Console and Controller Lookalikes

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Console and Controller Lookalikes
Topic Started: Jan 24 2009, 09:06 PM (248 Views)
alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:06 PM Post #1
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Console and Controller Lookalikes This topic will hopefully shed some light on the wealth of N64-alikes that you can find on eBay, in pawn stores and other, usually not quite legitimate, establishments. There are some more legitimate lookalikes too and these are shown at the end of this topic. Of the unofficial consoles there's tends to be two types; those in the shape of N64 controllers and those which are copies of the Nintendo 64 console. Most of these are "Famiclones", which are consoles designed to play NES/Famicom games either from cartridges or emulating the games from flash memory. It's not just the N64 that's been ripped off in this sense... there are famiclones resembling just about every popular console produced since the days of the NES. Famiclones are usually produced in countries where piracy is widespread such as China, Russia and Korea. All the famiclones listed here are incompatible with N64 games despite their shape suggesting otherwise. As far as I'm aware there is only one N64-alike that actually plays N64 games and that is the iQue Player which was made by Nintendo and released in China. For more information on the iQue Player, see this topic: http://s9.zetaboards.com/Nintendo_64_Forever/topic/7069916/1/ The consoles and controllers shown are not a complete list of N64-alikes but hopefully most of the common varieties are shown.
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alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:07 PM Post #2
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Unofficial N64 Console Lookalikes This section will look at some of the N64 console imitations which are available. My own knowledge is based purely upon the information I have found on the internet. I don't have first hand experience of any of the consoles shown below and, unfortunately, cannot give any technical information or advice relating to them. However, I have posted below my impressions of the two controller lookalikes that I've tried. The famiclone shown below was being sold in a charity shop not far from my house. It's called an "Arcade Action" and it seems to be relatively common in the UK as I've seen several others since. The Arcade Action appears to come with one cartridge (advertised as containing 101 games, although the real number is likely to be less), two controllers and a light gun. The one above is another console that I saw for sale. It looks exactly the same as the Arcade Action, except this one is called an Ultra 8 Bit (which I'm sure has no connection to Nintendo's "Ultra 64" codename ), and appears to be made by Argo. Note that the box tells us this thing has "dazzling 3D graphics". Wow, I bet Sony and Microsoft will be worried now!!! There's very little to distinguish the Arcade Action and the Ultra 8 bit from the Nintendo 64, apart from small cosmetic changes to the power/reset buttons. However, the consoles below have even less to distiguish them from the real thing: This one is called a Funtime. If you look carefully you can just make out the two controller ports at the front of the console. The console above is made by Ming Xiong Electronics and looks almost identical to the N64, even down to the very similar logo on the front. Lastly there's the Mirae, a Russian famiclone: Notice how not one of the pirate consoles comes with a N64 style controller. But you can buy loads of N64 style controller pirate consoles... very strange.
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alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:08 PM Post #3
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Unofficial N64 Controller Lookalikes There are dozens of N64 controller lookalikes and variations and this topic shows only a small percentage of them. The Mega Joy was one of the first N64 controller shaped famiclones. It's a DTV unit which had a different number of games depending on which version you bought. I had one of these when they first came out but unfortunately I could never get it to work. The underside has a Famicom cartridge connector. It wasn't long until it was replaced with... The Mega Joy II! I've no idea what the difference is apart from the color of the buttons. Perhaps the Mega Joy II had more games? Anyway, neither had a control stick, which kind of makes the middle prong useless. And there were plenty of Mega Joy variants as well. The one pictured above is the "ES