Coolbaby

From Gatorbox Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Coolbaby is a particular strain of bootleg versions of Nintendo's NES Classic mini-console. The name is derived from what is literally printed on the front of the console; for reasons unknown in place of "Nintendo Entertainment System" the bootlegs read "Coolbaby Family Computer". Family Computer was the name of the NES in Japan (Famicom), however the origin of the "Coolbaby" portion of the name is unknown.

The bootleg was initially popularized online with a video done by Rerez, who made two follow-ups with the same "Coolbaby" video title even though the second and third consoles did not bear the name. The name was silly enough to float a popular YouTube channel for a while, so Draco got his hands on one as a novelty for a GAME HELL stream. Whereas the official NES Classic contained 30 licensed Nintendo games, the Coolbaby console contained over 600 of them, most just stolen or pirated games which is to be expected from bootleg systems such as these. There was significant crossover with other bootlegs that have been featured on the stream before, though Draco noted that the Coolbaby specifically featured many more "novelty romhack" versions of NES games than its contemporaries. This included several sprite and layout hacks of Super Mario Bros and a hack of Dig-Dug II called "Blob Buster", but it also included a romhack of stream staple MC Kids alarmingly named "Dick Kids". Draco refused to show the game on stream blind over concerns of running afoul of Twitch Terms of Service, but confirmed with the game not visible to viewers that it's exactly what everyone assumed it to be: a nude romhack of the McDonald's game.

The Coolbaby got a couple of mentions and features in other videos around the time it was shown on stream, and Racquerr & Baralheia donated a similar bootleg that looked like the SNES Classic although it was just another Famiclone filled with a similar assortment of NES games. Draco nicknamed this console "Coolbaby II". One of the handful of shirts available in the Gatorbox store is a parody of the popular "front of the NES console" graphic tees sold at GameStop stores that replaces the NES with the layout of the Coolbaby bootleg, name and all. When asked about the legality of offering such a shirt for sale, Draco responded "you're talking about a Chinese company who flagrantly disregarded copyright to make a bootleg Nintendo system, if they had the balls to get pissed off at me for making bootleg merch of their bootleg then tough shit, sucks to suck".