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Supervision: handheld of the less fortunate


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Recent site updates...

 

• November 30, 2019:

The game instructions archive on the scans page was updated to include Italian language instructions for 2-in-1: Block Buster / Cross High, Delta Hero, Space Fighter, and Super Block. Not exciting enough for ya? Well, keep your eyes peeled 'cuz I've got a few blister pack insert scans coming along shortly.

 

• December 5, 2019:

Surprise!! I'm back with more blister pack inserts, as promised. So... it's not really a surprise. Anyway! You get 2-in-1: Block Buster / Cross High, and Soccer Champion. Soccer Champion's instructions have also been added, in English and Italian. Urrà! Soccer Champion had proven a tough one to find complete. And 2-in-1: Block Buster / Cross High, I noticed, was imported by a firm named Cammarota S.R.L., instead of the more familiar Watary Italia. Curious!

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Just a few days ago or so I found that site of yours again doing a google search.  Some people were pushing the supervisions and how decent they were (obviously it's no gameboy though) on a facebook group and it got me looking again.  It does seem interesting, and it appears someone made some multicart with the library on it too which wouldn't be so bad if you're not a collector.

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Technically it's not so far from the GB, and ovbiously, given the screen resolution and 4-tone grayscale, it's hard to say for sure. The issue is mostly that game were poorly developped.

On the same range, the BitCorp Gamate and Mega Duck are in the same ballpark.

Edited by CatPix
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Yeah I think it's a bit of gameboy love it gets dumped on a bit more than perhaps deserved.  Both systems had motion blur to an annoying level with scrolling games or even some moving objects, and they also have kind of similar level of capable audio whether the supervision used it or not.  Games would be the thing, and depending on the depth you're after the supervision sucks or it's just fine, but same can be said with Gameboy too though it had vastly more games both garbage and not to drown out the groans.

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Of course, the game library is what make both system so different.

You coudl say that early GB games weren't so much more exciting than the Supervision games.... The difference is that the GB moved to increasingly complex games, and the Supervision didn't, save for a few games like Chimera (which appears to have been adapted from a C64 game).

For the audio, the GB probably have the advantage, though from what I recall the Supervision have 3 tones and possibility to play samples (which it does on the title screen of Sssnake and also at boot of one Bon Treasure game where an Asian voice says  "Supervision" with a surprising clarity).

I think the GB have one more channel and/or more flexibility but if you listen to the audio tracks of Ssssnake, 92 Olympics or even Super Kong, the Supervision does "good enough" compared to the GB.

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Exactly you get what I was thinking.  Year 1 GB, Year (any sadly) SUpervision.  Both very simplistic, both just mindless and simple in many regards, sure you had a few point games like Mario or some scrolling shooter that were obviously higher points going.  But in both cases simple audio before people could learn to do more, and both with terribly blurry panels that would obscure.  While Nintendo advanced the hardware supervision did not.  While Nintendo and their makers found ways to do great stuff quicker like MM, GQ, SML2, Gradius, etc the other really didn't.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Today's website update:

 

Merry 2020, guys 'n' gals! Our first update of the year is, like the two updates that preceded it, all about scans. For one, I busted Block Buster out of its tight, repressive blister pack to get scans of the insert + English & Italian language instructions. And, two-hoo! There's scans of the Golden Free Trade Supervision box and instructions, from down Mexico way. Fab stuff, amirite?

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Judging by the title of the thread I felt this was the right spot to announce the news of the new game here as well. I was hinted to the fact that my post sort of is commercial as we sell our game (pretty much at production cost, but nevertheless for money).

The website featured in this thread, however, is free of charge.

We are sorry if this caused troubles or bad feelings and wished no harm. Please stay on topic of the website itself instead here.

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As far as I'm concerned, I see no harm. I wouldn't have heard of this game without your message on this very thread.

I would have to say things about the strange inputs you designed but I assume it's for a good reason - and the game is straightforward enough that is isn't really an issue :)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
On 3/13/2020 at 6:16 PM, Tanooki said:

Any shot after doing this and the game.com you'll do a page of goodies for the MegaDuck which is super similar hardware to the Supervision?

 

Sorry, just saw this reply! D'oh!

