
Brazil Is An Alternate Video Game Universe Where Sega Beat Nintendo - rshrsh
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/brazil-is-a-video-game-alternate-universe-where-sega-beat-nintendo
======
luso_brazilian
There are one other reason for its success in Brazil: taking full advantage of
local culture when porting some games.

For instance, Turma da Monica em O Resgate [1], built up over Wonder Boy III
[2] and not only localized but also retooled to use the belove Monica's Gang
characters.

TecToy [3] really knew their local market modifying "some games to replace
characters with local licenses; that way, Teddy Boy became Geraldinho of
Glauco, certain Wonder Boy titles became Monica's Gang games and Ghost House
also starred El Chapulín Colorado", all of them very known and well beloved
characters of Brazilian youth at the time.

[1]
[http://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Master_System_ROMs/Turma_da_M...](http://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Master_System_ROMs/Turma_da_Monica_em_O_Resgate_%28Brazil%29/89283)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy_III:_The_Dragon%27s...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy_III:_The_Dragon%27s_Trap)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectoy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tectoy)

------
epidemian
I'm pretty sure the Sega Genesis also beat the SNES by a large margin here in
Argentina too. At least i grew up with a Genesis and knew a lot of people who
had one, while i only knew of one person who owned a SNES[1].

One of the possible reasons for this is that there were cheap pirated Genesis
games available[2], which, i _think_ , SNES games were much more expensive,
probably not pirated.

[1]: The graphics and fluidity of Donkey Kong Country on that console were
mesmerizing for a Genesis player though :D. But for some reason i always
preferred the Genesis sounds and music. And, of course, Sonic The Hedgehog!

[2]: I actually didn't know about this till not too long ago. I always thought
my Sega games were original! But learning about this explained why "save
slots" didn't work on any game (the pirated cartridges didn't have a
persistent writable memory).

~~~
masklinn
> the pirated cartridges didn't have a persistent writable memory

Wait so you had to beat every game in a single sitting?

~~~
wk_end
Surprisingly few Genesis games had any kind of save game feature - off the top
of my head, there was Sonic 3, RPGs (which were few and far between),
and...that's about it?

~~~
dysfunction
Playing the 32X port of Doom with no save ability was a pain. The game
inevitably crashed on level 16, but it took my brothers and I several entire
Saturdays getting that far to realize it. I loved the game, it wasn't until
years later that I realized how atrocious a port it was.

------
alganet
I'm brazillian!

There was some Nintendo market over here. Another brazillian company named CCE
built the NES and sold here. It was my first video game (I was about 9).

I've had both Sega/TecToy MasterSystem III and Mega Drive (the Genesis). Super
Nintendos were popular as well at the time, but as the article suggests most
of cartridges were pirated ones.

Playstation 1 was another crazy thing in Brazil. I have never seen an original
PS1 CD. I've bought the console and the store gave me 15 pirated CDs of my
choice by the time. For R$10,00 (roughly $20,00 USD by the time) it was
possible to buy three Playstation 1 games. It was nearly impossible to find
original Playstation games though.

~~~
artjacob
Actually Nintendo consoles were manufactured in Brazil by Gradiente, through a
company called Playtronic. Gradiente's plant was part of the Free Economic
Zone of Manaus, an industrial hub on the heart of the Amazon rainforest. This
plant was said to be Nintendo's only plant outside Japan, though I never saw a
reliable source confirming this.

~~~
alganet
It seems NES was made by multiple manufacturers in Brazil:
[http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/nes/brazil/brazil.html](http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/nes/brazil/brazil.html)

~~~
speeder
Nintendo official manufacturer was Gradiente, but both NES and SNES had a
crazy amount of non-licensed clones, and some clone manufacturers still exist
(yes, you can buy a new NES and SNES in Brazil, along with new pirated
cartridges)

~~~
scoggs
Link?

