Until 2015, Game consoles were banned in China, how did kids in the 80s and 90s get around this? Following the popularity and longevity of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES; known in Japan as the Family Computer, or Famicom), the system has seen many clone video game consoles. Such clones are colloquially called Famiclones (a portmanteau of "Famicom" and "clone"), and are electronic hardware devices designed to replicate the workings of, and play games designed for, the NES and Famicom. Hundreds of unauthorized clones and unlicensed 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 Asian nations, especially China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and to a lesser extent South Korea.[citation needed]
In some locales, especially South America, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union, where the NES was never officially released by Nintendo, such clones were the only readily available console gaming systems. Such was the case with the Dendy Junior, a particularly successful NES clone which achieved widespread popularity in Russia and former Soviet republics in the early 1990s. Elsewhere, such systems could occasionally even be found side by side with official Nintendo hardware,[1] often prompting swift legal action.[2] 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. As opposed to that, in former Yugoslavia NES clones often visually resembled Sega Mega Drive, together with the Sega logo.[3]
Few of these systems are openly marketed as "NES compatible".[citation needed] Some of the packaging features screenshots from more recent and more powerful systems, which are adorned with misleading, or even potentially 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.
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