all these updates .

And yes, the cheap games are a bit of a nightmare. Also sometimes the dirtributor name was placed in a black field and faded away. I like to get them all in here though in the end.

[Red2048]

I like the idea about the Secondary catagory, and I don't mind if games are grouped by either manufacturer or publishers.

Personally I try to keep them together first by manufacturer, when possible, and keep track of different versions released by different publishers.
But not all plublisher specify from who it is imported from.

For example, in "Handheld with Cartridges" you have the "Playtime - Light Games" projector/cartridges.
Grandstand (Adam Leisure) also released the same projector/cartridges as "Grandstand - Light Games".
But on the bottom of the projector and on the rearside of the cartridges is still "Playtime" molded into the plastic.
The bottom of the console box also states:
- "Light Games is manufactured exclusively for Adam Leisure by Playtime Products Inc."

Should it be clasified by manufactor or publisher? (both ways can be problematic, depending how you look at it)
Seeing Grandstand is a big brand, one would most likely place in into the Grandstand section, wich is fine.
But;

1 - When I'm browsing the Playtime page then I would like to see/learn all the releases/versions there.
If I prior did not know about the Granstand version, then I would not learn about this release.

2 - On the other hand, if I have this Grandstand version and try to find the console/games in the Grandstand section then it would not be there and appear as unlisted.

Another example is CGL, they also released some Nintendo's Game & Watches, printed their logo onto the units, but the units still have Nintendo printed and molded in it.
Place it in the CGL or Nintendo section?

In any case, each is fine and ok by itself, we should accept this. It's a wicked problem.

One feature that could help is a "See Also" feature, but requires more effort to manage properly, updating one item often leads to updating an entire hierarchy tree, and can easily break a chain.
(Ideally an image pattern recognition/matching tool would be a great solution, but the required processing power we don't have yet...)

I think it's good the way you have it, simple without any fancy bells and whistles that are not essential, just the way I like it.
Only a "back to manufacturer list" link would be handy on the game pages. I find myself hitting back many times before I reach the manufacturer page when browsing multiple games in a section.

[paccy]

Great insight and I see we think alike lol. I have already the feature "see also". I call it "same as". It is a simple text file where I couple the game IDs from my database. I have it for some but not many. so much work again.

The text file looks like nice only:
184,995,1247
191,1260,1000
227,1758,2056,3148
1258,1270
1264,3498
1267,2825
1275,1725
236,3136
3500,3501

Here is an example: http://handheld/pages/commodoor/227.html

[Red2048]

Ah! Nice, I didn't encounter a game-page yet that had links in the "same game(s)" field, I thought it was just for notes. That's perfect!

[paccy]

ok thanks for the feedback. Maybe I will add a button back to manufacturer. I do not do it myself bu I understand.