What's your stance on clone consoles?

[atheistgod1999]

I personally dislike them. Some are better than others, though. There's this Genesis clone that has heavily distorted audio, no stereo, no 32X or CD compatiblity among many other things and is actually licensed by Sega. I kinda wish Nintendo and Sega would have limited production runs of their classic consoles and controllers so there'd be a few more in circulation. What do you think?

[bobrocks95]

I think they're worthless junk that just drive up the price of old carts as people rush out and pay whatever it costs to relive some sense of nostalgia. Half are emulation machines that shouldn't have anything to do with carts anyway, but there they are.

Perhaps I'm a bit cynical

[atheistgod1999]

I think they're worthless junk that just drive up the price of old carts as people rush out and pay whatever it costs to relive some sense of nostalgia. Half are emulation machines that shouldn't have anything to do with carts anyway, but there they are.l

I 100% agree.

[Guspaz]

Some (RetroUSB AVS) are great. Some (Generation NEX) are bad. Some (Hyperkin RetroN 5) are illegal and loathsome except nobody has the resources to sue them for their theft.

[Voultar]

Clones are an abomination.


That is all.

[Ed Oscuro]

My stance? I'd rather stand on a real footstool, given the chance.

Anyway, I think you're overthinking this...if the clone does what you want it to, go for it. Of course, you should know that clones can be awful.

[BONKERS]

If they were better sure.

If they are like the Retron5 or Retro Game Freak, then the people behind those need to be burned at the stake.

[rpgposer]

Compatibility and Piracy issues aside, it's not so hard or expensive to find original hardware and a tube TV. With a little research it isn't hard to get them hooked up to newer TV's. The "hobby" has really taken off in the last few years and getting original hardware fixed or updated (video and sound) is not hard.
What has become expensive are the games themselves as they have turned into "collectibles".

[gray117]

Licensed clones interesting; but all are nearly always a let down...

thus a waste of time for anything other than keeping a small amount of casual awareness/presence that may otherwise die off. But youtube or whatever is probably more likely.

[Guspaz]

An HDMI modded NES starts at what, $300 USD? How much for an RGB modded NES and a Framemeister, $450 USD? $500?

You can research all you want, getting an NES hooked up to a modern TV with decent image quality and minimal lag is very expensive, and there is definitely a market for extremely accurate FPGA-based clones that support HDMI and cost under $200 USD.

[BuckoA51]

SNES Mini is a clone console, don't see people hating on that

[Guspaz]

By your logic, every console except the original hardware revision is a clone. Most consoles see consolidations of ICs in later revisions, even modern consoles. Doesn't make sense to qualify clones like that.

[gray117]

An HDMI modded NES starts at what, $300 USD? How much for an RGB modded NES and a Framemeister, $450 USD? $500?

You can research all you want, getting an NES hooked up to a modern TV with decent image quality and minimal lag is very expensive, and there is definitely a market for extremely accurate FPGA-based clones that support HDMI and cost under $200 USD.

Kind of the position I'd *like* to look at it from. Unfortunately, I can't think of a good clone that actually exists off the top of my head - there was a single chip msx I think people liked [and which presumably didn't try and provide a crap controller/keyboard]...

... does the retron +original controllers count as a successful clone?

[Guspaz]

Well, there's the RetroUSB AVS, while not quite out yet, the understanding is that it's extremely accurate. The guy behind it is the one that invented NES flash carts (the PowerPak) when everybody thought it was impossible, so he's got the technical chops.

I'll admit that I think the design is ugly, and the front-loading design seems ill-advised to me (very wasteful with PCB space/complexity, increasing cost without benefit), but those are secondary to if it works or not.

[panzeroceania]

Anything that runs on an arm chip, x86, etc is a waste of time. If it is an FPGA system I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Still not the real deal buch much better than a clone on an ARM chip.

[Guspaz]

It's an FPGA.

[kamiboy]

I for one welcome clones, repros and other such facsimiles wholeheartedly. Anything that helps satiate demand, helps keep prices from spiraling further out of control, which is a positive for collector scum like myself. I wish the Chinese would get in on this and flood the market with cheap clones and repros, flood it until the foul thing bursts. Oh, I can taste the salty tears already.

[bobrocks95]

I for one welcome clones, repros and other such facsimiles wholeheartedly. Anything that helps satiate demand, helps keep prices from spiraling further out of control, which is a positive for collector scum like myself. I wish the Chinese would get in on this and flood the market with cheap clones and repros, flood it until the foul thing bursts. Oh, I can taste the salty tears already.

I would argue that clones inflate demand on the games, though I don't exactly have hard numbers to back that up. The issue is knock-off consoles aren't being paired with knock-off games- Chinese manufacturers flooding the market with repros would be amazing, assuming they aren't the generic 5000-in-1 pirate carts from the olden days.

[qmish]

*looks at poll results*

*sigh*

For example, in Russia, there was not official NES/Famicom in 90s. Only a clone, named Dendy. And it's highly respected and has a cult following even nowodays. Also, in USSR there were clones of 1960s game machines.

Take a read about "USSR arcade clones" here
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soviet-arcade-museum

As for Dendy, may check up posts here and there
http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1 ... -in-russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendy_%28console%29
http://metopal.com/2012/06/15/dendy-the ... of-russia/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dendy

I don't know about other examples (Brazila doesn't count because Sega was official there?), but in Russia that Famicom clone was a real phenomen. And kind of saint thing for many gamers.

[panzeroceania]

It's an FPGA.

I wasn't asking about your post, I was responding to the Original Post in general terms.

[TransatlanticFoe]

*looks at poll results*

*sigh*

For example, in Russia, there was not official NES/Famicom in 90s. Only a clone, named Dendy. And it's highly respected and has a cult following even nowodays. Also, in USSR there were clones of 1960s game machines.

Take a read about "USSR arcade clones" here
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soviet-arcade-museum

As for Dendy, may check up posts here and there
http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1 ... -in-russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendy_%28console%29
http://metopal.com/2012/06/15/dendy-the ... of-russia/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dendy

I don't know about other examples (Brazila doesn't count because Sega was official there?), but in Russia that Famicom clone was a real phenomen. And kind of saint thing for many gamers.

This type of clone is more interesting because it's essentially a bootleg from the same era, whereas a lot of clone consoles talked about recently are aftermarket emulation boxes. That's what I don't see the point of - it's something you can plug your cartridge into but is basically doing the same thing as loading the ROM on a PC emulator (usually with much poorer accuracy). But it is fun to hear about hardware clone success where the real thing wasn't available

I've heard of the Korean Master System being the Gam*Boy but it was still licensed and I think had exactly the same hardware. It did get a load of unique and "unique" games though!

[darcagn]

Yeah the situation with the Dendy is completely different. It is a clone of the Famicom, sure, but it essentially was its own original platform in Russia. I imagine games were adapted specifically to run on the Dendy, right? Since it is basically an "NTSC50" console?