IQue/CD-ROM
iQue released three CD-ROMs in China. They never had an official English title, so conjectural titles have been supplied; first is the iQue CD-ROM (on the far left), then the iQue DS CD-ROM (in the middle), and lastly the ique@home CD-ROM (which is larger than the other two).
Information on the CD-ROMs were originally discovered on Baidu Tieba threads.
iQue CD-ROM
The iQue CD-ROM is supposedly the first CD-ROM released by iQue; its ISBN is ISBN 7-900381-45-7.
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, and the iQue CD-ROM has yet to resurface.[1]
Files
Even though the disc is lost, some pictures on Baidu Tieba reveal the original file names. The iQue CD-ROM has a 4MB GBA ROM named "iQue_reader", which doesn't feature the .gba extension at the end. To run iQue_reader in emulators, the user must add the .gba extension at the end. On November 23, 2014, H_N_Kirby posted a follow-up thread to SAYZZA's thread, where he investigated the iQue_reader file in specific. The ROM contains a Chinese Mario comic.[2]
On August 13, 2015, Xiesiqi12345 asked H_N_Kirby if he had the iQue CD-ROM, and he reposted a different link to the CD-ROM. That link is also dead.[3]
On November 15, 2016, H_N_Kirby posted a picture of the files in the root of the iQue CD-ROM. The root has a setup.exe file, an autorun configuration, and a help file. It is unknown what the SERVER file does. The "iQue_reader" might be in the "demo" folder because the ROM is a demo.[4]
Gallery
Splash screen.
iQue DS CD-ROM
The iQue DS CD-ROM is another CD-ROM created by iQue. Its ISBN is ISBN 7-900381-68-6, and H_N_Kirby sometimes uses the ISBNs to differentiate between the iQue and iQue DS discs.[1]
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.[3]
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.
iQue@home CD-ROM
So far, the iQue@home CD-ROM is only known from a picture where it's grouped with the iQue and iQue DS CD-ROMs. It is large in comparison to those two discs. It is unknown what files are on the iQue@home Disc.
