Creatronic Mega Duck/Cougar Boy : A Text Review (Written By: CatPix)
Since the dawn of video game history, various companies have tried to
grab a bit of the success of the big ones. Often legit and honest attempts, or simple cash-grabbing schemes.
After the release of the Game Boy and Game Gear, Taiwanese companies had the idea to copy the concept. After all, they had the technical knowledge to make those, since they were manufacturing console since the early 80's.
Two first attempts happened in 1990 and 1991 with the Bitcorp Gamate and the Watara Supervision.
Learning from the mistakes of those previous systems, three European companies united to release a third "Game Boy Wannabe".
Creatronic, Videojet, and Timlex.
Timlex was (is?) a facade for a Taiwanese company, Welback Holdings, to sell Taiwanese-made electronic products.
Videojet is a French company that imports cheap electronic toys and sells them under their brand (in the VTech style) and today, accessories for portable consoles.
Creatronic, despite being the flagship brand for this, is unknown to me. They sold 2/3 Pong systems in France in the early 80's, and the Mega Duck in 1993.
For me, Creatronic is certainly nothing but a "front-end" brand from another company, either Videojet or ITMC/Yeno, another (former) Pong and console seller in France.
Anyway; the console saw release in France and the Netherlands in 1993. Releases in other European countries seem to have occurred, but on a much smaller scale than in France and the Netherlands (which themselves were small releases to start with).
In South America, the console was sold as the Cougar Boy. Some people report seeing them being sold in the USA, though they might be mistaking the Cougar Boy and the Magnum Supervision.
The back of the box bears hilariously cheesy and over the top text. I don't know if that's a literal translation of Taiwanese or someone in the French sales team that felt like doing a dadaist impression, but it's... something.
Here is a quick translation :
"Mega Duck - the portable video game concept with high resolution LCD display and stereo sound for realist feeling (just the one). The Mega Duck have directional button, function A, function B, start and selection of button (this part is probably a bad translation), visual contrast and volume knob, battery wear warning display."
(under the Videojet logo)
"compact video game concept
with moving background to increase the visual effect"
Enough with the bad translation!
Let's take a look at the system itself:
The console is roughly the size of a classic Game Boy. The plastic is very thick and feel solid. The whole design is nicely rounded and feel a bit childish, but in a good way.
There is an interesting care given on the color choices : technical parts are outlined with grey (volume and contrast, the on/off switch, Select and Start, and the whole screen) and game buttons, D-pad and A/B are in blue.
The connectors and other technical features on the sides are indicated with "notches" on the shell, à la PC-Engine.
One little detail that bugs me is the speaker grille being under the A/B buttons like the Game Boy, which can muffle the sound while playing.
The D-pad is really 4 independant buttons. They might be a bit too rounded and tall for being really perfect, but it's still decent.
Technically, this console is a Game Boy. It uses the same CPU type (the GB CPU is a Z80 with added specific features, the Mega Duck uses a stock one) that runs at the same speed, they both have a 144*160 display screen with 4 scale gray levels, and both have 16K of RAM.
The big difference probably resides in the GPU and sound parts. The Mega Duck sounds fairly standard, and likely use an AY-3-8910 sound chip.
The only detail known about the video chip features is that it has a scrolling background function.
The cartridges are classic thick shells with two little knobs that the cart from being inserted too deep. The noticeable feature is the PCB jutting out; this is a cheap way to allow the use of a standard connector for the cartridges to cut costs.
Interestingly, the cartridges have a notch on the upper side on the back, which was likely to have the on/off switch pushing a tab to lock the carts in place, like the Game Boy did, but the console doesn't feature it, probably to reduce costs.
All of the cartridges have a standard design for the sticker, with the console name on the bottom and the cart number on the side, which start with MD or CB depending on the version (Mega Duck or Cougar Boy).
Note that those differences are in name only and that Cougar Boy cartridges work on the Mega Duck consoles and vice-versa.
The packaging is nice, with a Japanese-style plastic tray to hold the cartridge, and a simple, cheap notice in black and white. The front box have nice and rather interesting drawings to illustrate the game, but the back of the box is desperately white. I can understand putting no text to help "internationalization" of the box, but at least one in-game screen would be nice.
Close up on the cartridges.
The booting screen feature an animation like the Game Boy, but unlike the GB, these animations appear to be included into the cart as there are at least two:
And now let's have a look at some games!
The Brick Wall:
This is the pack-in game.
I bet you expect to see a breakout? I was!
And it's not! Well, it's kind of the opposite.
