/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.3151767]

Why were the Super Nintendo and the Mega Drive consoles modified and in the Mega Drive's case, rebranded to "Genesis" for the North American market? Why go to the effort of releasing two different models of consoles when a majority of the world only used one? Was it autism?

[Anonymous No.3151775]

>Why go to the effort of releasing two different models of consoles when a majority of the world only used one? Was it autism?
The majority of the world market especially for video games is America.

[Anonymous No.3151782]

>>3151775
Yeah okay, but what was wrong with original designs of the consoles then? Why did America need its own version of the SNES and Mega Drive?

[Anonymous No.3151790]

>>3151782
Because it's a different market.

[Anonymous No.3151818]

>>3151790
That is not an answer.

[Anonymous No.3151820]

>>3151790
That still doesn't explain shit. The european, asian and various other markets all used the original design of the consoles. Why did the American market warrant a complete redesign?

[Anonymous No.3151824]

>>3151818
>>3151820
Because the American market is worth much more than those markets.

[Anonymous No.3151825]

>>3151820
Because America is awesome.

[Anonymous No.3151827]

>>3151775
Not really. Actually Europe is second after Asia.

[Anonymous No.3151829]

They changed it to Genesis because some other company in the US owned the Mega Drive name and they couldn't use it.

It's just like how the Commodore PET became the CBM series for the European market because Philips owned the PET name.

[Anonymous No.3151830]

>>3151820
no idea for the design, but i think "mega drive" was already a brand in america or something. too lazy to go check wikipedia

[Anonymous No.3151837]

>>3151775
>americans actually believe this

[Anonymous No.3151839]

>>3151824
Okay then, let me rephrase the question. What is it about the original designs of these consoles that was apparently too unmarketable enough in America that they decided to change it?

[Anonymous No.3151842]

>>3151824
>>3151825
>America is better cause we say so
>The re-design actually improves the quality and its not just a whim

If it wasn't for copyright issues the name Genesis would not exist.

[Anonymous No.3151845]

>>3151824
So Americans need to have every little thing personally catered for them to feed their ego and make them feel special? Why are they such fragile pussies?

[Anonymous No.3151857]

>>3151767
>Was it autism?
The only person who is autistic is you for asking this question and acting like an idiot.

1.) They didn't change the original design in America for the Sega Genesis. All they did was rebrand the console.

2.) The NES was a flat box, and Americans continuously put their drinks on it and spilled them on the system constantly. This led people to try to bring the system in and complain to Nintendo stores. In order to combat this, they changed the Famicoms design in North America to something you wouldn't put a can of soda on.

Congratulations OP, you're a moron, and your thread is pretentious as fuck.

[Anonymous No.3151867]

>>3151845
>>3151839
>>3151837
>>3151827
Over 30 million SNES sold in America
Under 20 million sold in all of 3rd world.

[Anonymous No.3151868]

>>3151857
I fear for /vr/ if it took this long for someone to post this.

[Anonymous No.3151885]

>>3151767
General localization rules also apply.

Specifically, for the Megadrive, there was an existing brand in the USA so they had to rename the unit. Same reason why the Dreamcast has a blue swirl in Europe.

For the NES, they redesigned it to look less like a toy and more like Hi-Fi gear, so they can make it look more serious as to avoid being associated with the recent video game crash. It's not a video game, it's an Entertainment System, get it?

SNES was probably turned all blocky so it is somewhat similar to the NES. I think. Not sure about that. It looks like a fisher price piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.3151889]

>>3151820
Anon what are you talking about?

The Model 1 Sega Genesis was released in 1989 in North America.

The updated and more compact hardware revision, the Model 2 Sega Genesis, was released in 1994 in North America.

The third party Majesco Model 3 Sega Genesis was released in 1998 to compete with the SNES Jr.

[Anonymous No.3151890]

>>3151824
>>3151818
>All this weightless non answers cause i am so clever mom

[Anonymous No.3151892]

>>3151867
Name a major SNES game that was created entirely in America and by an american team, and was not an offshoot of a non-american series (like some american-made Contra game).

