Line #7 Platform/Dendy


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7	One of the best and one of the weirdest things piracy could ever create, '''Dendy''' brought joy to thousands of UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n kids during TheNineties and was the console that spawned the first generation of console gamers in Russia. At first, Dendy looks pretty much like your regular bootleg Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem clone, but to Russian gamers, it was so much more. It indeed had almost the same fate as NES, just on a less epic scale. Despite being completely unlicensed by Creator/{{Nintendo}} (although the short-lived publisher of the console, Steepler Ltd., imported Nintendo's consoles legally as well), it boasted many achievements: Millions of sold Famiclones and peripherals, a really huge network with its own brand shops, its own magazine (a la ''Magazine/NintendoPower''), a TV show (think ''Series/{{Starcade}}'' or ''Series/XPlay'') and millions of obsessed fans.
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9	The Russian counterpart to ''Nintendo Power'' began its life as ''Video-Ace: Dendy'' and, design-wise, was pretty bland. However, its publisher ''Video-Ace'' had some experience publishing a few movie magazines and a PC games magazine, and the design was soon upgraded. Some of the articles were translated from ''Joystiq'', again thanks to the publishers' connections. Unlike most of its contemporaries, ''Video-Ace Dendy'' concentrated more on movies, treating video games more like "interactive entertainment", and didn't have annoying ads. Later, however, when the Platform/SegaGenesis first debuted, the Fun Club section rose in popularity and became a name known to Russian gamers as ''The Great Dragon''.
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11	As a bootleg console, the Dendy's library is made up of a large number of bootleg games of dubious or even non-existent quality. The system is also capable of playing legitimate Famicom carts due its nature as a clone console. Actual games did make it over via piracy, though they were frequently altered; this occasionally tripped CopyProtection and sometimes made games {{Unwinnable}}. While this lack of quality control would have stifled any bootleg in a traditional market, most kids who owned a Dendy didn't have any frame of reference to realize what they actually had, plus there wasn't much competition anyway.
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13	Steepler's bankruptcy caused the Dendy magazine to split into two publications. One became ''The Great Dragon'', while the second carried on the name of the TV show ''Dendy: The New Reality''. The latter lasted only four issues, while its older brother underwent a 10-year evolution from inheriting the format of ''Video-Ace Dendy'' with some really reasonable add-ons to a magazine with loads of info on [=JRPGs=], next-gen consoles and anime, while still retaining the stuff that was loved before (8-bit and 16-bit sections, mainly). And that all was until 2003, when the magazine folded due to lack of funds. A revival was announced but seems to have encountered DevelopmentHell.
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15	[[WebVideo/{{Kinamania}} Kinaman]] created [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJQr3tnjHlg a feature-length documentary]] about the ramifications of Dendy's bootleg nature on Russian gaming culture at the time.
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17	Several bits of the TV show dedicated to this famiclone, ''Dendy: The New Reality'', may be watched [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A7E2F4261CD950A7 here]], subbed in English, or, if you're really interested (or maybe just happened to be born in the post-Soviet era), you may watch it from beginning to end in its original language [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzueORf25s here]].
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19	Not to be confused with the adorable little intellect from ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes''.
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21	----
22	!!The clone itself, as well as related hardware and cartridges, contain examples:
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24	* BrandNameTakeover: The popularity of the Dendy resulted in ''all'' Famiclones being called that by Russians, regardless if whether or not it was actually sold under that name. Meanwhile in UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}, the imported Famiclones were called ''Pegasus'', after [[http://i.imgur.com/KBI2jCn.jpg this particular model sold there]].
25	* CoversAlwaysLie: No, really. ''Always.'' Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog slapped on the cartridge cover of ''VideoGame/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''? ''Chip 'n Dale'' with its actual cover, but renamed to ''Grand Combat''? VideoGame/SeriousSam from ''VideoGame/SeriousSamTheSecondEncounter'' on the cart of ''Super VideoGame/{{Contra}} 7''? And those are but three examples!
26	** If a multicart states to have 9999 games or more, then not only the cover will be misleading, but the menu, too. Plus, some of the games slapped on the sticker may not appear on the actual cartridge at all.
