Bit Corp Gamate

The Gamate, known as 超級小子 (pinyin: chāojí xiǎozi, literally "Super Boy") in Taiwan and 超级神童 (pinyin: chāojí shéntóng, literally "Super Child Prodigy") in China, is a handheld game console manufactured by Bit Corporation in the early 1990s, and released in Australia, some parts of Europe (partly the UK, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece and Finland) and Asia (Taiwan and China), Argentina, the United States, and possibly other regions including South Africa. It never sold in numbers comparable to the Game Boy or even the Watara Supervision, and as a result information on the console and its games remains scarce. The only emulator that supports it is MESS. Over 70 games, not all dumped, are known to have been produced for the system. The Gamate appears to be the first of the many handheld consoles released in reaction to the success of Nintendo's Game Boy. It was originally released by the Taiwanese game company Bit Corporation in conjunction with local distributors around the world, such as Alston Research in the USA, the joystick maker Cheetah Marketing in the UK, toy company GIG in Italy, video game importer Uranium in Switzerland, ITMC subsidiary Yeno in Germany, Famiclone manufacturer Electrolab in Argentina and PlayMix in Sweden. The system was also sold in Australia and Finland, but it was still unconfirmed to be released in those two countries or not. Bit Corp. ceased operating in 1992 but UMC and its subsidiary Funtech continued to produce Gamate hardware and software. Unlike other Taiwanese or Hong Kong Game Boy competitors, such as the Watara Supervision, Hartung Game Master and the Mega Duck, the Gamate's internal hardware contains no epoxy covered chips and was assembled in a quality manner. The build quality is relatively akin to that of the Game Boy. The shell is made of thick plastic and with batteries installed, the unit feels very similar to the weight of a Game Boy.