You can't.

[Anonymous No.3151893]

>>3151890
You were already answered.
>>3151857

The Sega Genesis was not "redesigned" for America, and the SNES was redesigned so it wouldn't look like something you could set your drink on and spill it.

I have no clue what the fuck all these other people are talking about.

[Anonymous No.3151894]

>>3151825
>>3151818
>>3151790

Because your momma is a whore, see i can do shitposting too!

[Anonymous No.3151897]

>>3151892
Sim CIty.

Good try at strawmaning though 3rd worlder.

[Anonymous No.3151903]

>>3151857
>americans are so stupid that damage of their consoles through improperly using them as a dinner plate (since americans can't refrain from eating for an hour) was a significant enough problem that they needed to redesign it just so americans wouldn't break it

Jesus christ

[Anonymous No.3151904]

>>3151892
>You can't

AAAHH!!! Real Monsters

Air Cavalry

Tons and tons. You just look at the developer/publisher on Wikipedia.

[Anonymous No.3151908]

>>3151903
>americans are so stupid that damage of their consoles through improperly using them as a dinner plate (since americans can't refrain from eating for an hour) was a significant enough problem that they needed to redesign it just so americans wouldn't break it

Haha. Yeah. We're really dumb.

Or, actually, children between the ages of 5-10 put sodas on the system because they are children and knocked them over because children make messes and have no concept of cleanliness or understanding of taking good care of their system.

The largest and primary target market, especially around the Super Mario 1,2,3, days were little kids, that had no clue not to put a soda on a NES box.

[Anonymous No.3151914]

>>3151897
>Sim CIty.

Ported by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development in Japan, Kyoto, directed by Hideki Konno, music by Soyo Oka.

[Anonymous No.3151916]

>>3151885
I think with the NES, they wanted it to look tougher and less cutesy to appeal to American sensibilities.

[Anonymous No.3151918]

>>3151892
Earthworm Jim.
Mortal Kombat.
Donkey Kong Country was European, but yeah.

[Anonymous No.3151919]

>>3151904
Are you seriously saying that AAAHH Real Monsters was a major SNES title?

[Anonymous No.3151927]

>>3151908
Uh, even as a child I knew not to put water near electronics, as did nearly everyone I knew. But I guess the American idea of "parenting" is to eat fast food with your children while you watch tv.

[Anonymous No.3151929]

>>3151919
For kids in America, yeah. And so was Beavis and Butthead.

[Anonymous No.3151936]

>>3151914
Besides, that SNES SimCity sucked anyway.

[Anonymous No.3151937]

>>3151927
I guess so.

Either way, 5 year olds are clumsy, and I'm sure some spilled the drink on accident, regardless of knowing the logic behind not spilling water on electronics.

I know you're superior and incredibly skilled, and at 2 years old come out and understand the fundamentals of physics and the laws of nature, but in America, our children do sometimes fuck up, like touching a hot pan or falling down on the playground. Not because our children don't know it's bad, but because they are 5 years old and have no experience or true intelligence yet.

[Anonymous No.3151941]

I think the Genesis had more American-developed games than the SNES.

[Anonymous No.3151945]

>>3151914
>>3151936
DEM GOALPOSTS.

Moving the goalposts (or shifting the goalposts) is a metaphor, derived from association football or other games, that means to change the criterion (goal) of a process or competition while still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one side an intentional advantage or disadvantage.

[Anonymous No.3151950]

>>3151927
My nephew was pretty smart for an 8 year old, but still didn't quite grasp why water damaged electronics. He also spilled things on the carpet a few times just because. I still do that as an adult, rarely though.

Humans make mistakes, and I'm sure someone put their drink on the NES because it was a flat surface on a carpet close to them, and didn't anticipate spilling anything on purpose.

But, knowing us Americans, we're so retarded we put it there and said I hope I spill this.

[Anonymous No.3151951]

My mom is like 61 and she's still never learned to not set drinks too close to electronics so hey...who says it's necessarily just kids.