Your goal is to keep the wall facing you without a direct path for the enemy tank. For this, you shoot bricks back where the tank destroyed them. you have a target to know where you are going to shoot, and this is important, because if you shoot a brick on top of another, it will block your bricks and prevent you from fixing the walls behind it. Sometime you'll find bonuses and Maluses under the bricks. Bonuses mainly freeze the tank or decrease your timer. Maluses are mostly speed increase on the tank and direct blast that destroy your wall.
The tune that plays during the gameplay and that plays at the end of the turn or at game over are simple, but good, quite catchy.
A simple and rather addictive game, that I haven't seen an equivalent to yet today. Good move Creatronic!
Bomb Disposer:
A simple Yact/Dr Mario clone. Decent and easy to find. Not quite the type of game you'd get the system for, but it keep you busy.
Vex:
A Klax clone, adapter for monochrome screens. It's quite a nice clone, and because the developers slowed the gameplay so you can see the tile type, is much easier to play and enjoy. A nice surprise!
Suleuman's Treasure:
Suleuman seems to be a possible romanticization of the Taiwanese for Soliman, as in Soliman the Great.
It's a simple "snake" type of game, with the difference is that you can pull back. I'm sure it's a clone of an arcade released game or at least a console one, but I couldn't give you a name.
Pretty good if simple.
Arctic Zone:
Another simple classic puzzle game. Fill the shapes that come to you with ice cubes to make them disappear. Works well, the music is nice, but maybe could sound too high pitched for some people, but it's a good solid game.
Magic Maze:
I didn't understood the game so I can't really comment about it. Though I can safely say that's it's NOT a maze, and the gameplay is quite unresponsive. This one is a bad game, and the worst is that it's one of those bad games where you don't understand what you have to do until you die and try several things.
Puppet Knight:
I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this name, but I don't wanna even start to try to understand.
A simple Bomberman clone. A bit sluggish, I guess there is some sloppy programming at work or the video RAM is overloaded with the level.
Trap and Turn:
Pretty self-explanatory, so much that I didn't bother taking an in-game pic. There is no difficulty choice so the computer always wins (don't even suggest that I suck at this game...), that's my only gripe with this game, but otherwise it's a fairly standard game.
Pile Wonder:
Can you guess what this game is?
Yes, it's Sokoban. It play good. I like Sokoban, but on such a small screen it's a chore. I guess it's a decent game.
Black Forest Tale:
I was expecting a platformer...
It's a RPG! (sorta) Or an action-adventure game with items and shops.
The game looks good, but the character is slow, and the zones span over 6 screens; as the goal is to eliminate all the enemies on screen to get money and items, it gets tedious quite fast, sadly. Still an interesting game to check the capabilities of the system.
Armour Force:
A side-scrolling shooter with a Robot. Nice use of the scrolling background feature, power ups, large bosses... A standard, but competent side scrolling shooter.
Beast Fighter:
I was hoping for a sort of fighting game with beasts...
It's a kind of a Japanese Godzilla game where you power up your character along the way and bash down enemies. The game plays well, looks and sounds good, but the levels, even the first one, are way too long to keep your attention in portable format.
Four-in-One :
Taiwan loves X-in-one cartridges, the Mega Duck makes no exception, but unlike most other consoles, this one contains unique games not available on a single cartridge. Interesting!
Did the marketing included a duck superhero at some point? Who knows... and who cares?
Virus attack:
A Space Invaders/Galaxian clone. Decent.
Electron World:
A classic "capture the flag" game, where you have destroy the enemy "CPU chip" while defending your own CPU chip.
Trouble Zone:
Columns, with numbers.
Dice Block/DiceSquare:
I have no idea. Maybe a mathematical based puzzle?
So, this is the Creatronic Mega Duck.
The console is fairly powerful, most of the games are solid and play well (some were ported on pirate Taiwanese Game Boy cartridges later). The console doesn't feel so cheap and most units today are in working condition.
What happened?
To me, this console came too late and did too little. The Gamate and the Supervision that came before, burned the public expectation about cheaper alternatives to the Game Boy. Also, with rather small markets (France, Germany, the Netherlands) no one was gonna bother developing more games for it (for example, the English studios BITS, that later would create Beneath A Steel Sky made two games for the Supervision).
The lack of some decent platformer and adventure game was probably a mistake, though I don't think it would have helped the console to sell.
It is now just a curiosity for European collectors.
There seems to be a computer based on it in Germany, but I couldn't find any information on it. It might just be the console in a terminal-like case.
