Home Entertainment Suppliers

Pty. Ltd. A proprietary company, the characteristic of which is abbreviated as "Pty", is a form of privately held company in Australia, Namibia and South Africa that is either limited or unlimited. However, unlike a public company there are, depending ...

(or HES) is an Australian

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

that distributes computer games and gaming equipment. HES' offices are based in Riverwood,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. HES's founder and managing director is Sebastian Giompaolo. They began distributing

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

titles such as ''

Pitfall! ''Pitfall!'' is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in September 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is popu ...

made'' in 1982 and '' Kung-Fu Master'' in 1984 and

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

titles nearing the end of the 1980s under the name

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

. HES still remains a dominant distributor within Australia, despite not being well known. HES currently is the distributor for

Mad Catz Mad Catz is an American manufacturing gaming brand of interactive entertainment and PC products, currently produced by Hong Kong–based company Mad Catz Global Limited. It was formerly produced by the original Chinese Mad Catz company until its ...

Saitek Saitek is a designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics founded in 1979 by Swiss technologist Eric Winkler. They are best known for their PC gaming controllers, mice, keyboards, and their numerous analogue flight controllers such as joystic ...

, and Gamester joysticks, cables, memory cards, and other peripherals. HES also remains the official Australian distributor for

Action Replay Action Replay is the brand name of a cheating device (such as cheat cartridges) created by Datel. The Action Replay is available for many computer and gaming systems including Commodore 64, Amiga, IBM PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo ...

. Quite a large number of software titles are currently also being distributed by HES for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

by publishers

ZOO Digital Publishing Zushi Games was a British video game publisher. Based in Sheffield, Zushi is the owner of the multi-million-selling ''Premier Manager'' series and best known for Alien Hominid. Zushi published titles for the Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advanc ...

Tru Blu Entertainment Tru Blu Entertainment Pty. Ltd. is an Australian publisher that is a subsidiary of Home Entertainment Suppliers, who distribute their titles. It was founded in 1999. Their debut title was 2003's Sidhe Interactive-developed ''Rugby League'' whi ...

and Phantagram. In the past, HES had gained a reputation for developing and distributing some interesting peripherals such as their auto fire controllers,

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

power adaptors,

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

converters for the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

and adapters for NES games such as the HES Unidaptor and HES Unidaptor MKII. In 1999, the company created the publishing arm Tru Blu Entertainment for software titles created by the company, including the hit NRL Rugby League and AFL Live titles.

Nintendo Entertainment System

Unlicensed

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, HES ported games from

American Game Cartridges American Game Cartridges (AGC) was an American video game developer and publisher established as a subsidiary of ShareData in 1990. Like ShareData, American Game Cartridges was headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. AGC published three video games fo ...

, American Video Entertainment (AVE),

Bit Corp Bit Corporation () was a Taiwanese game developer and console manufacturer. Games Bit Corporation produced original software for the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision, which it released worldwide under both its own name and the Puzzy brand, as well a ...

Color Dreams Color Dreams ( d/b/a StarDot Technologies) is an American company formerly known for developing and publishing unlicensed video games for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The company left the video game industry in the mid-1990s, ...

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and video game publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded in 1978 as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, publishing a series of tactical combat games. The Epyx ...

Thin Chen Enterprise Thin Chen Enterprise (full name Sheng Qian Enterprise Co., Ltd ()), also known as Sachen, was a Taiwanese company that developed several original games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive, Game Boy and other early cartridge-based H ...

( Sachen,

Joy Van Thin Chen Enterprise (full name Sheng Qian Enterprise Co., Ltd ()), also known as Sachen, was a Taiwanese company that developed several original games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive, Game Boy and other early cartridge-based ...

, etc.) and Tengen onto the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

(NES) as unlicensed titles, although they did not release games by Camerica or Active Enterprises. Most games were released in plastic cases like a video box with printed instructions on the inside, however sometimes the AVE titles were released in their original AVE boxes with a HES sticker simply stuck over AVE's original one. HES at the time became widely known for their unlicensed distribution of NES games at budget prices. Nintendo tried to fight against all unlicensed companies by introducing a Nintendo Seal of Quality on all their products which signified that titles adorning the symbol are guaranteed to operate on their

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

hardware. To combat this, HES introduced their own seal that mimicked Nintendo’s seal, possibly in the hope of confusing buyers. In order to circumvent other methods that Nintendo created to stop unlicensed developers (

10NES The Checking Integrated Circuit (CIC) is a lockout chip designed by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console in 1985; the chip is part of a system known as 10NES, in which a ''key'' (which is stored in the game) i ...