[Anonymous No.3151956]

>>3151951
>61
americans am I right dude? lmao.

[Anonymous No.3151963]

>>3151937
>>3151950
>>3151951

Sorry, I can't hear you over how fat you are

[Anonymous No.3151964]

>>3151956
It's a woman thing.

[Anonymous No.3151969]

Commodore had problems with this too. The 1541's flat surface was an incredibly inviting spot to place drinks and papers/books that would block the vent holes and cause the thing to overheat.

[Anonymous No.3152007]

>>3151767
>autism?
Yes. It was autism for you to think that everyone everywhere in the world wanted something that looked exactly the same and it never changed.

[Anonymous No.3152023]

>>3152007
Euros and Japs like cutesy things, Americans don't. For example, Eurocomputers like the Spectrum and Amstrad are small, cute, and cheerful-looking. American computers looked like they were carved out of granite.

[Anonymous No.3152043]

>>3151963
>>3151945
>>3151927
>>3151903
I am British and I'd like to apologise for the autism of my countrymen. Please don't assume all of us are like this cunt.

[Anonymous No.3152052]

>>3152023
>Amstrad
>Small
The CPC must be at least 15 feet long. At least.

[Anonymous No.3152056]

>>3152052
It's pretty small compared to an IBM XT.

[Anonymous No.3152060]

>>3152023
Actually one reason why 8-bit computers hung on longer in Europe is because European homes tend to be shoebox-sized compared with American ones so they didn't have the space for a huge hulking thing like that.

[Anonymous No.3152067]

>>3152060
Yes we don't need McMansions to house our McGuts.

[Anonymous No.3152073]

>>3152043
There's no flags on /vr/. He's probably Australian.

[Anonymous No.3152078]

>>3152060
And, you know, cost reasons. 8-bit computers were cheaper and Europeans had less disposable income than Americans.

[Anonymous No.3152086]

>>3151929
>so was Beavis and Butthead.

The SNES game for that was awful though. The Genesis one was WAY better in every way, even sound.

[Anonymous No.3152092]

>>3152086
Boogerman is better on the Genesis as well. In general, any reflex-based game will always be better on the Genesis.

[Anonymous No.3152101]

>>3151918
Okay, that's two American titles and one European. You did disprove my statement, but keep in mind that even with sequels you have... 7 or so games, versus how many other Japanese ones?

Or to put it another way, if SNES only had American games available for it, do you think it would be as good as it was?
>>3151945
The second post wasn't by me. SNES Sim City is actually one of my favourite entries in the series. It's still not an American developed game though.

[Anonymous No.3152114]

>>3151892
Secret of Evermore

[Anonymous No.3152117]

>>3151775
Stop embarrassing yourself.

[Anonymous No.3152123]

>>3151775

[Anonymous No.3152125]

>>3152092
Boogerman was a multiplat title though. B&B was a completely different game on both. The SNES version was also incredibly toned down in humour. It was like if MK came out not just with no blood, but with no fighting either.

[Anonymous No.3152202]

>>3151908
So, why Japanese and European children had no problems with soda?

[Anonymous No.3152221]

The MD/Genesis wasn't "modified" for the US market. You're comparing the model 1 and the model 2.

Here's a US model 1.

[Anonymous No.3152224]

>>3152221
And here's a European model 2.

[Anonymous No.3152231]

>>3151936
I think it's great. Comfortable as.

[Anonymous No.3152232]

>>3152125
No shit, Nintendo back then were just like Disney - they believed in keeping things as clean and family-friendly as possible.

[Anonymous No.3152243]

>>3152023
Yes America won't buy a computer unless it looks like one of their cars. I mean "stayshun waeguns".

[Anonymous No.3152338]

>>3151827
>>3151837

>People who never studied statistics, geography and have no idea what marketing is.

[Anonymous No.3152342]

CUNSHUL WOORSSSS

FROM TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO!

[Anonymous No.3152353]

>>3152023
That's how NEC computers looked as well and they dominated the Japanese market.
The higher powered offerings from Fujitsu and Sharp were also kind of large and oppressive.

