Ah… the good ol’ days.
Retro Gaming is something that seems to be gaining in popularity every single day. Kids and teenagers alike are revisiting games that they’ve missed as a child in order to experience classics that their older counterparts have countlessly praised. With the rise in popularity comes the rise in demand for older games and consoles that have stopped production over several years ago. This means the only way to get these consoles are in used condition within thrift stores or online auctions sites such as eBay.
By buying a used product from auction sites and thrift stores, it can lead to certain risks such as trust issues and the unknown condition of a product. This is where clone consoles come in.
Seems like a fitting comparison…
Clone consoles are machines made to replicate a system’s architecture in order to make a reproduction of said console. Their main purpose is to give the consumer a cheaper new alternative for playing retro games so they don’t have to go through the hoops of buying a used console not in production.
These clone console manufacturers tend to wait until the patents of a particular console they want to reverse-engineer to expire so they stay out of the realm of legal trouble.
Sometimes though, these manufacturers cannot copy a system’s architecture on a 1:1 scale. This can present a wide array of compatibility issues for certain games. Since not all architectures are copied 1:1 in clone consoles, each clone console on the market is different on what type of legitimate software it can play. This also means you can effectively have too many choices for the consumer to handle.
What YouTuber SatoshiMatrix1 does is take an in-depth look at clone consoles and how well they can handle certain games. He also looks at the technical aspects behind them. It’s a nice technical breakdown for those who are in the market for a clone console.
Original Post Date: August 6, 2013
Who knew there was a clone console named after a motel?
You can find the entire playlist of clone console videos on his YouTube Channel right here.
Make sure to also check out his main YouTube Channel page and let us know what you think! If you would like to recommend things for us to feature, let us know on our twitter or in the comments section below!
Note: “Famiclone” is the combination of the word Famicom and Clone.
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In China, they actually released a legendary Famicon console…renaming it as PS3.
http://livedoor.4.blogimg.jp/hatima/imgs/4/6/46b9d2d7.jpg
At the same time, China also released a Playstation 1 console…which they say its made by Nintendo.
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20001023/c70.jpg
I really don’t know what to say…except having over 500 bad words I could think of.