IQue/CD-ROM
iQue released three CD-ROMs in China, two of which were bundled with a handheld. The discs are, from left to right, the iQue GBA SP CD-ROM, the iQue DS CD-ROM, and lastly the ique@home CD-ROM.[1]
Information on the CD-ROMs was discovered on Baidu Tieba threads by Castaway2000.
iQue GBA SP CD-ROM
The iQue GBA SP CD-ROM is supposedly the first CD-ROM released by iQue, and it was released in 2004. Its ISBN is ISBN 7-900381-45-7. The iQue GBA SP CD-ROM was bundled with iQue GBA SPs.
History
On October 6, 2014, SAYZZA started a new Baidu Tieba thread, where he asked what the iQue CD-ROM was. He found the disc while going through his old stuff.
Two days later, on October 8, H_N_Kirby asked for a copy of the disk, which went unnoticed until about two weeks later, on October 24th. He explained that the disk could be read by a computer, which SAYZZA was initially unaware of. About a month later, on November 22, 2014, SAYZZA uploaded the disc's files to Baidu Pan but did not share the CD as an ISO. As of February 2017, the link is dead.[2]
On March 29, 2017, Castaway2000 managed to get a Baidu account (with the username DKC2intheSky), and messaged H_N_KIRBY (in English), wondering if he still had the CD-ROMs. H_N_KIRBY happened to speak English, and he kindly reuploaded the disc and to Pan Baidu (along with the iQue@home disc). Castaway2000 then mirrored the iQue GBA SP disc to the Internet Archive.
Files
The iQue CD-ROM has a 4MB GBA ROM named "iQue_reader", which doesn't feature the .gba extension at the end, a note from Dr. Wen, two .avi videos advertising iQue Player and iQue GBA titles respectively, and the iQue@home software.[1][3]
Gallery
Splash screen of the iQue@home software.
iQue@home CD-ROM
The iQue@home CD-ROM was released sometime in 2004 and is essentially an offline mirror of osc.idc.ique.com (except for some files such as the wallpapers). It even includes all of the encrypted iQue Player games on it.[4]
On March 29, 2017, H_N_KIRBY uploaded an iso of the disc on Pan Baidu in response to when DKC2intheSky (aka Castaway2000) was asking if a download link for iQue@home & iQue GBA SP CD-ROMs were available. Castaway2000 reuploaded the iQue@home disc to Internet Archive.
iQue DS CD-ROM
The iQue DS CD-ROM is the third and last CD-ROM created by iQue. Its ISBN is ISBN 7-900381-68-6, which H_N_KIRBY sometimes uses to differentiate between the GBA SP and DS iQue Discs.[2]
The iQue DS CD-ROM is the only disc archived entirely thus far. It can be found on the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/iQueDSCD
History
On March 17, 2014, H_N_Kirby posted a picture and info on his then-newly-acquired iQue DS CD-ROM. He even posted an ISO of the disk on pan.baidu.com.[1]
Files
Compared to the iQue CD-ROM, the iQue DS CD-ROM does not have as many files. The file timestamps range from January 2005 to March 2005; this suggests that the disc was released in early-mid 2005. The files are listed below:
- /DS_DEMO/
- Video_Audio - a 16MB iQue GBA ROM. Just like iQue_reader, Video_Audio does not have the .gba extension at the end and is also only playable with that extension. An Internet Archive reupload of both ROMs features the .gba extension. Despite its directory name, Video_Audio is a GBA ROM, not a DS Demo. However, the name may be appropriate since this ROM allows the player to watch a promo of others using their iQue DSs for Pictochat.
- /PC_DEMO/
- molihua.wav & zizhudiao.wav - Ordinary Chinese music.
- demo.avi - Demo promotional video of others playing Pictochat on their iQue DSs. The same as on Video_Audio ROM except better quality. See the video here: https://archive.org/details/IQueDSPictochat
- / (Root)
- readme.txt - Just briefly explains what the PC_DEMO and DS_DEMO folders are for.
