Dendy: Twenty Years Later

by Shiru 02'13 mailto:shiru at mail dot ru



About twenty years ago a gray elephant named Dendy brought the famous 8-bit Nintendo video game console to almost every home in Russia, leaving up lots of good memories in hearts of millions to this day, and has changed my own future forever, for better or worse. If you are into the old Nintendo video game stuff, you probably know this story, and maybe have heard that Dendy is still alive here, in Russia. Is it still in production? Could you really go and buy one? How different it is now? How much does it cost? Recently I bought one for a project, and now I can share the experience and photos to give you the answers.

I didn't actually went anywhere to buy it, just ordered one from an online shop. There are few models available, they has various shapes, different built-in games and stuff included into the package. I got a middle priced one that resembles the original Dendy Junior, and a random 9-in-1 cartridge. $37 total, delivery to the door included. In the store's catalog there also were tons of portables with Dendy games, and even a Sega Genesis/Dendy combo with two cartridge slots in a tiny case. So the choice is way better these days, and it is as easy to get as order a pizza.



Here is the package box, top and bottom sides. It is similar to the original Dendy Junior package from 1990s, including the elephant logo and the random sport motorbike rider - wish I knew why he always been there. The russian text labels reads 'TV Game Console', 'Dendy Junior', '100+ built-in games', '2 Turbo Joysticks', 'For kids 6+ years old', and the New Game company logo. On the bottom side there is another selling point mentioned - it has sound effects! Guess they are hinting that they also produce consoles that have no sound.

    


A row of pictures on a side shows what is included into the package, and, interestingly, it is all true and shows almost the exact versions of the console and accessories, with just a slight difference. In the past pictures at packages used to be kind of a puzzle, 'what it is on the picture' and 'why mine isn't like this'.




Another side of the package also has a text box that explains who produced the console, with full address of the New Game company. It is located at Zelenograd, a small city near Moscow that is used to be a kind of Soviet Silicon Valley in the past, with various microelectronics plants and facilities.





Let's open the box and see what is inside. Everything is seems to be there - the console, two controllers, power supply, light gun, AV cord, warranty card, and user manual.




Here is a closer look of the warranty and user manual. Suddenly we realize that we aren't talking about Dendy anymore, as, according to the warranty card, it is just a '8-bit video game console', and it seems that it is called 'Magistr', according to the manual. Warranty card does not mention how long the warranty lasts, by the way.




Inside, the manual puts it straight: 'Your game console - Magistr'. It promises that it is compatible with all Nintendo cartridges and tells that they are way cheaper and diverse than for any other platform. However, it introduces serious doubts, as the tech specs right below tell us that it has graphics resolution 320x224 with 128 colors. This is especially fun, considering the fact that the original Dendy manual from 1990s contained more correct specs - 256x224, 52 colors.





Now to the stuff, accessories first. I should note that absolutely everything, from console to cartridge, now feels way lighter, slimer, cheaper, and less serious, unlike it used to be in the past. Dendy slim edition, so to say.

Controller. It has the same shape, but different print. The cord has the same uncomfortable placement at the left side, although in 1990s later versions of the controller had it at the top, which is much better. The cord has the old style 15-pin connector, I guess it is a rarity these days, as most Famiclones use the 9-pin connector instead.




Light gun and AV cord. Nothing special here. The gun has completely different shape, the original Dendy Junior had a close replica of the Nintendo Zapper instead.




Power supply. A very small and light weight one, unlike the old power supplies that had a large heavy 220-to-9V transformer. They used to be 850 mA, this one is just 180 mA, so Dendy certainly goes green these days.




Finally, the console itself. Seems they didn't really decide what they are selling, so it is Dendy Junior again, the elephant included. Although overall shape is the same as in the original one, there are many differences. Light gray, orange and blue plastic instead of clean white and dark grey, and missing cartridge pull out lever are very obvious ones. I won't miss the lever for sure, as it never worked properly and no one used it, but it feels somehow empty without it. Plastic quality is another thing, it has various scratches all around, and generally does not make a good impression.




Bottom side shows the plastic quality problems clearly. It is all bumpy, warped, and also has a weird cavity in the ventilation holes area. It does look like it melted up a bit from overheat, although it may be just a design change for better ventilation... or just a mold fail. It is not very noticeable at the picture, but take a note that two middle screws are missing. Screws are so costly these days.





Now let's see the software. The package says it has built-in games, and that's true. When you turn the console on without a cartridge inserted, it shows up a splash screen. As I don't have a TV tuner now, I had to take photos from actual CRT TV screen, that was pretty tricky, so sorry for the quality.




Then there is a menu that indeed contains 104 games, in alphabet order. I was surprised, as unlike the thousand-in-one cartridges from the past that had a few simple mapper-less games that were repeating many times, this one has every game listed. And they aren't all simple games, in fact, there are many large games, such as Bucky O'Hare (with working life bar even!), Super Contra, or Tiny Toon Adventures. Even more interesting, there are US, JAP and EUR releases mixed up, along with a few pirate hacks and pirate original games - some of them were never seen on pirate carts here. Despite I'm well familiar with the whole Famicom and NES game library, there were a few games that I never seen before. Overall game selection looks pretty weird, there are solid hits mixed with really obscure games, but nevertheless, a lot of good games to spend time with are there. I just put the picture of the first screen here, and show the whole list as text for better readability. Have fun guessing which ones are which, as they used common pirate titles there.




