Thin Chen Enterprise
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Thin Chen Enterprise is a Taiwanese company that developed several original games for the NES/Famicom and Game Boy (both without license from Nintendo), and other early cartridge-based handheld systems such as the Watara Supervision. Most were released under the Sachen brand name, although the names Joy Van and Commin were also used for certain early games for the Famicom and handheld consoles respectively, and many Famicom games were released with pornographic content added by Hacker International. Thin Chen is known for making games that mimic other famous franchises like Sonic, Kirby, and Mega Man. Such examples are Jurrasic Boy 2, Q-Boy, and Thunder Blast Man (also known as Rocman X). Although the games have several similarities, they each have their own unique gameplay, except for some ports to the Game Boy Color, like Rocman X Gold.
Some of their NES games were sold in the US and other regions by other unlicensed publishers such as American Video Entertainment, Color Dreams and Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES).
The last known Sachen releases were Game Boy Color ports of some of their later NES games, released around 1999, although a compilation of many Sachen Game Boy titles was released by the Australian company Tru Blu Entertainment (a subsidiary of HES), in 2004.
Thin Chen Enterprise's website was offline from 2002, leading many to believe that the company had gone out of business. It was replaced in September 2005 by an online store (which currently only accepts orders from Taiwan) bearing the Commin name, selling several (although not all) games from Sachen's back catalogue, as well as some previously unseen products such as Famicom clone systems and Game Boy Advance accessories. No new games (aside from the completed but previously unreleased Huge Insect) have appeared on the site, indicating that Sachen may have ceased game development due to the diminished market for original Famicom and Game Boy Color games and the increasing complexity of developing for current consoles, particularly without a license from the hardware manufacturer.
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[edit] Games
[edit] Nintendo Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System games
[edit] Thin Chen numbered games
- TC-001 Jovial Race (a Rally X-esque game)
- TC-002 Hidden Chinese Chess
- TC-003 Sidewinder
- TC-004 Little Red Hood
- TC-005 Silent Assault
- TC-006 Twin Eagle (A.K.A. Double Strike: Aerial Attack Force, for Nes, by American Video Entertainment)
- TC-007 Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu (a platform game)
- TC-008 Metal Fighter (A.K.A. Joyvan Kid)
- TC-009 Galactic Crusader (A.K.A. Incantation, and Papillon - Padillon comes with Incantation instructions, and title screen says Papillon)
- TC-010 Mahjong Trap (Nudity)
- TC-011 Challenge of the Dragon (a Double Dragon-esque type of game)
- TC-012 Poker I (A.K.A. The World of Card Games) (4in-1)
1. Omnibus Hearts
2. Fan Tan
3. Chinese Rummy
4. The Clock
- TC-013 Poker II (4-in-1-)
1. Max 2
2. Ghost Buster
3. 99
4. Change Around
- TC-014 Strategist
- TC-015 Olympic I.Q.
- TC-016 Happy Pairs (Solitaire mahjong)
- TC-017 Auto-Upturn (a puzzle game)
- TC-018 Magic Cube (a puzzle game)
- TC-019 Chinese Checkers
- TC-020 Poker III (5-in-1)
1. King of Casino
2. King Poker
3. Poker
4. Blackjack
5. The 13 Cards
- TC-021 Super Pang (unauthorized port of Super Famicom title Super Buster Bros)
- TC-022 Super Pang II
- TC-023 Popo Team
- TC-024 Rockball
- TC-025 Silver Eagle (a shoot 'em up)
- TC-026 Q Boy (A prototype screen shot in the back of certain Sachen game manuals showing previews shows the game being named 'Puff Kid' at one point, and having a menu that contains an "Options" menu.)
- TC-027 Street Heroes
- TC-028 Jurassic Boy (Famicom/NES/Game Boy Color, A Sonic-esique game that lacks abilities from the original, such as rolling along the ground and spin dash. The NES manual mentions these features, however, and the game itself contains numerous unused sprites, more than actually used, suggesting that it had these features at one point, or were planned. Says "Jurassic Boy 2" on title screen.)
- TC-029 Gaiapolis
- TC-030 Thunder Blaster Man (A platformer with a gliding ability and a boomerang weapon, title screen says "Rocman X")
[edit] Sachen numbered Games
- SA-001 Taiwan Mahjong
- SA-002 The Penguin and Seal
- SA-003 Middle School English
- SA-004 Lucky 777
- SA-005 Colorful Dragon (a maze game)
- SA-006 Honey Peach (Nudity)
- SA-007 Bingo 75 (Nudity) (A slot-machine simulator)
- SA-008 The Mahjong World
- SA-009 Pyramid (Gold-Bule label version contain nudity)
- SA-010 Pyramid II
- SA-011 Pipe V (A.K.A. Pipemania for NES by HES Interactive)
- SA-012 Millionaire (a board game)
- SA-013 Dancing Blocks
- SA-014 Magical Mathematics
- SA-015 Chess Academy
- SA-016 Hell Fighter
- SA-017 Locksmith (a mix of action and puzzle)
- SA-018 Poker Mahjong
- SA-019 The Great Wall
- SA-020 Tasac (a basic vertical space-shooter)
- SA-021 Final Combat
- SA-022 Huge Insect (an unreleased Galaga-style game with a wildlife-theme rather than a space-theme)
- SA-023 Cosmocop (2-in-1 Cosmocop/Cyber Monster Cartridge says "Light Gun Game, red-grey label)
- SA-024 Tough Cop 2-in-1 Tough Cop/Super Tough Cop (Cartridge says "Light Gun Game, green label)
- SA-025 Taiwan Mahjong II
- SA-026 Mahjong School
- SA-027 Mahjong Partner
[edit] Multi Cart collections, for Famicom/NES
- Super Cartridge Version 1 4-in-1
1. Bingo 75
2. Lucky 777
3. Honey Peach
4. Chess Academy
- Super Cartridge Version 2 10-in-1 (Card Games) contains all the games of "TC-013 Poker II"
