Famicom Yarou (ふぁみ魂家郎) is a series of unlicensed Famiclones and Famicom cartridges. The series was released by "Game Mate" in Japan throughout the mid-2000s; marking a rare case of pirated Famicom software in the region, which was heavily regulated towards the later 1980s.
There are several "volumes", most of which feature Inventor hacks of preexisting Famicom/NES games. Notably, some versions of the hacks are otherwise-rare variants, featuring slightly alternate graphics and music. For further information on the hacks themselves, see Inventor/List of hacks.
Cartridges[]
Three separately-released, Famicom-compatible cartridges were released in the Famicom Yarou line; each one has seven Inventor hacks. Each volume uses an 8-bit rendition of a kids' nursery rhyme, "Little Peter Rabbit Had A Fly Upon His Ear".
Famicom Yarou Vol.1 (7-in-1)[]
- Boat Race (hack of Road Fighter)
- Roge Brer (hack of Mario Bros.)
- Bomb (hack of Chack'n Pop)
- Aether (hack of Warpman)
- Penguin (hack of Nuts & Milk)
- Van-1 (hack of TwinBee)
- Conte Energy (hack of Lode Runner)
Famicom Yarou Vol.2 (7-in-1)[]
- Frog Prince (hack of Super Mario Bros.)
- Bounce Ball (hack of Pinball)
- Spar (hack of Urban Champion)
- Cobra of Sky (hack of Raid on Bungeling Bay)
- Rescue Kuck (hack of Donkey Kong Jr.)
- Bounce (hack of Mappy)
- Surface Fire (hack of Millipede)
Famicom Yarou Vol.3 (7-in-1)[]
- Ladangel (hack of Challenger)
- Scoring (hack of Arkanoid)
- Tennis (hack of the NES game of the same name)
- Maze (hack of Pac-Man)
- Bandits (hack of Donkey Kong 3)
- Mars Man (hack of Binary Land)
- Space War (hack of Exerion)
Consoles[]
The first three Famicom Yarou consoles seemingly have no built-in software (likely as the cartridges were to serve this function). Starting with the fourth system model, however, the consoles would include built-in games.
Famicom Yarou Vol.4 (7-in-1)[]
- Football (hack of Soccer)
- Tinytoon (hack of Ninja Hattori-Kun)
- Bicycle Race (hack of F-1 Race)
- Dragon (hack of Fire Dragon)
- Lido (hack of Clu Clu Land)
- Gold Digger (hack of Super Arabian)
- Levin Action (hack of Star Gate)
Famicom Yarou Vol.5 (7-in-1)[]
- Future Tank (hack of Battle City)
- Air Umbrella (hack of Balloon Fight)
- Billiard 2008 (hack of Lunar Ball)
- Sky Invader (hack of Sky Destroyer)
- Dada (hack of Popeye)
- Bitha (hack of Pooyan)
- X Racing (hack of Zippy Race)
Famicom Yarou Vol.6 (7-in-1)[]
Volume 6 features (seemingly non-Inventor) title screen hacks of various table games.
- Sudoku ("Sudo King", pirate original)
- Gomoku (Gomoku Narabe title screen hack)
- Othello (Family Computer Othello title screen hack)
- Shogi (Hon Shougi: Naitou 9 Dan Shougi Hiden hack)
- Memory Test (pirate original)
- Burrow Explorer (Nice Code)
- Radish Field (Nice Code)
Famicom Yarou 54 (54-in-1)[]
The Famicom Yarou 54 model features 54 games, including almost all titles previously seen in Volumes 1-5.
- Hassle (hack of Front Line)
- TNT (hack of Bomberman)
- Tinytoon (hack of Ninja Hattori-Kun)
- Combata (English hack of Ninja-Kun: Majou No Bouken)
- Bitha (hack of Pooyan)
- Twin Fish (Nice Code)
- Bicycle Race (hack of F-1 Race)
- Cobra of Sky (hack of Raid on Bungeling Bay)
- Surface Fire (hack of Millipede)
- Frog Prince (hack of Super Mario Bros.)
- Levin Action (hack of Star Gate)
- Boat Race (another hack of F-1 Race; not related to the Road Fighter hack of the same name)
- Conte Energy (hack of Lode Runner)
- Hoodle (hack of Pinball)
- Crypt Car (hack of Dig Dug)
- Lido (hack of Clu Clu Land)
- Future Tank (hack of Battle City)
- X Racing (hack of Zippy Race)
- Football (hack of Soccer)
- Diamond (clone of Arkanoid)
- Sky Invader (hack of Sky Destroyer)
- Dada (hack of Popeye)
- Dinosaur (Nice Code)
- Gobang (English hack of Gomoku Narabe)
- Bandits (hack of Donkey Kong 3)
- Aether (hack of Warpman)
- Resistant (Nice Code)
- Penguin (hack of Nuts & Milk; uses graphics from Binary Land)
- Space War (hack of Exerion)
- Rescue Kuck (hack of Donkey Kong Jr.)
- Twin Cards (Nice Code; "Pikachu" version)
- Mars Man (hack of Binary Land)
- Billiard (hack of Lunar Ball; it is also known as Billiard 2008 in the title screen)
- Gold Digger (hack of Super Arabian; it is also known as Crazy Gold Digger in the title screen)
- Moto Boat (hack of Awful Rushing)
- Bounce (hack of Mappy)
- Maze (hack of Pac-Man)
- Russia (Strange Pop Pop / Magic Bubble)
- Spar (hack of Urban Champion)
- Awful Rushing (hack of Moto Boat)
- Roge Brer (hack of Mario Bros.)
- Air Umbrella (hack of Balloon Fight)
- Chess (hack of Othello)
- Bomb (hack of Chack N' Pop)
- Strafe (Nice Code)
- Tennis (hack of the NES game of the same name)
- Lagangel (hack of Challenger)
- Garden War (Nice Code)
- Dragon (hack of Fire Dragon)
- Goodhand (hack of City Connection)
- Bubble (Nice Code)
- Risker (hack of Excitebike)
- Porter (hack of the NTDEC game of the same name)
- Van-1 (hack of Twin-Bee)
Famicom Yarou Vol.7 (7-in-1)[]
While returning to the "volume" name scheme, Vol. 7 was produced much later than the prior units, releasing some time around 2010. Instead of Inventor hacks, the console features Nice Code titles.
- Racing Fighter (Nice Code)
- Fairy's Treasure (Nice Code)
- Danger Bridge (Nice Code)
- Falling Blocks (Nice Code; Poke Tetris hack)
- First Defender (Nice Code; Intellivision Space Armada hack)
- The Archer (Nice Code)
- Shrew Mouse (Nice Code; Intellivision Snafu hack)
Trivia[]
- The name of "Famicom Yarou" is somewhat of wordplay; featuring "Fami" (ふぁみ) in hiragana, and "-com Yarou" (魂家郎) in kanji. This was presumably done so as to not infringe on the Famicom trademark.
- Additionally, the word "Famicom" (ファミコン) is written in katakana, which is likely why Famicom Yarou used a mixture of hiragana and kanji instead.