Dendy (console)

History

The Dendy first appeared on the market in late 1992, selling at the price of 39,000 rubles ($94). The console had its own animated Russian television advertisement with the phrase "Dendy, Dendy! We all love Dendy! Dendy – everyone play!" Later shifted to the phrasing "Dendy - the new reality". Demand for the console was very high. By April 1993, Steepler had four regional distributors and had generated 500 million rubles in revenue.

The Dendy elephant logo was designed by Russian animator Ivan Maximov.

Though Steepler quickly filled a nearly empty niche, the Western gaming market still was not interested in Russia at the time. For a while, the Dendy's main competitors were similar products from China. It was not until 1994 that a competitor, the Sega console produced by Nisho Iwai and Forrus, was introduced to the market.

Steepler reorganized in early 1994, resulting in the separation and creation of the Lamport company.

By mid-1994, Steepler had already sold 1 million Dendy consoles and was selling between 100,000 and 125,000 more per month with a revenue of $5 million. At this time, the price of the consoles had dropped to roughly $30–$35.

In August 1994, Incombank and Steepler announced plans to start up a joint business venture called Dendy, in which Incombank would contribute capital and receive 30% of profits. At the end of 1994, three more Dendy rivals (also NES clones) appeared: the Kenga, manufactured in Taiwan by Lamport, the Bitman, distributed by R-Style and Subor (Сюбор).

In November 1994, the newly created Dendy company signed an agreement with Nintendo, in which they were forbidden from promoting Sega products and given exclusive distribution rights to the Super NES in Russia.

Modern Dendy consoles, which can still be found alongside Chinese products in many markets, are manufactured in China and have no relation to the Steepler company, which discontinued operations in 1996. According to another variant, Steepler signed a contract with Nintendo agreeing to sell not only consoles, but game cartridges as well. Given that licensed cartridges cost several times more than pirated ones, Steepler soon found that it was unable to sell them profitably, resulting in the company's demise.

Technical specifications

The technical specifications of the Dendy are mostly consistent with those of the PAL version of the NES, but there are some differences in design and execution.

Processor

The exact chipset and implementation differed depending on the model and time of release (while maintaining software compatibility). Most often in the console were two chips manufactured by UMC — UA6527P (CPU) and UA6538 (PPU), which have been integrated to be compatible with the 6502 processor and the rest of the logic. Later editions consolidated the design of all previous implementations into a single, open-frame chip.

Sound

Savegames

No Dendy cartridges were made which would contain battery-backed saves. No games that relied on that were sold, like most long RPGs.

Models

Dendy was produced in two main configurations: Dendy Classic and Dendy Junior. They have different console and controller designs. The Dendy Classic I and II models were rebranded variations of the Micro Genius IQ-501 and IQ-502 respectively, manufactured by TXC Corporation in Taiwan. Dendy Junior was designed to resemble the Famicom.
These are then divided into more subconfigurations, like Dendy Junior II, Dendy Junior IIP, Dendy Junior IVP, Dendy Classic II which may not be completely consistent between batches or regions.
Dendy has two video outputs, RF- (antenna) output, preset on the Russia's second main television channel frequency, and composite RCA. Some consoles can be compatible with the PAL television standard, others with SECAM. Both Classic and Junior variants may have one or two controllers packed in the box, with controllers being also sold separately. (Other designs of the gamepads were present in the market, different shapes including resembling Megadrive's.)
"Junior" Gamepads can have front- or side-outcoming cable, and on the part of the console hard-wired or detachable. The sockets could be front or side. (Always side on Classic.) In the case of hard-wired, there would always be two, with an additional socket for light gun. Junior's may or may not have Start and Select buttons on the second controller, but do have turbo buttons. They never have microphone. Classic's pads always have Start and Select, and also always have turbo buttons.
The turbo speed, according to advertising booklets by Steepler, differs, the Junior being 7 repeats per second, Classic 20 per second.
The Dendies with P suffix include a light gun.

Game cartridges

Cartridges look very similar to the original Famicom (the Japanese origin of the NES) cartridges. Just like with the Famicom, the original NES cartridges are mechanically incompatible with the Dendy console due to a different form factor of the PCB and the outer hull. Most of the games sold for Dendy consoles have been bootlegs or copies of NES games. Among them are multicarts, sometimes with a few games replicated many times or separated by levels with ability to choose any of them, sometimes with the sprites or maps slightly altered. There are a (very) few original Russian, Taiwanese or Chinese products. Among the games is the Super Mario Bros. series, which includes the three original Mario productions from Nintendo, along with a series of unlicensed Mario games, most of which are just other Famicom games with the main character replaced with Mario sprites. Examples of an originally programmed (but still copyright-infringing) game include the infamous Somari, which is a port of Sonic the Hedgehog with Sonic's sprite replaced by Mario's, and another one is the unlicensed 8-bit clone of the Super NES's Super Mario World game.

Reception

Dendy prices during 1992 began at 39000 rubles (roughly $94). In relation to contemporary income levels, prices in this range were the equivalent of several months' salary, and this effectively put the Dendy out of reach of most individuals. As sales increased, however, Steepler was able to reduce prices such that by 1994 with over one million Dendy units sold, the price had dropped to roughly $35.

In Russia in the modern day, nostalgia-oriented retrogaming enthusiasm has provoked a resurgence of interest in the Dendy console.