game". You can see the cartridge connector in the smaller photo. Another Mega Joy variant, this one is called the "Famipachi" and it comes with a second controller and a light gun. This is the "New Generation" and it comes with the same additional controller and lightgun that came with the Famipachi. The only difference seems to be the different color scheme. The first big revision was the Mega Joy III. This featured revised button placement and a fake control stick which doesn't work. This is pretty much the same as the Super Joy III which you can read my impressions of below. For some reason the Mega Joy and Super Joy names seem to have been used randomly. As far as I can tell there's no regional difference between them as both seem to have been available in the UK and the US. Above you can see the Super Joy III packaged with a Genesis style second controller and a light gun. And to prove that the name means nothing, here's the exact same bundle but this one is called "15 TV". Here we have the "Game Corner Fun Machine" which manages to rip off not only the N64 pad but also the Sega Dreamcast console and the G-con lightgun for the Playstation! The above Mega Joy III revision is kind of interesting because the side prongs have been shortened to make it look a bit like the Hudson Joycard controller for the n64. And this is a more recent unofficial console. I know very little about this except that it's called the "Game Sports Tennis". It features a number of revisions from the Mega/Super Joy III, including a bigger d-pad and larger buttons with Playstation style "triangle" and "circle" identifiers. Don't ask me what this thing does, I have no idea... it may be a Famiclone, it may be something different? The Power Joy was one of the first "Gunboy" style variants (see my impressions of the Gunboy below). These have a light gun built in and replace the middle prong with a handle. They also have a trigger undeath, something which the Mega Joy variations all lack. Another Gunboy variant, this one called the "Top Gun". It's bundled with the same second controller as you get with the Power Joy. The Gamezone 118 is a further redesign of the Gunboy. The control stick has been removed and the controller has a much smoother design but it still retains the D-pad and A, B, C button configuration of the N64 controller. Yet another Gunboy redesign called the "Fairview". This one shares it's styling with the third party DOCS controllers for the N64. Notice how the button shape and the shape of the controller have been changed to imitate the style of the DOCS pad. This time the Gunboy style has been adapted to look like the ASCII Tsuricon Fishing controller. This one is called the "Streamline". Notice that Playstation style D-pad and the four button layout instead of the N64's six button layout. The Gunboy's handle and central control stick remain. This is the most recent revision of the Super Joy III contained in the Power Player bundle. Notice that the controller has gone back to it's N64 roots and has the exact same button layout as the official controller. It's a quite convincing replica. And another variant of the most recent revision, this one called the Superstar. It's comes with the same accessories as the Power Player bundle above. This photo shows just how accurately they copy the official N64 controller.
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alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:09 PM Post #4
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Super Joy III If you are a collector of Nintendo 64 games and accessories the Super Joy III might appeal to you... for obvious reasons. It looks nice enough in it's packaging and, as well as having a strikingly similar design to the Nintendo 64 controller, the Super Joy promises 76 games in 1. And there's no need for a console as the Super Joy plugs straight into your TV. But, before you throw away your N64, there's a few more things you should know... Firstly, the Super Joy doesn't have ANY N64 games on it. What it does have is a number of (mainly) NES/Famicom games which you can play with the Super Joy controller. It doesn't have 76 games either, although the total number is not that far off. The build quality is not good and this may explain the reason why the ebay seller was selling them as a �buy one, get one free� deal! When you try to insert batteries in the battery pack you physically need to squeeze them in to make them fit. Usually inserting the last battery makes the others pop out and this doesn�t appear to be a brand specific; I tried using both Panasonic and Duracell and both were difficult to fit into the Super Joy. Battery pack woes