Gameking
Manufacturer	Daidaixing Electronics Co.(Timetop)
Type	Handheld game console
Generation	8-bit
First available
Media	Carts
Online service	None known

The GameKing is an 8-bit handheld game console produced by the Chinese company TimeTop since 2003. It is based around a 65C02 CPU running at 6.0 MHz and exists in two variations, the original GameKing and the GameKing II, with mostly aesthetic and ergonomic differences. A photo of the GameKing II console, with the selection menu active. ... A console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles. ... One of the first handheld game consoles, Ball was the first product in the Game & Watch series. ... Home video-game systems became popular during the 1970s and 80s. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... One of the first handheld game consoles, Ball was the first product in the Game & Watch series. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... WDC 65C02 Microprocessor // Introduction The W65C02S is a low power, cost effective 8-bit microprocessor. ... CPU redirects here. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ...

The consoles have above-average sound circuitry capable of multi-channel music and digital sound playback, but have quite inexplicably been equipped with an incredibly poor quality black and white LCD screen, only supporting four shades of grey and having a very low (48 by 32 pixels) resolution, combined with a slow refresh rate, poor readability and adjustments, compared to the original Game Boy. A pixel (a contraction of picture element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ... The Game Boy ) line is a line of battery-powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. ...

The quality of its games, graphics wise, can be compared to some of the best built-in cell phone games (excluding Java games), while their playing speed (scrolling etc.) and audio is far superior to those found on cell phones (multi-channel music and digitized samples and voices are quite common in GameKing games). Motorola T2288 mobile phone A mobile phone is a portable electronic device which behaves as a normal telephone whilst being able to move over a wide area (compare cordless phone which acts as a telephone only within a limited range). ... The Java platform is the name for a computing environment, or platform, from Sun Microsystems which can run applications developed using the Java programming language and set of development tools. ...

Models and features

GameKing "I"

The original GameKing console is fashioned to look like Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and comes in a wide array of vivid pastel colours, either opaque or transparent, and uses 2 AAA size batteries. The original GameKing lacks a backlit screen, a feature which has been added in its "successor", the GameKing II. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A substance or object that is opaque is neither transparent nor translucent. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... An AAA battery is 44. ...

GameKing II

The GameKing II, on the other hand, is fashioned to look like Sony's PlayStation Portable, comes in more sober colors (either black, grey , white or aqua - but yellow ones do exist), and uses 3 AAA size batteries, of which only 2 are used to actually power up the GameKing's hardware, while the third one serves to power up both its built-in audio amplifier (a bit more powerful than the one on the original GameKing) and its backlit LCD screen (which can be turned on and off at will, depending on external lighting conditions, thus saving power). The unit can still work with 2 batteries, only with no sound and no backlighting available. The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... Black is not a colour. ... Grey or Gray (see spelling differences) is the color between white and black. ... White is the color of things that reflect light of all parts of the visible spectrum equally and are not dull (see grey). ... Aqua is the latin word for Water. ... Yellow is any color of light that stimulates both the red and green cone cells of the retina, but not the blue cone cells. ... An AAA battery is 44. ...

Also, the GameKing II has a fixed color background picture for its LCD screen, only visible when the backlighting is switched on. This is probably to give the false impression of having a colour LCD screen, as implied on its box.

The picture may vary between various GameKing models, however it has a mostly negative effect on screen readability when the backlighting is turned on.

This background picture can also be removed or replaced simply by opening the machine and removing the small plastic transparency behind the LCD. Removing it makes using the backlighting much more effective. Notes: Likewise with the GK, no page exists for the GKII, but the Chinese site stills lists the machine as product code GM-219.

GK "I" vs. GK II

However, the two models are fully hardware compatible, can use the same games/cartridges, both have volume and contrast controls and use the same LCD screen. Also, they both have an external DC power supply 3.5 mm minijack plug; however, the plug is not labelled as such, and its function is only slightly hinted at in the units' manuals. The GameKing requires 3V DC, while the GameKing2 requires 4.5V DC with the peculiarity of needing to keep at least one battery in the unit in order to have sound and backlighting.

GM-222

The Chinese Timetop page has a photo of a GameKing like console named GM-222. It's named there as a Gameking II, but the English page has a slightly different CG picture with GameKing III. Claims to support 37 games, like the original model.

