Gamate

Lore & Background

The Gamate was originally released by Bit Corporation in conjunction with local distributors worldwide, including Alston Research in the USA, Cheetah Marketing in the UK, GIG in Italy, Uranium in Switzerland, Greek Software in Greece, Yeno in Germany, Electrolab in Argentina, and PlayMix in Sweden. Bit Corp. ceased operating in 1992, but UMC and its subsidiary Funtech continued to produce Gamate hardware and software. The console's internal hardware contains no epoxy covered chips and was assembled in a quality manner, with build quality relatively akin to that of the Game Boy. The shell is made of thick plastic and feels similar in weight to a Game Boy with batteries installed.

The screen is greenish, with manual contrast adjustment and no backlight. Moving objects appear blurry and faint due to ghosting. Two different LCD screen types were used: the 'bad' one displays vertical lines when turned on without a game, while the 'good' one shows a slightly corrupted checkerboard pattern. The Gamate uses an AY-3-8910 sound chip generating three channels of square waves and one for noise. The mono internal speaker is of poor quality and distorted at low volumes, but the headphone jack outputs stereo audio of relatively high quality. The original Gamate is dark grey with an 'x' D-pad and small speaker vents; later units have a '+' D-pad, large speaker vents, louder volume but only mono output through the speaker, requiring headphones for stereo. A white-shell variant with red buttons also exists.

Reader's Guide

The Gamate holds a place in the crowded field of post-Game Boy handhelds, notable for its relatively solid build quality compared to other Taiwanese or Hong Kong competitors such as the Watara Supervision, Hartung Game Master, and Mega Duck. Its use of a General Instrument AY-3-8910 sound chip and the presence of stereo audio through headphones were distinctive features. The exact number of games released remains uncertain, with estimates ranging from about 35 to nearly 70; many titles are clones of popular games from the era, while a few appear to be original concepts. The system's games continued to be published by UMC after Bit Corp.'s bankruptcy, but few left the Asian market. The Gamate is supported by the MAME emulator and is also playable on a MiSTer. Its serial number system, with the first two digits indicating the year of manufacture, allows collectors to date units; the newest discovered unit was produced in 1993.

Did You Know?

• The Gamate was known as 'Super Boy' in Taiwan and 'Super Child Prodigy' in China.
• The only emulator that supports the Gamate is MAME, with games also playable on a MiSTer.
• The Gamate's serial number system uses the first two digits to indicate the year of manufacture.
• Two external developers known to have worked on Gamate games are Gamtec and Hengmao Electronics.