don�t end there though� once you�ve closed the lid it�s quite difficult to remove it again. You can see the result of my second attempt to open the battery pack here! Not good. And if you look into the battery pak compartment you can see loose wires and bad soldering. With the battery pack inserted and the AV cable connected to the TV it should just be a simple flick of the power switch to enjoy those 76 games. However, what you�re likely to experience is the poor quality of the A/V connection, with only slight movements causing picture distortion or causing the unit to either switch off completely or reset. I thought this may simply be a faulty cable but trying another good quality cable made no difference. It seems that it�s the connection itself that is suspect; for example, removing the audio cable affects the video and vice versa! The audio in most of the games is terrible; it�s quite badly distorted and, due to the Super Joy only having one audio output, it�s in mono. Sound effects are similarly poor and some are missing altogether. The poor build quality is continued on the cartridge connector. Whilst it looks slightly rough in the picture above, it looks even worse close up. The plastic appears to have been cut with a hacksaw and it feels rough and sharp to touch. Ouch. As you can see from the photo above, the buttons are morer prominent than they are on the official N64 controller. And the analogue stick? It's glued in, completely stationary and there's no inner workings either. Yeah, it's a fake and serves no purpose other than making the Super Joy look a bit more like the N64 controller! The games themselves are badly reproduced and most have picture distortion at the bottom of the screen. To hide the true identity of the games the text has been changed and the new text is full of errors and misspellings (for example "PLAER 1" :lol:). Also, a lot of the games are single levels, not the game in full. Others, like Duckhunt, don't work at all because there's no light gun to use with them. The list of titles provided is innaccurate and some games have been renamed. This is what you get with the Super Joy III: And the actual list of games is: * 10-Yard Fight * 1942 * Aladdin III (a.k.a. "Magic Carpet 1001") * Antarctic Adventure (listed as "ANTARCTIC") * Arkanoid (listed as "ARKONOID") * Balloon Fight * Baseball * Battle City (listed as both "DESERT TANK" and "SPEED TANK") * Binary Land (listed as "BINARY & LAND") * Bird Week * Bomberman * Brush Roller (listed as "BRUSH ROLL") * Championship Lode Runner (listed as "LODE RUNNER 2") * Circus Charlie (listed as "TOY STORY" and "CIRCUS CHABLIF") * Clay Shoot (listed as "CLAY SHOOTING") is actually part of Duck Hunt. * Clu Clu Land * Contra * Defender 2 (Listed as "STAR GATE") * Devil World * Dig Dug * Door Door * Donkey Kong, Jr. (listed as "DONKEY KONG 2" and "MONKEY") * Donkey Kong, Jr. Math (listed as "CALCULATOR") * Duck Hunt * Elevator Action * Excitebike * Exerion * F-1 Race * Field Combat (listed as "COMBAT") * Formation Z * Front Line * Galaga (as "GALAZA") * Golf * Gomoku Narabe (listed as "FIVE CHESS") * Gyrodine * Hogan's Alley * Ice Climber * Joust * Karateka (listed as "TEKKEN") * Lunar Pool (listed as "LUNAR BALL") * Macross * Magic Jewelry * Mario Bros. * Mappy (listed as "PACMAN") * Mighty Bomb Jack * Millipede * M.U.S.C.L.E. (listed as "WWF") * Ninja Kun (listed as "NINJA") * Nuts & Milk (listed as "MILK NUSTS") * Pinball * Pooyan * Popeye * Raid on Bungeling Bay (listed as "HELICOPTER") * Road Fighter * Slalom * Sky Destroyer * Space Invaders (listed as "SPACE ET") * Spartan X (listed as "SPARTANX," more commonly known as "Kung Fu Master") * Sqoon * Star Force * Super Arabian (listed as "ARABIAN") * Super Dynamix * Super Mario Bros. (listed as "SUPER MARIO") * Tennis * Tetris (Tengen game) (listed as "TETRIS 2") * Toy Story * Twinbee * Urban Champion * Warpman (listed as "BURGERTIME") * Wild Gunman * World Soccer * Yie-Ar Kung Fu (listed as "KING OF FIGHTER") The games play badly too due to the terrible d-pad. It sticks frequently, is unresponsive and hardly ever registers a diagonal direction. Opening up the Super Joy III reveals just how poorly made it is. The circuit board is a mess with poor soldering and bits badly glued in place. Although the plastic controller shell is reasonably sturdy, the electronics inside look very poorly made and I expect they would fall apart if the Super Joy was dropped. It's very difficult to recommend the Super Joy III. If you really want one of these things you would be better off going for the Gunboy or one of it's variants as it seems to be at least slighly better made and has a control stick that works. Sort of...