GameKing III

Timetop has also released, or plans to release, a third Gameking machine, called the 'GameKing III'. Although accurate technical information is hard to obtain, it seems to be a handheld console using a 64-colour (or grey shades) LCD or TFT screen, although little else is known about it. LCD redirects here. ... A TFT LCD 15 display TFT LCDs is a variant of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) which use Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) technology to improve their image quality. ...

Timetop's site claims it uses a "64 level" LCD screen and that it is compatible with the previous GameKing games. The picture shown there, if authentic, also suggests that it has the same "false color" background picture as the GameKing II, which would essentially mean the system is actually black and white like the previous GameKing models., if not exactly the same system in a new casing. However, according to the photo here, it should have a real color screen backlighted.

A new design for the GKIII was placed in April 2006 at the Timetop site. The site claims a total of 12 carts for this system.

Clones

Timetop Game King hardware seems to be the basis for a series of other low-bugdet machines. The build quality is normally lower, and they don't have a external cart slot. It is unknown if these machines were originally designed by Timetop or if they are actual clones.

Game Star

The Game Star, manufactured by Shenzhen Baoanqiu LIKE Electronic Factory seems to be based on the GameKing II hardware. As shown on this page on the Chinese version of the site, it looks distinctly like an original-format Gizmondo. Significant changes: The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console with GPRS and GPS technology, which was manufactured by Tiger Telematics. ...

• There is no card slot. Game King carts will not run on this unit.
• It runs off 2 AA batteries. There is no option to turn off the LCD backlighting.
• Sound is controlled by a button, that cycles between 3 sound levels and silent. There is also a headphone jack, that isn't affected by this setting - but it is very loud.
• The games included are modified copies of original GameKing games: CS-1(Soldier), 2005, Risk King(Carlo). All feature a new "character select" option.
• The Connect Line lets two persons link their Game Star consoles to "fight each other".
• When the machine goes into standby, the backlight remains on.
• Start Button is named S/P. There is no Select button.

Game Star linking procedure

According to the manual this is the procedure to initiate a successful link: Connect both machines. Pick identical games and press S/P. Both machines shall make a sound. Press S/P again to enter the game. 1P will be the first to press the button.

PSP Game Player

Shenzhen Xinfeilong(product name Jinka) has a series of machines named PSP Game player. Two versions of this machine exist:

• JK-R538 has a form factor that ressembles the PSP more than the GKII, but lacks the backlight. Available colors are Black and Silver.

• JK-R540 has an original design, and features a backlight.

Despite looking like four action buttons are available on the right side of the screen, those are actually Start/Pause and Volume.

All machines have 6 games : CS-1(Soldier), KingBoXing, F-16, Super tank, Super risk-king(Carlo), Apache.

Technical description

Audio hardware

Most of its games have digital sound effects, but it's unclear whether the machine has a traditional sound chip or relies only on digital samples for music and sound effects. Many of the "soundtracks" of its games are in fact very short looping tunes appearing to be sampled around 8 KHz, which would mean the cartridge space is used very inefficiently in this sense, like what happens with graphics. In other words, the machine just plays back digital samples with no other manipulation and appears unable to do traditional music synthesis. The overall result is however functional. A sound chip is an integrated circuit (i. ... A kilohertz (kHz) is a unit of frequency equal to 1,000 hertz (1,000 cycles per second). ...

Video hardware

According to some sources, most GameKing games heavily rely on bitmap rather than tile-based rendering of the screen, e.g. most levels in its platform and shoot'em up games are in reality large 4-colour bitmaps, instead of using the most common method of graphic tiles and tile maps, like in most other game consoles and arcade games. This was probably done for economic reasons (the CPU alone can handle all graphics easily, at that resolution) and easy development of the games, apart from the objectively low resolution of the screen . While such a scheme seems to work, it has the disadvantage of using cartridge space inefficiently, so that e.g. most platform games are limited to 3 levels. At this point, it is unknown if the Gameking uses some form of sprite rendering, although this is probably unlikely and unnecessary. For the use of the term raster in radio regulation, see frequency raster. ... Mission, or barrel, roof tiles For the towns named Tile, see Tile, Somalia and Tile, Lebanon. ... Platform game, or platformer, is a video game genre characterized by jumping to and from suspended platforms. ... A shoot-em-up (shmup for short), is a video game where the player has limited control of their character and the focus is almost entirely on annihilation of their enemies. ...

