Games - Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clone

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	Games - Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clone

Owing to the popularity and longevity of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES; known in Asia as the Family Computer, or Famicom), the system would become one of the world's most cloned video game consoles. Such clones are colloquially called Famiclones (a portmanteau of "Famicom" and "clone"), and are electronic hardware devices designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES. Hundreds of unlicensed clones have been made available since the height of the NES popularity in the late 1980s. The technology employed in such clones has evolved over the years: while the earliest clones featured a printed circuit board containing custom or third party integrated circuits (ICs), more recent (post-1996) clones have utilized single chip designs, with a custom ASIC which emulates the functionality of the original hardware, and often includes one or more on-board games. Most devices originate in Asian nations, especially China and Taiwan, and to a lesser extent South Korea.

In some locales, especially South America and the former Soviet Union, where the NES was never officially released by Nintendo, such clones were the only readily available console gaming systems. Such was the case with the Dendy Junior, a particularly successful NES clone which achieved widespread popularity in Russia and former Soviet republics in the early 1990s. In fact, 'to Dendy' is still a common Russian verb for 'to play video games', and 'dendy' a generic term for game console. Elsewhere, such systems could occasionally even be found side by side with official Nintendo hardware, often prompting swift legal action. Many of these early systems were similar to the NES or Famicom not only in functionality, but also in appearance, often featuring little more than a new name and logo in place of Nintendo's branding.

Perhaps not wishing to attract attention from Nintendo, few of these systems are openly marketed as "NES compatible." Very often they are sold in very attractive and misleading boxes, featuring screenshots from more recent (and more powerful) systems and adorned with misleading, or even patently false, quotes, trumpeting "...ultimate videogame technlology..." or "...crystal clear digital sound, multiple colors and advanced 3D graphics." Some manufacturers will opt for a less misleading approach, describing the system generically as a "TV game," "8-bit console," or "multi-game system," but even these examples generally say nothing to suggest any compatibility with NES hardware.

Post-patent Famiclones

Some of Nintendo's patents on the Famicom expired in 2003, followed in 2005 by NES-specific patents such as those covering the 10NES lockout chip. While Nintendo still holds various related trademarks, NES hardware clones are no longer necessarily illegal on the basis of patent infringement. This matter is complicated by the effect of different patents awarded in different countries, with different expiration dates. Nintendo sued Gametech in 2005 for selling the PocketFami, despite the patent expiration. Nintendo lost this suit. However, Famiclone manufacturers who incorporate copyrighted games into the unit may still be subject to legal liability on that basis, due to the much longer expiration term for copyrights.

While the old-style Famiclones continue to be found, the newly legitimised market has seen several clones that openly advertise support for original Famicom or NES games (or sometimes both), a feature not usually publicised by previous clones, which were often marketed as cheap gifts rather than Famicom-compatible systems. Examples of these newer efforts include the Generation NEX, which resembles a flattened version of the original NES and supports both NES and Famicom games, Gametech's Neo-Fami (also released in both Famicom and NES compatible versions as the "FC Game Console" by Yobo Gameware), and the handheld PocketFami, a more ambitious, albeit still slightly flawed, successor to the older TopGuy, GameAxe and Game Theory Admiral. However, these more legitimate clones are still based on the same NES-on-a-chip architecture as the older systems, and as such still suffer from many of the same compatibility problems.

Brazil

Since 1989, NES- and Famicom-compatible consoles were manufactured and released in Brazil by local companies, who also provided tech-support and sold Nintendo games. The first system, in 1989, was Dynavision, which used the 60-pin Famicom Japanese cartridge format. In 1990, the Top Game, manufactured by , was released; it used the 72-pin American cartridge format. The BitSystem, also using the American cartridge format, was manufactured by the now-defunct company Dismac. The Phantom System was released 1991 by , and was the most popular Brasilian Famiclone. It had controllers which were clones of the Mega Drive's. In 1993, Nintendo themselves arrived in Brazil and released the NES with American cartridge slot.

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