27	** Perfectly lampshaded by Kinaman in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJQr3tnjHlg The Curse of the Grey Elephant]], as well as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhRH3j3BjGU Dendy Chronicles #7]].
28	* FollowTheLeader and ShoddyKnockoffProduct: Not only to the actual Famicom, but to many other Famiclones, not to mention the licensed consoles of the latter generations.
29	** Dendy wasn't the first famiclone to pop up on the market, and it's not the first to swipe the Famicom's original design, either.
30	** To make matters worse, some models had built-in gamepads, complete with no Select and Start buttons on the second gamepad, akin to the original Famicom.
31	** To make matters even worse, Dendy itself had clones of its own, not manufactured by the now defunct Steepler. And even while those were being advertised as the consoles with better graphics and sound, they weren't really different from other famiclones (though it had completely nothing to do with the actual Steepler's clone).
32	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Actually, nobody knows what led to Steepler disappearing, although the man behind the company is now listed as a vice-president of Tenzor, who supposedly manufactured Dendys... Or, at least its parts. Some people think it's because of the high price of imported Nintendo products. Some say that it's due to sales network Lamport simply betraying their "parents", but we may never know what exactly happened...
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34
35	!!''Video-Ace Dendy'' and its SpiritualSuccessor, ''The Great Dragon'' include examples of:
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37	* AscendedFanboy: Just see the ''Dendy: The New Reality'' entry below.
38	* AuthorAppeal: Vladimir Borev, the head of ''Video-Ace'' publishing. Quote: ''Watching the game, playing the movie''.
39	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Some games, even if they were reviewed previously, get an in this case pointless re-review. For example: When ''Great Dragon'' was a spinoff, ''Dendy: The New Reality'' magazine reviewed VideoGame/{{Doom}} for [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]]. Later on, when ''Dendy'' magazine officially died... Doom was reviewed. Again, for the SNES, around the time the Platform/PlayStation debuted.
40	* [[BrandNameTakeover Pirate Name Takeover]]: [[Franchise/MortalKombat Ho]] [[FanSpeak Sung Pak]]. Who actually was the actor for Liu Kang in the [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1992 first]] and [[VideoGame/MortalKombatII second]] installments of Franchise/MortalKombat.
41	* DevelopmentHell: The ''Great D'' is expected to be revived... And so far, it has resulted in nothing else but updates on the official website.
42	* ExecutiveMeddling: Sadly, this is here as well, mainly in the latter era. The reason is that a Steepler wannabe, ''New Game'', which is known for its Magistr Famiclones and having the gall to '''sell the initially free''' [[GameMod Sonic Megamix]] released a 'continuation' to ''The Cool Gamer'', but it turned out to be nothing else than yet another 'Tips and Tricks for 9000 Games on Mega Drive' clone. Doesn't help that the exact same descriptions, as well as tips and tricks can be read out on their official website.
43	** The ratings they've given to certain games also fits this trope to a T. Just for instance, how could ''VideoGame/HerzogZwei'' get 4/10 while this, ehrm, thing got 6/10? And, moreover, how ''VideoGame/RangerX'' would receive 4/10?! The worst thing is that the other books released afterwards seem to copy the ratings directly from there.
44	** [[http://www.newgame.ru/ Here's their website.]] Don't yell if you will get a trojan on your attempt to save a page, though.
45	* FanworkBan: Averted, for several reasons.
46	** First of '''ALL''', there is a 'Fun Club' section [[WordOfGod (it was even explained why it shouldn't be spelled as Fan Club)]] which accepted a huge load of fan work: Art, game story concepts, humorous psychological tests, fiction [[FanFic (no, not that kind)]], comic strips and more! And some stuff that didn't make it into Fun Club section or Art Gallery went as the tips 'n tricks pages' illustrations.
47	** A [[{{Feelies}} bundled]] newspaper ''Dragon Plus'' which not only included several good (and not-so-good) outside-the-editorial articles, but also could be bought only from the editorial for a ruble each. Why so? Basically, it was allowed and ''needed'' to be resold by the loving readers who were dreaming about making money!
48	** [[PromotedFanboy Some even made it to the editorial!]]