 

Ah... well, to be frank, the Mega Duck never really caught my attention like those other two pieces of crap have. So, no. Probably not. Someone else'll have to find it within themselves to make a Mega Duck website, I'm afraid. (And if someone actually does it, I'll be very afraid!)

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Today's update...

 

The other night I thought to myself, “I should get pictures of all the Crystball levels.” Then I laughed. Then I paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow. Then, I actually went and got all the pictures!! What is wrong with me?! (Wait, don't answer that.) Playing through Crystball again after all these years... sucked. But, I was able to notice and document some quirky details about the game's behavior. These stunning revelations are now available for you to overlook.

 

On the scanning front, Mark Canon (aka “stupus”) was kind enough to send in the following: blue boxes for 14 games, Galaxy Fighter and Journey to the West cartridge labels, and the official Goldnation price list and order form. W0w! Thanks, Mark!

 

Finally! Two more pages of Dixons ads were added to the existing PDF. Apparently the updated file had been sitting here for quite some time, waiting to be uploaded. Sorry, eh! ?

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  • 2 months later...

Today's update:

 

A rather interesting update around here, for a change: I've acquired and scanned sets of instructions for Crystball and Hero Kid from the Travellmate era, aka the earliest known issue of what soon became (unfortunately) known as the Supervision.

 

The Crystball set is especially interesting as it includes text in the game description that doesn't seem to appear in any of the later prints. Specifically, this gem of a line appears: “The animals may disturb you in the game, you can kill them with Crystball ans you will be scored, too.” (Terrible English and misspelling of the word “and” are faithfully reproduced from the source material.) Delightful. So make a beeline for the scans page and have a laugh.

 

https://www.diskman.com/presents/supervision/scans.htm

Edited by DeathAdderSF
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So so bad it's good.  I'd love to experience all these turds, still haven't had a chance to get one of those handhelds since ebay liked to be obscene especially as of this years stuff.  I imagine maybe someone emulated it anyway, probably should look, because if it's not in that dog mednafen I'd take a peek.

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5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

So so bad it's good.

 

No, it's just bad.

 

The increasingly annoying "retro fad" has people marking up absolute junk like the Poopervision to high heaven, that's for sure. But if you keep your eyes peeled I'm sure you'll eventually be able to find a system + a few games for a quasi-acceptable price. Not all the sellers are turbo greedmongers.

 

As far as emulation is concerned, that's old hat. Peter Trauner had a solid driver for MESS back in 2003. But what you want is Wataroo because it's the most hardware accurate.

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Yeah it's not impossible, bad but very difficult at best as you'll need lots of time, feelers, and a quick trigger finger before someone else finds a fair price likely to flip depending on how nice it was. :D

 

And yeah now that I see that name/website images I remember that.  Good times there with a stand alone emulator which I tend to find is the best way to do things.

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  • 3 months later...

I was looking for something new for my collection when I reminded myself of this thread and the Supervision. Went on eBay. Saw one listed and made an offer and he just accepted. So soon (hopefully by Halloween) I'll have a new toy to play with. It's going to come with Crystball. Is Assembloids still available?

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14 hours ago, atari2600land said:

I was looking for something new for my collection when I reminded myself of this thread and the Supervision. Went on eBay. Saw one listed and made an offer and he just accepted. So soon (hopefully by Halloween) I'll have a new toy to play with. It's going to come with Crystball. Is Assembloids still available?

I still have yet to receive mine. Anyone know how to contact the seller directly?

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No, it's just bad.

 

Since Brandon couldn't discourage you, let me give it a shot - the hardware is also made out of glass. Nintendo gave the GameBoy this really elegant voltage regulator to make sure all the chips 'n bits stay at a comfortable 5V. It's well designed enough to keep this steady even with very low or high input voltages. This also provides some protection for the console.

 

The SuperVision, Gamate, and GameCom have no such protection.

For a modern comparison, this is aliexpress bootleg engineering territory.

 

Some SuperVisions aren't stable using NiMH rechargeable batteries, causing VRAM corruption and Commodore-style speckles on the display. You're technically overvolting the components by using four fresh alkalines. With the current cost of the hardware you're effectively paying a hundo (or more) for something which needs heavy rework just to... work.

 

It's bad.

No stars, do not buy.

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