[Anonymous No.3152367]

>>3151767
>Was it autism?
Fuck off back to /v/

[Anonymous No.3152632]

>>3152367
>>Was it autism?
The national pass time of neo /v/?

[Anonymous No.3152686]

>>3151916

Like the anon above previously mentioned, making it look "tougher" was not the issue, but making it look less like a video game console (and therefore a toy) was the issue. Video games were dead in the water in the US in 1985. To brand it as more of an entertainment device was a strategic move to revive the market and it worked amazingly well. So say what you want about how stupid the changes were if they never happened Nintendo would likely never have become as successful as they did.

[Anonymous No.3152713]

>>3151767
I think they wanted to make the SNES more cool and macho looking, instead of the more cutesy design Japan and Europe had.

Possibly a response to Sega marketing the Genesis to older kids and trying to portray the NES as a weak console for little kids. The S Famicom looks too much like a children's toy, they probably wanted something more radical that American teens would respond to.

[Anonymous No.3152717]

>mfw America is only 40% white

[Anonymous No.3152747]

>>3151767
The genesis/mega drive were pretty much the same, apart from colors. The one you have pictured is a smaller, later revision.

Also, the term "Mega Drive" was copyrighted in the US, so they called it genesis

The snes was changed to look bigger and more powerful, in line with the NES. Also the rumors that they made it so soda cans couldn't be rested on the system, since the North American design was a victim of that, with the flat top.

[Anonymous No.3152756]

>>3152747
>Also the rumors that they made it so soda cans couldn't be rested on the system
That makes zero sense.

[Anonymous No.3153001]

>>3151885
>video game crash
Did the market actually crash in America? Or was it just Atari? I'm sure arcades and PC games were still being produced.

[Anonymous No.3153007]

>>3153001
It was the home console market. Arcades thrived until the mid 90s.

[Anonymous No.3153009]

>>3152747
We also had the model 2 Mega Drive in the 1st world, except it had orange on it. Did the American 6 button controller have the orange pause button?

[Anonymous No.3153013]

>>3153007
So basically just Atari.

[Anonymous No.3153043]

>>3152756
>NES has completely flat, large surface in NA
>many kids probably just have the system on the floor beside them while they play for easy cartridge access.
>If you're also drinking something, the NES makes an appealing flat surface instead of putting your drink on a rug or carpet, especially if you're a kid.
>Pretty sure the wikipedia page cites a large number of calls from parents who ended up calling the repair hotline because a stupid kid spilled their drink on the thing.

Although to be fair, it wouldn't be terribly easy to rest a drink on the euro/jap version either.

[Anonymous No.3153049]

>>3153043
The European NES was the same as the American one, you fucking git.

[Anonymous No.3153050]

>>3153007
Vat. Arcades went down in flames with the rest of the video game industry in the mid-80s.

[Anonymous No.3153058]

>>3153050
You mean the American video games industry.

[Anonymous No.3153064]

>>3153043
>it wouldn't be terribly easy to rest a drink on the euro/jap version either.

It would be quite a bit harder because we'd understand that fluids will kill electronics, and won't rest our drinks next to the console.

[Anonymous No.3153087]

>>3153050
Maybe for like a year or two, but the late 80s to mid 90s were a big time for the arcade industry.

[Anonymous No.3153319]

>>3152221
The Model 1 was definitely "modified" in the US. Here's the Japanese model 1. Note the gold and cartridge lock. Also blue reset. And all the 'intelligent terminal' stuff.

[Anonymous No.3153321]

>>3151867
Worldwide: 49.10 million
North & South America: 23.35 million
Japan: 17.17 million
Other: 8.58 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System

[Anonymous No.3153331]

>>3153321
Samefag here, before you bitch about the source like the lying cunt you are.

Something more official.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/historical_data/pdf/consolidated_sales_e1509.pdf

Clue: The numbers are the same.

[Anonymous No.3153334]

>>3153064
Yes but what about when you were 6 years old?