1. 1942
2. ADVENTURE ISLAND2
3. ADVENTURE ISLAND3
4. ALADDIN2
5. METRO CROSS
6. ARABIAN
7. ARKANOID
8. BALLOON FIGHT
9. BATMAN
10. BATMAN3
11. BATTLE CITY
12. BOMBER MAN
13. BONKS ADVENTURE
14. BUBBLE BOBBLE PART2
15. BUCKY O HARE
16. CIRCUS CHARLIE
17. CONTRA
18. CROSS FIRE
19. DEAD FOX
20. DIG DUG
21. DIGDUGII 		22. DONKEY KONG
23. DORAE BOMB
24. DOUGH BOY
25. SUPER SPRINT
26. DRAGONS LAIR
27. DRAGON SPIRIT
28. DREAM MASTER
29. DR MARIO
30. DUCK HUNT
31. EIGO ASOBI
32. ELEVATOR ACTION
33. EXED EXES
34. EXERION
35. FLAPPY
36. GALAGA
37. GALAXIAN
38. GALG
39. GEIMOS
40. GYRODINE
41. HOCKEY
42. HOGANS ALLEY 		43. HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
44. HYDLIDE
45. ICE CLIMBER
46. IGO MEIKAN
47. IGO SHINAN
48. IKKI
49. JEWELRY
50. JOE MAC
51. JOUST
52. JUNGLE BOOK
53. JUUOUKI
54. LODE RUNNER
55. LONG JUMP
56. LOT LOT
57. LYXZ
58. SQOON
59. MACROSS
60. MAGMAX
61. MAPPY
62. METAL STORM
63. MUSCLE 		64. NIGHT ARROW
65. NIGHTSHADE
66. NINJA GAIDEN2
67. PAC MAN
68. PAC PACLAND
69. PINBALL
70. POOYAN
71. POPEYE
72. DEFLOWER
73. ROAD FIGHTER
74. ROBOCOP
75. ROCMAN X
76. ROUTE16 TURBO
77. RUMBLE AND FRENZY
78. SEICROSS
79. SHADOW OF THE NINJA
80. SIDE POCKET
81. SKY DESTROYER
82. SLALOM
83. SNOW BROS
84. SOCCER 		85. STAR TREK
86. SON SON
87. SPARTAN X
88. WESTERN KIDS
89. STAR GATE
90. SUPER ALADDIN
91. SUPER CONTRA
92. SUPER MARIO BROS
93. TAITO BASKET BALL
94. TENNIS
95. TETRIS
96. TINY TOON ADVENTURES
97. TOM JERRY3
98. TOY STORY
99. URBAN CHAMPION
100. WARPMAN
101. WOLVERINE
102. WRESTLE
103. YIE AR KUNG FU
104. ZIPPY RACE



The cartridge that I also bought contains way less interesting selection of games, pretty strange as well. Both Mortal Kombat games called 'Mortal Kombat Trilogy' at the title screen and seem to be the same, just with different number of characters. Both of them also have visual problems at the character selection screen, few random blinking sprites around the screen. Don't know whether it is a problem with the game itself, the cartridge, or the console. I'd bet on the game.




Despite the mentioned overall low quality of the product, the console works pretty well. Sound and video quality are fine. Digital noise in the sound that I missed so much and the vertical bars on the picture are there, but they aren't that noticeable as it was on some old Famiclones. Jungle Book has bright colors, so the problem with color tint often seen on Famiclones, including Dendy, isn't there.



Of course I couldn't just stop here, and miss a chance to see what is inside of the console and the cartridge. So here are the console's internals, both sides.

    


The usual for Famiclones three board layout, with traditional pieces of hot glue all around. The main board isn't that small as I would expect it to be, as I saw almost twice smaller boards in late 1990s. Major difference that is noticeable right away is that the flat cable for the third board is located at another side and has to overlap the cartridge slot to get to the third board. Have no idea why they did it that way. The third board usually contained 5V power converter and RF modulator, but this one has power converter only, and does not have any components related to the RF modulator. So the RF socket is simply not connected anywere and does not work, of course. No wonder they didn't include the RF cable into the package.

Here is a close shot of the front side of the main board. Unlike the old, quite rare Famiclones with built-in games, this one does not have a second cartridge slot at the bottom with a normal cartridge PCB inserted into it. Instead, it does have a smaller board on top of the main board that contains games. There are labels on the main board, one of them is NG2012, so we may take a guess that it is indeed manufactured for New Game last year.




One thing that is really amazed me, but can't really be illustrated with a photo, is the power switch. It is done just like usual, a plastic handle that is slipped on top of a slide switch mounted on the first PCB, the one with controller sockets. When I disassembled the console, a screw fell out somewhere from the first board. I thought - 'Oh, here is one of the missing screws comes back' and decided that it got there by an accident and is not needed. But when I assembled everything back, the power switch didn't work, it simply didn't move at all. After some brainstorming I figured out that it was just lying inside the plastic handle, in the hole, between the handle top and the switch, so the handle got a bit higher above the board. I put it into the hole, assembled again, and it worked! Such a clever advanced design, a technology achievement, no less.



So, we have seen almost all. Just a few more words about the cartridge. Here is the overall look. It has the same dimensions as Famicom and Dendy cartridges had, but the shape is now different, with some curves. Unlike the console, it has text in russian at the back telling that it is a video game cassete by New Game, so at least the cartridge case mold has been custom for this company. The sticker lists only the games that are actually there, and the pictures match the games well enough, so no fun for Kinaman anymore.

    


A really tiny board is in there, just enough to hold up to the plastic pins and not wander inside. There is a label in the left corner, H-2010A1 2010/02/14, so it probably has been manufactured in 2010. There is also a row of jumper pads on the board, of course I have tried to short them in various combinations, but nothing interesting happened, other than a screen of graphics garbage.





So that's how Dendy looks and works today. It certainly feels a bit different, but it is still fun. Hope you enjoyed to learn these things as much as I did.