************************************* The Home Entertainment Suppliers FAQ ************************************* FAQ/Guide by OmeBa Site: http://www.iinet.net.au/~wigy/hes.txt Version: 0.122 Last Updated: 6/1/00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents: 1. Version History 2. Introduction 3. History 4. Atari 5. Games by HES 6. HES in the year 2000 7. Interesting HES facts and fiction 8. Technical HES 9. Conclusion 10. Contact Information 11. Disclaimer 12. Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Version History ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0.122.2 (6/1/00) - Cleaned up FAQ, Added some new HES Game information, Added credits and contact information, Added Technical section. 0.121 (18/2/00) - First Release ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Introduction: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Home Entertainment Suppliers are a very interesting Australian company who distribute video games throughout Australia. I have found many bits of information on the internet and much of it has been the same old stuff or just plain incorrect so I thought I would write one being an Australian and having first hand knowledge on the subject. There is still alot of mystery surrounding this company and even when you mention the old Nintendo games to the head office you can feel the mood change. Anyways as an Australian myself and also having owned nearly every single HES Nintendo game produced through the years I thought I would compile a nice FAQ with information that I have gathered through experience, friends, the internet, my own HES collection and HES themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. History: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES) are located in Sydney, Australia and have been and still are distributing games and accessories for popular gaming consoles. Near the beginning it was Atari games in which they would make multi carts and package them under the HES name and distribute them. Also single carts were produced but inevitably they would end up on a multi cart somewhere down the track. This continued with Nintendo games which mostly came from other unlicensed companies such as Tengen, AVE, Bit Corp, Sachen and Joyvan and if you look closely some of the carts have sachen imprinted on them. The Nintendo carts were black and variations exist but more on them later. HES were the official distributors of the Atari Lynx, it's games ad accessories and when you purchased a system you would get a HES Poster and all information on help and so on would be directed to HES. They also deal with "refurbished" Super Nintendo games and New Nintendo 64 games. Accessories for the Nintendo 64 and Game boy Color are still being produced to this day by HES. HES games were Unlicensed and certain means were used to bypass the lockout on systems. The games were packed in interesting video type plastic cases with most of the games having the instructions on the reverse side of the "slick" as they called it. Some games did however come in cardboard "Nintendo" style boxes, Pyramid and Chiller to name a few. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Atari: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HES produced many Atari multi carts these usually came in Plastic cases and on the front it would have pictures of the boxes/cases of the games that were included on the multi cart. They did also have single carts with their HES logo on the box. This section will grow as more information becomes available but I'm focusing on the Nintendo part for the first few revisions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Games by HES: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Atari: Atari had HEAPS of HES games to grace it's presence but most were multi carts. I have a very small list of confirmed HES Atari released but as I go on I find more sites with names and more second hand HES Atari games in bargain bins. *Update: I have found a site with a list of obtained Atari HES carts it is huge so I will add it next revision. This section is in no way complete. - 4 in 1 Mega Fun Pak - Pac-Man, Planet Patrol, Skeet Shoot & Battle Gorf - 4 in 1 Smash Hit Pak - Frogger, Stampede, Seaquest, Boxing & Skiing - 2 Pak Special - Star Voyage/ Fire Alert - 2 Pak Special - Alien Force/ Hoppy - 2 Pak Special - Dungeon Master/ Creature Strike - 2 Pak Special - Cavern Blaster/ City War Nintendo: Alot of speculation as to what did come out, what was released also in America and what didn' come out. The list here confirms games that have come out by having - Released next to their name. - Coming soon just means that it was advertised as coming soon and may well have been released but I have never physically seen it. - Unconfirmed means that it is possible it was "Coming soon" but never did or the name was released but no one has evidence of the cart actually existing. This section is in no way complete, may contain small error in game titles or release dates but most should be accurate. *If you have one of the "unconfirmed" games please give me an email omeba@buyamac.com DuckMaze - Released Othello - Released Jackpot - Released Little Red Hood - Released Impossible Mission 2 - Released Chiller - Released F15 City War - Released Raid 2020 - Released Arctic Adventure Penguin and Seal - Released Sidewinder - Released Silent Assault - Released Galactic Crusader - Released Math quiz - Released Death Race - Released (Specialdeal) RBI Baseball - Released (Tengen advert) Maxi 15 Pack - Released 4 in 1 Mind blower - Released 4 in 1 Fun pack - Released 4 in 1 Fun - Released 6 in 1 HES - Released Pings 'N Wolf - Unconfirmed Pipe mania - Unconfirmed Boom bang - Unconfirmed Pac man - Unconfirmed Super sprint - Unconfirmed Indiana Jones - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert Menace beach - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert Road runner - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Color dreams Advert Vindicators - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert Toobin - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert Gauntlet - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert Rolling thunder - Coming soon - Unconfirmed - Tengen Advert ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. HES in the Year 2000: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yes H.E.S are still around now selling accessories such as power packs, RF adapters and 3rd party products for Nintendo 64, Game boy Color, Playstation and I even saw an old Lynx ac adapter by HES. They had a run with Atari games multi carts included, Lynx games as they were the official Australian distributor of lynx and ofcourse 8 bit Nintendo single and Multi carts. Ok the word for the year 2000 (18/2/00 to be exact) is