Games

GameKing/GameKing II games

The console has a small selection of known games (38), being 3 built in and 35 in carts, although 37 games were said to be available by TimeTop. Most games are clones of famous NES, C64 or Atari 2600 titles, with heavily dropped graphics. The games come in cartridges resembling the original Game Boy ones, with a typical size of 128KB, although 4-in-1 cartridges are available, containing 4 normal GameKing games plus a selection menu, and have a maximum size of 512KB. The Jargon File has this definition for clone: An exact duplicate: Our product is a clone of their product. ... NES redirects here. ... Close_up of C64 Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64) was a popular home computer of the 1980s. ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, was the first successful video game console to use plug-in cartridges instead of having one or more games built in. ... For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ...

Both the GameKing and GameKing II come with three built in games.

• Drifter, a Wonder Boy/Adventure Island clone.

Notes: above average quality game, has got one of the most lengthy tunes for a Gameking game. Wonder Boy was a series of video games published by SEGA and developed by Westone (formerly Escape). ... Adventure Island may refer to: Adventure Island (video game), a video game. ...

• 2003, a 1942 clone.

Notes: very average game, vertical shooters in general do not render well on the Gameking. 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

• Miner or Mine Battle, a Bomberman clone.

Notes: on the low end regarding graphics, good sound, good gameplay. Bomberman is a strategic, maze-based computer and video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft. ...

Here follows an incomplete list of known games. Please note that many GameKing games use the same program altering only graphics to create "new" games e.g. 2003 and 2004 are essentially the same game with minor differences. Also, many games have major inconsistencies between the box, manual and in-game title. E.g., Lanneret becomes Hawk in the game title, or Carlo Adventure Legend becomes Caro in-game...

• Carlo Adventure Legend, a Super Mario Bros. clone.
• Soldier, a Contra / Gryzor clone.

Notes: remarkable Gameking game, good graphics and sound and fast-paced gameplay. Super Mario Bros. ... Contra ) is an arcade game released in 1987 by the Konami corporation. ...

• Happy Killer and Happy Ball, both Lode Runner clones.

Notes: low-end graphics, fast paced gameplay, high difficulty. Lode Runner is a 1983 computer game. ...

• F1 2004, a Formula 1 racing game resembling Pole Position.
• Super Motor, essentially like F1 2004 with motorcycles instead of cars.

Notes: the only motor or sports games available on the gameking. Good graphics rendering, but poor sound with no po pitch modulation of the engine's sound. Formula One, abbreviated to F1 and also known as Grand Prix racing, is the highest class of single-seat open-wheel auto racing. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

• 2004, essentially the same game as the built in 2003.
• Popper, essetially the same game as the built in Miner.
• Hawk or Lanneret, a Choplifter clone.

Notes: very average game under all aspects, poor controls and too big sprites make it very difficult. Choplifter is a 1982 Apple II game developed by Dan Gorlin and published by Brøderbund. ...

• Dino Adventure, essentially Carlo Adventure Legend with different graphics.
• Duckman, a Darkwing Duck clone and arguably one of the best GameKing games, graphics wise.
• Ares, Feichuan are all classic arcade shooters , probably using the same engine as 2003 and 2004 with different graphics.
• Penguin, a Antarctic Adventure/Tux Racer clone.
• Street Hero, a Double Dragon clone.
• Trojan Legend, a Mega Man clone.
• Seatercel, a Tiger Heli clone.
• Star Wars, a Macross-based clone, allowing the player to choose all three shapeshifting fighter-guardian-mech configurations.

Notes: another remarkable game, horizzontal shooters generally render better than vertical ones on the Gameking. Good controls, nice background graphics, tune and powerups/morphs. This article is about the animated series. ... Antarctic Adventure is a video game developed by Konami for older systems, such as NES. In the game, a penguin races to research stations owned by different countries in Antarctica. ... Tux Racer is a 3D computer game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. ... Billy and Jimmy Lee, the protagonists of the Double Dragon series. ... The original NES Mega Man. ... Tiger Heli was one of the first games developed by Toaplan (a now defunct Japanese arcade game developer) and published by Taito Corporation in 1985. ... The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Japanese: 超時空要塞マクロス, Chou Jikuu Yousai Macross) is an anime television series. ...

• Nagual, a Kung Fu Master clone.

Notes: Good sound, fast-paced gameplay but somehow repetitive. Kung Fu Master was an arcade game developed by the Japanese company Irem Corporation in 1984 and manufactured under licence in the United States by Data East USA, Inc. ...

