60,000 bootleg FAMICOM consoles seized!

I always felt the 8-bit Nintendo was a shitty system, nice enough games sometimes but the graphics and sound were so horrible that it ruined most of them. The ease of use and semi-portability of the the Famiclone controller units is the only thing that makes it worth my while to own a Nintendo. The Dreamcast controller Famiclone is a fucking nice one, too. I love mine.

I'm someone who loves pirate stuff in general, though. I think some very interesting pirate orignal games came out for the Famicom in Hong Kong and actually still are to this day.


...word is bondage...

 

Well, many people hate famiclones - and that's understandable to a certain level. But in Mexico, that was all most of us could really have, so I personally remember them quite fondly and am saddened that most of the classic models are no longer obtainable. I'm not really fond of the newer PSX-oid clones, but there are many interesting ones nonetheless (even if I did have the big, ugly legitimate NES).

Also, those pirate carts and the adapter were great!

Ah, memories...

 

I guess if you can sell 280,000 Nintendos in this day and age, we might not be in such a bad shape after all.

 

You know what, my local mall has a stand that's beginning to sell these pirate famiclones again. They're the ones that look like an N64 controller. What's odd is that they stopped selling them for several months, and now they've begun to sell them again all stealth-like.
Should I report the seller?

 

I noticed people selling the N64-style famiclones at the mall in Rocky Mount last year. They had the balls to sell their stuff right next to EBGames.

I haven't seen them since.

 

Indeed. Sad thing is, they not only rip off the games, but they don't even bother to change half the names of the games. The title screens that are displayed show "Double Dragon", "Super Mario Bros", "Clu Clu Land" among others. RIght there in plain view. And even more pathetic is the fact that there is no posted price...the seller quotes you a price which is rather shady.

 

There were loads of those N64 controller-shaped ones (usually red or orange coloured) floating around here a few years ago (about 2000-2001) - there were even some sports shops selling them, confusingly.

 

I know someone that I think has one of those shady Famiclones.

 

I can get dozens if you want, but please, for the sake of Decency, Good Taste and Sanity, stay away from them!

 

I'm with Sweater Fish, I really don't mind these clones. Some of them are interesting in their own right. I can understand why people hate them like they do, though. (by the way SFD, I've been trying to contact you about the Tristar 64 you were selling - PM me if it's still available).

Pirate original games can be pretty impressive, too. Plus pirate carts of FDS system games are fast becoming the only way to play them, outside of emulation.

 

I dont understand. No Famicom disk games are rare or on their way out. For $10-100, you can get any FDS game still sticker sealed.

I agree that pirate originals can be entertaining, but can you honestly take them as seriously as a Capcom game? I've never seen a pirate original up to Famicom launch quality. There are a few originals from 2000 or later that are rather impressive graphically such as "Titanic" but they leave a lot to be desired in the gameplay/story/other categories.

I think the key here is that people who prefer Famiclones don't respect the Famicom for what it is or understand/care about the system's nitty gritty. For example: SoC Famiclones can't even play MMC5 games...

 

Disks have a much shorter shelf life.

Of course not. But it's impressive to see what they can come up with.

Mario Fighter on the NES/Fami, I remember playing the ROM (one type of "piracy" surely nobody can object to ), it was reasonably impressive.

Hell, of course I don't prefer a clone. I'm just not prepared to dismiss them entirely, since they hold interest in their own right.

 

Magnetic disks do generally have a shorter shelf life and just maybe we'll maybe start seeing the affects of that in another 15 years because FDS disks haven't died yet, nor are they going to anytime soon. Many pirate disks have been long dead but all original disks should still operate perfectly, I know all of mine do. Also, if a disk corrupts, one could always easily rewrite the disk. Or one could even use the FDSLoadr to emulate disks... Now theres no excuse not to use the original hardware.

FDS games can be had cheaply and well legitimately not to mention that there are what? only 5 games that numerous bootleggers tried porting to cart? Sure they might be the most popular FDS games to foreigners but it's no reason to skip the FDS entirely. I've played enough disk conversions to know that they always leave a lot to be desired, it's just bizzare to me why people would rather play misconstrued conversions, ports and hacks than just the original game, which will play better without all of the problems tied to the conversions, ports and hacks.

 

To be fair, I'm not too bothered about the FDS as I don't own one. I was trying to raise a point that pirate copies might conceivably have a purpose beyond destroying gaming as we know it. Once again let me state that like any rational being of course I'd prefer to play the original - but that doesn't prohibit me from enjoying and appreciating the ingenuity of the alternatives. I'd have thought that as a collector of backup devices you might appreciate this.

 

Kyuusaku, people buy the clones on impluse so they can play super mario brothers or whatever. They don't care about anything except reliving 15 minutes of thier youth. Famicon disks systems are not cheap in thier opinion, nor do they know how to track down all the pieces to make it work.

 

If you're happy with a PAL one I can get one.

 

I do enjoy backups from original games as I'm obsessed with archival. I'd hardly lump backup hardware with bootleg famiclones. To me backup stuff represents the best of what Chinese/Taiwanese have to offer in the game world, while pirate carts and clones represent the worst. I'm someone who spent a few years of my free time researching and reverse engineering FC so-called backup units, learning everything along the way. That makes me the type to spend a days work hacking a Famicom game so that I may spend 10 minutes copying it to $6 of diskettes, to spend 5 minutes loading the disks, that run on $150 worth of hardware, so that I may play a $6 game that someone else buys a pirate cart of for $1. I don't do it for free games, I do it because I'm a hardware enthusiast Thats the fundimental difference between me and other guys who get backup units so that they essentially get free games. THOSE are often the people who buy bootlegs because unlike SNES backup units, Famicom units are far too difficult for them to use and they are still too cheap to buy original $5 games.

Back to the point, I think that pirate carts are what they are, and that they won't serve any other purpose for archival. If people appreciate them, I'm all for that, as long as they're recognized as a pirate game and not the original. It's sad to me that most gamers today have never even played a NES or Famicom other than through an emulator or Famiclone, that's horrible. People that don't have the original hardware can't tell the difference and probably will never understand. Truth be told, emulators and Famiclones are not perfect and in many cases not even an accurate portrayal of a FC/NES. Neither are bootlegs which have TTL-based memory mappers with often barely run the games they're meant to bootleg. There is nothing ingenius about the bootleggers, they just want their money, I'm sure that they couldn't care less about the product if it didn't sell, why else would they put up with such lack of quality on their own part?

 

Kyuusaku: i feel and think you are an interresting person since you know so much and second of all you have a little biased opinion about bootlegs clones and backup units (although you say you "hate" clones)

damn i wish i could listen to you (not just reading a text file etc.) and then learn from you by listening (and doing it when you said do this and do that )

the only problem is distance and the same goes to all here distance is the problem but that can be fixed in many ways by saving up to a ticket to the places.

and sorry for going offtopic babble in this thread

but many of you know so many things that makes me think it was the right choice "so long ago when i decided to join"

 

I still think pirates have their little charm - but it's my own personal nostalgia. I'm sure I'd have bought original games in another situation, but they're all we had back then, and I cherish that memory.
Man, I wish the Tianguis still had those TABLES full of multicolour famiclone carts... it was surreal. I wish I had taken a pic of that or something...