Power Player Super Joy III

Front of Power Player Super Joy III box

Back of Power Player Super Joy III box

The Power Player Super Joy III consoles (also known as Power Joy, Power Games and XA-76-1E) are a line of trademark violating handheld Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom clones manufactured by NRTRADE that are sold in North America, Brazil, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The system resembles a Nintendo 64 controller and attaches to a TV set. The second controller resembles a Sega Genesis controller, and a light gun is also included. NTSC, PAL and SECAM versions are available. They all use a custom "NES-on-a-chip" (NOAC) that is an implementation of the NES's hardware (Custom 6502, PPU, PAPU, etc.).

Background

The consoles came with 76 built-in games, although marketing frequently claims to have 1,000+ ways of playing them. Most of the included games were originally released for the NES or Famicom, but some have been created by the manufacturer to expand their list of included games. Most of the games have had their title screen graphics removed to save space on the ROM chip, not to mention a company logo removal trick for reduced liability.

After this product gained some popularity, the Power Player 3.5, an improved model with more games, was released. A wireless version of Power Games was also released.

Legal issues

When Nintendo discovered this product, it began taking strong legal action against importers and sellers of the consoles, and have obtained a temporary injunction against the import and sale of video game systems containing counterfeit versions of Nintendo games.

As of spring 2005, NrTrade quit selling these products, although they still retain stock by other companies. These are still in production in China by Eittek but not massively distributed.

On December 16, 2004, the FBI executed search warrants at two kiosks at the Mall of America and also searched storage facilities rented by Yonathan Cohen, 27, an owner of Perfect Deal LLC of Miami, Florida.^[1] The consoles, purchased wholesale at $7 to $9 each, sold for $30 to $70 each.^[2] After confiscating 1,800 units of Power Player, each containing 76 copyrighted video-game titles belonging primarily to Nintendo or its licensees, Cohen was charged in Minneapolis, Minnesota in January 2005 with federal criminal infringement of copyright for selling Power Player video games at kiosks at the Mall of America and other malls across the nation.^[1] In April 2005, Cohen pleaded guilty to selling illegally copied video games.^[2]

Nine days after Cohen's guilty plea, 40 FBI agents arrested four Chinese nationals working in an international copyright infringement ring and seized 60,000 Nintendo Power Player consoles in searches in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Maple Shade, New Jersey.^[3][4]

In November 2005, Cohen was sentenced to five years in federal prison and required to run ads in mall magazines to tell the public how he illegally sold knockoff video games at Mall of America kiosks.^[5]

Several shopping malls quit selling these products, though the product is still sold by other dealers (e.g. flea markets).

Unit aspects

• Resembles a Nintendo 64 controller, sometimes with a cartridge slot for Famicom games
• Comes packaged with a secondary (player 2) 9-pin 6 button controller resembling a Sega Genesis controller
• Comes packaged with a 9-pin light gun resembling a Makarov PM pistol
• Has a joystick that doesn't move, added for visual appeal
• Though the Power Player Super Joy's button layout is identical to that of the Nintendo 64 Controller, the buttons have been mapped differently. The C buttons of the N64's controller function as A and B on the Super Joy, the A and B buttons of the N64's controller are Start and Select on the Super Joy, respectively. Finally, the N64 controller's Start button is the Reset button on the Super Joy.
• Available in multiple colors, including black, grey, red, and blue

Packaging

The Power Player Super Joy III comes in a colorful, yet somewhat generic box. The word "game" does not appear on any side, nor is there any text that would indicate what the unit actually does or what its features or capabilities are. The game count ("76000") on the front is in fact a gold sticker applied to the outside of the cardboard box, and it is ambiguous at first what this number actually means. The only real information provided (cartridge capability, presence of internal games, etc.) is on a single small sheet of instructions, which are inside the shrink-wrapped inner portion of the packaging which would not be visible to the consumer until after the product is purchased and opened.

There are a number of scenes depicted on the front and back of the box, but all of them are artistic stylized drawings or retouched photos—none of them are actual game screenshots. The box end flap includes three illustrations of the main controller, one each in black, gray, and blue, with checkboxes next to each to indicate the contained color. The system was also available in red however, which is not depicted on the box end flap even though it is the displayed color on the rear of the box. The rear of the box also shows a green light gun, whereas all of the available systems (red, black, gray, and blue) appear to have been shipped with a silver gun.

