About 36 years ago, Taiwanese companies were gearing up to produce the very first Famiclones. Three companies had joined hands to get it done:
• 台興電子企業股份有限公司 (Taixing Electronics Company Co., Ltd. — TSE, a company close to TXC)
• 普澤股份有限公司 (Puze Co., Ltd. — Bit Corporation)
• 黃啓修 (Huang Qixiu — An individual related to 達摩電子有限公司, a business that had retailed MSX clones)
hally (VORC)They seemingly achieved their end goal around April 1987, filling out a PPU patent on the 23rd day of that month with 陳嘉旭 (Chen Jiaxu) as the credited inventor. While it is hard to tell if these three companies cloned the PPU themselves, they were quite likely the first to market it or use it commercially.
@hallyvorc
Okay, go back to the original subject. The pictures posted by @yungwei8 show that 神鷹128K was produced by 達摩電子有限公司. I googled the company's info and confirmed the address exactly matches to Huang's one. tweet inlined by attachment fairy
It should be noted that a company named 太欣半導 (Taixin Semiconductors, commonly known as Syntek – and that company is not the same as Taixing!) filled a lawsuit against several undisclosed individuals for leaking the silicon designs of their own clone of the CPU/PPU (KC-6005, KC-6022) in 1987. However, it is currently not known if Syntek design was reused by Bit Corp et al. or if they came up with their own.
Additionally, Nintendo filed an opposition to the patent in 1988, which was formally accepted and the patent revoked in late 1989. More details on the case are available by clicking the "Transaction Data" tab of the patent page.
With a working clone of the PPU and the CPU, Bit Corporation and TSE released their first clones in the subsequent months. Advertisements for the IQ-180 and IQ-201 began appearing starting with this one from early July 1987. Other manufacturers quickly jumped on the train the following months. Here is an advertisement for a China Television System (CTS) clone with limited run pre-orders from August 1987.
Famiclones back then were still quite expensive – the ads suggest they were just 10% cheaper than the original Famicom, a hefty sum for the Taiwanese middle class. Most clones from this period remain undocumented due to their limited outreach. And their fate of ending up in the recycle bin after all those years. Most Taiwanese game collectors would likely say they have never seen a Taiwanese model IQ-180 or IQ-201 in the wild.
hally (VORC)While everyone remembers the Micro Genius consoles, Bit Corporation was instrumental to the worldwide spread of the Famicom in the late 80s. Young Toys in Korea rebranded the 創造者75 (Creator 75), 創造者100 (Creator 100) as the Pascar 124 and Pascar ULT respectively. The Bit72 (NES-like Creator 75) was exported to Spain, Mexico, etc. They also made (one of?) the first Famiclone with integrated BASIC, the Bit79 (playable in NintendulatorNRS).
@hallyvorc
Found a noteworthy old famiclone ad on 華視綜合週刊, a taiwanese tv program magazine weekly published by The Chinese Television System Inc. http://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/taiwan80/post/1306566042 tweet inlined by attachment fairy
In Taiwan, Bit Corp was mostly inconspicuous with their early Famiclones. Only the 創造者100 (model number 7600), released around 1988 and retailed up to the early 90s, may still be seen occasionally. I could go on forever, but the main point is that I don't think anyone has ever investigated nor posted a detailed photos or report of any clone console from the mid-1987. The closest is Krzysiobal's photos of an international model IQ-201 from late 1987-early 1988, using chips from what may have already been a second or third batch of PPU/CPU, the GS87007~8 pair.
image attached by attachment fairy Bit Corp.'s first Famiclone is the 智多星70 (probably translates to Wise Star, Google does not like it). It uses the same plastic mold as the 創造者50 (Creator 50, more commonly seen as the Dina 2-in-1, a SG-1000/Coleco combo). It is the direct product follow-up to the Dina 2-in-1. The first has a 7200 product code while the latter is 7300. The Bit70 (創造者70 – Creator 70) has the product code #7400 and came out slightly later and can be seen in this late 1987 photo. Time being retentless, there are no known surviving ads for the 7300. I don't think there has been much information shared around it. I've only seen a single photo of a junk unit years ago. I won't make the pretentious claim that it was the very first Famiclone on the market, but it was definitely in the first batch of released consoles, along with the IQ-180, IQ-201 (TW model) and some, still unknown, others that should share many similarities in term of components and design.
Full gallery, PCB shots, close-ups.
image attached by attachment fairy Manufacture date indications
• All of the ICs were manufactured before July 1987.
• The cartridge connector was manufactured by FOXCONN in the last week of June 1987.
• This motherboard shown here is revision #4 and was designed or validated in the first week of July 1987.
• The PPU and CPU lacks any distinctive product code or markings, just some sharpie pen strokes ("B", "B1"?)
Notes on the processing units:
• Duty cycles are already swapped!
• The CPU supports decimal mode. Rev0 of Duck and Othello will play correctly while Solar Jetman will show erratic behaviour before spectacularly crashing.
• The PPU operates like RP2C02E, just like the UA6528. Battletoads has no issues.
• The CPU supports DPCM samples correctly, unlike the TA-03N.
• 240pee clock test returns the standard NTSC values.
They may be identical to the recently documented GS87007 and GS87008 units.
General notes:
• The console power board expects center-positive polarity (!) Probably a reason why most of those consoles did not survive to time.
• 2nd controller has a microphone, controlled by an on/off switch rather than a linear potentiometer. Micro Genius never had a microphones, even the IQ-180. The only other I can think of are the old Aaronix models (7000, Zonic 8800, 9000).
• The console will often not power up correctly after a cold boot and lock to a cyan screen. Brown and other colors may show up as well. A soft reset, and the game will boot normally. I suspect a capacitor may be rather weak.
• The plastic around the cartridge slot is clipped to the shell, it was certainly designed that way so they could share the same injection mold and use a different slot to fit Coleco cartridges dimensions.
While it is not yet exactly clear how UMC landed in the Famiclone domain, we know from this lawsuit with Centronics that they publicly announced their PPU in July 1987 and marketed it soon after. Since the chips showcased here feature the same behaviours as UA6527 and 6528, chances are they were likel involved from the start or rather quickly inherited the productions masks.
Huge thanks to @hallyvorc for a lot of information in this post. You will hear much more detailed stories and facts by following their Twitter and ordering their books covering Taiwanese console patents and trademarks.
