Author Topic: "Licensed" Famiclones  (Read 2257 times)

forgotusername

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 174
    • View Profile
"Licensed" Famiclones
« on: January 17, 2018, 03:57:03 PM »
Not sure if anyone's already pointed it out, but there's a strangely high amount of "licensed" Famiclones currently on the market, mostly a bunch of handheld games shaped like arcade machines. Often times they only include one game per system, that being the NES port of an 80s arcade game. Here are some companies off the top of my head:

DreamGEAR - Yes, * that * DreamGEAR (who are going by My Arcade now for some reason). The ones who have been shelving out Famiclones to actual retail stores for the past decade. They have the license to BurgerTime and a couple other games, and now seemingly ALL of Namco's stuff judging by this press video. All NES, as expected, with the Nintendo copyrights chopped off the title screen. Actually pretty excited for the Namco stuff, but I don't understand why the hell they're using the Pac-Man design from Pac-Man Cereal...

Basic Fun - They've released a whole bunch of arcade-shaped handhelds, some LCD-based and others NES-based. Somehow they've accumulated the licenses from Namco, Taito, Konami, Gottelib, Atari, AND Williams. How they managed to do that I have no idea.

MSI Entertainment - The only non-handhelds to my knowledge; they release AWFUL plug 'n plays, with one NES game each, designed to intentionally look like Jakks Pacific units that originally had at least ten games on them. Their business reviews sure say a lot about them as a company.

There are probably a few others, and certainly there are more to come, but these were the ones off the top of my head. You'd think by this point they could create arcade-accurate stuff for...actually, never mind. I think I'll stick to $30 NES clones over $160 arcade clones.

Y2K05

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 108
    • View Profile
"Licensed" Famiclones
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2018, 07:03:42 PM »
Interesting compilation of licensed Famiclone designers. I actually seem to really like dreamGear's products, like their plug'n'play, 220-in-1 NES handheld, and the 220-in-1 Sunplus handheld. Getting a controller plug'n'play soon too.

I never heard of MSI Entertainment though. But one game on a plug'n'play. ONE GAME? That's low, even for Chinese company plug'n'play designers.