Attack of the Clones: Send in the Clones!
I will admit that I’m pretty fond of my Super Joy 3, but lately it has been giving me problems. I think the batteries are going dead, but with anything made in China, it may also just be dying for good. Recently I found a functional Power Joy that may take it’s place, so I figured what better to do than to give the Power Joy it’s own review!
The Power Joy also has the N64 controller resemblance, but takes it a few steps further from the Super Joy, for the integrated light gun. The first thing you’ll notice is the toy jet design on the front, as well as the toy gun like handle, with trigger, underneath. The toy jet design may have been added to throw off the N64 controller shape, but the handle and trigger are essential and feel quite comfortable when you’re playing one of the many shooting games packed into this unit. Also, the light gun’s accuracy is surprisingly good!
At the bottom of the handle is the second controller port, as well as the hardwired AV cables, with optional power input. The cables are decent in length and don’t get in the way, despite their placement. Underneath the unit you’ll also find a 60 pin connector and the battery storage, which has an extremely weak feeling cover. The Power Joy does play Famicom cartridges, but the unit isn’t quite big enough to play them comfortably, so your fingers might be cramped until you find a comfortable playing position.
On top of the Power Joy are the controls, which are setup much like the Super Joy’s, but with a few exceptions. Here the D pad is still inaccurate, the reset button is much smaller but still too easy to hit in a hurry, the power switch is right above the reset button and start and select are the same. One feature the Super Joy lacks, but I enjoy on the Power Joy, is a fully functional joystick, which is more accurate (just slightly) than the D pad. A minor drawback is that the A and B buttons (including their turbo counterparts) are backwards, which takes a little time to adjust to.
My new Power Joy came with the cartridge, so I had a chance to see what it could offer. I honestly think the cartridge alone was worth the $3 I paid for the whole unit! The PJ-008 is packed with playable games, and it even works on the NES, with a Famicom to NES converter. Out of the 84 games on the cartridge, there are only a handful of failures. That isn’t to say they’re not functional, they’re just not games I enjoyed. It is noteworthy to say that most of the games packed on the PJ-008 are simply pirated, very few are hacks.
Overall, again, I am impressed with this cheap, Chinese toy. I enjoy sitting in front of my TV and having many choices right at my finger tips, which the Super Joy and Power Joy units provide in abundance. The controls are whacky, the games are mostly pirates or hacks of games we already know and love, but this system is a pretty cool little device. Thanks to my new Power Joy, I now know that my other Power Joy works as well, it just needed the battery cover to power up properly. I don’t expect them to live long, but for what they are, I will enjoy them as long as I can.
Here is the list of games that the Power Joy offers, as well as the PJ-008 cartridge. I know they released a few different versions, so I would imagine the games differ from cartridge to cartridge, so this is a list of what I’ve got on my system.
Games in the Power Joy
Power Joy Title | Extra Info |
Shoot Copter | Hacked Duck Hunt |
Falling Bricks | Fairly decent Tengen Tetris Hack |
Shoot Copters | Hacked Duck Hunt |
Panzer Fly Car | Road Fighter Hack |
Debar Bomb 1 | Hogan’s Alley Hack |
Shooting | Hacked Hogan’s Alley – Can shoot |
Debar Bomb 2 | Hogan’s Alley Hack |
Future Tank | Battle City Hack |
Space War | Exerion Hack |
Shoot Glass | Hacked Duck Hunt – Clay Shooting |
Games in the Cartridge
Power Joy Title | Extra Info |
80 Days | Puss ‘n Boots: Around the World in 80 Days |
1942 | 1942 |
Arkanoid | Arkanoid |
Aladdin III | Magic Carpet 1001 (Infamous Pirate) |
Argus | Famicom Argus |
Adisland | Famicom Adventure Island |
ASCII | Famicom Penguin-Kun Wars |
Arabian | Famicom Super Arabian |
Badminton | Famicom Super Dynamix Badminton |
Baltron | Famicom Baltron |
B-Wings | Battle Wings/Famicom B-Wings |
Bird Week | Famicom Bird Week |
