Excite Ping-Pong is a Plug & Play table tennis game running on XaviX hardware.
Curiously, a considerable amount of unlicensed Plug & Play table tennis games, such as Cube Technology's Super Ping Pong, and the Virtual Pingpong game featured in Qi Sheng Long's WiWi consoles, appear to be based on this specific one, as noted by the menu layouts and available modes.
Developer Credit#
Stored as 16x16 1bpp tiles at 0xF3CD0 (JP) / 0xF1A50 (KR), is a graphic reading "Simmer Technology", which was an alias used by Hummer Team.
Furthermore, the credits for Play TV Ping Pong, another XaviX hardware game developed by Hummer Team3, can be found from 0x1949F (JP 2000) / 0x2B102 (KR) / 0x1B79F (JP 2001), suggesting this game was built on top of it. However, the hidden graphic above is unique to this one.
Version Differences#
Three versions of Excite Ping-Pong are known to exist:
- The original Japanese version, marked as epo_epp on MAME
- The Korean version, Real Ping-Pong, marked as epo_eppk on MAME
- A special Japanese version, only released as a lottery prize by food company Mizkan, titled Shamoji de Ping-Pong, marked as epo_epps on MAME
The differences between them are listed below:
- Each of the three versions have different title screen designs, as well as different advertisements in the background.
JP (original) |
JP (Shamoji) |
KR |
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- Smashes are referred to as "chirasshis" in the Shamoji re-release. This is a pun with chirashi, a type of sushi; Mitsukan's Gomoku Chirashi product is advertised in the title screen.
JP (original) |
JP (Shamoji) |
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- The Korean version changes the hardest CPU opponent, Mai-chan, with Sun Wukong, one of the main characters of the Journey to the West novel, and the then-mascot of Sonokong, the game's publisher in that country.
Japan |
Korea |
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