Micro Genius is a brand name used for Famicom clone consoles marketed in several countries around the world, particularly areas where Nintendo did not have an official presence, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, South Africa and East Asian countries excluding Japan. The name was initially and most famously used by TXC Corporation for its range of Taiwanese-made Famicom clones, software and accessories, but later passed to other companies and remains in use today on rebranded Chinese Famicom clones and LCD games.
In some countries - such as Malaysia - during the early 1990s, Micro Genius Famicom clones were the most popular game consoles, mirroring the popularity enjoyed several years earlier by Nintendo's official Famicom and NES in Japan and North America. In Russia certain models of Micro Genius were sold under the Dendy brand, and in Poland one version, the IQ-502, was released as a Pegasus console - both of which were also the most popular consoles in their respective countries - while in Colombia and certain other Latin American countries they were sold as Nichi-Man. Micro Genius consoles were also sighted being played by children in a North Korean children's camp in 2008, a country which few other video games have reached. However, they rarely reached markets where Nintendo operated, as they often infringed on Nintendo's patents in those regions.
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