Famiclone Detective Work

Discuss hardware-related topics, such as development cartridges, CopyNES, PowerPak, EPROMs, or whatever.

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PhantomONC
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Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 8:42 am

Famiclone Detective Work

Post by PhantomONC »

For a while I have been looking into NOAC Famiclones, and I've found something interesting on VR Technology's website.

Image

It's under the heading "VT168 Interactive Game Console" and doesn't it look familiar? To me, it resembles three things.
- MiWi (based on the label in the grainy photo)
- Intec InterAct (controller, "soccer transmitter", included game cartridge*, etc.)
- Zone Wireless Gaming

This would indicate that those three systems are all the same and are Famiclones. Now yes, the VT168 isn't Famicom compatible, but it's still a distant evolution so in my mind it counts.

Taking this a little further, it seems that the "Zone" brand existed for a while longer with systems like the Zone 40 by Subor (who made Famiclones in the 90s) that seemed to have some similar games and later the Zone 60, which like the Wireless 60, shared games with the JungleTac Sport Vii, though the Sport Vii had a 16-bit Sunplus CPU and it is likely the Zone 60/Wireless 60 did too. Also, the attachments for the Wii Remote ripoff in the picture look similar to those on the Zone 40, so this indicates a connection in my opinion.

"Interactive" also seems to be a common word used to describe the sports games using the fake motion controls on the Zone consoles whether the 40, 60, or even the Zone 40-derived Sega Mega Drive Reactor.

But the Reactor is completely separate business because it likely has Genesis-on-a-chip hardware in addition to the Sunplus/VRTech (can't be sure which one on the Zone 40) ICs because I doubt a 16-bit Sunplus CPU (and certainly not a Famiclone) can emulate a Genesis. Not to mention the audio is terrible which could indicate a bad emulator, but it's also similar symptoms to a (licensed) Radica Genesis clone from 2003.

*I had an asterisk on the included game cartridge and not owning the system, I don't know if the cartridge slot included with those VT168 Wii knockoffs was Famicom compatible (probably not since the VT168 is not completely Famicompatible) or if the cart was OneBus

Not sure if this the right place for any of this, but this is the sum of my detective work into bootleg consoles so far, and I know much of this is not Famiclone related but it shows how bootleggers have moved from and to Famiclones. I've seen work on dumping the MiWi ROMs and wonder if similar work will be done with the Zone 40.

EDIT: Okay, I've reviewed the Ashens video on the Vii, the Tweeterman Zone 40/60 review, and the Rerez Wireless 60 video and found that the Zone 40 does seem to use a Famiclone chipset based on its poor graphics compared to the Vii and the Wireless/Zone 60 (and it seemed to share games with the InterAct), but better than a standard Famicom. Additionally, the Zone 60 and Wireless 60 and Vii seem to share many games such as the legendary Jewel Fever 2, but the "60" consoles used a horrible pre-rendered graphic likely trying to resemble a Mii whereas the Vii in its sports games used animals (weird cats, etc.) so the games are largely the same but with some graphics replaced (the VC-series cartridges for the Vii carry games such as Lightning Plan and Mr. Onion that came onto the Wireless 60 though neither 60-series console has any wired controller connectors or cartridge ports like the Vii).
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