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Revision as of 23:03, 3 September 2008
A Family Game is a video game console, usually with several games built-in, with the outer shell designed to mimic popular consoles such as the Atari 2600, the Famicom, the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis or the PlayStation.
The majority of the games on these consoles are direct copies of Famicom and Atari 2600 games, such as Pitfall, Berzerk or Frogger, often with their title or display colours changed. In cases where the games are copies of Famicom games, the system is often dubbed a Famiclone. Family Games have anywhere from dozens to hundreds of games built in, and some consoles accept more games via cartridge.
The usual Family Game controller port has a standard DB9 (9-pin) configuration, allowing these consoles to operate with Atari 2600 and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis gamepads.
Since the hardware is made of cheap plastic, assembled in Third World Asian countries and with virtually no software development costs, these machines are sold with a price tag as low as a game for a new console. This makes them very popular with low-income households, despite being outdated (more recent Family Game machines aren't much better graphically than mid 80's 8-bit consoles).
It's fairly easy to find Family Game consoles, both new and used, in many countries, mostly in street fairs, pawn shops and utilities shops. Some of the most recent models even discard the RF unit in favour of an antenna.
The TV Boy is an example.
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