• Blaster, a Blaster Master clone, a platform game with a shooting vehicle.
• Chaser, a marine defense game (clone unknown).
• Star Ghazi or Star Chazi, a Star Force clone
• HERO: a Batman or H.E.R.O. clone.
• Dracula Zone or Surf Eidolon: A Silver Surfer clone(?).

Notes: has got some of the best and faster-moving graphics and sprites of all Gameking games, with lots of sprites on the screen and fast-paced action, although it relies too much on player reflexes. Blaster Master is a video game released by Sunsoft in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. ... Star Force is a vertical scrolling shooter made for the NES. In the game, the player pilots a starship, fighting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points. ... Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still sometimes as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... This is the Commodore 64 version of H.E.R.O. H.E.R.O. is a computer and video game published by ActiVision in 1983. ... The Silver Surfer is a Marvel Comics superhero. ...

• Pocket Tank, a Rambo/Front Line clone with a tank.
• Warrior, a Front Line clone without the tank.
• Clever Hawk, a Star Force-like game, but not the same game as Star Ghazi.
• Valliant, a robot space fighting game (clone unknown). The sprites are pretty large. Another impressive Gameking game.
• Metal Deform, a platform game with shooting elements and a jetpack(?). (clone unknown)
• Three Battles, a Ikari Warriors-like game.
• Lightsword, a shooter that puts you on foot and then into a flying-robot shooter form (clone unknown).
• Risker, a game similar to Spy Hunter in mechanics.
• Catman, another platform game with weapons, but with large sprites.
• Armada, an arcade shooter (clone unknown).
• Might, a Contra clone, provably an improved version of Soldier.
• Brains, a puzzle-action game, clone unknown.

Games are generally sold in separate cartridges, but there are 4-in-1 cartridges holding 4 distinct games. Later games seem to be only available in this manner. Also, each 4-in-1 pack comes numbered and higher numbers seem to provide games that are more refined in presentation. Rambo is a saga of popular action films starring Sylvester Stallone, based on the characters created by David Morrell in his novel First Blood. ... A front line is a line of confrontation in an armed conflict, most often a war. ... A front line is a line of confrontation in an armed conflict, most often a war. ... Star Force is a vertical scrolling shooter made for the NES. In the game, the player pilots a starship, fighting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points. ... Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game by SNK (manufactured in the United States by Tradewest). ... For the 2001/2002 version of Spy Hunter, see Spy Hunter (2001 game) For the planned 2006 movie of Spy Hunter, see Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run Spy Hunter is a 1983 arcade game developed and released by Bally Midway. ... Contra ) is an arcade game released in 1987 by the Konami corporation. ...

GameKing III games

GameKing III machines have a built-in game:

• Galaxy Crisis

At the moment the only known game carts for the GameKing III come from this picture.

• Adventure
• Urgent Action
• Diamond
• Panzer

One of the first handheld game consoles, Ball was the first product in the Game & Watch series. ... Microvision The Microvision was a hand-held game console released by Milton Bradley Company in 1979. ... Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive games, often miniaturized versions of video games. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ... Ball (Silver), 1980. ... For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ... The Game Boy ) line is a line of battery-powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. ... The Game Boy ) line is a line of battery-powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. ... The Game Boy Color came in a myriad of different colors, as did earlier incarnations of the Game Boy. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Game Boy Advance SP, released in February 2003, is an upgraded version of Nintendos Game Boy Advance. ... Game Boy Micro is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. ... The Nintendo DS , sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, and as iQue DS in China) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo first released in 2004. ... The Nintendo DS Lite (sometimes abbreviated NDSL/DSL or DSLite, sold as the iQue DS Lite in China) is a dual-screen handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. ... This article is about the Japanese toy manufacturer. ... WonderSwan is a Japanese handheld game console released by Bandai in 1999. ... WonderSwan Color The WonderSwan Color is a handheld game console designed by Bandai. ... The SwanCrystal is the third (and likely final) version of Bandais WonderSwan handheld game console brand, succeeding the WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color. ... Game Park is a Korean company responsible for creating the GP32 and XGP. GP32 Hardware and Design // History Foundation Founded in 1996 in Korea, Game Park entered the industry through government money. ... GamePark Holdings is a Korean company responsible for creating the GP2X that was founded by former employees of the game maker GamePark. ... The GP32 (GamePark 32) is a hand held console built by the Korean company GamePark. ... The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player created and sold by GamePark Holdings of South Korea. ... The XGP is a portable video game system created by the Korean company GamePark as the follow-up to its GP32 handheld. ... The XGP is a portable video game system created by the Korean company GamePark as the follow-up to its GP32 handheld. ... The XGP is a portable video game system created by the Korean company GamePark as the follow-up to its GP32 handheld. ... SNK Playmore (formerly SNK) is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. ... Neo Geo Pocket (Monochrome) The Neo Geo Pocket was SNKs original hand held system. ... Neo Geo Pocket Color The Neo Geo Pocket Color (or NGPC) was released in 1998 in Japan. ... Sega Corporation ) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The Sega Nomad was a handheld game console sold in North America and South America, mainly in Brazil, essentially a mini-Genesis console, based on the Japanese Mega Jet and featuring a built-in color screen. ... The Sega Mega Jet The Sega Mega Jet was a handheld version of the Mega Drive video game console. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The PocketStation is a miniature game console created by Sony as a peripheral for the PlayStation. ... The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... The Atari Lynx is Ataris only handheld game console, and the worlds first handheld portable gaming system with a color display. ... The Gamate is a handheld game console manufactured by Bit Corporation in the early 1990s, and released in Australia, parts of Europe and Asia, and possibly other regions. ... The Watara Supervision and a cartridge. ... The title of this article should be game. ... The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console with GPRS and GPS technology, which was manufactured by Tiger Telematics. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... TurboExpress handheld, TV tuner, games The TurboExpress or (PC Engine GT in Japan) was a portable version of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990 for $249. ... The Pepper Pad is a mobile computer with Internet capability and doubles as a handheld game console. ... [1] The iriver G10 is a portable media player with 3D gaming capabilities currently in development by iriver. ... This is a comparison of the features of various handheld game consoles that exist. ...

