Prefix "Dandy"

Many of us have known for a long time what a "Dandy" game console is, the purchase of which has always been a holiday for any child. Even five-year-olds knew how to connect the Dandy to the TV . It was enough to plug one of the connectors into the corresponding socket, and connect the prefix itself to the network.

"Dandy" is an unofficial hardware clone of the Nintendo console. "Dandy" is of Taiwan origin, but the hardware and format of the cartridge are based on Japanese technology. Due to the fact that Nintendo in the CIS countries had never been officially sold before, the "Dandy" consoles became very popular. And today you can see prefixes on the stores, on which this name is written, but they have no relation to the original ones, since since 1996 the Steepler company, which produces them, has ceased to exist.

Models of consoles

The game console "Dandy" in the past released in six versions. Dendy Classic had high-frequency and low-frequency outputs, two gamepads that were attached to the console on the sides. The case of such a prefix had a rounded shape. Model Dendy Classic II from its predecessor was characterized by the presence of turbo-keys on the gamepads, their color solution, and even more rounded shape of the case. In 1993, a new model of the console - Dendy Junior. Her design was literally "licked" from the original Nintendo console. Both gamepad connected to its front panel, and one of them could be replaced with a light gun. It was not part of the package, but was sold separately.

A year later a second modification appeared - Dendy Junior II. The main difference was that both the gamepad was now non-detachable, like the original Nintendo console. At the same time on one of them the developers removed the start and select buttons. Microfine in this model was not, but on both gamepads there were turbofonks. Similar in terms of technical characteristics and design was the model Dendy Junior IIP, but it was already sold with a light gun in the kit. And in the modification of Dendy Junior IVP, which was released in 1995, the color of the case changed. He was now not white or gray, like the predecessor predecessors, but black. In addition, as a material for manufacturing the RF adapter, the developers used not metal, but a solid plastic. In 1994, an attempt was made to bring the Dendy Pro model to the market, but it did not succeed.

Main technical characteristics

Most of the technical characteristics of the game console "Dandy" coincides with the characteristics of Nintendo, but there are differences. They relate to the construction of the hull and its execution. When creating this gadget, developers focused on compatibility with games for the NTSC region. However, the work of the video driver is based on the frequency used by the PAL version of NES. Software compatibility was observed in all models, and the differences were in chipsets and their performance. Often the "Dandy" consoles were equipped with central processors and PPUs that were released by UMC.

Cartridges for consoles

As already mentioned, "Dandy" is an unlicensed version of Nintendo, so all games developed for the original set-top box could also be used for the hardware clone. The problem was that the best games for the "Dandy" console in the CIS countries were simply not sold, so you had to buy cartridges with pirated copies. But even here there were advantages, because these cartridges met such games, the existence of which the creators of the original console did not even suspect.

The most popular cartridges were those that contained 100 or even 9999 games in one. For the sake of justice it is worth noting that all these games were the same and differed in the color of the clothes of the characters or the musical accompaniment.