The Mega Duck WG-108 (also known as Cougar Boy) is a handheld game console that was developed and manufactured by Hong Kong–based Welback Holdings through its Timlex International division, and released in 1993.
It was marketed under various different brands worldwide including Creatronic and Videojet, and the shell of the console came in white or black plastic. It was sold for about fl 129 in the Netherlands, and for a similar price in France and Germany.
In South America (mainly in Brazil), the Chinese-made Creatronic version was distributed by Cougar USA, also known as "Cougar Electronic Organization", and sold as the "Cougar Boy". Cougar USA didn't widely release the Cougar Boy in its origin country.
The cartridges are very similar to those of the Watara Supervision, but slightly narrower with fewer contacts (36 pins, whereas Supervision cartridges have 40). But unlike the Supervision, the hardware of the Mega Duck is almost identical to that of the Game Boy, enabling easy ports between the two systems.
The Cougar Boy came with a four-in-one game cartridge and a stereo earphone.
Laptop Models A variant in the form of an educational laptop for children was released in Germany by Hartung as the Mega Duck Super Junior Computer, and in Spain by CEFA Toys as the Super QuiQue. It uses an external game pad tethered by a cable instead of an integrated one. There is a primary ROM cartridge slot and a secondary slot for a battery backed save RAM cartridge. An extra accessory called the Mega Duck Printer was also released for this variant.
Technical specifications
The Mega Duck features a multi board design, separating the motherboard, LCD, and controller PCB into three different assemblies. The battery compartment is found on the back casing, being the contacts connected by wires and soldered onto the main board. CPU: Sharp SM83 (Z80-like, embedded in the LR35902 System on a chip) @ 4.194304 MHz RAM: 16 KB in two 8K chips (Goldstar GM76C88LFW) LCD: 2.7" (48 (h) × 51 (w) mm) STN dot matrix. resolution 160×144 at 59.732155 Hz Colours: 4 levels of dark blue on a green background Player controls: 4 directional keys, A, B, Select and Start keys Other controls: On/off switch, contrast and volume dials Sound: 4 channels (2 pulse wave, 1 wavetable and 1 noise) with built-in speaker (8Ω 200 mW) and stereo headset output Dimensions: Weight: 249 g (w/o batteries) Power: Four AA batteries or AC adapter 6 VDC / 300 mA Current consumption: 700 mW Play duration: 15 hours on one set of four AA batteries Expansion Interface: Serial link for two player games (6 pins), or external joystick. Game medium: 36 pins ROM cartridge, 63 (l) × 54 (w) mm and 7 mm thick, 17 gram.
List of games
This is an (incomplete) list of Mega Duck/Cougar Boy games. Each Mega Duck/Cougar Boy game is similarly labelled as the same games were marketed for both systems, although not all games were released for the Cougar Boy. The notation MDxxx is used for Mega Duck Games, and the notation CBxxx for a Cougar Boy Games. A MD002 is exactly the same game as the CB002, even to a point that some "Cougar Boy" games start up with a Mega Duck logo. Some notation numbers go unused, going up to 037, but missing 012 and 023 for example.
With the exception of the pack-in game for the Mega Duck (The Brick Wall) which was developed by the manufacturer, all games were developed by Thin Chen Enterprise under the "Sachen" and "Commin" brand names, and were later re-released for the Game Boy in 4-in-1 and 8-in-1 cartridges without the license from Nintendo.
Although 24 cartridges (not counting Cougar Boy variants or add-ons for the Super Junior Computer) are known to exist, another game is listed on various websites called Tip & Tap, however, it is not known if the game was ever released, or if it existed at all.
# Title Developer Release year Notes 001 The Brick Wall Timlex International 1993 002 Street Rider Commin 1993 Rally-X clone 003 Bomb Disposer Commin 1993 Dr. Mario clone 004 Vex Commin 1993 KLAX clone 005 Suleiman's Treasure Commin 1993 Anteater clone 006 Arctic Zone Commin 1993 A horizontal Quarth clone 007 Magic Maze Commin 1993 Also released as Dancing Block on NES and Watara Supervision 008 Puppet Knight Commin 1993 Bomberman clone 009 Trap and Turn Commin 1993 Reversi game 010 Pile Wonder Commin 1993 Sokoban clone 011 Captain Knick Knack Sachen 1993 Vertical shoot-em-up similar to TwinBee 013 Black Forest tale Commin 1993 Similar to Sachen's earlier Little Red Hood game 014 Armour Force Commin 1993 Horizontal shoot-em-up 018 Snake Roy Sachen 1993 A Snake variant 019 Railway Sachen 1993 Pipe Mania clone 021 Beast Fighter Sachen 1993 Side-scrolling beat-em-up 026 Ant Soldiers Sachen 1993 Lemmings clone 028 2nd Space Sachen 1993 A game similar to Pac-Man 029 Magic Tower Sachen 1993 A platforming game with a Rock paper scissors element 030 Worm Visitor Sachen 1993 Frogger clone 031 Duck Adventures Commin 1993 Wani Wani World clone 035 Four in One Sachen 1993 Compilation of 4 games: Virus Attack, Electron World, Trouble Zone, Dice Block 035a Virus Attack Sachen 1993 Space Invaders clone 035b Electron World Sachen 1993 Maze action game 035c Trouble Zone Sachen 1993 Puzzle game 035d Dice Block Sachen 1993 QBillion clone 036 Commin Five in one Commin 1993 Compilation of 5 games: Store Tris 1 and 2, Taiwan Mahjong, Japan Mahjong, Hong Kong Mahjong 036a Store Tris 1 Commin 1993 Tetris clone 036b Store Tris 2 Commin 1993 Tetris variant with irregular shapes 036c Taiwan Mahjong Commin 1993 036d Japan Mahjong Commin 1993 036e Hong Kong Mahjung Commin 1993 037 Zipball Sachen 1993 Action puzzle game
References