Popularity and trivia

The console has not gained much popularity mainly because of its incredibly poor screen and graphical capabilities, which are significantly weaker than its other hardware. It has however generated some interest among collectors of rare consoles, hardware or HKO's, and some people (especially emulator fans and retrogamers) find its games quite enjoyable, arguing that most of them still have good sound, controls and features, despite the poor graphics. Collector - in electronics, the amplified terminal on a Bipolar junction transistor (PNP) or (NPN) list of collectors- People with note-worthy collections. ... Hong Kong Originals or HKOs is a term mostly used when referring to illegally copied and (sometimes) unlicensedly produced game console hardware, software and related products, mostly at the hand of obscure Asian manufacturers and companies, especially from Hong Kong and Taiwan. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ...

The low price of the unit and its games (about $10 for a Gameking 1, $15 for a Gameking 2, while games are typically $2 to $8) also has helped the console gain some popularity among classic arcade games fans, since the low prices are believed to compensate for the poor graphics (or vice versa).

Overall, the console seems to be bridging a gap between the economic LCD Game and Watch games and the "true" yet comparatively expensive programmable portable games consoles, the quality of its games falling somewhere between those of the best "Game and Watch" machines and those of an original Game Boy, being fully programmable. Some games such as Mario Bros. ... For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ...

The poor quality of the console's and cartridges' manuals, boxes, containing a lot of Chinglish and Engrish mistranslations, inaccurate or outright false info (sometimes including the titles and names of the games themselves) is regarded as an "added value" by most GameKing owners and collectors. An example of written Chinglish on a signpost. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The titles given to most of the GameKing's games are also often regarded as involuntary hilarious references to well-known game titles: E.g. Carlo → Super Mario, 2003 → 1942, 2004 → 1943, Happy Killer → Lode Runner, Soldier → Contra etc. For nearly two decades, Mario has been the official video game mascot for Nintendo. ... Lode Runner is a 1983 computer game. ... The Contras (Spanish contrarrevolucionario, counter-revolutionary) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas Sandinista National Liberation Front Government Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the ending of the Somoza familys 43-year rule. ...

There are even people who managed to reverse engineer and reprogram the GameKing, and an emulator known as Gamekengu is at beta stage, for Nintendo DS (formerly planned for Game Boy Advance) and Windows systems. Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ... The Nintendo DS , sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, and as iQue DS in China) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo first released in 2004. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems by Microsoft. ...

External links

• GameKengu, the world's first Gameking emulator web site
• A page with extensive info or the GameKing, Including game reviews and hardware reverse-engineering.
• Timetop product page for the GameKing (chinese)
• Timetop product page for the GameKing II (chinese)
• Daidaxing's (Timetop) product page for the GameKing III
• Daidaxing's (Timetop) product page for the GameKing GM-222