Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Mario Bros.
Bomberman
Mach Rider
Hudson's Adventure Island
The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
Bases Loaded 4
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
River City Ransom
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet
Wild Gunman
Disney's Aladdin
Captain America and the Avengers
Punch-Out!!
Back to the Future
Duck Hunt
Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
New Ghostbusters II
Kung Fu
Dirty Harry
Mario's Time Machine
RoboCop 2
Rampart
Mechanized Attack
Tom and Jerry
Zombie Nation
Son Son
Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy
Gyromite
Balloon Fight
Battletoads
Chiller
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Mega Man 4
Hogan's Alley
Yeah Yeah Beebiss II
Destiny of an Emperor
Wheel of Fortune
Cheetahmen II
Golf
Devil World
Adventures of Lolo 2
Wario's Woods
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
Tetris
Dr. Mario
Mega Man 5
Kid Icarus
Mega Man 6
Adventures of Lolo 3
Disney's DuckTales 2
Viewing Single Trivia
▲
2
▼
Popular conceptions about Nintendo's release history in Europe claim that their hardware was never released in the former Eastern Bloc until the 21st century. Rather, these countries instead saw the proliferation of various clone consoles called "Famiclones", such as the Dendy (a Taiwanese-built bootleg that achieved widespread popularity in the Commonwealth of Independent States, made up of the ex-republics of the former Soviet Union) and the Pegasus (which became as popular in Poland as the Dendy did in Eastern Europe). However, while Famiclones did indeed dominate the Eastern European gaming market during the 1990s, Nintendo was not only aware of this, but actively attempted to halt the spread of bootlegs in these regions in favor of officially sanctioned products.
In 1994, Nintendo made a deal with Steepler, the Dendy's distributor in Eastern Europe, to permit continued sale of the Dendy in exchange for equal distribution of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in the Commonwealth of Independent States; official Russian releases of these systems even included Dendy stickers on the packaging to reflect the arrangement. Meanwhile, in various other parts of the former Eastern Bloc, Nintendo made deals with other third-party distributors; among others, the NES, SNES, and Game Boy saw official releases in Poland, Hungary, and the former territories of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia during 1993–1994.
In 1994, Nintendo made a deal with Steepler, the Dendy's distributor in Eastern Europe, to permit continued sale of the Dendy in exchange for equal distribution of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in the Commonwealth of Independent States; official Russian releases of these systems even included Dendy stickers on the packaging to reflect the arrangement. Meanwhile, in various other parts of the former Eastern Bloc, Nintendo made deals with other third-party distributors; among others, the NES, SNES, and Game Boy saw official releases in Poland, Hungary, and the former territories of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia during 1993–1994.
Joshua Rogers video about Nintendo in Eastern and Central Europe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q75Re7deJC0
Russian-language articles about the Nintendo/Steepler deal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190427025842/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/94004
https://web.archive.org/web/20240601223552/https://dtf.ru/games/970617-legenda-o-slone-kak-it-kompaniya-steepler-sozdala-dendy-i-osnovala-rossiiskii-konsolnyi-rynok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q75Re7deJC0
Russian-language articles about the Nintendo/Steepler deal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190427025842/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/94004
https://web.archive.org/web/20240601223552/https://dtf.ru/games/970617-legenda-o-slone-kak-it-kompaniya-steepler-sozdala-dendy-i-osnovala-rossiiskii-konsolnyi-rynok
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to post comments.