Famiclones.

[Tupin]

The Famicom brought out over twenty years of cloning and pirating, with no end in sight. No more is this evident than with the ever popular Famicom clone, churned out of the factories in China by the millions. While the originals in the early 90's actually tried to trick the consumer into believing they got an actual Famicom, modern Famiclones mainly are composed of stuff that rips off other systems, as is evident with the ever popular Polystation. Heck, there are systems that look like race cars.

One you might have seen near you is the Power Joy. It looks like an N64 controller, has built-in games, and occasionally a cartridge port. My personal favorite are the ones built into computer keyboards, often with carts that include Family BASIC for programming.

Buying a Famiclone is an odd experience, as eBay tends to pull them pretty quickly, especially when they come with copyrighted games in them, which unlike the system, is illegal to reproduce. I managed to snag one this week, here's a picture from the auction:



As you can see, it has both Famicom games on the box as well as some SNES and PS1 games. This one has 80 built-in games as well as a cartridge port.

Do you own a Famiclone? Or maybe you went to a mall that Nintendo busted for selling these things?

[Macawmoses]

I've never heard of them at all. :x

They're really cool. I want one.

[Tupin]

I've never heard of them at all. :x

They're really cool. I want one.

Yeah, some of them are cool, most are junk made out of cheap plastic that will break if you breathe next to it.

I paid $15 for the one pictured, mainly for the 80 built-in games. Even if there are only like twenty unique ones, it's still more Famicom games than I own.

[SkyMyl]

Heard of them, and I almost bought the Retro Duo once. Instead, I got an SNES for a cheaper price. And for some reason, I kind of regret doing that.

[Tupin]

The Retro Duo is a very good machine, it has practically no incompatibilities, even with the Famicom Disk System.

Famiclones with 60 pins are getting harder to find in America, as clones are now legal and being produced for NES games rather than Famicom ones.

[Tupin]

I got it yesterday. The pirates were smart to hide that they were stealing games, giving them different titles and uglier graphics. There are lots of repeats though. Still, enough good games to warrant turning the system on without a cart in it.

Oh, and the controllers have rumble, which is awesome.  :)

[Kierou]

I actually own a power joy w/ cart slot. It was actually really cool.

I'll most likely try to save up for a retro duo.