How many famiclones have ever been produced? I have looked into this great mystery by separating to each famous company. The fifth article of the series will focus on Bit Corporation, one of the pioneers in the famiclone industry ranked with TXC of the Micro Genius.
Bit Corporation: One of the Earliest Clone Console Manufacturers in Taiwan
Founded in 1980 by C. S. Chen (陳嘉旭) and Michael Chen (陳明詢), Bit Corporation aka 普澤股份有限公司 was originally a computer technology company targeting on steady demands such as control electronics and hospital systems.
However, in 1982 they entered the video game business. It was simply surprising. At that time Taiwanese video game industry was in a catastrophic situation because of the video game ban act imposed in the same year. So their interest to video games must be rather ambitious. Perhaps they were anticipating demand from overseas and for educational purposes, which were not subject to the ban.
In any case this decision made Bit Corp. one of pioneers in Taiwanese video game console industry.
Atari/Coleco Clones
Bit Corp. first analyzed the Atari VCS/2600 and the Colecovision to develop their own clones, and also started developing game software for the VCS/2600. According to the company's history, Bit Corp. succeeded in independently developing Taiwan's first video game cartridge in 1983.
On July 24, 1984, they filed a patent application for the the Atari VCS/2600's video processing circuit (TIA)*. Of course, this was not approved by Atari, was just a fake patent based on their results of reverse engineering, but anyway it proves the fact that they have completed the basis of their clones by that time.
Around the same time, the company introduced the BIT60 / BIT90, educational computers
compatible with the Atari VCS/2600 (BIT60) or the Colecovision (BIT90) though apparently very limited numbers have been released to the market.
Later on they also released the world's first "2 in 1" clone console that combined the Colecovision and the Sega SG-1000.
*Taiwanese Patent No. 70671 "電腦影像處理電路"
BIT60: Atari VCS/2600 compatible home computer. This photo is from only one known to exist, probably just for test marketing? [Image Source]
BIT90: Colecovision compatible home computer. Not compatible with Coleco's official compatible home computer ADAM. [Image Source]
Bingo Creator 50 (寶果 創造者50): The first ever home video game console with 2-in-1 architecture, which combined the Colecovsion and Sega SG-1000 into a single unit. [Image Source]
The Next Target: Famiclone
Around 1986, together with Taixing Electronics (a group company of TXC) and others, Bit Corp. succeeded in reverse engineering the Famicom. In Taiwan, where Nintendo was out of reach, they obtained a patent for the Famicom's video chip (PPU) and began to develop famiclones. It resulted in Taixing Electronics' Micro Genius IQ-180/201 and Bit Corp.'s Creator 70. Those models represented the first generation faimclones.
Although Nintendo later filed an opposition to their fake patent and succeeded to invalidated it, it was too late, as the pirate manufacturers had already begun to dominate the market. The Micro Genius series were, as I mentioned earlier, very successful commercially and spread all over the world. In contrast, however, the the Creator did not achieve spectacular commercial success. What was the the difference between them?
Although Bit Corp. showed leading hardware/software technology among Taiwanese video game manufacturers at the time, it did not seem to be very good at marketing its own products. In this respect, the company was very different from the Micro Genius, which had established a worldwide distribution base also in Hong Kong and was eagerly expanding its sales channels.
The Marketing Aspect of Bit Corp.
However, this does not mean that Bit Corp. did not try to expand sales channels. For example, they entered the USSR market earlier than any other company and distributed the BIT70, the first model of the Creator series of famiclone -- it was much earlier than famous Dendy.
However, apparently this too failed to enjoy large success. It would be difficult to say that the company was able to take advantage of its first mover advantage, not only in the USSR but also in many other markets like Europe, Latin America, and even in Taiwan. Bit Corp's market penetration is weak compared to other major companies, and the company has only been able to work with a few well-known distributors... except in China.
BIT70 for USSR market. According to the Image Source it was already available in 1989 but probably too expensive for most of the people at the time.
Bit Corp. has achieved notable success in the mainland China market. However, that did not last long. Instead of sticking to famiclone market, they turned their attention to developing and manufacturing their own original handheld game console: the Gamate. It was Taiwan's first original video game console launched in 1990, which was resulted in a commercial failure.
Because of the financial difficulties caused by the failure, Bit Corp. ceased operations in the third quarter of 1992**. The rights to the GAMATE were handed over to a company called Hengshen Electronics Co., Ltd. (恆信電子有限公司)*** that same year, and UMC made the company a subsidiary shortly thereafter.
** "Asian Sources Gifts & Home Products" March 1993 p.286
*** Many people believe Funtech (敦煌科技股份有限公司) was the successor but it was established too late (Sep. 1993). On the other hands various resources including patent, trademaks, newspaper articles prove Hengshen as the successor.
Famiclones with Bit's Original Shell
At least by 1989, Bit Corp.'s business became completely video game-centric.
So, how many famiclones did Bit Corp. manufacture? The only documents currently I can find regarded to their performance is "中國經建月報" (Issue 11-20, 1989, p.78) which states that the production volume had been increasing at an average annual rate of 50% since 1983~1984. As this figure probably includes Atari/Coleco clones I will again use serial numbers as a clue to estimate.
The rest of this article is paid for. To read more you have to be our patron here .
Kommentare