Famiclone

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In video gaming, famiclone is a term used to refer to a hardware clone of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known in Japan as the Family Computer or Famicom. They are designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Famicom. Hundreds of unauthorized clones and unlicensed game copies have been made available since the height of the NES popularity in the late 1980s.^{[citation needed]} The technology employed in such clones has evolved over the years: while the earliest clones feature a printed circuit board containing custom or third party integrated circuits (ICs), more recent (post-1996) clones utilize single-chip designs, with a custom ASIC which simulates the functionality of the original hardware,^{[citation needed]} and often includes one or more on-board games. Most devices originate in China and Taiwan, and less commonly South Korea. Outside China and Taiwan, they are mostly widespread across emerging markets of developing countries.

In some locales, such as former Eastern Bloc, former Soviet countries (especially Russia), South America, Middle East, several Asian countries and Africa^[1] such systems could occasionally be found side by side with official Nintendo hardware, but clones were cheaper and had wider availability of software^[2] so such clones were the easiest available console gaming systems. Elsewhere, these systems often prompted swift legal action.^[3][4] Many of these early systems were similar to the NES or Famicom not only in functionality, but also in appearance, often featuring little more than a new name and logo in place of Nintendo's branding. In contrast, in the former Yugoslavia NES clones often visually resembled the Mega Drive, complete with the Sega logo.^[5]

Few of these systems were openly marketed as "NES compatible".^[6] Some of the packaging features screenshots from more recent and more powerful systems, which are adorned with misleading, or even outright false, quotes such as "ultimate videogame technlology" [sic] or "crystal clear digital sound, multiple colors and advanced 3D graphics".^{[citation needed]} Some manufacturers opt for a less misleading approach, describing the system generically as a "TV game", "8-bit console", "multi-game system", or "Plug & Play", but even these examples generally say nothing to suggest any compatibility with NES hardware. They would often be distributed along pirate multicarts.