Photos and Text by CatPix, a member on the Fuzgama Forums.
Posted and Edited with permission.
Original Post
After the release of the Game Boy and Game Gear, Taiwanese companies had the idea to copy the concept. After all, they had the technical knowledge to make those, since they were manufacturing console since the early 80's.
Two first attempts happened in 1990 and 1991 with the Bitcorp Gamate and the Watara Supervision.
Learning from the mistakes of those previous systems, three European companies united to release a third "Game Boy Wannabe".
Creatronic, Videojet, and Timlex.
Timlex was (is?) a facade for a Taiwanese company, Welback Holdings, to sell Taiwanese-made electronic products.
Videojet is a French company that imports cheap electronic toys and sells them under their brand (in the VTech style) and today, accessories for portable consoles.
Creatronic, despite being the flagship brand for this, is unknown to me. They sold 2/3 Pong systems in France in the early 80's, and the Mega Duck in 1993.
For me, Creatronic is certainly nothing but a "front-end" brand from another company, either Videojet or ITMC/Yeno, another (former) Pong and console seller in France.
Anyway; the console saw release in France and the Netherlands in 1993. Releases in other European countries seem to have occurred, but on a much smaller scale than in France and the Netherlands (which themselves were small releases to start with).
In South America, the console was sold as the Cougar Boy. Some people report seeing them being sold in the USA, though they might be mistaking the Cougar Boy and the Magnum Supervision.
The back of the box bears hilariously cheesy and over the top text. I don't know if that's a literal translation of Taiwanese or someone in the French sales team that felt like doing a dadaist impression, but it's... something.
Here is a quick translation :
"Mega Duck - the portable video game concept with high resolution LCD display and stereo sound for realist feeling (just the one). The Mega Duck have directional button, function A, function B, start and selection of button (this part is probably a bad translation), visual contrast and volume knob, battery wear warning display."
(under the Videojet logo)
"compact video game concept
with moving background to increase the visual effect"
Enough with the bad translation!
Let's take a look at the system itself:
The console is roughly the size of a classic Game Boy. The plastic is very thick and feel solid. The whole design is nicely rounded and feel a bit childish, but in a good way.
There is an interesting care given on the color choices : technical parts are outlined with grey (volume and contrast, the on/off switch, Select and Start, and the whole screen) and game buttons, D-pad and A/B are in blue.
The connectors and other technical features on the sides are indicated with "notches" on the shell, à la PC-Engine.
One little detail that bugs me is the speaker grille being under the A/B buttons like the Game Boy, which can muffle the sound while playing.
The D-pad is really 4 independant buttons. They might be a bit too rounded and tall for being really perfect, but it's still decent.
Technically, this console is a Game Boy. It uses the same CPU type (the GB CPU is a Z80 with added specific features, the Mega Duck uses a stock one) that runs at the same speed, they both have a 144*160 display screen with 4 scale gray levels, and both have 16K of RAM.
The big difference probably resides in the GPU and sound parts. The Mega Duck sounds fairly standard, and likely use an AY-3-8910 sound chip.
The only detail known about the video chip features is that it has a scrolling background function.
The cartridges are classic thick shells with two little knobs that the cart from being inserted too deep. The noticeable feature is the PCB jutting out; this is a cheap way to allow the use of a standard connector for the cartridges to cut costs.
Interestingly, the cartridges have a notch on the upper side on the back, which was likely to have the on/off switch pushing a tab to lock the carts in place, like the Game Boy did, but the console doesn't feature it, probably to reduce costs.
All of the cartridges have a standard design for the sticker, with the console name on the bottom and the cart number on the side, which start with MD or CB depending on the version (Mega Duck or Cougar Boy).
Note that those differences are in name only and that Cougar Boy cartridges work on the Mega Duck consoles and vice-versa.
The packaging is nice, with a Japanese-style plastic tray to hold the cartridge, and a simple, cheap notice in black and white. The front box have nice and rather interesting drawings to illustrate the game, but the back of the box is desperately white. I can understand putting no text to help "internationalization" of the box, but at least one in-game screen would be nice.
Close up on the cartridges.
The booting screen feature an animation like the Game Boy, but unlike the GB, these animations appear to be included into the cart as there are at least two:
And now let's have a look at some games!
The Brick Wall:
This is the pack-in game.
I bet you expect to see a breakout? I was!
And it's not! Well, it's kind of the opposite.