[Anonymous No.3153338]

>>3153319
Oh, also, most of the non-crappy VA7 Genesis Model 1's had "HIGH DEFINITION GRAPHICS" pad printed on the top of that ring.

Not redesigned to the degree of the Famicom vs. NES or SFC vs. SNES, though.

[Anonymous No.3153346]

When did the retro gaming crowd become so awful?
This board was so nice when it opened. Now it's as bad as /v/.
I hate most of you so much.

[Anonymous No.3153350]

>>3153346
No boards escape cancer forever.
Except maybe the NSFW ones.

[Anonymous No.3153356]

>>3153346
Salty amerifat detected. Go play with your edgy redesigned consoles aimed to satisfy your autism.

[Anonymous No.3153387]

>>3153356
>edgy
Let me guess, you also think games should have content removed and censored so they aren't edgy.

[Anonymous No.3155242]

>>3153387
No, I think retarded amerifats shouldn't be pandered to just because they can't stand things not being done "their way"

[Anonymous No.3155249]

>>3155242
Is it really pandering when the source material of a Japanese game is left unchanged everywhere except Europe, where people can't handle a bit of violence and blood because they're a bunch of sissy fruitcakes?

[Anonymous No.3155258]

>>3153319
That's hardly a "redesign", it's just different stuff printed on the top shell. The overall system has the same design.

OP was making it seem like the Model 2 was the only version that came out in the US. At least, that's what his image was implying. There's no other reason why he would have posted a Euro SNES and US SNES, and a Euro MD1 and US Genesis 2.

[Anonymous No.3155268]

>>3151767
It all boils down to marketing and legal troubles.

The SNES got a redesign in an attempt to compete with the imposing Genesis marketing team, which was basically pic related.

The Megadrive/Genesis thing was legal. Mega Drive was already copyrighted in America.

[Anonymous No.3155269]

The real question is why the famicom decided to turn into a grey box.

Sega wasn't outselling it at this point. Why was this decision made?
I mean, the name change I can see; that I can see. But why the design overhaul?

[Anonymous No.3155271]

>>3155269
>that I can see

I meant that I can agree with. Nintendo Entertainment System sounds pretty fucking cool, and makes more sense as you almost never would use an NES as a traditional computer.

[Anonymous No.3155273]

>>3155258
Actually, this is the PAL MD. Other than the lack of red, it's actually closer to the Genesis model 1 than it is to the Jap version.

[Anonymous No.3155279]

>>3155269
They wanted to distance themselves from the failure that was the Atari VCS. Americans started to grow distrustful of consoles after the crash.

[Anonymous No.3155283]

>>3155269
>The real question is why the famicom decided to turn into a grey box.

Because it matches the design and aesthetics of VCRs and stereos in the 80s. It even has an "adult" name, Nintendo Entertainment System. It was to distance themselves from being perceived as a child's plaything. It didn't look out of place on a television console next to all your other consumer electronics, whereas the Famicom looks like a Speak and Spell.

[Anonymous No.3155301]

>>3155279
>>3155283
Right, the crash. Makes sense.

[Anonymous No.3155315]

>>3155301
>the crash
so many people deny the holocaust, but refuse to deny the crash ever happened even though there's even less evidence

[Anonymous No.3155319]

>>3155315
I feel the only real myth is that ET caused it. They dug up that landfill only to find a shitload of atari games getting dumped for warehouse space.

[Anonymous No.3156120]

>>3153338
Honestly white, black, and red is a better color scheme than blue, gold, black, and red.

[Anonymous No.3156124]

>>3155269
famicom HAD MICROPHONES ON THE CONTROLLER

[Anonymous No.3156782]

>>3155301
Back then the general idea was that if something looked like a box you stick cartridges on top of, it's GOT to be shit.
People liked VHSs though, so the NES was reminiscent of something like it.
It's not a game console, it's an ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM
They're not cartridges, they're GAME PAKs

[Anonymous No.3157946]

>>3151767
In the case of the Famicom, the name wasn't as appealing to Americans, and calling it "Family Computer" was confusing because it's a game console. They called it an "Entertainment System" to get retailers to think of it more as a VCR-type device, because they didn't want to stock another game console after the crash. It was designed to look like a VCR, too.

