So many NES/SNES/Famicom/Genesis clones why nothing for the 2600/7800?

[courtesi1]

Basically it's like this ...

I sold everything when the crap hit the fan a few years ago and now I'm looking to get back into the video game hobby.

This time however I only plan to purchase what I will play. This means for some consoles I may only own 1 or 2 games.

The prices for the 2600/7800 consoles seem excessive to me especially those resellers who a/v or s-video mod but don't even include an ac adapter or joystick!

Since there are so many console clones out there why hasn't anyone comeout with something for the 2600/7800? Is it due to chips that are no longer replaceable?

I'd like to buy some homebrews for both the 2600/7800 but the consoles seem a bit costly if you want upgraded video. Is it that difficult to add?

[Greg2600]

Just not enough of a market.

[treismac]

Just not enough of a market.

There has to be something of a market with the Atari Flashback series reaching its fourth version, right?

[Rickstilwell1]

When I could only get $10 back + spend $30 for shipping on complete in box Atari stuff I paid at least $130 for 2 years ago, I would say the demand for Atari stuff has fallen through the center of the earth and decintegrated or whatever that word is.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

The problem is the global market for 2600 and especially 7800 clones is far too small.

While gamers in North America may fondly remember their Ataris, most of Europe and other PAL countries couldn't have cared less as they focused on their micro computers, and Japan and the Asia Pacific region had the Famicom.

The reason there are so many Famiclones, Super Famiclones and Genesis clones is because the all had global market appeal.

Your question "why nothing for the 7800" is like asking why there aren't ZX Spectrum clones, or SG-1000 clones. The simple fact is that the potential market is far too small.

This is also why Hyperkin isn't adding in PC Engine or Atari support into their forthcoming Retorn5, even though it could easily do so. The market just isn't there.

[Steve W]

There were ZX Spectrum clones, mainly behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. And there was also an SG-1000 clone too! It was by Bit Corporation (they seemed big on cloning systems back in the '80s) and would not only play SG-1000 games for Eastern appeal, it'd also play Colecovision games for Western appeal. Since Telegames had the rights to the Colecovision after Coleco went bankrupt, they licensed the system and brought it to the US as the Telegames DINA 2-in-1. It's pretty hard to find nowadays, especially considering the low quality of the cloned hardware means that if you found one in the wild, there's no guarantee it'd work.