~~~
m45t3r
I would love a link too for a SNES hardware clone in Brazil. I know lots of
brazillian NES clones (including the infamous PolyStation), but I don't know
any SNES clones in Brazil.

~~~
speeder
I see them sometimes on Santa Efigênia, some are shaped like an actual SNES,
sort of a outright pirated console (ie: it is for most part an SNES, but not
made by Nintendo).

Sometimes you see people selling them on Mercado Livre

------
soneca
> _In an age where globalization permeates everything, Tectoy’s success—not
> just as a toy company, but as a local filter for that globalization—is
> actually kind of refreshing. Sega chose wisely all those years ago._

Kind of weird reading this. First because Nintendo also had a local partner
during NES age with a company called Gradiente and launched a local version of
NES called Phantom System. I owned one, and there was the traditional rivalry
Sega vs Nintendo in the form of Master System vs Phantom System, with no clear
winner as the article seems to assum.

The other weird part is that it look like a success Tec Toy still be selling
Master System consoles and games for low income customers. But Tec Toy is a
broke company, it filed for bankruptcy, and the shadow of a company that still
exists today survives more from videoke machines and some local mobile gaming
than from Master System current sales.

So my impression is that the article is more biased to corroborate its title
than reality.

Edit: just learned that Gradiente's Phantom System was a clone of NES, not a
Nintendo's local partner. So I retract that particular criticism. SEGA handled
brazilian market better than Nintendo, but still Master System was not a clear
winner versus Phantom System.

Edit2: Phanton System console for the curious:
[http://s382.photobucket.com/user/Sr-
Ferraz/media/NES%20Syste...](http://s382.photobucket.com/user/Sr-
Ferraz/media/NES%20Systems/GradientePhantomSystem2.jpg.html)

~~~
chc
Interesting — the Sega Master System controller was based on the NES
controller, but this NES clone controller is a rip-off of the Genesis (to the
point where they gave the select button the position and shape of the C button
on the Genesis just so the controller would have the exact same layout).

------
hcarvalhoalves
The reason is that Sega had a local partner (Tec Toy) that understood the
market and manufactured the consoles in Brazil.

SNES, on the other hand, where all imported, and importing anything into
Brazil has always been hard (bureaucratic and expensive). When it first
launched, your only chance of getting one was having a parent bring one from
abroad.

~~~
k__
This seems to be a general problem of Nintendo, I think.

Someone told me, you could release your game on Sony console and simply get a
factory to produce your game discs. While if you wanted to get your game on a
Nintendo console, you had to let Nintendo produce the discs for you in their
factories, because of quality control reasons, which slowed down the release
process and also filtered out many games of companies who didn't want to stick
with Nintendos release rules.

But I don't know how much of this is true...

------
Scuds
There's a crazy ass 'port' of Duke Nukem 3d for the Sega Genesis developed by
TecToy. Every other vertical pixel column was rendered for perf reasons.
Remarkable, really. Also, this was released in 1998, three years after the 16
bit era was winding down in the US.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9doqwl-U7jU

~~~
SG-
That gameplay looks more like Wolfenstein but with Duke sprites.

I honestly feel bad for kids who thought they were getting a decent game or
reading about games being released around the world and seeing images of them
and thinking that Sega Master system could do it. At least it was cheap.

The Street Fighter II footage has sprites that look like it, but the gameplay
isn't really anything like it.

------
ForHackernews
Brazil is also an alternate universe where Orkut was extremely popular:
[http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/facebook-beats-orkut-
brazil/](http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/facebook-beats-orkut-brazil/)

~~~
oscargrouch
I was using Orkut(here in Brazil) in 2004. Long before Zuckerberg was even
thinking about building one, and before the MySpace fever in the US.

About the time Facebook was catching up here in Brazil(about 2009/2010), Orkut
had years ahead of social networking history.. they lose to themselves, or to
the social class system here, because too many people was using it, and the
early adopters, and the "cool people" were abandoning the ship, because it
loose the energy, and became too spammy

------
karaujo
Stopped reading here: "its Master System (later called Genesis in America)".

The Genesis was the Mega Drive, not the Master System.

At the time Nintendo was not officially selling in Brazil, but there were
several NES clones selling. Sega was popular, but not dominating the market
entirely.

