Teardown of Fake Nintendo

[cpuerror]

Bought this from ebay for $25 shipped. This is a 500-in-1 unit for 8 bit NES games. For the most part it works but I've noticed issues with games playing too fast, incorrect background colors, missing music and some other odd things.

 Looks like they are using a COB for display output to composite video and peripheral interfaces. Lots of 0 ohms resistors used as jumpers so they only need a single sided board. I guess its cheaper than laying it out properly. The chip has its markings sanded off and theres no obvious interface available. It looks like options are set by soldering pads together, and a lack of external xtal indicates they are relying on the internal R/C oscillator.

Power supply has been built to a price, that's for sure. Theres a fuse resistor on the input for protection and a transformer with windings providing feedback for regulation. No Y cap across the transformers so this supply will likely be very noisy.
 

[cpuerror]

USB Power supply

[jonovid]

 I have the 500-in-1  8 bit nes games as rom's.  but not this unit, I got the 101% genuine counterfeit PSP Notional Station handheld game player AV 320 x 240 resolution output. and its universal extra deadly pyrotechnic plug pack.

[amyk]

The COB is the actual processor --- a NES on a chip. It is likely to be a VT02/VT03:

https://archive.org/details/VRTfiles-nesdev
http://www.vrt.com.tw/download.htm
http://www.vrt.com.tw/old_site/admin/upload/datasheet/VT03%20Application%20Note_ENG.pdf

(Pad 50 has an interesting name...)

The ROM pinout matches the example schematic above, it's probably a BGA NOR flash on an adapter board.

Notice the signature of the designer in silkscreen on the corner of the board --- I can't quite read it, but it's not something you usually find in electronics like this.

[cpuerror]

Very interesting... Taking a closer than of the COB is the processor than the crystal must be on the other side of the board.
Perhaps Pad 50 refers to "Pal Or NTSC", but who knows maybe the original purpose of these things was something different entirely.

The plug pack could be deadly if the transformer ever developed a short. But in China they probably assume the user knows better than to sleep, let the baby plah with, bath etc with these things.

[Rutherfordium]

But would you say the earphone faucet is high quality?

[helius]

Notice the signature of the designer in silkscreen on the corner of the board --- I can't quite read it, but it's not something you usually find in electronics like this.

It appears to say "Zme".

[jonovid]

more on my fake nintendo or non-tendo   handheld nes emulator


Chinese handheld game 2D emulator .nes rom game player  use as a PC USB Drive for all your retro NES games.
manufactured in China 2012  re-badged & sold under various names MP5  MP6  A4305 or PSP
Note- NO wifi NO bluetooth, this is NOT a cell phone! -this will NOT play SONY games!
Specifications:  as sold    -MP5 is its Name   - (Not a file format)
Display: 4.3 inch TFT screen    1.14 letter-box (Note Colors may fade in-or-out as tilt the Product)
Screen Resolution: 480 x 272 
Memory: Built-in 4GB memory ,- Mini SD card supported (not included)
Movie format: RMVB, 3GP, MP4, AVI, WMV ( Slow video start up & will not play some HD video)  -low power 6502 CPU
Music format:APE, FLAC, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR, AAC
Image format:Support JPG 1024x 768  picture with 3D viewing effect
E-Book format: .TXT  Windows -Notepad   plays text files.
Games:Supported NES format Net games, 32 bit BIN format games (will work as a .nes Emulator )
Recording: HD DVR Video Camera (poor frame-fps 24 sec )  or HD digital photo Camera or audio (very poor video frame rate)
FM radio audio recording:   (saves it to Internal folder)
Camera :0.3MP,   - digital photo digital zoom 1.0x to 3.0x  (NOT optical)
electronic Organizer Calculator , Stopwatch & Calendar
Connector: ( USB to mini USB ) USB2.0
3.5mm stereo headphone jack plays (stereo) music to (stereo headphones )  but plays Built-in mono
Built-in Speaker .
FM Radio 108  to 87.5 MHz  (stereo) uses headphones as antenna .
MIC  can Record audio ( but the sound is poor ) .wav
AV-OUT ( SD  Low Resolution  Analog 480 x 272 - RCA Plugs )  UK PAL  US?
PC- Webcam HD Internal-video 1024 x 768 (less than 24 frames per second at times)   
Mini SD card slot, up to 32GB   (-Internal is 4GB  )
manufactured china 2012,  docking to Win XP ,Win 7  (use pre 2014 PC recommended) 
Language: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Franch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Norwegian, Finnish, Turkish, Danish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish
Power: 3.7V lithium battery (Built-in)   good for 4 hrs before recharging but can be as low as 2 hrs depending use.
Color: Product sold in - Black , Red , Blue , Pink , or White .
Product weight: 195 g
Package weight: 340 g    (in the box)
Product size (L x W x H): 17.2 x 7.4 x 2.2 cm
Package size (L x W x H): 19.0 x 10.0 x 6.5 cm
 
Features:
Features 1990s  clarity 4.3 inch TFT screen  - old-school color
Good for  6502 CPU Retro Game hacking / Programming
Can be used as MP3, MP4 player, voice recorder, digital camera, mini game player, DV, picture viewer, text reader  FM radio.
plugs in to your PC like a USB Drive   + recharging by USB also has Webcam mode
Also has Calculator , Stopwatch & Calendar
 Package Includes:
1 x 4.3 Inch TFT 4GB MP5 Player  ( the Game Console )
1 x Adaptor  -----  WARNING! Check the AC  Adaptor ((( Rated Voltage )))
1 x USB Cable
1 x AV Cable     (3 RCA  plugs  video +  L & R  line audio)
1 x Earphone   
1 x User Manual    +  .nes files-disc

[amyk]

^ That one is based on one of these SoCs.