Some versions sold in the US have an unlicensed still from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace on the front of the box.

The toy is marked as having small parts, and being for age 3 and up.

Technical aspects

Power Player Super Joy III System

See Nintendo Entertainment System's technical specifications for more info.

• Varying cartridge capability:
  • Some models have a 60-pin cartridge slot that supports most cartridges designed for the Famicom. (May require trimming of the case plastic to allow cartridge insertion)
  • Some models have a smaller size 68-pin cartridge slot, which occupies the space previously used for a battery pack ^[6]
  • Some models have no external cartridge slot at all
  • Variations in games being built into the system board, or being in an external (removable) cartridge placed in the cartridge slot
• Most have battery pack (4 AAs), which is omitted if the battery space is used as a cartridge slot. (See also the battery portion of the 'design/manufacturing issues' section)
• Has AC adapter (DC9V, 350mA (Center Negative)).
• Has two RCA jacks for composite video and mono audio outputs.
• Is able to run unlicensed NES/Famicom games (if a cartridge slot is available).

Design/Manufacturing Issues

The Power Player Super Joy has a number of known design or manufacturing issues:

• The battery pack (if included) is designed to fit four AA batteries, yet is often under-sized slightly such that four AA's will not fit and the battery pack lid cannot be closed.
• The center terminal of the RCA video jack is only supported by a single solder connection on the circuit board, and can lift the trace off of the board when the plug is inserted. This causes a black or blue screen on the TV set, or an intermittent video signal, and is usually remedied by soldering a secondary wire to ensure that the electrical connection is continuous even if the contact moves or separates.
• Used Super Joys often have the non-functional center joystick broken off, as users do not realize that it is only for decoration.
• Directional pads on main controllers will break so you can't move down to select games.
• The reset button may not function on LCD TVs. The light gun will not work on most LCD TVs due to display latency (the delay between when the console sends the image and the TV displays it)

List of built-in games

• On version 3.0 of PPSJ, all these items duplicated themselves circa 1,000 times; hence the claim to have 76,000 games built in when the true count is only 76. Version 3.5 has a more honest description and uses the titles once.
• In the games list, there is a message at the top that says "FUNTIME 76000 IN 1" or "FUNTIME 76 IN 1".
• Additional games can be played if a Famicom cartridge is inserted, or a NES cartridge is used with an adapter, although some hardware variants require the plastic housing to be trimmed to fit cartridges in the Famicom slot.
• Many of the game titles in the system menu are abbreviated, misspelled, use alternate names for the game, or are simply wrong (e.g. Burgertime and Tekken). In this list, an effort has been made to use the proper name for the games, with the PPSJ menu name in parentheses for known differences.
• This game incorporates menu selection sounds from the game Action 52.
• When the system starts up, the words "FUN TIME" appear flashing on the screen. (This may not show up on LCD TVs because the system gives off a weak TV signal and then improves later during gameplay.)

Built-in games may include the following:

1. 10-Yard Fight (listed as "10YF")
2. 1942
3. Magic Carpet 1001 (listed as "ALADDIN III"), taken directly from the "Caltron/Myriad 6-in-1" cartridge)
4. Antarctic Adventure (listed as "ANTARCTIC")
5. Arkanoid (listed as "ARKONOID")
6. Balloon Fight
7. Baseball
8. Battle City (In the ROM, the title screen says Tank A 1990, Tank M 1990, and Tank N 1990, and in the game selection menu, it is listed manifold times as "DESERT TANK", "SPEED TANK", and "ABRAMS TANK".)
9. Binary Land (listed as "BINARY", and "BINARY LAND" or "BINARY & LAND")
10. Bird Week
11. Bomberman
12. Circus Charlie (listed as "TOY STORY", and "CIRCUS CHABLIE" or "CURCUS CHARLIE")
13. Clay Shoot (listed as "CLAY SHOOTING") was actually part of Duck Hunt.
14. Clu Clu Land
15. Contra
16. Defender (listed as "DEFENDER II")
17. Devil World
18. Dig Dug (listed as "DIG DUG I")
19. Door Door
20. Donkey Kong, Jr. (listed as "DONKEY KONG 2" and "MONKEY")
21. Donkey Kong, Jr. Math (listed as "CALCULATOR")
22. Donkey Kong 3 (listed as "DONKEY KONG" or "KEYKONG 3")
23. Duck Hunt (listed as "SNOWFIELD SHOOT" and "DUCK HUNT")
24. Elevator Action (listed as "ELEVATOR")
25. Excitebike
26. Exerion
27. F-1 Race (listed as "F1 RACE" or "F-1 RACE")
28. Field Combat (listed as "COMBAT")
29. Formation Z
30. Front Line
31. Galaga (listed as "GALAGA" or "GALAZA")
32. Golf
33. Gomoku Narabe (listed as "CHESS", and "FIVE CHESS" or "CHINESE CHESS")
34. Gradius
35. Gyrodine
36. Raid on Bungeling Bay (listed as "HELICOPTER" or "RAID ON BAY")
37. Hogan's Alley
38. Ice Climber
39. Ikki listed (as "KNIGHT")
40. Joust
41. Karateka (wrongly listed as "TEKKEN")
42. Life Force
43. Lode Runner (listed as "LODE RUNNER 2")
44. Lunar Pool (listed as "LUNAR BALL")
45. M.U.S.C.L.E. (listed as "WWF")
46. Magic Jewelry (listed as "JEWEL TETRIS")
47. Mahjong Taikai (listed as "MAJUN2")
48. Mario Bros. (listed as "MARIO BROS")
49. Mappy (listed as "MICE LOVE CAT", "MAPPY", and wrongly as "PACMAN")
50. Mighty Bomb Jack (listed as "BOMB JACK")
51. Millipede
52. MotoRace USA (listed as "ZIPPY RACE")
53. Ninja Kun (listed as "NINJA I")
54. Nuts & Milk (listed as "MILK & NUTS")
55. Brush Roller (listed as "BRUSH ROLL" and "PAINTER")
56. Pac-Man
57. Paperboy
58. Pinball (listed as "PINBALL" or "PIN BALL")
59. Pooyan
60. Popeye
61. Road Fighter
62. Slalom (listed as "SLACOM" or "SLALOM")
63. Sky Destroyer
64. Space Invaders (listed as "SPACE ET")
65. Spartan X (listed as "SPARTANX"), more commonly known as Kung-Fu Master
66. Soccer (listed as "FIFA SOCCER")
67. Sqoon
68. Star Force
69. Stargate (listed as "STAE GATE" or "STAR GATE")
70. Super Arabian (listed as "ARABIAN")
71. Super Contra
72. Super Dimension Fortress Macross (listed as "MAXCROSS" or "MACROSS")
73. Super Dyna'mix Badminton (listed as "SUPER DYNAMIX")
74. Super Mario Bros. (listed as "SUPER MARIO")
75. Super Soccer (listed as "SOCCER HEROES")
76. Tennis
77. Tetris: The Soviet Mind Game (listed as "TETRIS 2"), by Tengen
78. Twinbee (listed as "TWIN BEE")
79. Urban Champion
80. Warpman (listed as "WARPMAN", and wrongly as "BURGERTIME")
81. Wild Gunman
82. World Soccer
83. Yie-Ar Kung Fu (listed as "KING OF FIGHTER" or "YIE AR KUNG FU" or "SPARTAN")

Note: That the list count is greater than 76, as different versions of the PowerPlayer include slightly different game sets.

See also

• FC Game Console
• Playervision
• Generation NEX
• Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clone
• PocketFami
• Polystation
• Vii

References

1. St. Paul Pioneer Press (January 20, 2005) Knockoff games allegedly sold at mall. Section: Local; Page B6
2. St. Paul Pioneer Press (April 5, 2005) Man pleads guilty in pirated game sales. Section: Local; Page B3
3. Gearty, Robert. (April 14, 2005) New York Daily News Video game pirates sunk. Section:News; Page 32
4. Business Wire (April 15, 2005) Nintendo Applauds the FBI -- Four Arrested for Allegedly Distributing Pirated Nintendo Products.
5. St. Paul Pioneer Press (November 19, 2005) Man gets five years in video game fraud. Section: LOCAL; Page 5B
6. "strange superjoy 3 (miniature 68-pin connector in battery pack slot location)". Forums.benheck.com. Retrieved 2013-10-17.

External links

• A page with information about the Power Player Super Joy III
• Online discussion about Power Player Super Joy System
• 10 Hilarious Knock Off Gaming Consoles