~~~
shortformblog
Hey there,

Author of the piece. This was an error added during the editing process—if you
read later in the piece, the difference is sussed out a bit. The point about
NES clones becoming popular in Brazil is also touched upon in the piece.

It's getting fixed now. Sorry about that.

~~~
sataaa
It happens again throughout the story. The figure pictured here:
[https://i.imgur.com/M6YHU51.png](https://i.imgur.com/M6YHU51.png)
misrepresents that also as a Genesis. No Master System in Brazil was a version
of Genesis. The Master System revisions included the 6 button controllers but
were still Master System consoles. Only played Master System games. Not Mega
Drive games.

Every version of Genesis was called Mega Drive.

edit: Thanks for fixing it!

~~~
shortformblog
No problem! Just needed to ping my editor to ensure that the changes were
made. :)

------
imjk
I'm still waiting for TurboGrafx-16 to take off somewhere so that I can buy
new games for it.

~~~
dfxm12
Check out this homebrew team. They even make their own version of a HUCard.

[http://www.aetherbyte.com/aetherbyte-
software.html](http://www.aetherbyte.com/aetherbyte-software.html)

~~~
agumonkey
Finally got to see the internals of a HUCard
[http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=14103.0](http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=14103.0)

Brilliant form factor.

------
rsrsrsrs
Can not confirm the facts quoted in the story.

By the way, most articles I read about Brazil extrapolate one or two pieces of
information into a very biased view.

(Brazilian here)

------
soapdog
Just for the curious, this is the current Master System they are selling
[http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=20](http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=20)

There is also the portable version which ressembles a controller and you plug
directly to the TV
[http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=19](http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=19)

And the portable MDPlay which is a handheld genesis
[http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=18](http://www.tectoy.com.br/prod_interna.aspx?id=18)

;-)

I am Brazilian and SEEEEEEGGGGAAAAAAAAA will live forever!

------
S_A_P
So if they are still selling 150k units monthly and TechToy isn't making them
anymore- where is this stock coming from?

After re-reading this paragraph:

"But with Sega having not built a new console in more than 15 years, Tectoy
has shifted its strategy a bit. Instead of simply making video games, it now
makes DVD players, Android tablets, and even baby monitors. They may not have
Microsoft or Nintendo in their corner, but their licensing game is strong—with
both Mickey Mouse and Spongebob Squarepants giving their DVD players a little
extra snazz."

I guess its not explicitly saying that they dont make them, but I got that
impression on first read.

~~~
speeder
TecToy actually still manufacture Sega consoles, they sell new MasterSystem,
new Mega Drive, and has a product named "MDPlay" that is a portable Mega Drive
(actually it is seemly some arm console with a Mega Drive emulator, it runs
games better than their real Mega Drive that use crappy cheap chips, and
people found out you can hack it to put any Genesis rom you want and it will
run, Tec Toy briefly yanked it out of the market when that information started
to spread on Orkut)

------
goshx
Can confirm. I had a Master System II when I was a kid. Spent hours of my
young life playing Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Most of my friends at the time
had Mega Drive consoles (Genesis = Mega Drive, not Master System).

~~~
zorked
I thought for a long time that Mario was some sort of Alex Kidd rip-off.

------
emersonrsantos
I'm astonished no one talked about MSX (which architecture is virtually the
same as the Master System).

MSX was a 8-bit computer launched in 1985 that had a great user base (selling
300k units on launch). Its open architecture which originated in Microsoft
Japan and ASCII Corp. It had great success also in Europe, Japan, South Korea
and others, just like Master System.

This gave companies like Konami, SEGA, Namco, Activision, Taito, ASCII and
others a great incentive to develop its famous games for this platform which
became predominantly gaming oriented, most units coming already with bundled
cartridges and game controllers, particularly MSX Gradiente 1.0.

To port MSX games to Master System was very trivial, given the similarities
between both platforms, as follows: Zilog Z80 processor, at 4Mhz, 64kb RAM,
8kb ROM, the only big difference being the video chip.