49	* {{Otaku}}: Believe it or not, loads.
50	** Lord Hanta was a massive one. How? In his 'alternate review' of VideoGame/GarfieldCaughtInTheAct, which was ''much'' better than its mediocre NES big brother, he was pretty angry, starting with how NintendoHard and annoying the game is, ending with him ''cursing the Garfield franchise''. He also reviewed a ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fighting game which not only was ''slightly'' better than ''VideoGame/YieArKungFu'' gameplay-wise, but also got a bastardized US 'localization' named [[PunBasedTitle Street Combat]], and had nothing bad to say about it, and even gave a detailed description of every character!
51	** Wren also seems to be one.
52	** Several fans who got into anime themselves or not without the help of Lord Hanta.
53	** The magazine ''even'' had a small part for reviewing anime to keep the fans on their toes!
54	*** And even UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars style written discussions on which animation is better: American or Japanese.
55	* SdrawkcabName: Navi Kihcto.
56	* TheStoic: The walkthroughs for NES games which were published from when ''Video-Ace Dendy'' was born and until the time when the magazine was about to collapse.
57	** The Platform/SegaGenesis walkthroughs earn second place, because the walkthroughs for its games were posted even with the fade of '8-bit' part, but the games for it appeared a bit later than the magazine was created. With Fun Club being par with the Genesis section.
58	* TitleDrop: Inverted. The spin-off, which later became a separate magazine with the name of one of the authors. Ten seconds to guess his alias.
59	* WildMassGuessing: Yes, the magazine even had '''this''', on who the Great Dragon really was.
60	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: If you go with direct transliteration, it's called ''Video-Ass Dendy''. If you aim for accurate pronunciation or are in polite company, then it's called ''Video-Ace Dendy''. In either case, this is likely to be a mispronunciation of what is otherwise supposed to be "Video-Ace" in the original Russian.
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62	!!The ''Dendy: The New Reality'' show and its follow-ups contain examples of:
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64	* TheAce: The Dennis and Alex duo, [[TheAdjectivalSuperhero The All-Knowing Videogame Experts]].
65	* [[AllMonksKnowKungFu All Game Developers Know Assembler]]: Suponev's, perhaps, most weird opinion on video games. Simpler version: ''All game developers are programmers''.
66	* AscendedFanboy: Wren from Video-Ace appeared in one episode.
67	* [[BootstrappedTheme Bootstrapped Themes]]: Both seasons used music from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'' and ''Subterrania''
68	* BlatantLies: A gigantic Platform/GameBoy shown in season two! [[spoiler:Although you may already guess it's a prop with a TV screen with a Super Game Boy plugged in.]]
69	* TheCameo: Suponev appeared only once in the show ''World of Dendy'', hosting the tournament for ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct''.
70	* CatchPhrase: 'We invite you to the world of New Reality, the world of computer games!' Not to mention the phrase from the theme song at the start!
71	* GagDub: Done by Suponev on the intro to the SNES version ''Jurassic Park 2'' . The dub retains the general idea, though parodying the VoiceoverTranslation that was common on imported films in Russia at the time.
72	* GrammarNazi: Suponev, on the others' knowledge of English and [[SubvertedTrope in extremely mild doses]].
73	* SequelHook: The end of the first season.
74	--->'''Suponev''': But something tells me we'll see each other again!
75	** [[WordOfGod And he kept his contextual promise.]]
76	** Sadly, the end of the second season (and the entire show in general) was very abrupt.
77	* TheManBehindTheMan: In Episode #9 of the first season, where the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem debuted on the show, Suponev tells us about the fact that Mario was made by Creator/{{Nintendo}}. Although he had mentioned that name [[LateArrivalSpoiler by accident]] right in the second episode of the same season.
78	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: [[AvertedTrope Nonexistent for this show,]] both figuratively and literally.
79	* [[VideoFullOfFilmClips Video Full of VHS Clips]]: Sometimes, before showing a game based on a movie/cartoon, Suponev inserts a VHS tape with the license in question the game was based off and showed a short fragment of it, with a VoiceoverTranslation.

Context Platform / Dendy