Boat Race | Seizure inducing F1 Race Hack |
Boom Man | Bomber Man |
Brush Roller | Hack of a Pirate called Bookyman |
Clay Shoot | Hacked Duck Hunt |
Chack and Pop | Famicom Chack’n Pop |
Circus Chablie | Circus Charlie – Menu is spelled wrong |
City Connection | City Connection |
Challenger | Famicom Challenger |
Dig Dug | Dig Dug |
Dough Boy | Famicom Dough Boy |
Druaga | Famicom Tower of Druaga |
Devil World | Famicom Devil World |
Ding Dong | Famicom Binary Land |
Door Door | Famicom Door Door |
Dynamite Bowl | Famicom Dynamite Bowl |
Elevator Action | Elevator Action |
Exerion | Famicom Exerion |
Formation Z | Famicom Formation Z |
Front Line | Famicom Front Line |
Fire Dragon | Interesting clone of the Atari game Surround |
Flappy | Famicom Flappy |
Flipull | Famicom Flipull |
Filed Combat | Field Combat – Menu is spelled wrong |
Galaga | Galaga |
Galg | Famicom Zunou Senkan Galg |
Geimos | Famicom Geimos |
Gyrodine | Famicom Gyrodine |
Goonies | Famicom Goonies |
Gotcha | LJN’s Gotcha! I like this one, since the Power Joy is also the light zapper! |
Galaxians | Galaxian |
Gradius | Gradius |
Hyper Olympic | Track and Field |
Joust | Joust |
Karateka | Famicom Karateka |
Kage | The Legend of Kage |
Lode Runner 1 | Lode Runner |
Lode Runner 2 | Championship Lode Runner |
Lunar Ball | Lunar Pool |
Macross | Choujikuu Yousai Macross |
Magic Jewellery | Pirate of Magic Jewelry |
MagMax | MagMax |
Mappy | Mappy |
Millipede | Millipede |
Othello | Pirate of HES’s Othello |
Pooyan | Famicom Pooyan |
Pac Land | Famicom Pac-Land |
Paper Boy | Paperboy |
Pandamar | Hacked Super Mario with a Panda |
Penguin | Famicom Obake no Q Tarou: Wan Wan Panic/ NES Chubby Cherub (w/ drastic changes!) |
Route 16 | Famicom Route 16 Turbo |
Raid on Bay | Raid on Bungeling Bay |
Road Fighter | Famicom Road Fighter |
Sky Destroyer | Sky Destroyer |
Space ET | Space Invaders |
Star Gate | Famicom Stargate/Defender II |
Star Force | Star Force |
Son Son | Famicom Son Son |
Spartan | Famicom Spartan X/NES Kung Fu |
Spelunker | Spelunker |
Spy vs Spy | Spy vs Spy |
Squoon | Famicom Squoon |
Starslider | Star Soldier |
Star Luster | Famicom Star Luster |
Tag Team | Tag Team [Pro] Wrestling |
Tank | Battle City |
Twin Bee | Famicom Twin Bee |
Wrestling | M.U.S.C.L.E. |
Wisdom | Wisdom Boy – Puzzle game of unknown Origins |
Warp Man | Famicom Warpman |
World Cup | World Cup 2002 Chinese hack of Soccer |
Xevious | Xevious |
Zippy Race | MotoRace USA/Zippy Race |
Super Joy 3: The Review!
Earlier I did a quick once over for the Super Joy 3 that I own, and I didn’t quite go into too much detail. Today we are going to delve as deep into this thing as we possibly can without getting lead poisoning. The very first thing you are going to notice when you pick up one of the Super Joy units is the fact that the housing looks a lot like a Nintendo 64 controller, so I will be comparing the two quite a bit. The second thing you’re going to notice is just how cheap and plasticky this thing feels, and that is pretty much the theme throughout.
To start off, the controls are shoved quite a bit more to the center than they are on the N64 controller. The D-pad is essentially the same, but its way off to the right of where it should be. Instead of the C buttons, here you have 2 pairs of A and B buttons, one set being standard and the other set for turbo. More toward the center you have the Reset button next to a slant aligned Start and Select buttons, and a functionless joystick simply screwed on from the inside.
The Super Joy design has done away with the N64’s trigger and they’ve turned the memory card port into the battery pack holder. On the very top left you have the AV outputs, in the middle there is the typical and super cheap looking 9 pin controller port (much cheaper looking than Atari and Sega used) and to the right is the power adapter input and On/Off switch. Since I don’t own the right power adapter, I run mine off 4 AA batteries. Performance seems to be ok, although I can’t compare between the batteries and power adapter. Underneath all Super Joy units, that I’ve seen, there is a 60 pin connector for running ROM boards (mine had a cover on it) which means your unit is either run off a ROM board or you can use Famicom cartridges with it.
