Adding backlight to a Bitcorp Gamate

Still a work in progress. Rather akin to a Gameboy Light in terms of hue, but a bit brighter. Has improved the gameplay of several titles that were perviously only marginally playable. Once a few bugs are ironed out, I'll try to post a video.


http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/handhelds/?action=view&current=SNC16710-1.jpg

http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/...ds/?action=view&current=SNC16711.jpg&newest=1


Hooray!

 

Have you ever heard the expression "you can't polish a turd"?

There are Gamate games that are playable?!?!

 

Of course. Many games on the Gamate are as bad as bad can get (although the supervision is a tad worst in my opinion) however I've found that under scrutiny, many are playable if you have a system in good condition.


Many of the most interesting games where released late in the console's life by UMC (games that flirt with originality even) and are so hard to find, no one has bothered to critique them.


Since several different developers produced the games, to it makes sense that some would be better than others. I figured an upgrade to the screen would elevate some of the better titles into the realm of fun. That's all. Otherwise I would have spend the money polishing my Gameking

 

Is that a euphemism?

Talking of euphemisms, why the hell did they call it the Gamate? It sounds either like gay mate, or gamete!

The Gamate was released by Cheetah in the UK. I remember it being reviewed in the Sinclair magazines (as Cheetah made Spectrum joysticks). I wanted one! Sadly (or fortunately?), I never got one.

I see there's one on eBay for £100, loose with no games! LMFAO! Some people are very optimistic!

 

No, but now it probably should be. :lol:

Yeah, I don't know. It's about as unfortunate a translation as anything. Supposedly it reads as "Super Kid!" in Taiwanese, so go figure.

I sold 2 units (but with games) on ebay 4 months back, each went for double what I was expecting. Perhaps your Retro-gamer magazine article helped out with that.

 

Most likely. That magazine's overpriced in itself - the readers can afford to shell out hehe

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI

These guys would like to have a word with you.

 

Lol, I actually saw that before I posted ;-)

 

You could polish a $325.00 turd, if you like.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...eSU%3D&viewitem=&category=33343#ht_500wt_1156

 

Crazy! At least it's boxed, I guess. I think the price is probably in the fact that it's white with red buttons? All the ones I saw were grey with yellow buttons. Maybe they thought it was the elusive colour screen one?

What I find interesting is that the artwork is virtually the same as the Cheetah artwork. They've got the different colour and took off that it has a game and batteries "attached" (oh yeah, and left the dodgy Engrish), but didn't really put their brand on it. Why they took those off, incidentally, is beyond me, as the machine DID come with batteries and a game! The ad Cheetah ran actually left them on, bizarrely. I think it might have been a mockup, as I am sure I've seen a box with those words left in place.

Check out the damning review from a magazine of the time:

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/media_view/182/cheetah-gamate.php

 

Yeah that box sure is intriguing. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that particular image is a mock-up, as all the screen shots and some of the card labels are pre-production. Yet the Gamate shown (with the odd speaker vents) does exist. It's an early model, it's pretty rare and I know no one who has one. Once another one turns up, and if it still has it's serial # intact, that made shed a bit of light on the matter. It's box could have looked something like that, but not necessarily exactly.

I have a UK Gamate from '93, and it does have "batteries included" on the box.
http://s663.photobucket.com/albums/uu353/sickertus/handhelds/?action=view&current=SNC15786.jpg#!oZZ36QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs663.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu353%2Fsickertus%2Fhandhelds%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DSNC15786.jpg

Yeah the "Vanilla" Gamate from France is another rare variant. Pretty but unfortunately not the fabled (read: nonexistent) Gamate Color. The screenshot from the standard International box shows a mock-up of the game "Moneymaze", which this white one seems to show "Vindicators", a cute tank battle game.

Is the ad you mentioned the one on the Gamate wiki page?

 

Ah, glad to know I'm not going mad! Thought the box we had at the shop I worked in said that. Kinda wish I'd bought it now... only reason I didn't was that it was so amazingly dire! Had it been cheap, I would have... but the boss wanted a fair bit (maybe cheap by today's standards). And it may have been missing something.

Yeah, I don't believe it existed. People fall for it, though - it's possible someone believed the white one was it! Haha.

Took a look at Wikipedia - that looks like the same ad. It ran in Crash magazine, IIRC... I'm sure I remember a review in there, too. I'll have to dig my issues out.

 

No. I can say quite confidently, that's not the case.

 

Really? You're in the mind of all the bidders? ;-) lol.

 

No. I'm the guy that won it.;-)

 

Lol, I don't know whether to say well done or oh dear! ;-)

Still, doesn't mean those who bid against you knew what it was! You get idiots on eBay hehe!

 

Sure, I guess that's true (even though the box clearly shows the all too familiar pea soup green monochrome screen).

Even though there's zero mention of this variant online (wow) I was quietly aware that it existed and I know of several collectors (all of whom had entered the hobby much earlier than I ) who had seen it too. There was a collector in China, who had a substantial Gamate collection, including a vanilla unit. Attempts to contact her had failed, but it seemed than she had sold everything at some point anyway.


The real challange for me was that when I discovered the auction (with only a day and a half to go), I was broke (and unemployed:clap so I had to figure out a budget and sell some things from my game collection (quickly) in order to raise the $. When I threw my late bid in I was bid up right to my limit, without a euro to spare.:nod:

So I'm really looking forward to receiving it and crossing my fingers that there will be some little tidbit of info present to help shed some light on the origin or quantity of the variant. Maybe a serial #, or some paperwork. Also like I said, I think it's really pretty. :love2: And she's french!

 

Really? I've known of this one for some time now. I also remember someone talking about it possibly being the colour one (ha!), I thought they said it was Brazilian. Maybe it was this that I remember:

http://fuji.drillspirits.net/gamate/?p=hardware

Some people!

 

Hmmm. Yeah, I don't know. There is a South American version distributed by Electrolab, which has a unique screen protector. But unfortunately it looks the same in other respects.

I'd love to contact someone from either BIT or UMC and ask about the charger and the battery-pack, which to my knowledge have never been found. I'd love to discovery one day that a carrying case was produced. That'd be pretty neat.:Rock:

 

Does anyone know how to get in touch with 3rdman?