they have Refurbished Super Nintendo games for sale, a selected few which are not kept on the computer database special enquiries only, Nintendo 64 they sell but don't actually make the games just distribute. Now comes the 8 Bit Nintendo part that we are interested in, a short while ago HES sold off ALL their remaining surplus of 8 bit Nintendo games, places that bought out these are BIG W and K-Mart to name a few and sold for around $30au and at clearance price $9.99au. Anyways the bottom line is they don't even have any Nes HES lying around in their warehouse which is sad but true. My next call will be to confirm the games marked as "Coming soon" and "Under development" in various catalogs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Interesting HES Facts and Fiction: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another interesting bit of info is I have seen 2 variations of catalogs, 1 with a piggyback diagram and 1 with a dongle diagram and a few different games pictures. To make this report complete I will also add little diagrams on pieces of paper were included in some games with either a dongle diagram or a piggyback diagram. The little yellow sticker UNDER the HES black round sticker reads "Free Video Tape Coupon Enclosed - H.E.S Cartridge for Nintendo". Also speculation as to why the Maxi 15 says in less words you can get your own maxi 15 by dialing the number (don't bother the number wont work as Australia updated it's phone system and the number is invalid) anyways back to why the maxi said you could own your own, it is known to video shop owners at the start CERTAIN games were for rental only and came with free coupons for video hire as a sort of promo this would fit with the "get your own maxi15 cart" as you would see the screen when you hired the game. Later ofcourse they had so many carts they sold them off to large shopping center chains. HES carts were very popular at this time because they were cheap and most of the games had a range of 2 to 5 games on each cartridge (Multi Carts). Most HES carts were released in plastic cases like a video box and a printed label which can be taken out and turned around, the other side has the instructions. Also HES cartridges are not licensed, some carts had known problems but Nintendo changed the chips so much that they could not have 100% compatibility so with some HES carts need a normal Nes cart to be inserted before the HES game will work (like a HES Maxi 15). Pyramid was the same as US box with HES sticker on it and Chiller was HES Box not case. *Updated: I have also seen a Penguin and Seal and HES box version instead of Plastic case. The HES Version of the 30 in 1 was never produced, the MAXI Volume 2 (not maxi 15 but just MAXI) is still left under speculation as the advertisement on the actual maxi 15 hes version states to ask for "Maxi 15 Multi cart Volume 1" they could not give me a clear answer as to if it was distributed or if it was just a revised maxi 15 volume 2 with different games from their existing titles. Another interesting bit of info is I have seen 2 variations of catalogs, 1 with a piggyback diagram and 1 with a dongle diagram and a few different games pictures. To make this report complete I will also add little diagrams on pieces of paper were included in some games with either a dongle diagram or a piggyback diagram. Maxi 15 interesting info is the Australian HES version came with an instruction manual that is printed in the US and is again inconsistent throughout. The maxi 15 has a printing error on the cart label missing game 8. The US version of maxi 15 Pack was just Maxi 15 but HES called it maxi 15 pack. There were also a few different games on each, maybe this was volume 2? *Update: The game lists will be updated soon. A promo deal was on in the catalog it was collect 4 dongles and send them in and get death race value $59.95 free.. Does this mean it was released? But we do know this means HES either were low on dongles and had to do this offer so they could redistribute or they were expensive to produce. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Technical HES: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok down to the technical stuff, HES mostly used EPROMS inside their carts, this was a cheaper yet dirtier way of doing things. The problem with Eproms is that they erase themselves after 20 years, we have seen some early games already start to "not work" due to this problem. The carts came in many designs, Normal black carts that had a security chip in built to the board so your NES could boot up the unlicensed game. Nintendo changed the chip in the NES'S frequently enough to outdate HES'S technology so this wouldn't work, so what HES did do was produce 2 types of "piggy back/dongle" carts. The Piggyback cart was more squarer than the original carts that had a security chip in them, they had a connector on 1 end and pins on the other. You would place an Original Nintendo game in 1 end and then place your cart into the NES. The security code from the Original NES would pass through the HES cart and then be transferred to the NES giving it an original lockout code. The NES then would run your unlicensed HES game. The Dongle was a similar device but the cart looked more like the original HES carts where the security chip was in but it wasn't, instead a little port was on the end of the HES cart and you would plug in an external connector. The connector would then allow you to plug in an original Nintendo game and follow the above process. Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES) carts were distributed in the late 1980's and even into the early 90's from Sydney in Australia. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Far from complete. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Contact Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I can be contacted at omeba@buyamac.com and will happily answer your questions or game offers, I have everything from NES to Dreamcast =) Updates come as I find new information ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. Disclaimer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This FAQ/Guide is copyright 2000 OmeBa. HES are in no way affiliated, endorsed or supported by Nintendo. This is an unofficial FAQ/Guide. This FAQ/Guide can be distributed freely but may not be used to trade for money or any other item, it may not be altered or changed in anyway. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A big thanks goes out to: * HES , without them the FAQ would not be. * HES Secretary for providing some "fun" throughout my phone calls. * www.Simplynes.co.uk for additional information and HES partial lists. * Jerry G www.atari2600.com for his Atari lists. ------------------------------------------------------------------------