As you would expect from anything built in China, this thing is cheap and functions as such. Often times I will find myself hitting the A or B button and getting random reactions or none at all. The D-pad seems to be only slightly inaccurate, but watch out for the extremely willing to work Reset button, which can often be confused for the start button when you need to pause a game in a hurry. The games within my Super Joy 3 (listed in a previous article) are obvious classics, as if they didn’t even really care about copyrights and didn’t try to hide what these games were. The games all function properly with the exception of Super Mario Bros., which is sped up quite a bit.
Within the unit is a mess of wires and three different printed boards, one strictly to handle the controls, another is attached to the 60 pin connector and the other is the main brain of the clone. The wires look cheaply soldered into place and although I’m not a master at soldering either, it just looks like a mess. The extreme bare essentials are thrown in, the components are cheap and that causes a loud buzz in the audio and there are lines running vertically across the screen.
The slot around the 60 pin connector on the bottom of mine is way to small for me to properly insert Famicom cartridges, but I did take the unit apart and they do work! Like wise, after I built my first Famicom to NES converter, I took the ROM board out of my Super Joy and played it on the NES, that works too! Some Super Joys have a bigger cartridge slot than mine, I believe mine was built strictly to be run off the ROM board in the hopes it would never be removed, they sure didn’t see me ever getting my hands on this thing!
I bought my Super Joy 3 at a thrift store for around $4, and if I found another I would more than likely pay $4 for it too. Since this has the option to run off batteries, which have lasted longer than I thought, these units are ideal for packing with you for a trip. The games are fun and the unit is, for the most part, functional. I love playing the original games on the original hardware, but this thing just gives you so many choices that its hard to put it down sometimes. The issues with the audio buzz and lines on the screen tend to fade away, once you’re focused in on playing a game. It does lie and say it gives you 12000 choices while in reality it is only 120-ish, but even so I’ve found this thing to be a lot of fun.
Attack of the Clones: Updates and testing!
Since the last Famiclone article, I’ve spent more time testing my handheld units and sadly I can confirm my Power Joy isn’t working, but its possibly an easy fix. I’ve also painstakingly compiled a list of what games are in my Super Joy III (I say my Super Joy because it seems the games vary from unit to unit), although it says 12000 it only has 120 difference choices and only 45 of those are unique games. Below is the list I have compiled, please note that I have been as careful as possible to spell everything according to the Super Joy, if anything is misspelled that is how it appears within the unit.
Super Joy Title | Original Title | Extra Info |
Super Mario | Super Mario Bros. | Sped up a little bit, but essentially normal. |
Paper Boy | Paper Boy | Normal |
Defender | Defender II | Normal |
Space Invaders | Space Invaders | Normal |
Donkey Kong 3 | Donkey Kong 3 | Normal |
Gradius | Gradius | Normal |
Galaga | Galaga | Normal |
Arkanoid | Arkanoid | Normal |
1942 | 1942 | Normal |
Super Contra | Super C | Famicom version |
Duck Hunt | Duck Hunt | Game A offers 1 “DWCK” |
Sky Destroyer | Sky Destroyer | Normal |
Pacman | Pacman | Normal NES port |
Bomberman | Bomberman | Normal |
Hyper Olympics | Track and Field | Normal |
Tetris | Tetris | Famicom version |
Millipede | Millipede | Normal |
Pinball | Pinball | Normal |
Kung Fu | Kung Fu | Normal |
Dig Dug | Dig Dug | Normal |
Wild Gun Man | Wild Gunman | Normal |
Warpman | Warpman | Only released for the Famicom |
Lunar Ball | Lunar Ball | Famicom version of Lunar Pool |
Golf | Golf | Normal |
Excitebike | Excitebike | Normal |
Road Fighter | Road Fighter | Glitchy version of the Famicom verion |
F1 Race | F1 Race | Slightly altered Famicom version |
