Family Boy Vol. 4
By: Johnny Robertson

I unintentionally acquired this system trying to order the Neo-Fami. After a month of waiting and recieving the wrong system altogether, I was pleasantly surprised. This writeup is being done because of the obscurity of this pirated platform. It’s on every famiclone site, but no one knows anything about it. So please, let the first myth be busted: It definitely has a name, not just a generic “Famicom Clone.” The Engrish instructions clearly call it the “Family Boy Vol. 4.” What a name. Here’s some shots of the packaging and Engrish manual. It looks as appealingly un-American as a Honda S2000 or Governor Schwarzenegger!

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The first thing that strikes you about the system is the hip asthetics. To quote many passersby and good friends alike, “whoa, that’s hot.” The XBOXesque and curvy look of it give me an edge on all the yuppies that have an NES just to feel cool. Also, the controllers have triggers, like modern gaming machines. The L and R triggers control the B and A functions, respectively.

Also, to my shock, when I plugged in the Family Boy and turned the power on, there actually were LEDs in the console and controllers! I thought they were just giving an extra sparkle to their packaging (a good publicity and promotions department can really get the job done), but they really do exist. I can’t say they served any purpose except fulfilling my high expectations. They’re a little dim, but I suppose the determined collector can swap them out with high-entensity LEDs.

The build quality is pretty impressive. Most Famiclones feel flimsy and fragile, but the casing on this is actually pretty robust. If it fell off the coffee table supporting my fledgling NES collection, I wouldn’t be too concerned. However, when I opened it up, it wasn’t soldered together—it was glued together! I’d like to make my own NES someday; I guess this isn’t the clone for that project

The cables it came with are decent. The A/V cables are reasonable, and it came with an AC adapter that looks like it won’t burn my apartment down. The adapter says it’s a 9V current, but with the stories of people frying their illegal systems with legit NES AC adapters, I’m not testing it out.

The A/V hookup is great. It seems to have the same polyphony as the NES; the music sounded great on Castlevania III (Famiclone sound support often fails to deliver). The RCA hookup makes your games much brighter and contrasted. Your Mario games will no longer look washed out and outdated! Well, not washed out anyway.

It’s compatible with all my NES games: they all worked on the first try! It’s a Famiclone, so it does need a 72-pin adapter. Sadly, Tengen is the exception. Tengen games will start, but it doesn’t seem to compute the sprites correctly. It also worked with Game Genie!

The light gun from my Super Joy III worked with it, so you can play Duck Hunt! Also, the controllers from the Family Boy can plug into the Super Joy, so when you play 2-players on the Super Joy, Player 2 doesn’t have to have the lame controller.

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One last note, it does have 7 built in games. The instructions don’t say how to access them, but I figured it out! Without a game in, turn the power on. Hold the reset button for about 1 full second, and release. You’ll get a menu to access all 7. I didn’t do screenshots or anything because they’re god-awful. Nonetheless, here’s a listing of what you get:

1) Football: A horrible soccer game.
2) Tinytoon: I couldn’t figure it out. But the instructions clearly state “GO AHEAD WHAT THE STATED ROAD, THE TINYTOON DO NOT DIED, THEN PASS THE ROUND … WHEN TINYTOON COLLECTION THE FRUIT, WILL GET THE POINT.” There you go.
3) Bicycle race: A bicycle racing game! The twist? Your bicycle’s engine has two gears. Eerily similar to Rad Racer.
4) Dragon: A snake clone.
5) Lido: Your guess is as good as mine.
6) Gold Digger: You collect gold in the ground.
7) Levin Action: Clone of Atari classic Defender, with the music from Punch Out. It’s pretty fun! Looks neat—I think you’re on the surface of Mars.

All in all, this is a great system! It looks neat, and plays games very accurately. My only complaints are that the sound is just a tiny bit different (rarely), and the controllers have a difficult diagonal. For example, Mario’s flapping tail in SMB3 is a little bit high (but, I do have perfect pitch). All in all, it’s a whole lot of fun. It was a worthwhile trade for me to get rid of that awful blinking screen! Have fun and Happy NES’n!

*Sidenote: I ordered this system from toysnjoys.com. Their prices are excellent, but it took them a month to deliver the wrong system. After many unrequited phone calls and emails, I was shocked to see something in the mail. I was especially irked after paying for 2nd day air. I did eventually get in touch with them, but only after I received the wrong system. They refused to refund my shipping. Their prices are fabulous, but use them with caution.

-info, all scanned, and camera pictures for use on NES Player only