They actually almost released the famicom in the US as an affordable home computer, with a keyboard, a data tape drive, and a suite of productivity software in addition to the game cartridges and tapes. The industry today might have been very different if Nintendo had committed to this route-- they would have at some point had to decide wether to commit to being part of the PC industry, or being in the console market.

Looking at how screwed over PC companies like Commodore got once Windows and DOS became the industry standard and rendered proprietary OS systems obsolete, Nintendo might have dodged a bullet. After all, the Sharp X68000 was one of the finest home PCs ever made for its time and outclassed pretty much every other home PC for gaming at the time, but have you ever seen a Sharp-branded PC or Laptop? Even so, it's fascinating to imagine what if.

With the Megadrive the answer is simple: there was a trademark / copyright issue in the United States that prevented Sega from calling the system "Megadrive" here. They called it the Genesis because they envisioned it as being the start of a Sega gaming dynasty in the US, which it both was and wasn't. It was in that it was phenomenally successful, but wasn't in that Sega never managed re-capture the system's popularity in the US with its successors.

The redesign for the SNES was for a dumb reason: Nintendo was adamant that the high failure rate of the NES was from people putting soda cans on it and spilling them. They designed the American SNES so as to be impossible for people to rest a soda can on top of. Try it, you can't.

[Anonymous No.3157970]

>>3157946
>to get retailers to think of it more as a VCR-type device

Imagine the lawsuits when they found out it didn't play VHS tapes.

[Anonymous No.3157976]

>>3157946
>They designed the American SNES so as to be impossible for people to rest a soda can on top of. Try it, you can't.
To me it looks like the other way around but I don't have an US SNES so I'll just wait for some good anon to try it out for us.

[Anonymous No.3157978]

>>3155283
The Atari 2600 was actually designed to match the woodgrain aesthetic that was very popular with consumer electronics in the 1970s. They eventually released the all-black "Darth Vader" model in the early 1980s, and the "Atari Jr." model to compete with the NES because woodgrain was no longer in vogue.

Really, back in 1977 the only people who could afford the Atari 2600 would have been well-to-do adults, because it cost the equivalent of nearly $800 when it first launched. Granted Atari was a smaller company back then and they didn't need to sell as many units to be profitable. It didn't really become a common household item until the early 80s though, which is when the components had gone down drastically in price.

[Anonymous No.3157986]

>>3157970
Nintendo never told them it was a VHS deck. It was an "entertainment system" that could do interactive TV entertainment, including games and interactive toys like the Zapper and Rob the Robot. Those were included with the system to alleviate fears from retailers that it was not just another Atari clone.

The whole thing about rebranding the NES is very misunderstood by a lot of people. There is this perception that they "tricked customers" into thinking it wasn't a game console, like they used a VCR-shaped Trojan Horse. They didn't really trick anyone. They evaluated the system they had and figured out how to make it sellable to the retailers, who were apprehensive about stocking game consoles while they were still in the process of liquidating all of their unsold Atari games. The Famicom visually looked uncomfortably similar to the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivsion and other failing consoles, so Nintendo rebranded it as being a high-end consumer electronics device, and it worked.

[Anonymous No.3158000]

>>3157976

[Anonymous No.3158001]

>>3158000
Figured, look at all that wasted space on the front.

[Anonymous No.3158005]

>>3158000
If I could just find my redesigned SNES I'd try it out and post a pic.

[Anonymous No.3158007]

>>3158000
That doesn't look very safe. That looks like a specifically chosen spot out of the way to place a drink. No one would do that with the cartridge and slot right there exposed.

[Anonymous No.3158010]

>>3158000
Even Americans aren't stupid enough to put an open can of soda that close to the cartridge slot. There's a reason tons of NES came to Nintendo stores covered in soda and SNES did not.

