A review of the rather unknown Gameking handheld. This Korean handheld has a very low resolution screen but surprisingly good sound. The games are actually rather playable and it is amazing to see what sort of gameplay can be squeezed out of the limited hardware. Read more below...

It seems that this machine is actually produced in China, my packaging has some Korean lettering on it so that got me confused. Here's the software catalog:

* Drifter, a Wonder Boy/Adventure Island clone.
* 2003, a 1942 clone.
* Miner or Mine Battle, a Bomberman clone.
* Carlo Adventure Legend, a Super Mario Bros. clone.
* Soldier, a Contra / Gryzor clone.
* Happy Killer and Happy Ball, both Lode Runner clones.
* F1 2004, a Formula 1 racing game resembling Pole Position.
* Super Motor, essentially like F1 2004 with motorcycles instead of cars.
* 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.
* Dino Adventure, essentially Carlo Adventure Legend with different graphics.
* Duckman, a Darkwing Duck clone.
* 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-Gerwalk-Battroid configurations.
* Nagual, a Kung Fu Master clone.
* 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(?).
* 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.
* 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).
* Brains, a puzzle-action game, clone unknown.

It is based around a 65C02 CPU running at 6.0 MHz and exists in two variations, the original GameKing and the GameKing II. Both are hardware compatible.

Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl