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Supervision: handheld of the less fortunate

I had one of these, I totally forgot about it until now. It was my step up from the single-game LCD tiger handhelds, before finally getting a real Gameboy...

this thing was TERRIBLE.
 
Howdy! Here's the first update for 2021, and boy is it a doozy! New content has been piling up for nearly a year now, but somehow I kept letting everything (and anything) get in the way of properly processing it all. Imagine that!! *wink*

Anyway! Let's itemize all the rad new scans that were added today:

- An Eagle Plan cartridge label variant.
- A better quality TV-Link Adaptor cartridge label.
- A complete TV-Link (NTSC) product set.
- An update to the TV-Link (PAL-B) product set.
- Chinese language instructions for 2-in-1 - Hash Block & Eagle Plan.
- English and Chinese language instructions for Treasure Hunter.
- English and Spanish language instructions for Crystball.
- A "new game cartridges" catalog from AudioSonic France (courtesy of Morgane Dumont).

Now if you'll excuse me, all this Supervision overindulgence has left me exhausted. I'd better go lie down.

https://www.diskman.com/presents/supervision
 
Did somebody say Tiger? Oh yeah!! The primary focus of today's update is the "Taike Boy" from Taiwan, a Supervision variant I have been on the lookout for since the dawn of the millennium. Naturally, I am pleased as Christmas punch to now have high-quality scans of its box, instructions, and game cartridge order form. And if you mosey on over to the scans page, you can have 'em, too!

Of hilarious note is the fact that both Street Fighter II and "Mortal Komba" are advertised on the front of the box, suggesting that these two high-profile game titles were on their way to the Supervision. Hogwash! Utter tripe! They were never on their way to the Supervision. (But then again maybe they were, it's difficult to say.) What a shameless way to try'n sell a doomed game system.

Also featured on the box is everyone's (other) favorite Supervision vaporware title, Devil Paradise. Good show, gentlemen: 3 out of 5 (or 60%) of the games shown on your packaging DON'T EXIST!

But, wait! There's more. I've also added:

- A set of Soccer Champion instructions in English, Dutch, and French.
- Scans of some French language product attention & warning labels.
- A better quality scan of the Sonny sticker.

taikeboy.jpg
 
Today I endured the drudgery of scanning a Supervision advertisement from our good ol' bosom chums at Goldnation, as well as, of all things, an official Supervision™ “Authorized Dealer” decal: unused, of course, because who would've cursed their business by actually displaying one of these in their shop window?!

Also, please note that the acronym for Supervision Authorized Dealer is, very appropriately, SAD.

Noticing the trademark symbol on the decal, I wondered, “Did they even file a trademark, or was that just another bunch of BS?” Well, slogging through the United States Patent and Trademark database, I discovered that yes! Indeed, the trademark was legitimately registered. The filing document downloaded from said database has also been added to the scans page.

Lastly for today: Do you remember all the way back to 2009 when I used the Super Fighter Team website design as a template for... this? No, you don't. Regardless, there's irony here! Because just last month, I redesigned the Super Fighter Team website using – wait for it – this website's design to inspire me. I've come full circle, and I am finally home.
 
krebizfan said:
the promotional art looks worse than the actual games.
Click to expand...

Oh, isn't the art positively dreadful? And yet, I cannot look away. :eek: As a matter of fact, tracking down & scanning all the countless variations of it are some of my primary motivations behind all of this. Go fig.
 
I've been putting off an update because I didn't wanna do it, but by now y'all should know that's kinda par for the course with this website. *yawn*

So what super-de-duper stuffs were added this time round? An alternate set of Treasure Hunter instructions, for one. Those instructions, by the way, accompanied a cartridge that held an alternate version of the game. (Joy!!) It boots with the same energetic female voice crying out, “Shupavishun!” as featured in Classic Casino. It also displays a different copyright year (1993) on the title screen. Furthermore, the music is different. What (sadly) hasn't changed, however, is the fact that the game is still unwinnable: level 6 appears to be impossible to complete, and hacking the game to progress to level 7 instead gives you a glitchy mess. Excellent job as always, Bon Treasure (should be bon voyage). I've added a pic of said mess to the Treasure Hunter page, for your bewilderment.

As was already stated on the Hero Kid page, this game is also unwinnable. Though a congratulations graphic is printed on the game's instruction page, the game crashes after a certain amount of levels are played. Thus the player never sees this graphic in all its “glory.” But, never fear! The infamous congratulations graphic is indeed stored in the game binary and I've plucked it out, adding it to the website.

Ooh!! I hope you're ready for this last one, 'cuz you'll be pounding your chest in primal excitement over it for sure: a crinkled, full color advertisement... showcasing SONNY X'PRESS! Hooray!!
 
Whoa, Nelly! With the selfless assistance of Dante López, I've recently acquired a crapload of previously unpreserved Supervision stuffs. This was especially helpful as I grow tired of seeking out all this junk on my own. (Hint, hint.)

So without further a-doo-doo, let's break down what's been added to the website...

* New box scans:

- Small boxes for Block Buster, Brain Power, Chimera, Final Combat, Hero Kid, Penguin Hideout, Super Block.
- Small box top featuring an early, “Game & Watch-esque” Travellmate screen simulation.
- Game Prince Supervision protective case
- Vini-Spil Supervision box and instructions, direct from Denmark! Det er fedt!
- Vini-Spil game boxes for Happy Race, John Adventure, Juggler, Pacboy & Mouse, Penguin Hideout.

The protective case is from Taiwan. The traditional Chinese reads “Game Prince,” despite the fact that even a beggar prince would turn up his nose at the Supervision.

* New cartridge label scans:

- Alien (alternate artwork)
- 4-in-1: Happy Race, Jacky Lucky, Space Fighter, Majong
- Hash Blocks (earliest known label)

Weirdly, the 4-in-1 cart's label doesn't come close to accurately reflecting which games are actually included. This may have been a generic design created for use with a variety of different game compilations. Who knows?

The Hash Blocks label is the one depicted on the Travellmate box. It features an enthusiastic little fellow who reminds me of Krillin from Dragon Ball Z. I've been after this label for A LONG TIME, and am very relieved to have finally found it.

* Improved cartridge label scans:

- Crystball (earliest known label)

The Crystball cartridge contained an alternate game binary with an early Travellmate logo, and pathetic attempt at an accompanying beep sound. Naturally, the binary has been properly archived, and an update has been made to the Crystball game page.

* New instructions scans:

- Brain Power, Chimera, Final Combat, Pacboy & Mouse, Penguin Hideout, Sssnake (Spanish)
- Happy Race, Juggler, Pacboy & Mouse, Penguin Hideout (English, Danish)
- Hero Kid (English, Dutch, French, German)

In addition, I also got my mitts on the earliest known model of the Travellmate, whose outer casing is a total ripoff of the original (DMG) Game Boy. And, much to my surprise (and confusion!), the previous owner installed a backlight in it. Seems he doesn't value his spare time. But who am I to talk?

Whew, what a whale of an update! And what a wail I let out whilst preparing it!

www.diskman.com/presents/supervision/scans.htm
 
More Supervision scans?! To quote Charlie Brown, “AAUGH!”

It's all the variations, damn it. If it weren't for all the different, seemingly endless versions of the packaging, instructions in a half-dozen languages, et Cetera, then I'd, very likely, have been done with all this stuff and nonsense by now. But, nope! No such luck. The Supervision will likely continue to haunt me – and waste countless amounts of my time – until my dying day. *sigh*

OK!! So, buoyed by that cheery introduction [!], let me tell you what was added to the ol' website today:

* New box scans:

- Small boxes for Fatal Craft, Jaguar Bomber, Tasac 2010, Witty Cat.

* New instructions scans:

- Fatal Craft, Witty Cat (Chinese)
- Jaguar Bomber (English, Italian)
- Pacific Battle (English, Italian)
- Tasac 2010 (English, Dutch, French, German)
- Tasac 2010 (Italian, Spanish)

* Improved insert scan:

- TV-Link (PAL-B) instruction sheet (Italian)

* New insert scan:

- TV-Link (PAL-B) warranty information (Watary Italia)

* New advertisement scan:

- Watary Italia ad featuring a Watara-branded watch & a goofy looking fish (with an overbite?)

And that's all. For now.

Supervision: handheld of the less fortunate

A highly informative tribute to the Supervision handheld video game system and its games.
www.diskman.com www.diskman.com
 
As someone who got an original Nintnedo Game boy when it first came out I can say we didnt think these systems were bad at the time. It was better than the alternative. Tiger games for instance... I used a bunch of those.. Garbage. I like the Gameboy, Still do and have plenty of games for it. The screen was its bottleneck but that got better with time (speaking of which I need to do a modern screen mod one of these days). So this Supervision device was probably loved by whomever had one.

Side note. A buddy of mine got the gamegear when it came out. The screen for that had terrible ghosting when new.. IT was never good.. But it was color and it was bright.. That was its selling point.. Wasnt enough though. I only remember one kid with a Lynx and he wouldnt share so I cant honestly say how those screens were. The original "Gameboy" like dot matrix screen was just what we had at the time. Like those early lcd screens which were similar to the gameboy or backlit with white and blue.. Terrible,, but thats what was out at the time.
 
An ePay auction for an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly recently caught my eye, as the seller claimed it mentioned the Supervision. Consulting a scan of the issue, I quickly realized said seller was full of snot.

BUT!!

This made me wonder: Had EGM sullied their mag at some point, by including the Supervision amongst its pages? Wasting even more time, consulting scans of later issues, I soon found the answer: Yes. Yes, they had. Thankfully it was only a quick mention, nestled within the reader Q&A section. Hopefully, it didn't inspire any of their readers to actually buy the damned thing.

So anyway, I bought the mag just so I could make a higher quality scan of the (hopefully) innocuous announcement, which I've now added to the website.

www.diskman.com/presents/supervision/scans.htm
 
A Supervision prototype cartridge appeared!! (Cue cricket orchestra.)

Oh. My. God. Which scintillating game could it possibly be? Happy Flappy? No. Devil Paradise?? Of course not, don't be ridiculous.

It's... *sigh* ...Sonny X'Press. Because of course it is. Yep. Sonny, that parasite-ridden scooter jockey, has found a way to capture the dim Supervision spotlight once again. Blech.

You'll have to excuse me for not going ape-solutely bananas over this out of the blue discovery, but after wasting TWENTY YEARS [!] on painstaking Supervision research (with an emphasis on pain), I was hoping for something far better to surface. Can't a Marpol Brother catch a break?!

But, whatever. At the end of the day, a lackluster prototype is better than no prototype at all. And just think: Next time, it could be Wonder Fish!

Anyway, the Sonny X'Press page has been updated, noting several differences between prototype and final version.

diskman.com/presents/supervision/sonny.htm


sonny1.gif
 
DeathAdderSF said:
(Cue cricket orchestra.)
Click to expand...

Chuckle. I need to remember that phrase. As someone in this forum once told me, preservation efforts are usually a fairly thankless job. Somewhere down the road someone will appreciate the effort. I'm from the other orchestra and have enjoyed your websites over the years and appreciate all the downloads and info you have provided. I especially enjoyed you finally finding your holy grail Fatal Encounter. That must have been a great feeling after a long search.
 
Thanks for the kind words. Proper research & archival of these weird gizmos is very important to me, so I'll keep working at it regardless of whether people care or not -- but it's always nice to know that some folks are enjoying & getting good use out of my website. 👍

I can't overstate how epic it was to finally nab Fatal Encounter. Not owning that game was like having a nagging itch that I couldn't scratch... for over twenty years. 😣 Acquiring it inspired me to make a sincere effort to find the Super Fighter manhua -- which, I'm happy to report, I was also successful at! If you'd like to read our English translated version, it's available on the front page of superfighter.com as a free download.
 
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