Americanized console names?

[DZ-Jay]

He guys,

Most of the time, I feel lost in the RVG fora because I don't recognized many of the console names you guys talk about.  As an American (well, close to it), I thought they are probably European or UKian products (like the Sinclair micro).

Recently I was reading a book on the history of video games and it made allusions to two consoles and how they were marketed throughout the world.  According to this book, what you guys call the "Mega-Drive," was called "Genesis" in the US; likewise, the "PC Engine" was called "TurboGrfx-16" on this side of the pond.

Well, I must say that I am familiar with both the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrfx-16 (from NEC, I believe), and even played them for a bit at a friend's house back when they came out.  (I so fancied the Genesis.)

If these assertions are accurate, then it puts most of RVG into a new context for me, and I can feel less alienated by your talk of weird and alien game machines.

    Cheers,
    dZ.

[TL]

Hahahaha 

Funny you say that because I have been very aware of the fact we have a lot of Americans on here now and have actually renamed some stuff because of it. Like the Mega Drive reviews now say Mega Drive/Genesis and the Philips Videopac thread now also has Odyssey 2 in the title.

This should help you:

[TrekMD]

This is why I many times end up using both names when I refer to any of these machines!  I had to learn that at the beginning as well. 

[SnakeEyes]

It can cause confusion.

lets not forget the Jaguar, apparently in the US they got a version that was called the jagwire or something 

also the amstrad cpc range was called Schneider CPC in Germany, austri, and switzerland. Not that it matters as no-one really talks about the amstrad anyway.

also

nes 101 toploader = AV famicom

turboduo + pc engine Duo

Turboexpress = Pc engine GT

[TrekMD]

So, I guess the bottom line is: when in doubt, ask!

[TL]

It can cause confusion.

lets not forget the Jaguar, apparently in the US they got a version that was called the jagwire or something  :4:

[TrekMD]

Well, that's akin to there being this alternative name for a certain video game company in the UK...Seega! 

[sloan]

It hasn't been confusing for me too much. I thought Turbografx-16 was called Turbografx (minus "-16") in  Europe, not PC-Engine, correct?

One thing I have seen from being somewhat active on this site is the prevalence of Spectrum and Atari ST in UK. From the looks of what I have seen, I want them both. But are they even available in NTSC format?

[guest5086]

It hasn't been confusing for me too much. I thought Turbografx-16 was called Turbografx (minus "-16") in  Europe, not PC-Engine, correct?

One thing I have seen from being somewhat active on this site is the prevalence of Spectrum and Atari ST in UK. From the looks of what I have seen, I want them both. But are they even available in NTSC format?

As far as i know the Spectrum was the Timex and the Atari was the Jaguar

[TL]

It hasn't been confusing for me too much. I thought Turbografx-16 was called Turbografx (minus "-16") in  Europe, not PC-Engine, correct?

One thing I have seen from being somewhat active on this site is the prevalence of Spectrum and Atari ST in UK. From the looks of what I have seen, I want them both. But are they even available in NTSC format?

The ST had a wide release in the US so shouldn't be too hard to find, it just wasn't as popular in the US as it was in Europe.

The Spectrum is a little bit more complicated. The US got two version of the Spectrum - the Timex 2048 and Timex 2068 (with 48k and 64k respectively). But neither was a success, in fact they bombed massively, and a lot of this was down to the fact they are not 100% compatible with the Spectrum. THIS LINK will tell you more about the machines.

[sloan]

Thanks for that informative link. I am gleaning from this that the Spectrum games that have been posted in many threads on this site are simply not available to US players unless I go the emulation route? In other words, did Timex make both PAL and NTSC versions of those games available for both Sinclair and Spectrum machines? I am guessing the answer to that is "no".

[sunteam_paul]

I hate the name TurboGrafx-16 with a passion but alas, I am forced to just get used to it, it's hard to avoid.

[TL]

Thanks for that informative link. I am gleaning from this that the Spectrum games that have been posted in many threads on this site are simply not available to US players unless I go the emulation route? In other words, did Timex make both PAL and NTSC versions of those games available for both Sinclair and Spectrum machines? I am guessing the answer to that is "no".

There are thousands and thousands of Spectrum games and they were all made for PAL machines. But from reading the information myself it seems that you can get a Spectrum ROM cartridge that makes the games compatible.

That said Spectrum emulation is absolutely faultless so in this case I see nothing wrong with going down the emulation route. You can even get a Raspberry Pi and put it in a Spectrum case if you want something more authentic.

[zapiy]

Interesting, it caused me some confusion years back when i was researching American consoles.. I still do every now and then..

[DZ-Jay]

Hahahaha 

   dZ.