The next time you're in Russia, try asking someone if they've ever played any NES games. You'll probably get quizzical stares, which will get all the more puzzled when you bring up the Famicom. But start mentioning games like Super Mario Bros. and at least one will probably say "Oh, you mean Dendy!"

Although it is a straight clone of the Famicom, with no changes except for the front labels being translated into Russian, the Dendy was a surprisingly popular video game system in the years after the Soviet Union's collapse. It has the exact same functionality as a real Famicom, so there's really not a lot to say about it. The chief difference is the detachable joysticks. On a real Famicom the joysticks are wired directly into the console, but the Dendy's designers decided to spring for a couple of Atari connectors and slapped them on the joypads. Nice of them, I suppose.

Back to the odd page.