EGM Advertisement: Sell Famiclones, Go to Prison
February 17th, 2006 by Benj Edwards
I found this interesting ad in the March 2006 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly today. It says that as part of Yonathan Cohen’s restitution for selling “the POWER PLAYER” Famicom clone, he had to publish this advertisement warning others about “the dangers and penalties associated with violating the copyrights laws.” According to the ad, the Power Player console contains “over 40 copyrighted games belonging to Nintendo of America.” Sweet! Ahem. I mean…Let that be a lesson to ya, Yonathan, and let this be a dire warning to any other scallywag who be sellin’ the POWER PLAYERS on the open market! Heed ye not the old pirate’s warning and Nintendo will relentlessly hunt you down until all of your pathetic, filthy kind are eradicated from the face of the earth. Of course, I’m being sarcastic. But Nintendo’s not. They will kill you.
February 18th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I paid $40 for a Power Player at a mall booth a year ago. I never got the NES catridge slot to work, and the games it came with didn’t all play properly. It was crap. I wonder how much money Yonatan made in sales. Couldn’t have been very much.
February 19th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
He should be in prison, not because of the copyright laws, but because of the SHEER AWFUL quality of these Famiclones…
Anyway, Nintendo must really be cracking down to prepare for the Revolution’s release…
February 19th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Oh and, deproted to Isreal? Methinks there’s a bit more than pircay involved here…
February 19th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Sorry, caffeine + the freezing cold of the early months means I can’t type for s*** today…
February 19th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Yeah, I bet Nintendo is ramping up their efforts to stem piracy because of the upcoming backwards-compatibility of the Revolution. Yonathan was probably deported to Israel becase he probably isn’t an American citizen. And you’re right — if he sold other crap too, in addition to the “Power Player,” I wouldn’t be surprised.
April 6th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Luckily I haven’t had a problem with mine, and I’ve had it for a couple of years now.
November 30th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Heh, I think i got riped off by the price of $70 for one of these. It looked fun when I saw it in the store, but when I took it home I realized super mario bros was discolored, there was alot of white pixles everywhere fucking it up, the picture was streached, and the controller hurt my hand. Which sucked… But I still like it, and it’s lasted years with me and I still play it and stuff…. it was fun. Oh that damn nes port wont work. i bet its just there to look good
September 17th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I just got ripped off for $70, but the first person I contacted was the FBI, then the tv station, then Nintendo. Even if I don’t get my money back, these people will be arrested and stopped from ripping off some other unsuspecting grandmother. There’s no sense in contacting management at the Mall because they’ll just make them move and they’ll just go somewhere else. If everybody did that, maybe these criminals could be caught sooner? I’d rather DO something about the problem than just talk about it!
August 25th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
I found one at a Value Village for $1.99. Surprisingly, it plays my Japanese import copy of Castlevania III which won’t run properly on anything else I’ve tried. At first I couldn’t get the cartridge port to work, but then I realized it’s for Famicom games only, and you really have to jam it in tight or it won’t connect.
January 14th, 2013 at 6:11 am
😀 This is my boss!
February 6th, 2024 at 2:05 am
Nowadays, it seems this ad did not do its job of warning mall kiosks about the consequences of selling these unlicensed and unauthorized Famiclones that use copyrighted ROMs, especially when we have newer Famiclones like the one that looks like the NES Classic still being sold in mall kiosks, so this ad failed to scare kiosk owners to stop selling them.