Game console "Dandy": reviews and description

Game console "Dandy" became known to domestic buyers as early as the 90s of the last century. Despite this "ancient" age of the console, even today there are notorious fans of the exclusives coming out for NES hardware software in those distant times.

For example, the eternal multiplatform Super Mario Bros., which remains an unconditional hit to this day, or the classic Japanese RPG Legends Of Zelda, chained with its plot and an inexpressible atmosphere of players to the small screens of antediluvian TVs.

Prefix "Dandy": the history of creation

Few know that such a popular console is just an unofficial copy of the third generation NES consoles. The fact is that the products of the Japanese company Nintendo have never been produced on the territory of the former CIS officially. The local market was not interesting to foreign investors because of relative poverty and prosperous piracy. But it is thanks to the latest domestic gamers could taste the majority of game hits of that time.

The enterprising company Steepler occupied a free niche in 1992, launching in Russia a game console that was assembled in Taiwan and was a hardware clone of Nintendo consoles. At the same time, the logo (elephant in a red T-shirt and blue cap) was developed by the domestic animator Ivan Maximov.

The prefix "Dandy", whose price at that time was about $ 94, was very fond of the local public, which allowed the company to sell more than a million copies of the console by 1994.

The lineup of consoles "Dandy"

Over time, Steepler's range of products has changed. To the light appeared more perfect and completed models.

Initially, in 1992, the console market model Micro Genius IQ-501 and 502 (in Russia they were called Dendy Classic I and II, respectively). Both variations were very different from the original NES, and the joysticks were more like toys than devices.

In 1993, the consumer from the CIS became more sophisticated models with built-in support for the controller-pistol. It's about Dendy Junior, who had a lot more similarities with his Japanese original. In addition, the company-supplier issued and other clones of the console (for example, the prefix Subor), which had a slightly different device.

Most played games on "Dandy"

Its popularity pirate console is, of course, due to a wide range of quality games released for the operating system NES. Prefix "Dandy" supported most of them, so Russian gamers are familiar with such masterpieces as "SuperMario", "Mortal Kombat" and "Legends of Zelda."

In the top 20 best-selling games came the world-famous puzzle "Tetris", developed in the USSR by the domestic programmer Alexei Pajitnov. True, the rights to this series quickly moved to foreign owners.

A good game is the product of Konami, which in 1989 released the eponymous platformer for the comic book series "Turtles-Ninja". An interesting feature of this game is the ability to switch between game characters that have different abilities.

Information carrier "Dandy"

As a storage medium, the third generation NES consoles used cartridges. Game console "Dandy" was no exception. Despite the fact that an unofficial clone could support licensed games, such a distribution never appeared on the Russian market. But counterfeit pirate cartridges were more than enough, and, judging by the reviews, not all of them turned out to be working.

Buyers often come across cartridges with loud names "200 in 1" or "999 in 1". As noted in the reviews, in fact, the contents of the media was nothing more than a set of useless modifications and additions that were allocated by the seller in a separate game.

The prefix "Dandy", games for which were produced by third-party developers, boasts the presence of several exclusives. Even the Taiwanese manufacturer of prefixes (TXC Corporation) has tried its hand at this field. One of the famous Russian authors and game developers for Dendy is the programmer Alexander Chudov. Also, domestic companies released translations of some popular games, mostly technical ones.

Brand "Dandy" and his life in the media

Such a stunning popularity of the set-top box on the domestic market led to the fact that a simple business of distributing consoles acquired a whole commercial network, and then - a cultural heritage.

In 1994, Steepler, with the participation of Inkombank, founded a subsidiary company called Dandy, which was distributing game consoles.

She even managed to get exclusive rights to implement the official NES consoles in the same year. Such a decision by the Japanese company was caused by the intention of the domestic firm to boycott the sale of another Sega Mega Drive console known at the time.

The media did not leave aside the fact of the success of virtual products in Russia. There were several thematic programs that tell about novelties and intricacies of the game world. There were tournaments on various games, which were also broadcast by television. In general, it was the appearance of Dendy that marked the dawn of the gaming industry in the territory of the former USSR.

The competition between Nintendo and Sega

Sega Master System and NES were the two most popular 8-bit consoles in the late 80's and early 90's of the last century. In the future, experts will confirm that Nintendo won this competition in the US market due to the lower price of the gaming console and high-quality exclusives. In the domestic market there is a similar situation.

Console with a portable system NES, as follows from the reviews, were more popular due to the elementality of copying the architecture of the console.

Therefore, their clones were much larger than in the case of the "Sega". In addition, the disposal of customers was a huge range of cartridges, even if not always reliable. In this indicator, the prefix "Dandy" loses: "Sega" had a modest but fully working official distribution (it was sold all the same from under the floor).

The modern life of the legendary console

Despite the fact that the production of games for the console stopped in 1995, a huge layer of quality products still managed to get out. Some series, which were extremely popular in those years, are almost forgotten in our time. Therefore, even today there are lovers of antiquity, ready to plunge again into the games of their youth. This is not surprising, given how much the prefix "Dandy" for today (about $ 5), and how many good franchises it supported.

Most of the games that were released for NES, get beautiful interpretations to this day. Nevertheless, many fans prefer the classic to new trends of fashion, so do not be surprised at the appearance of an antediluvian console in someone's home - perhaps the owner simply decided to plunge again into the fairy world of Zelda or play the scene with the princess from Mario.