Dendy Chronicles is a web series that tells story of unlicensed NES clones, known as Dendy, in Russia in 1990s and about games for it.

Kinaman is a 23 years old russian guy and a retro gamer. He started to make retro video games reviews just recently, and already gained some local popularity. Some people call him 'russian video game nerd' and make related jokes, well, he is for sure. What makes him different from other local VG reviewers is the things he is talking about. Instead of just swearing all the time, he reminds us how crazy early console gaming experience was in Russia in the past. Major reason why I like to watch reviews of popular english-speaking VG reviewers is that they show me sort of an alternative reality, because here things were very different. I think it could be interesting for people outside of Russia to see an alternative reality too, that's why I decided to make english subtitles for Kinaman's videos.

First three episodes are dedicated to all the games about Mario that were released for Dendy. There are a bit more games than you could expect.

Translation of Episode #2 is done.

A new episode is out and translated. It is about the infamous, the most difficult game on Dendy/NES that everyone know for sure - Ghostly Village.

Kinaman currently runs few related projects in parallel. Here is an overview.

- 'Dendy Chronicles', a scripted series that is focused on specifics of Dendy gaming - pirate games, problems, absurdity, etc. New episodes come out rarely, like once per two months. It takes that much time because people who helps Kinaman to film it are living at another cities, also because props needs to be prepared (bought and delivered). Kinaman does not even own a camera yet, although he going to get one soon.

- 'On the Kitchen', an unscripted let's play series. Kinaman with a guest beats a difficult game, or not so difficult one, but in some special way, using a real Dendy. This series is scheduled one per month - althouhg it still involves filming and help of other people, it takes less time to make.

- 'Kinamania Live' is a realtime let's play that uses an emulator. It is mostly Coulthard's project (one of guys that helps Kinaman), they host it together and beat two games per episode, while answering chat questions. Games that are played here are selected of those that aren't suitable for other projects (too easy, too good, etc). This is not strictly scheduled, but may be 1-2 times per month.

- 'Dendy Memories', the most recent unscripted series. Kinaman tells stories about his own gaming experience with Dendy and certain games. No schedule is given for this series yet.


As for translation, 'Chronicles' are easiest, because it is scripted, so it is well structured and worded. 'Memories' are more difficult, because it is unscripted, with pauses, corrections, and thoughts not always worded well. Both let's plays are really difficult for me, because it is always two hosts, they constantly interrupt themselves and each other, and sometimes talks too quiet as well.



Here is the first episode of the 'Dendy Memories' with subtitles.