Your goal is to keep the wall facing you without a direct path for the enemy tank. For this, you shoot bricks back where the tank destroyed them. you have a target to know where you are going to shoot, and this is important, because if you shoot a brick on top of another, it will block your bricks and prevent you from fixing the walls behind it. Sometime you'll find bonuses and Maluses under the bricks. Bonuses mainly freeze the tank or decrease your timer. Maluses are mostly speed increase on the tank and direct blast that destroy your wall.
The tune that plays during the gameplay and that plays at the end of the turn or at game over are simple, but good, quite catchy.
A simple and rather addictive game, that I haven't seen an equivalent to yet today. Good move Creatronic!
Bomb Disposer:
A simple Yact/Dr Mario clone. Decent and easy to find. Not quite the type of game you'd get the system for, but it keep you busy.
Vex:
A Klax clone, adapter for monochrome screens. It's quite a nice clone, and because the developers slowed the gameplay so you can see the tile type, is much easier to play and enjoy. A nice surprise!
Suleuman's Treasure:
Suleuman seems to be a possible romanticization of the Taiwanese for Soliman, as in Soliman the Great.
It's a simple "snake" type of game, with the difference is that you can pull back. I'm sure it's a clone of an arcade released game or at least a console one, but I couldn't give you a name.
Pretty good if simple.
Arctic Zone:
Another simple classic puzzle game. Fill the shapes that come to you with ice cubes to make them disappear. Works well, the music is nice, but maybe could sound too high pitched for some people, but it's a good solid game.
Magic Maze:
I didn't understood the game so I can't really comment about it. Though I can safely say that's it's NOT a maze, and the gameplay is quite unresponsive. This one is a bad game, and the worst is that it's one of those bad games where you don't understand what you have to do until you die and try several things.
Puppet Knight:
I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this name, but I don't wanna even start to try to understand.
A simple Bomberman clone. A bit sluggish, I guess there is some sloppy programming at work or the video RAM is overloaded with the level.
Trap and Turn:
Pretty self-explanatory, so much that I didn't bother taking an in-game pic. There is no difficulty choice so the computer always wins (don't even suggest that I suck at this game...), that's my only gripe with this game, but otherwise it's a fairly standard game.
Pile Wonder:
Can you guess what this game is?
Yes, it's Sokoban. It play good. I like Sokoban, but on such a small screen it's a chore. I guess it's a decent game.
Black Forest Tale:
I was expecting a platformer...
It's a RPG! (sorta) Or an action-adventure game with items and shops.
The game looks good, but the character is slow, and the zones span over 6 screens; as the goal is to eliminate all the enemies on screen to get money and items, it gets tedious quite fast, sadly. Still an interesting game to check the capabilities of the system.
Armour Force:
A side-scrolling shooter with a Robot. Nice use of the scrolling background feature, power ups, large bosses... A standard, but competent side scrolling shooter.
Beast Fighter:
I was hoping for a sort of fighting game with beasts...
It's a kind of a Japanese Godzilla game where you power up your character along the way and bash down enemies. The game plays well, looks and sounds good, but the levels, even the first one, are way too long to keep your attention in portable format.
Four-in-One :
Taiwan loves X-in-one cartridges, the Mega Duck makes no exception, but unlike most other consoles, this one contains unique games not available on a single cartridge. Interesting!
Did the marketing included a duck superhero at some point? Who knows... and who cares?
Virus attack:
A Space Invaders/Galaxian clone. Decent.
Electron World:
A classic "capture the flag" game, where you have destroy the enemy "CPU chip" while defending your own CPU chip.
Trouble Zone:
Columns, with numbers.
Dice Block/DiceSquare:
I have no idea. Maybe a mathematical based puzzle?
So, this is the Creatronic Mega Duck.
The console is fairly powerful, most of the games are solid and play well (some were ported on pirate Taiwanese Game Boy cartridges later). The console doesn't feel so cheap and most units today are in working condition.
What happened?
To me, this console came too late and did too little. The Gamate and the Supervision that came before, burned the public expectation about cheaper alternatives to the Game Boy. Also, with rather small markets (France, Germany, the Netherlands) no one was gonna bother developing more games for it (for example, the English studios BITS, that later would create Beneath A Steel Sky made two games for the Supervision).
The lack of some decent platformer and adventure game was probably a mistake, though I don't think it would have helped the console to sell.
It is now just a curiosity for European collectors.
There seems to be a computer based on it in Germany, but I couldn't find any information on it. It might just be the console in a terminal-like case.
Photos and Text by CatPix, a member on the Fuzgama Forums.
Posted and Edited with permission.
Original Post
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