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Way back in the very early days of NESWORLD, back in 1996, I added a small article about a Famicom clone I had read about a few years earlier, in 1994, in a
UK Nintendo Magazine called Super Gamer. The device was introduced as with the text "Colour Gameboy? The machine Nintendo didn't want you to see.."
The funny thing about the article was that Super Gamer presented the TopGuy as a prototype of a system to be released as a Color Gameboy. If you'd like to check
out the old article from Super Gamer before we continue, then click on the image below.
Back then the Top Guy was no where to be found. The article from Super Gamer claims that only 1000 units were manufactured which might not be far from the truth,
the price of the unit would be quite high because of the LCD and such. Since the day I posted the article a few TopGuy units have appeared, selling for hundreds of dollars,
and it remains a true gem for Famicom/NES black market product collectors.
As said, the TopGuy is a handheld Famicom, but with that said it actually came with a 72-to-60pin converter for NES games. Games can be viewed on the small 2.7
inch built-in LCD screen, which is said to be very blurry, but the TopGuy can also be hooked up to a TV by using an RF jack that is built into the system.
A funny thing about the TopGuy is that it features two power switches. While that may sound strange, keep in mind that the unit requires 6 AA batteries, like the
GameGear, to run and they're said to run dry after 1½ hour of play. Optional PowerSupply is also available. But when running off batteries is where the second
power switch becomes useful if you're using a TV to play - because with the second power switch it's possible to switch off just the LCD screen.
Super Gamer's article also mentions that the TopGuy is capable to receiving TV signals and that is indeed true, the signal is NTSC Channel 3.
The TopGuy was manufactured by Kingway Electronics between 1993 and 1994 and the model number was "King-006". A different version of the unit has also been found,
which doesn't include the LCD screen.
Back then the TopGuy was the only Famicom handheld on the market, but around 5 years later another one arrived, called GameAxe. Today several handheld Famicom's
exist, such as the Game Theory Admiral, PocketFamicom and the FC Mobile, lately followed by the FC Mobile II.
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