A place to discuss elephants and samurai.
As was stated earlier, Hyundai licensed Nintendo products, not Samsung.
The NES was released as the Hyundai Comboy (surprisingly based off of the North American model) in 1989, although multiple mass marketed Famiclones were already on the market. In fact, despite its officially licensed presence, all Korean exclusive games were developed for famiclones.
Hyundai would later release the Game Boy as the Mini Comboy, as well as a Super Comboy (based off of the Super Famicom this time around), and the Comboy 64.
Samsung licensed Sega products, and your implication that the Samsung Gam*Boy was named after the Game Boy may or may not be true. However, the Gam*Boy was released in the same month in Korea as the Game Boy launched in Japan (April 1989). Considering the cultural embargo on Japanese products (and the heavy localization of Japanese-based media aired in Korea at the time), I don't know how aware the average consumer would have been of the upcoming Game Boy, so I don't believe there would have been any merit in an intentional similarity.
These weren't the only instances of licensed consoles in Korea either, Daewoo sold MSX compatible machines under the name, Zemmix.
DementedPurple wrote:
Speaking of stuff be[/img]ing imported to other countries, in Korea, they had a ban on imports from Japan, so in order for Japanese companies like Sega to sell their consoles in Korea, they gave Samsung the right to sell their consoles, which lead to a SMS clone called "The Gam Boy" Totally original guys!
93143 wrote:
The NES was the Hyundai Comboy in Korea. It seems the Korean naming sense is fairly distinctive... yeah, that must be it...
DementedPurple wrote:
I think they were able to get away with that name because Samsung was not only working with Sega but also with Nintendo, so they had rights to both the Sega Master System and Game Boy.
As was stated earlier, Hyundai licensed Nintendo products, not Samsung.
The NES was released as the Hyundai Comboy (surprisingly based off of the North American model) in 1989, although multiple mass marketed Famiclones were already on the market. In fact, despite its officially licensed presence, all Korean exclusive games were developed for famiclones.
Hyundai would later release the Game Boy as the Mini Comboy, as well as a Super Comboy (based off of the Super Famicom this time around), and the Comboy 64.
Samsung licensed Sega products, and your implication that the Samsung Gam*Boy was named after the Game Boy may or may not be true. However, the Gam*Boy was released in the same month in Korea as the Game Boy launched in Japan (April 1989). Considering the cultural embargo on Japanese products (and the heavy localization of Japanese-based media aired in Korea at the time), I don't know how aware the average consumer would have been of the upcoming Game Boy, so I don't believe there would have been any merit in an intentional similarity.
These weren't the only instances of licensed consoles in Korea either, Daewoo sold MSX compatible machines under the name, Zemmix.