Dendy, The Famiclone That Could - The Russian Fake Nintendo Entertainment System That Changed Gaming In Russia Forever

Dendy: A Semi-Deep Dive Into Russia's Favorite Famiclone

You, dear reader, if you're here you are likely familiar with the 'Famiclone' scene. 

A Famiclone is the colloquial term for a fake Nintendo console named after its Japanese original - The Nintendo Famicom (Family Computer). 

The Family Computer housed many pivotal series in the 8-bit gaming era like Mario, Castlevania, Contra, The Legend of Zelda, Dr. Mario, and the like. 

What if I told you the rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Famicom were not the worldwide phenomenon that the western world perceived them to be?

Enter: Famiclones, the answer to the worldwide surge in 8-bit gaming in the late 80s and 90s. Numerous famiclones exist with varying aesthetics, some strange and others almost identical to the original Nintendo consoles.

A particularly interesting famiclone that sticks out of the crowd, and had even established itself as the console in the Russian market is The Dendy. 

The Dendy was an unofficial brand of Nintendo Famicom clones, produced from late 1992 (nearly a decade after the original Famicom's release), and largely exclusive to the Post-Soviet state markets.

Why Was Dendy The Post-Soviet Retro Gaming Icon That It Was?

To understand why Dendy took off the way that it did, we need to start at the beginning.

The story begins with Victor Savyuk, a Russian entrepreneur who had grown disillusioned by the gaming market and recognized a significant void in Russia's budding Post-Soviet market. 

Wondering why the soviet states had missed such a substantial opportunity, Savyuk leapt onto the open opportunity and brought the gaming market to Russia. 

Thanks to lax USSR policy, and a lack of protection offered to licensed properties, Savyuk was able to blatantly rip-off the Nintendo Famicom and retain the backing to establish his own 8-bit empire.

A Dendy console cartridge.

Partnered with a Taiwanese company, responsible for a Famiclone known as the Micro Genius, Savyuk fronted the creation of the "Dendy Classic I and II, which were rebranded versions of the Micro Genius IQ-501 and IQ-502, respectively." 

Nintendo alienated a market that clearly had a desire to participate in the rising gaming craze by not producing product for the USSR states, and Savyuk benefitted substantially.

With funding from Russian electronics manufacturer Steepler, he was off to the races, and Dendy was born.

In Boot-Legacies fashion, I must say - Dendy has an excellent mascot.

Russian artist Ivan Maximov is responsible for this little guy. Cute, mildly unsettling perhaps, he checks all the boxes. I mean, who wouldn't love a flesh colored anthropomorphic elephant with a hat? Sorry, back on topic...

Ultimately, Dendy attained immense success in the post-soviet states because of the lack of coverage by Nintendo and Sega. Dendy saw sales reach 100,000-125,000 units each month, generating $5 million in profits, cementing their place, as the premier company for gaming in Russia and the soviet states.

First A Fake, Now A Classic

Dendy began as a fake, a bootleg console, a direct rip-off of the Nintendo Family Computer. However, at the hands of its success, Nintendo took notice, and ultimately allowed the company to continue their operations, utilizing them as a way to break into a previously unsaturated market. A decision which greatly benefitted Nintendo in the end, as Dendy had to stop promoting Sega and gained distribution rights for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy consoles in all the post-Soviet states. In turn, Nintendo would allow Dendy to keep producing Dendy consoles. 

Years passed as they do, and of course, business did not continue to thrive... I'd go in on this, however that would make this post much longer than necessary, but know after much success, Dendy did unfortunately cease in 1998 at the hands of the Russian financial crisis. 

That does not mean however that Dendy did not cultivate a legacy. Thanks to its fake goodness, and its absolutely genius interception into a previously dark gaming market, Dendy has cemented itself as the classic Russian console. People who grew up in the 90s in Russia think Dendy when they think about video games, just as we in America from the 90s think about Nintendo. 

A true bootleg legend, and the reason Boot-Legacies exist in the first place, the tale of Dendy is one that began out of necessity, and in a strange way became official, despite its unofficial nature.

Where It Fits Into The Boot-Legacies

The Boot-Legacies at its core, though definitively focused on obscure trading cards, is a catch-all for every single bootleg out there, cards, toys, games, they all have a home here. I love everything fake, I love the history of fakes, and the often necessity associated with their conceptions. Dendy checks all of those boxes, and arguably is one of the most successful bootleg tales out there.

At its core, the very nature of Dendy ties to The Boot-Legacies, it is strange, it is a rip-off, it became an integral part of growing up for youth at its time, and it has still made its mark on pop culture, all the way down to its anthropomorphic elephant mascot.