NES Consoles rebranded with other names in other countries

[Kane99]

I found this interesting reddit post in r/gamecollecting the other day and had to share it. 

I didn't know this was a thing. But according to a reddit user, renaming of consoles was a loophole in order to sell Japanese made products in foreign markets. The image you see above is an renamed NES that came out in India. 

I guess after WWII, certain countries didn't allow the sale of Japanese made products, so to get around those rules and laws, they renamed the console to Samuari Electronic TV game. The same redditor also stated that the Nintendo in South Korea for example was called the Hyundai Comboy. Makes you wonder what other NES consoles are out there with different names. 

I thought it was cool that they did this. I'm guessing Nintendo did this themselves in order to sell as many places as they could. 

[Shagger]

On 12/4/2023 at 2:31 PM, Kane99 said:

I found this interesting reddit post in r/gamecollecting the other day and had to share it. 

I didn't know this was a thing. But according to a reddit user, renaming of consoles was a loophole in order to sell Japanese made products in foreign markets. The image you see above is an renamed NES that came out in India. 

 

First thing to point out, that guy got duped, big time. The cartridge door bearing the name "Samurai Electronic TV Game" is clearly from a different console. The yellow colour is a discolouration caused that specific plastic's exposer to sunlight over a long period of time. If that was the original console that door was attached too, the whole console would be discoloured, not just the door. So the good news is the actual console has clearly been better looked after than the console that door came from, the bad news it's probably just a normal, western NES.

 

On 12/4/2023 at 2:31 PM, Kane99 said:

I guess after WWII, certain countries didn't allow the sale of Japanese made products, so to get around those rules and laws, they renamed the console to Samuari Electronic TV game. The same redditor also stated that the Nintendo in South Korea for example was called the Hyundai Comboy. Makes you wonder what other NES consoles are out there with different names. 

I thought it was cool that they did this. I'm guessing Nintendo did this themselves in order to sell as many places as they could. 

 

Next point, there is no way that what you said about Japan being sanctioned being behind these different names is true:

1. I spent a fair amount of time researching and could not find any record of these sanctions you speak off.
2. While doing said research I found that the Japanese boomed in the post WW2 years and became it's biggest export industry until the late 80's. So there was clearly need to take such drastic measures to sell this stuff to other countries.
3. The NES came out a full 40 years after WW2 ended. I'm not sure such brutal sanctions on a country so long after the end of a conflict would even be legal.
4. Then there's name, and this whare things get, with all due respect, really stupid. In India, they called it "Samurai Electronic TV Game" and you think upon reading that name India would conclude, "Yep, this defiantly came from Ireland!". I would make a joke at this point, something along the lines of "why wouldn't they just give a more obviously Japanese name, like...", but I literally can't think a name more obviously Japanese than "Samurai Electronic TV Game"!

 

You what this really is? It's Nintendo being Nintendo. Back in those days, Nintendo shipped consoles out to different countries with not just with different names, but different shaped bodies and controllers. You know what an NES looked like pretty much every country expect Japan (including India)? Like the picture you posted. But in Japan;

 

It looked like this, and it was called the Famicom.

 

When time came for the SNES, Japan had the Super Famicom;

Witch looked the same as the European NES (You'll notice the text on the bottom left of each console and on the controller is is different, but that's about it.);

 

But meanwhile, in America;

 

 

 

 

 

And don't even get me started on the N64, a console that, depending on you region, you would use a completely different method to connect it to your television. See what I mean? Nintendo have a near 40 year long tradition of changing over time from one version weird to another version of weird. It's just thier way.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Shagger

[Ravenfreak]

I knew that in Korea, the Genesis/Mega Drive was called the Super Gamboy and the Sega Master System was called the Gamboy. They were both distributed by Samsung, I had no clue about the fact that there were NES consoles rebranded and sold in other countries. However, these NES clones are probably not even official and are just bootlegs, but the Korean sega consoles were official.

[Scorpion]

That’s fascinating! It’s wild how they renamed consoles to bypass restrictions. I wonder how many unique versions exist!