I still don't quite understand the color scheme.

[Anonymous No.3158017]

>>3158007
They even lifted the slot so that the can is incapable of touching the cart even by mistake.

[Anonymous No.3158027]

>>3157978
It didn't sell that well until Space Invaders was ported in 1979 and that's what made sales go through the roof.

[Anonymous No.3158067]

>>3158010
Nintendo has this weird thing about purple.

[Anonymous No.3158082]

>>3155242
>>3153064
>>3151963

Says the asshole that likes living in a nanny state with things spoonfed to you 24/7

[Anonymous No.3158124]

>>3158067
Remember when Nintendo was about looking fun, and not trying to look like Apple imitations?

[Anonymous No.3158148]

ITT:
A fucking idiotic underage poster, most likely from /v/ (asking if it was autism), makes a post thinking the Model 2 Genesis was not the "American" version, and has no clue the Model 1 was released in America just like the rest of the world.

[Anonymous No.3158151]

>>3158124
They stopped making fun looking consoles when they ran out of Nintendium.

[Anonymous No.3158750]

>>3151845
No, we get every little thing personally created for us because we are special.

You're just seeing it through the eyes of a Europoor.

[Anonymous No.3158754]

>>3158124
>comes out same year as fun multicolored clear plastic imacs
>"not trying to look like Apple imitations"

[Anonymous No.3158767]

>>3158754
Well shit. I guess Nintendo has been the Apple of videogames for longer than I thought.

[Anonymous No.3158836]

>>3158767
But Apple is making money and has been for many years.

[Anonymous No.3158870]

>>3151767
Some bicycle company had a trademark on "mega drive" so they couldn't use the name here.

[Anonymous No.3158874]

>>3151767
Also, the North American SNES was deliberately designed not to have any flat even surfaces on top, since people were setting drinks on top of the NES and spilling them.

[Anonymous No.3159090]

>>3151767
Talking about gen2 like its the only model gen the us got.

[Anonymous No.3159738]

>>3158874
I find it hard to believe that a significant number of malfunctioning NES consoles was due to soda spills, since the vast majority of them ended up suffering from a bent 72 pin connector. Still, the NES had such a high failure rate that Nintendo likely got sick of having to do repairs, and did everything in their power to make sure that fewer SNES systems would be getting sent back to them for repairs. If eliminating flat surfaces would save them a hundred dollars for every thousand they spend replacing pin connectors, it would still be worth it in their minds because that adds up. The SNES was pretty much idiot proof and you almost never hear of them breaking.

[Anonymous No.3160571]

>>3158767
It's OK literally everybody copied them.

[Anonymous No.3160607]

>>3159738
I must be an idiot then because I once had an SNES that I had a hard time getting a stable picture out of. Then again, our television cabling setup at the time was a complete clusterfuck. Thank FSM for HDMI.

[Anonymous No.3160795]

>>3160607
If you were using RF, RF always looks like shit and gives people lots of problems. RF takes the video and audio of the system and mashes them into a radio signal, which it sends to your TV to be interpreted as a station from the antennae. Not to mention that the RF boxes themselves were notoriously unreliable and would often times break.

[Anonymous No.3160925]

>>3160795
I'm pretty sure we were using RF. We didn't even own a TV with RCA inputs until 2003.

[Anonymous No.3161029]

>>3160925
Well that explains it. The problem was likely either with your RF adapter, or with some kind of electromagnetic interference. It was an imperfect solution for connecting game consoles to lower-end TVs.

And I feel your pain. We had a shitty RF-only TV for almost a decade. We thought a 25" screen was quite the hot toboggan back when we bought it, but it became an increasing source of frustration as new tech left it behind, like DVD (which we had to solve with an RF modulator). We became early adopters for HD and got kind of hosed later on since HDMI wasn't a thing yet, and we got a rear projection screen. But damn if the games and movies didn't look amazing on that thing. I wouldn't have asked for the Gamecube component cables for Christmas if we didn't have an HDTV, and those became quite valuable these days.