Famiclones
Unlicensed NES clones
The unlicensed Famicom/NES clones produced primarily in Asia and sold worldwide, often marketed as educational devices, introducing millions to gaming outside official channels.
Famiclones are unlicensed clones of Nintendo’s Famicom/NES, produced primarily in Taiwan and China from the mid-1980s onwards. Often marketed as “learning computers” or educational devices, they introduced gaming to regions where official Nintendo products were unavailable or unaffordable.
Fast facts
- Origin: Mid-1980s
- Primary source: Taiwan, China
- Marketing: Often as “educational”
- Reach: Global, especially developing markets
- Notable: Subor, Micro Genius, Dendy
- Cartridges: 60-pin, the Famicom’s edge connector rather than the NES’s 72-pin
In Russia the clone was the market
Famiclones are usually told as a story about places official hardware never reached. The Russian trade press of the period describes something stronger than substitution. A console survey in Games for April 1995 puts Dendy at the top: Самым большим спросом у нас пользуются Dendy — около 30% рынка — Dendy is in greatest demand, around 30% of the market — and attributes it to arriving two whole years ahead of the competition rather than to being cheap.
And the clones were themselves counterfeited. The same survey opens with fakes because it reckons roughly half of all consoles then sold in Russia and the near abroad were counterfeit — приблизительно 50 процентов — фальшивки — with Dendy accounting for about half of that volume against Sega’s 30%. Dendy was already an unlicensed Famicom clone. What the market was faking was not Nintendo’s product but somebody else’s copy of it.
The held scan is OCR-damaged Russian, so fragments are quoted and the surrounding argument described.
Major Manufacturers
| Company | Notes |
|---|---|
| Subor | Chinese, Jackie Chan endorsed |
| Micro Genius | Taiwanese |
| Dendy | Russia — and not a footnote there: about 30% of the market in 1995, the largest share of any console |
| Various | Hundreds of brands |
Marketing Strategies
| Approach | Purpose |
|---|---|
| “Educational computer” | Bypass game console stigma |
| Keyboard included | Appeared computer-like |
| Celebrity endorsement | Jackie Chan for Subor |
| Multicarts | Many games included |
Regional Impact
| Region | Significance |
|---|---|
| China | Main gaming platform for generation |
| Russia | “Dendy” became generic term |
| South America | Affordable alternative |
| Southeast Asia | Widespread |
Technical Variations
| Feature | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Generally NES-compatible |
| Controllers | Often combined with console |
| Cartridges | Proprietary formats common |
| Multicarts | 100-in-1, 9999-in-1 |
Legacy
Famiclones democratised gaming in regions where official products were inaccessible. For millions, these clones were their introduction to video games. The phenomenon shows how hardware designs spread beyond manufacturers’ control.