), HES developed the 'Piggy Back' or 'Dongle' games, where one could insert an official NES cart into the HES game and it operated the country code of the official title instead of HES'. This was so successful that HES also used the same technology to build a device to entirely bypass the

security protocol which was released as the ''HES Unidaptor''. The adapter allowed 72-pin and 60-pin

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

NES/Famicom games to be played on a

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

NES. HES introduced games to Australia that were not released elsewhere in the western world, and these have become very sought after classics. However, HES also chose to release their multigame cartridges and a few of their single game titles in very limited numbers. Such titles are extremely scarce and thus nearly impossible to find.

NES titles

* ''Arctic Adventure: Penguin & Seal'' * ''

Chiller A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression refrigeration, vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigerator, absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated th ...

'' * '' Death Race '' * '' Duck Maze'' * '' F-15 City War'' * ''Impossible Mission 2'' * ''International Ultimate League Soccer'' * ''Jackpot'' * '' Little Red Hood'' * ''Othello'' * ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'' * ''Pipemania'' * '' Raid 2020'' * ''Pyramid'' * '' R.B.I. Baseball'' * '' Sidewinder'' * ''

Super Sprint ''Super Sprint'' (known as ''Sprint Master'' on the Atari 2600) is a racing video game released by Atari Games and Midway Games in 1986. Up to three players drive Formula One-like cars on a circuit that is viewed from above. The game is a succes ...

'' * ''

Toobin' ''Toobin'' is a 1988 action game developed and published by Atari Games for arcades. Based on the recreational activity of tubing, it sees players traveling down rivers, collecting items and avoiding obstacles on their way to an endpoint. Th ...

'' * ''Twin Eagle'' * '' Vindicators''

Multi-game cartridges

*''2 Pack Special'' (''International Ultimate Soccer League (Magexa Soccer)'', ''Super Sprint'') *''4 in 1 Fun Blaster Pak'' (''Pipemania'', ''Twin Eagle'', '' Joyvan Kid'', and ''Little Red Hood'')3 *''4 in 1 Total Funpak'' (''

'', '' Sidewinder'', '' Duck Maze'', and ''Othello'') *''4 in 1 Mind Blower Pak'' (''Math Quiz'', ''Jackpot'', ''Arctic Adventure'', and ''

Incantation An incantation, spell, charm, enchantment, or bewitchery is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung, or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremonial ri ...

'') *''Maxi 15 (2 Variants, Red Cart which had Game Number 3 as "Death Race" and Game Number 6 as "Double Strike" and a more rarer Green Cart which has Game Number 3 as "Pyramid" and Game Number 6 as "Black Jack"'' * '' Real Players Pack 6-Pak'' (has the same unique games as ''Caltron 6 in 1''/''Myriad 6 in 1'')

Other

''4 Pak All Action''

''4 Pak All Action'' was a 1995 unlicensed video game for the

that was released exclusively in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. This game is only compatible with the Master System 2 console. It includes four games: ''Power Block'', ''Adventure Kid'', ''Twin Mouse',' and ''Cave Dude''.

Atari 2600 titles

HES released quite a few titles and multi game packs for the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. The cartridges are virtually identical to the Activision cartridges, but the Activision logo on the underside is blacked out. * 2 Pak Special (Dungeon Master, Creature Strike) * ''Smash Hit Pak'' (5-in-1 cartridge:

Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and published by Sega. In North America, it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct five frogs to their homes by dodging traffic on a busy road, then crossing a ri ...

, Stampede, Seaquest, Boxing, Skiing) * ''Super Hit Pak'' (5-in-1 cartridge: River Raid, Grand Prix, Fishing Derby, Sky Jinks, Checkers)

References

External links

*
NESWORLDNintendoAge

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502225116/http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?SystemID=2600&CompanyID=69 , date=2 May 2008
ZOO Digital Publishing website
Video game companies of Australia Video game companies established in 1984 Australian companies established in 1984 Companies based in Sydney Video game publishers