RETROAD's "Dendy" is an HDMI NES/Famicom for Post-Soviet 90’s Kids

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8bitjoystick

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Published on August 5, 2023 7:00:24 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTVO03sMXU8

Game:

Tetris (1989)

Duration: 13:03

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I was looking on AliExpress for interesting video game stuff and I came across a game system that I had to check out. The “RETROAD HD Retro Console For FC/Dendy Original Shape” is a Famicom clone that has similar aesthetics as an OG Nintendo Famicom but it has HDMI output. It also has removable controllers that plug in to the front of the unit using NES/ style connector plugs and has a built-in bootleg multi-cart. But then I started to wonder… who is this system for?

This is an HDMI upgraded bootleg Famicom clone made by a Chinese company specifically for post-Soviet '90s kids who are nostalgic for their old bootleg Famicom Dendy systems. It is a bootleg clone of a bootleg clone game system.

Amusingly all of the 300 NES and Famicom games that are on the onboard bootleg multi-cart have been ROM hacked translated into Russian or don’t need to be translated to play. This is a system that clearly does not give a rip about international copyright law, NOT ONE CARE WAS GIVEN!

The big tip off who this thing is for is the name “Dendy”. In 1992 there was a non-licensed but technically legal-at-the-time Famicom clone called the Dendy went on sale in the newly capitalist Russia and other former Soviet countries. The Dendy company even had this cartoon elephant kid with a baseball hat to sell them and they had a series of TV ads to promote the concept of video games to former Soviet kids which had no idea that they existed and could be played on TVs. Dendy also had their lines of bootleg multi-carts and had several different systems that sold quite well. They quickly reached market saturation and introduced videogames to millions of Post-Soviet 90s kids all over the former Eastern Bloc countries.

This was not even 3 years after the end of the Soviet Union. Nintendo had not expanded into the Former Soviet Union territories at the time and the new Russian government did not have any international copyright laws on the books that explicitly banned clone consoles and bootleg games like this so many former Soviet '90s kids grew up with the highly successful and totally fun 8-bit Dendy video game console and it's how they experienced Mario and such. The Dendy Company would later sign a distribution deal with Nintendo who forgave them for the blatant piracy of 8-bit technology and they officially distributed Nintendo's 16-bit systems in the former Soviet Union.

RETROAD is a Chinese brand of the Shenzhen Youzu Technology CO. LTD company that has been making clone video game systems for over 20 years and I suspect that they are the manufacturing partner of Columbus Circle, the Japanese retro game maker, retro game publisher and clone system seller. One of the more interesting things about the company is the mystery of how to actually pronounce their name. I don’t know if it is pronounced “Retro Road” or as one word as RETROAD. I am saying it mushed all together since there is no space. The ever lovely Marcy Chan has a theory that it's supposed to be pronounced “Retro AD”. But there's no space so it's up to anyone. I'm done with this video. I'll have to email them and ask them how you actually pronounce it: “Retro AD”, “retroad” or “retro road”. The company has made SNES/SFC clone systems, Genesis/MegaDrive Clone Systems, NES clone systems Portable NES and portable SNES/SFC, some converters, and bootleg multi-carts.


[00:00] Overview
[00:49] Who was Dendy?
[03:03] What is RETROAD
[04:21] RETROAD NES to Famicom Adapter
[04:48] Tetris
[05:18] Console Design
[06:15] Controllers
[08:11] HDMI and AV output
[09:44] Compatibility
[11:03] Conclusions
[12:44] Cat Blooper

References and Links:
RETROAD HD Retro Console For FC/Dendy Original Shape (Model: C-56 ,HD&RCA 720P Display, 7P Plug Good Controller,300in1 for Free): https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805166718087.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.4.7ff0f19cPRmar1&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

RETROAD Official Store: https://retrogame.aliexpress.com/store/1101218600?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.2e2321701dr7qu

Dendy (console): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendy_(console)

How a counterfeit NES console opened up the Russian games market: https://www.eurogamer.net/how-a-counterfeit-nes-console-opened-up-the-russian-games-market

Dendy Commercial - Russian Nintendo Famicom Clone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMNx2d0_xQ

Russian Dendy Video Game System commercial 1994: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-nsRDav6aY

Tetris — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BLM1naCfME

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