A peculiar find--does anybody know anything about it?

[wufners]

So I was checking out my friendly, local Goodwill today and I had a most curious find. Sorry I don't have pics (more on that later) but I'll describe it in excruciating detail.

It was a gaming system that was obviously ripping off the look of an X-Box (although it wasn't nearly the size--it was similar in size to a Genesis 2 and very light.) The top had a giant blue X on it with a green spot in the middle. Areas on the top not taken up by the X were ridged and black, just as on the X-Box.

The front panel contained two controller ports, but not for X-Box controllers. Rather they were the old Atari/Genesis/Master System style of ports.

Heading back to the top, there was a triangular button with the word "open" written in white letters in the crotch of the X. Pressing the button flipped open the cheap lid of the system (which happened to be the giant X.)

Underneath the lid was a totally unspectacular sight. This was definitely no X-Box clone. Two green buttons were in front, one on the left and one on the right. These were the power and reset buttons. In the middle was an an exposed, unspecified cartridge connector. It was too wide to be for Atari games, but looked about the right size for a Genesis cart (or Super Nintendo, but I doubt it.) I wasn't able to find any cartridges to shove in there and see what fit.

On the back of this "system" were audio/video connectors (I can't remember if the audio was stereo or mono) and place to plug in a power supply that was simply labeled "DC."

There was nothing paricularly of interest on the bottom except for a label "R.C." and "Made in China." Peaking through the air vents on the bottom I could see that the box was almost empty inside. I could see three small PCBs--one for the connectors, one for the cartridge slot, and one for the controller ports all linked together with some cheap wiring.

So then, does anybody now what in the sam hell I was looking at? My best guess (and it is 100% guess) is that it is some sort of pirated genesis in a fancy casing (I use the word fancy very lightly here.) Or maybe it was someone's home project? If anyone has any speculation or concrete information I'd love to hear it.

I was going to buy the thing if it was $5 or less, but it had no price tag on it. When I asked the cashier about it, she took it from me and said that they couldn't sell anything without a price tag. She then threw it on a big pile of stuff and told me to come back tomorrow if I wanted to buy it. Hmmrph! Thanks for nothing!

I'm thinking about going back tomorrow, but haven't decided if it's worth it. At the very least it's an interesting conversation piece. Can anyone offer me a little enlightenment?

Thanks!

[MarioAllStar2600]

Basic Famiclone, with a cool new design on it. I payed $25 for mine, saw one go for 70 on ebay. They are cool. I have a cool PS2 knock-off also.

[Crush Crawfish]

Yep, that's a famiclone. I remeber seeing a ton of these at a flea market a while back. I'm pretty sure they called it an "xtreme Box"

[wufners]

Great! Thanks for the info guys!

A Famiclone, eh? Does that suggest that it plays Nintendo cartridges? Or was I right the first time about it playing Genesis games?

[wufners]

http://hawanja.com/extreme_box.htm

And thar she blows. That's exactly what I saw, tho I only found the base--no controllers, or any of the other stuff. Seeing as it's "No. 1 in quality" I'm assuming it was still in perfect working order. I think I'll probably stop by tomorrow and snag it if it's still there (and $5 or under.)

[Ed Oscuro]

3x Famiclone sighted ;)

It'll play Nintendo Famicom carts, unless you've got a NES to Famicom (?) converter which will let you piggyback an NES cart on the bottom of a Famicom cart which will then work in the Famicom.

I don't think you can turn a Famicom to NES (I have seen these) converter upside down (this would also mean that NES to Fami and Fami to NES are one and the same), but I'll let somebody else answer that question. I have both systems, know the NES has more pins for lockout purposes, but no converter, and no Gyromite cart to play with (it has a Fami to NES adapter inside, as the Gyromite board inside is Japanese, for the Famicom).

Furthermore, your mileage may vary. Famiclones are often completely legal in the same way that an Atari 2600 adapter for the Colecovision is legal - the parts have to be new. Unfortunately, differences in the ROMs mean that games programmed a certain way might concievably work differently. Usually the differences are in sound (even the Famicom and NES have differences in sound) and at worst you might get a game that's unplayable (similar to Codemasters games on Master Systems).

Hope that's helpful.

[wufners]

That's totally helpful, thanks.

So it'll only play the imports? That's interesting. I don't have any imported NES stuff, but that's all right. I mostly collect systems cuz I'm interested in the systems themselves, not so much for game playing (although I like to have a handful of games that give a good overall sense of what the system can do.)

Like I said, if it's still there when I go back (probably not til 7 PM tomorrow, stupid job and responsibilities) I'll probably pick it up--assuming it falls into my narrow, cheapskate price range.

Great info everyone! Thanks! The thrift stores have been very bad to me lately. Although I wouldn't qualify this as a major find, it certainly was an interesting one.

[Twinbee]

In my country (Argentina) you can find lots of that Famiclones, like the "Polystation", "Terminator 2" (Genesis 2 type), even a N64 type controller that you just connect to the TV and you play games that are loaded into the controller, haha...
Even my first console (well, my first was Coleco Vision) was the "Family Game" easily the most common console here back in that time, it was almost identic to the japanese famicom, sometimes it comes in other colors as grey or something in round form. Mina was grey, then it broken and I buyed a red one, just like the japanese Famicom. Good thing about this was to be able to play "pirate" japanese games unreleased outside of Japan like Twin bee for example ^_^
BTW do you think this kind of famiclones could sell well in eBay? maybe they're not too common in other countries. xP

[MarioAllStar2600]

Intresting thing about mine. Mine has a black X and is called the Xboy'z. It has the same exact scheme as an xbox box but slimmer.