Lode Runner | Lode Runner | Normal |
Tank | Battle City | Only released for the Famicom |
Raid on Bay | Raid on Bungeling Bay | Normal |
Mappy | Mappy | Only released for the Famicom |
Pooyan | Pooyan | Only released for the Famicom |
Tennis | Tennis | Normal |
Base Ball | Base Ball | Graphically broken, otherwise working |
Clu Clu Land | Clu Clu Land | Normal |
Balloon Fighter | Balloon Fighter | Normal |
Ice Climber | Ice Climber | Normal |
Macross | Macross | Only released for the Famicom |
Mario Bros | Afro Mario | Yes, this is Afro Mario instead of Mario Bros. |
Chess | Gomoku Narabe Renju | Only released for the Famicom |
Hogan Alley | Hogan’s Alley | Normal |
Ball and Steel | Arkanoid | Round 7 |
Burger Time | Burger Time | Normal |
Popeye | Popeye | Normal |
Star Force | Star Force | Normal |
Circus Charlie | Circus Charlie | Normal |
Fight Abysm | Super C | Area 2 |
Light of Devildom | Super Mario | 8-1 |
Disloyalty Money | Paper Boy | Tuesday |
Engle Forest | Super C | Area 3 |
Magic Power | Super Mario | 7-1 |
Thieft of Justice | Paper Boy | Wednesday |
Time Tube | Super C | Area 4 |
Sky Dever | Super Mario | 6-1 |
Road Fatter | Paper Boy | Thursday |
Water Dragon | Super C | Area 5 |
Road by Magic | Super Mario | 5-1 |
Perpetrate a Trand | Paper Boy | Monday |
Danger Zone | Super C | Area 6 |
Sun Fun | Super Mario | 4-1 |
Thief Golden | Paper Boy | Friday |
Top Perilous Peak | Super C | Area 7 |
Darks Sprite | Super Mario | 3-1 |
Policeman and Thief | Paper Boy | Saturday |
Kill Pioneer | Super C | Area 8 |
Devildom in Water | Super Mario | 2-1 |
Paper Boy Sunday | Paper Boy | Sunday |
Long Jump | Track and Field | Long Jump |
Hrdles Meee | Track and Field | Hurdles |
Javelin Throw | Track and Field | Javelin Throw |
Skeet Shooting | Track and Field | Skeet Shooting |
Triple Jump | Track and Field | Triple Jump |
Archery | Track and Field | Archery |
High Jump | Track and Field | High Jump |
100M Dash | Track and Field | 100M Dash |
Jump Fire | Circus Charlie | Stage 1 |
Popendancer | Circus Charlie | Stage 2 |
Roll Ball | Circus Charlie | Stage 3 |
Filer | Circus Charlie | Stage 4 |
Jump Bed | Circus Charlie | Stage 5 |
Driver Side by Side | Balloon Fight | Phase 5 |
Forword Power | Balloon Fight | Phase 9 |
Super Man Bomb1 | Super C | Area 1, A0 Lives — which is actually 100 |
Super Man Bomb2 | Super C | Area 1, 6 Lives |
Super Man Bomb3 | Super C | Area 1, 6 Lives |
Super Man Bomb4 | Super C | Area 5, 6 Lives |
Fight in Battle | Battle City | Stage 36 |
Fe Protect | Battle City | Stage 43 |
Kill in Battle | Battle City | Stage 50 |
King of the Fe | Battle City | Stage 57 |
In No Time | Battle City | Stage 64 |
Battle Start | Battle City | Stage 71 |
Break The Earth | Battle City | Stage 78 |
Protect Home | Battle City | Stage 85 |
Die Tomorrow | Battle City | Stage 92 |
Race No Enger | F1 Race | Circuit 2 |
Hold Time | F1 Race | Circuit 3 |
No Time and Enger | F1 Race | Circuit 4 |
Brick Figheter | Balloon Fight | Phase 13 |
Super Brick | Balloon Fight | Phase 15 |
Impregnable Forest | Arkanoid | Round 5 |
Steel Door | Arkanoid | Round 9 |
Crush Cage | Arkanoid | Round D |
Steel Ball | Arkanoid | Round H |
Brick Wall | Arkanoid | Round L |
Iron Blast | Arkanoid | Round O |
Greatwall Brick | Arkanoid | Round R |
Metal Pail | Arkanoid | Round U |
Super Shell | Arkanoid | Round W |
Steel Stick | Arkanoid | Round Z |
Mario Fly | Super Mario | 1-1 |
Paper Boy New | Paper Boy | Monday |
Defender UK | Defender II | ? |
Space Invaders KI | Space Invaders | ? |
Donkey Kong Go | Donkey Kong 3 | ? |
Gradius Bee | Gradius | ? |
Galaga Tea | Galaga | ? |
Arkanoid Run | Arkanoid | ? |
1942 Gold | 1942 | ? |
Contra Sun | Super C | ? |
Whether they added all individual ROMs or they just used coding to achieve this many choices I’m not sure, but I would assume it would be easier to just use code. After the first 120 the list starts all over and continues to do so until you have the illusion of 12000 choices. While making the list I broke up the time by playing Super Man Bomb1 (aka Super C w/100 Lives), the game was still challenging but with 100 lives beating the game was extremely easy!
