Gaming Consoles Market Is Overwhelmed With Fake NES Classic Mini

Photograph of the original console with an additional controller



On Geektimes, various materials of the miniature old new console from the Nintendo Classic Mini were published many times, including news and reviews . The prefix is ​​actually interesting, although it was designed for the most part only for fans of the old eight-bit games. But it was noticed by the usual gamers, who have little connection with titles and prefixes of the 80s. As a result, the console began to quickly disassemble, and demand exceeded supply. At the height of the hype, Nintendo announced that it was stopping the release of the NES Mini, apologizing for not being able to put a sufficient number of devices on the market.



It should be noted that increased demand did not go unnoticed by those who do not mind making a few extra euros. The prefixes bought in Europe at 59 euros began to sell first at 90, and then at 120, 150 and even 200 euros. The more actively they are bought up by collectors, the higher the price, since the devices that have already been purchased are deposited in private collections. Here, Chinese manufacturers showed activity, which began to produce NES Mini clones, selling them at a much lower price than the original (although much more expensive than the cost price). But the first sellers released them in boxes with a design different from the original, indicating that they were replicas. But now everything has changed - there are other manufacturers who create exact copies of such consoles and sell at the usual market price of 150+ euros. And the fake consoles have become something very much. And to distinguish them from the present is extremely difficult.



There are only a few details for which the fake console can be distinguished from the real one. The first copy was found by one of the users of the NeoGAF forum. The differences are really minimal. Probably, among readers of Geektimes there are those who are planning to buy a prefix for themselves, so it is worth being careful. By the way, the fakes were put up for sale on AliExpress. You can probably expect them to appear on eBay, where it will be very difficult, if possible at all, to identify a replica from a photo of the announcement.



Everything is very well done - and connectors for Wii-compatible controllers, and micro-USB port and everything else. In order to understand what is being said, you should look at these photos:















There is no way to distinguish the box at all, except if you compare the original and the fake with a magnifying glass in your hands. As for the case, the differences here are more pronounced. For example, a little crooked inflicted Nintendo logo. In addition, the color is also slightly different from the original, although this may be a problem of the camera / flash.







In the photo above, the name of the company is also slightly uneven, although this can only be understood after looking at the console for a long time. Here, by the way, is a photo of the original controller.







Even more differences can be found when connecting the set-top box to the TV. There are more of them:

• The font of the name of the game is less;
• Several closer to each other are the game icons;
• In the 1P / 2P field, another pixel font;
• The SELECT and START icons differ;
• Since the icons are closer to each other, 5 games can be seen on the screen, not 4.

Here is a photo of the original menu.







There have already been several reviews of fake consoles on Youtube. In most cases, these reviews are in Spanish.





The administration of AliExpress, after identifying the problem, deleted all sales of the fake console. But they are on Alibaba (although they could not be found with the box). And the price is about 70 dollars. Very good for fake. As far as can be judged, in the near future the market will be flooded with replicas, and much better ones, and it will be very difficult to distinguish a fake from a real console.



As for the company Nintendo, it continues to actively work on the consoles of the new generation and on the incarnations of the old consoles. This is primarily about the SNES Mini , which will be available only on September 29. This console has not yet had time to go on sale, and the demand for it is already huge. In Spain, for example, large retail chains presented an opportunity to pre-order the console. The limit has been reached in minutes.







As far as you can understand, the increasing price of the NES Mini played a role in such customer responsiveness. Looking at this, even those people who are far enough from eight-bit games decided to purchase the console. Buy a prefix for $ 80 and in a couple of months to sell for 150? Everything is possible. But with the console will be delivered a new game Star Fox 2. Her company has developed another for Super NES, but officially it was never released. The unofficial prototype of the game leaked to the Web, so retroconsole lovers could enjoy the Star Fox 2 gameplay on numerous emulators.



But nobody saw the final version of Star Fox 2. Its creator Dylan Cuthbert confirmed in 2015 that the game was finalized just a few days before the project was decided to close. The game should have been released in the summer of 1995, but the release will appear 22 years later than it should have been.