Is this a genuine famicom or a Clone?

[Bancho]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here and i need a bit of help figuring out if i have a genuine famicom or a clone.

I bought it pretty cheap. It came in a original japanese famicom box with the original PSU and a weird looking RF lead. The sticker was missing but it looked in ok condition and it was cheap so i bought it.

It arrived today and i was really happy with the condition of the actual unit. Plastics are a nice colour and it was very clean. I stripped the pads to clean them and No.2 pad has the mic in with working slider.

Taking a look at the back i noticed a strange thing, the channel switch was missing, but the TV<>Game switch is present. I opened up the unit and the board has no Nintendo markings but a Makko toys RF board which i've never heard of before, which leads me to think its a clone.

I took some pictures as they always help  



Hope the pictures are of some use. Can anyone help me figure out if this is a Gen or a Clone.

Thanks  

[L___E___T]

The body looks legit from the photos - someone else will need to chime in about the board though..

[NintendoKing]

The board looks wrong to me, as it is missing "HVC-CPU-GPM-??" printed on it, and the reset button is like always blue or black never white entirely. The case has wrong stickers above the power and reset buttons, as well as the fact it says "Makko Toys LTD" under the RF board.

I'd say Clone.

[L___E___T]

I was thrown off by the bottom shell...  How did I miss those stickers??

[NintendoKing]

The bottom shell is confusing, it might be a switch out from an actual Famicom.

[fcgamer]

Here is some information from another thread, mentions Makko Toys:

http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=4138.0

Apparently Makko Toys = Bung, the company that made the copiers?

[NintendoKing]

So are you suggesting that it's a modified Hong Kong Famicom then?

[fcgamer]

So are you suggesting that it's a modified Hong Kong Famicom then?

I'm not suggesting anything, as the only official Famicom I own is a Twin Famicom, and I know absolutely nothing about Hong Kong Famicom, etc.  I just thought I would link that thread, since it also dealt with a Famicom stamped with Makko Toys.

[P]

The RF board is switched out for a Makko RF board probably by some Hong Kong company (I guess to make it more compatible with PAL TVs or something). There are many Famicoms that has this Makko board (I have one) and they are not always Hong Kong Famicoms. The Makko board doesn't have CH1<>CH2 switch as you can see, and I think the other switch is to slow it down to 50Hz (all though mine does nothing).

I can't say if the main board is a Famiclone but the shell looks like that from a legit Japanese Famicom to me.

[L___E___T]

You can usually tell a clone just by the controllers.  Stickers do looks a bit different but the bottom half of the shell just looks like a standard JP shell to me.

[fredJ]

The board is not anything like a clone. It looks exactly like a Nintendo HVC-GPM console.
My guess is that it is a piracy console made in the same factory as the original console, but for the chinese or hong kong market.

Sometimes Chinese factories make pirate versions after hours, just replacing some text...
If they made it for the Hong Kong market they then made put  a different power board so it would be PAL compatible.

[infiniteNOP]

Well, I don't know if it is a clone or not, but even if it is a clone, it is a good-quality one, since it has discrete components, not a NOAC. However, I am by no means a famiclone expert . However, the MAKKO TOYS RF board worries me, as I have not seen such a PCB

[P]

As I said the Makko Toys RF board has replaced the original RF board by some other company after it was purchased (just look at those black and white cables going from the Makko board to the main board). There are many legit Famicoms in circulation that had their RF board replaced with a Makko one. If you search the forum you will find several similar threads.

The board is not anything like a clone. It looks exactly like a Nintendo HVC-GPM console.
My guess is that it is a piracy console made in the same factory as the original console, but for the chinese or hong kong market.

Sometimes Chinese factories make pirate versions after hours, just replacing some text...
If they made it for the Hong Kong market they then made put  a different power board so it would be PAL compatible.

I thought Famicoms was produced in Japanese factories (it even says made in Japan on this one). It's only recently that Nintendo switched to Chinese factories. But I guess a Japanese factory could be producing piracy consoles as well.

The controllers seems legit so far, but we'd need pictures of them to tell for sure.

[L___E___T]

Fred's right though - everything made in Shenzhen is made again in other cheaper materials I reckon, it's too lucrative not to.

[Bancho]

Its nice to see my first thread has started a discussion  

I took a few more pictures of the stickers and the pads. Hopefully give a bit more insight into the unit.



My question is, judging by the pics, would you say this would operate like a normal famicom and have the same compatibility?  I have a game arriving this week to test the unit out. Also being from the UK i'm in PAL land so it would be interesting to see if it works through my CRT via the RF.