Since I don’t own a Famicom (yet!) I didn’t have any games to test in my Super Joy, but I was still pretty certain it would work if a real Famicom game were attached, being the unit is blank until you insert the ROM board into the slot. This lead me to checking around online for a Famicom game that wouldn’t require me to translate dialog and was something I knew I already enjoyed. So I ended up buying a Soccer Famicom cartridge, its a game I know I already like and there isn’t anything in Japanese, oddly enough.
After almost a whole agonizing day waiting for the game to arrive it finally did, but I was upset to find the Famicom cartridge was too big to fit within the unit, so I took my Super Joy apart. After attaching the Famicom game and powering up the unit, SOCCER flashed on the screen and the game music began! I played the game for a little bit to see if it would glitch out and everything seemed to work perfectly.
Knowing that my Super Joy can play Famicom cartridges gives me pretty good idea of what to do if I happen to find another one. Since I want to keep my current Super Joy complete, I need to find another Super Joy 3 or I might be able to use the Power Joy and transform it from a handheld into something more like a console with real NES controller ports. I’m thinking this might make a decent and cheap Famiclone system given the right parts and attention.
Attack of the Clones!
With as often as I go to flea markets and thrift stores, I see a lot of crazy items. Some of these items aren’t even related to video games, but sometimes I see things that are video game related that are just as crazy, such as the onslaught of systems known as Famiclones. These systems are made in China, boast an insane number of games or features it can’t truly offer and are built within slightly modified and brightly colored gaming systems we already know and love. I personally own 2 handheld Famiclones, I believe only one of them slightly works as I can’t test the other because I tried to power it up with an NES power supply and think I fried it.
Since Nintendo let the patents to the Famicom and the NES go, you would assume these systems would be sold anywhere other Chinese goods are sold, but you’d be wrong. See, it isn’t the hardware that these companies create (or ripped-off, depending on your point of view) but the illegally pirated software within the units that comes under fire and keeps them off most store shelves. Essentially the system is a Nintendo on a chip, or NoaC, which emulates (to an extent) the same features the Famicom and NES did, while packing in game ROMs to make it a complete system with games. Some will boast anywhere from 76 to 99 million built-in games, which isn’t true. Although you may see that many choices, most of the games are split up into certain levels of the same game featured over and over within the system.
For example my Super Joy 3 offers 12000 games incuding: Super Mario Bros., Tennis, Baseball (utterly broken), Arkanoid, 1942, Pacman, Donkey Kong 3, Dig Dug, Clu Clu Land, Super C and a few other titles, from the maybe 30-40 original titles within the system, the rest of the choices are areas 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, etc. of Super Mario Bros., or different levels of Super C. Also, as you may suspect, these units are Chinese made so they aren’t built to stand the test of time, my Super Joy 3 has a terrible buzz and there are lines on the screen, but once you’re captured in a game it really tends to fade away to an extent. I do have to admit that I have had quite a bit of fun with my Super Joy 3, its fun to have that many games in your hands and it feels closer to the real thing than PC emulators.
So if the systems emulate the NES instead of the Famicom, why are they called Famiclones? Well, that is because most of them have a 60 pin connector attached to them, which is standard for the Famicom as the NES systems all used 72 pins. I’ve seen evidence that you may also be able to play official Famicom cartridges on these units, some other Famiclones are geared specifically for doing just that, but since I only own the handheld units and don’t own any Famicom games, I can’t claim this to be true.
The systems range from Playstation shaped all the way to the odd shape of my Power Joy, which is like an N64 controller mixed with a jet fighter toy to allow for the light gun built into the unit. These systems almost always use a 9 pin input, much like the Atari 2600 or Sega Genesis, for a second controller or light gun. The handheld units can be run off batteries or DC adapters, they also have the standard power on/off switch, a reset button, D-pad, A and B with matching turbo buttons above them as well as start and select buttons. If you’re use to the N64 controller, at times you may want to pause the game and instead hit the reset button, but if you know what you’re looking for you can always scroll through the games and find the level you were on listed somewhere along the way.
All it took was buying the Power Joy for $1 that set off my obsession with wanting to understand the Famiclones. These units are often used for parts to create better handheld versions of the full systems they emulate, but on their own they’re pretty weak. These items will never come close to replacing the original Famicom, but for those of us who either can’t afford or don’t want to hunt down a working Famicom system, these might do enough to pass the time until we just can’t live without the real thing anymore. I will be doing more research and testing with mine as well as hopefully getting more Famiclones to test, but the bottom line is, I just want to enjoy the Famicom even in this sad, cloned, fraction of a sense.