1. Hidden Chinese Chess
2. Omnibus Hearts
3. Fan Tan
4. Chinese Rummy
5. Max 2
6. Ghost Buster
7. 99
8. Change Around
9. Fortune Telling (Chinese)
10. Fortune Telling (English)
- Super Cartridge Version 3 8-in-1
1. Jovial Race
2. Little Red Hood
3. Twin Eagle
4. Silent Assault
5. Super Pang I
6. Mine Sweeper
7. Mine Sweeper II
8. Mine Sweeper III
- Super Cartridge Version 4 6-in-1
1. Master Chu
2. Metal Fighter
3. Galactic Crusader
4. Auto-Upturn
5. Magic Cube
6. Super Pang II
- Super Cartridge Version 5 7-in-1
1. Penguin and Seal
2. Middle School English
3. Pyramid I
4. Magical Mathematics
5. Starategist (2 IN 1) Poker Racing, The Battle of Poker
6. Olympic I.Q.
7. Chinese Checkers
- Super Cartridge Version 6 6-in-1
1. Colorful Dragon
2. Pyramid II
3. Pipe V
4. Millionaire
5. Dancing Blocks
6. Locksmith
- Super Cartridge Version 7 4-in-1
1. Sidewinder
2. Happy Pairs
3. Tasac
4. Silver Eagle
- Super Cartridge Version 8 4-in-1
1. Final Combat
2. Worm Visitor
3. Frog Adventure
4. Magical Tower
- Super Cartridge Version 9 3-in-1
1. Challenge of the Dragon
2. Rockball
3. Popo Tem
[edit] Game Boy Color games, also work on regular Game Boy.
- 1B-001 Beast Fighter
- 1B-002 Jurassic Boy 2
- 1B-003 Thunder Blast Man (Another version, the Chinese version, is called 'Rocman X')
- 1B-004 Street Hero
[edit] 4 in 1 collection Multi Carts
- 4B-001 Color 4-in-1 Version 1
1. Street Rider
2. Vex
3. Trap
4. Turn and Duck Adventures
- 4B-002 Color 4-in-1 Version 2
1. Virus Attack
2. Electron World
3. Dice
4. Trouble Zone
- No number 4B-003 was never available from their site.
- 4B-004 Color 4-in-1 Version 4
1. Pile Wonder
2. Snake Roy
3. Sulieman's Treasure
4. Puppet Knight
- 4B-005 Color 4-in-1 Version 5
1. Arctic Zone
2. Magic Tower
3. Railway CMD
4. Worm Visitor
- 4B-006 Color 4-in-1 Version 6
1. Bomb Disposer
2. A-Force
3. Black Forest Tale
4. 2nd Space
- 4B-007 Color 4-in-1 Version 7
1. Ant Soldier
2. Dam Laser
3. Sky Ace
4. Zoo Block
- 4B-008 Color 4-in-1 Version 8
1. Captain Knick
2. War Flea
3. Explosive Brick
4. Magic Maze
- 4B-009 Color 4-in-1 Version 9
1. Zipball
2. Gorilla
3. Crazy Burger
4. Deep
[edit] Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
- Mahjong
- Poker Club 6-in-1
[edit] Unreleased Games
- Bridge
[edit] The Naming of Thunder Blast Man
Thunder Blast Man is known to have different names:
- Thunder Blast Man (English Game Boy Name)
- Thunder Blaster Man (NES Name)
- Rocman X (Asian Game Boy/Famicom (NES) Name)
The NES game is called Rocman X at the title screen. The credits state the game's name as Thunder(-)Blast Man. The game's packaging shows that the Famicom version is called Rocman X (And even features artwork from the cover of the Super Famicom version of Rockman X (known as Mega Man X in the USA). The NES version's box art is similar to the generic multi-colored Sachen boxes, except it is a plain light purple color and a slightly different design on the back. It is called Thunder Blaster Man on the packaging. The Game Boy version, however, is much different. The Rocman X version has many different designs, in both Japanese and US/Europe style packaging (Rectangular boxes and Square boxes,) but the design varies. The logo usually stays the same, but will have the NES-styled background (ripped from the background of the Japanese Pokemon Gold box art) or a plain yellow background on the packaging. It has Chinese text on the box, but has come with English instructions, and calls the game Rocman. Not much is known about the 'Thunder Blast Man' version's packaging, but one cart design seems to have the Rocman X character on it, as well as some screenshots and the words Sachen diagonally repeated in the background. It says 'Thunder Blast Man' on the cart label. The color of the cartridge varies, as Sachen Game Boy carts come in gray-blue, green, yellow, and in rare cases such as Rocman X Gold, a Gold cartridge. The Rocman X label has Chinese letters under it, with the third letter translating to "Man", Presumably the whole word is Rocman, but the first two letter are yet to be translated to confirm this. It also seems that Rocman X will come with either an instructions sheet (a piece of thick paper that has the game's contents, like a regular manual would) or a full instruction manual. In the end, it seems that the English name is Thunder Blast Man, while the Asian name is Rocman X.