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alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:10 PM Post #5
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Gunboy: Double Super Joy The Gunboy is a set of two controllers which plug straight into your TV, and it allows you to play a range of 8-bit games, mainly NES titles. There's a number of official 'plug and play' consoles on the market, but this isn't one of them. The Gunboy's packaging does look quite professional, though. Open up the box and you'll find two Gunboy controllers (both roughly resemble the N64 controller, but there are differences between the player one and player two controllers), instructions that don't make much sense, a SCART adapter (this won't be included in the US version), and two spare control sticks. Having spare parts included perhaps doesn't bode well for the longevity of the controller... The button layout is very similar to the N64 controller, and has identically placed control stick, d-pad and z-trigger. There are no L or R shoulder buttons, but there is an on/off switch where R should be. The buttons are not labelled in the same way either: what would be the start button on an official controller is now the reset button, A is the start button and B is a select button. Although there are no A or B buttons the C buttons remain and still have a 'C' in the middle to identify them. The quality of the buttons is rubbish. They feel loose and cheap, and are quite unresponsive (especially the d-pad). The controls stick isn't analogue and opening up the Gunboy proves this. Furthermore, it's almost useless for controlling movement in games and is so bad that I just don't use it! The c-buttons are used for fire/jump etc, although I've not used c-left yet and I'm not sure that it's even needed. Another cosmetic change that you'll have noticed is the gun barrel sticking out the end of the controller. This is a light gun that can be used in conjunction with some of the games. It looks a bit silly poking out the end of the controller and it doesn't offer much accuracy in the games either. Point the controller roughly at the TV and you'll score a hit. Easy. The middle prong of the official N64 controller has disappeared and has been replaced by a handle. It's not any more or less comfortable than the normal design and appears to be there for purely cosmetic reasons: so that the Gunboy looks more like a gun. Although the Z-trigger is still easily accessible, the redesigned prong/handle looks ugly and unnecessary. Flip the controller over and you'll notice that there's a cartridge slot underneath, and a battery pack where a controller pak would normally go. I've not been able to establish what cartridges the Gunboy plays, but I suspect it'll be Famicom games. The Gunboy box shows an unofficial looking cart so maybe that's all it can be used for. I'll let you know how well it works if/when I find out. The box states that the unit plays "64 games in 1" (clever use of the '64' term, no doubt aimed at unwary parents), but the menu screen shows over 7600 games! A lot of these are duplicates which seem to be different levels of games, or just the same game inserted twice. There's a lot of classic titles including Ice Climber, Exitebike, Galaga, etc. The picture quality is actually quite good, as is the sound. The downside is that the sound is mono and a little distorted. The second controller plugs into the first for two player games, but I've yet to play one where two players can play simultaneously. There are some subtle differences between the controllers: the second controller is much lighter as it doesn't have either a battery pak or a cartridge slot. Both controllers are very similar in size to the official N64 controller, as shown in the links below. Top view - Rear view - Side view - Underside view So... is it worth finding one of these? If you like NES games... you're probably better off with a NES. It has no use in relation to the N64, so it's probably not for N64 collectors either, apart from as a novelty. The Gunboy does have one use though. Next time there's children at your home demanding a shot of your Nintendo 64, simply unpack the Gunboy; "Here you go kids, destroy this instead"!!! The Gunboy is fun for a short time but the poor controls ruin gameplay. The build quality isn't nearly as bad as that of the Super Joy III but it's still not all that great. If you're looking for a plug and play DTV games machine there are several better official ones available. Mrs Alxbly, however, does quite like the Gunboy:
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alxbly	Jan 24 2009, 09:11 PM Post #6
Alxblymus Primus Posts: 8,711 Group: Admin Member #168 Joined: October 18, 2008	Official N64 Controller Lookalikes Perhaps surprisingly, there have also been some official controllers that look a lot like the N64's, the first of which was the Panasonic M2 controller. I'm not going to go into the history of the M2, but the end result was that it was never released. For more info check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_M2 At one stage the M2 controllers looked suspiciously similar to those for the N64: The final design of the controllers was changed and photographic evidence of the N64 style controllers is difficult to come by. Here's another (sadly) low resolution photo which shows the N64-style M2 controller. Another very familiar controller is one which was made available for the ill fated Nuon DVD based games players. it's pictured here: Nuon went on to become another commercial failure. For more info check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuon And the last official N64 style pad is that of the iQue Player. This was Nintendo's way to break into the Chinese games market. So far the iQue company has been very successful. For more info on the iQue Player click here.
	Xbox Live: alxbly \| PSN: alxbly \| Wii friend code: 2326 4589 7536 6941


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