There are plenty of resources on the Internet and dozens of emulators
available and being maintaned. One of the most interesting projects is the
recent Alan Cox's Fuzix OS which goal is to "provide a complete System V
experience, without the bloat"
([https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX](https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX)).

~~~
nona
Oh yeah, my beloved MSX (sniff).

Small correction: it wasn't launched in 1985 - I bought mine (A Philips
VG-8000) in 1983.

~~~
emersonrsantos
I know, but Brazil back then had import barriers on computers, cars and most
of technological products in favor of national industry.

The first MSX was manufacured and commercialized only after 1985, although we
had an Apple II clone (TK 2000, my first computer), ZX and TRS national
clones. The first IBM PC/XT clone was lauched in 1985 as well, by Itautec.

------
tagrun
Wuldn't a Raspberry Pi 1 (with emulators) work much better? It's just $25,
runs 1-4th generation console games as well as MAME games.

Raspberry Pi 2 can do even more for $35
[http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/](http://blog.petrockblock.com/retropie/)

~~~
m45t3r
A Raspberry Pi costs about R$200 in Brazil, or US$60.

And the majority of these consoles are bought by poor people (income of equal
or less than a minimum wage in Brazil, that is R$788 or about US$235), that in
the majority of cases don't have too many familiarity with technology.

So imagine that you have a low income like I said above, you have a teenage
child that wants to play games. You probably don't even know that Raspberry Pi
exists, so you go to a local store and see these kind of video-games selling,
that are much less expensive than current-gen consoles. To make your kid
happy, you buy this old console, so this is why there is still a market for
them.

~~~
tagrun
> A Raspberry Pi costs about R$200 in Brazil, or US$60.

Even if you order it online? It's hard to believe that shipping to Brazil
costs 35USD, more than the device itself (25USD).

There is also C.H.I.P., a 9 USD computer, which is comparable to Raspberry Pi
1.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-
wor...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-
first-9-computer) I hope you won't tell me that it costs more than 50 USD in
Brazil.

~~~
m45t3r
If I remember right you can't buy a Raspberry Pi from the traditional online
stores that sell them (they don't send to Brazil), so you need to buy from a
reseller. I ordered a Raspberry Pi online from eBay, had to pay US$50,00 that
wasn't exactly so bad (and it was a kit instead of only the RPi, including
memory heatsinks, USB charger and a case). So yeah, it is possible to save a
bit of money, yeah.

However, this is counting that you don't pay the abusive taxes that the
brazillian government asks for imported goods. If I had to pay those taxes for
my RPi I would pay 60% of the price of the product in taxes, more 12% for IOF.

I didn't buy CHIP because I would need to pay US$15 for the delivery cost.

~~~
tagrun
OK, so even with terrible delivery cost, CHIP makes sense for the general
public in Brazil: 24USD for lots of systems & games.

~~~
m45t3r
Makes sense if you know how to configure one, but not everyone knows
technology very well, and this is especially true with poor people. This kind
of console is popular to this public.

------
speeder
Brazillian here:

The article is VERY wrong about something: When TecToy started to dominate the
market, the import taxes for videogames were not crazy high, this came later
(because of lobbying by the biggest local videogame manufacturer, of course I
can't tell you who, but I am sure you can guess).

------
bediger4000
I think you'll also find that Pepsi won the Cola War in Brazil. Must be an
interesting place, where so many counterfactuals came true.

~~~
pbh101
I've been to Brazil many times and I've never even seen a Pepsi bottle,
whereas Coca-Cola seems to be part of the culture there even moreso than in
the States.

~~~
alganet
It varies drastically depending on the state. In São Paulo it is pretty common
to see PepsiCo's presence in both sodas and snacks (Elma Chips), but people
often prefer Coca Cola.

Mountain Dew isn't here, but Pepsi Twist (some hybrid in between Pepsi and
Montain Dew) is sold regularly.

Also, it is fun to notice that I've had both Pepsi and Coca Cola with very
different flavors depending on the state.

AmBev is also pretty popular with Guaraná Antarctica. Coca cola tried to
introduce its own Guarana soda two times (Taí and Kuat) and mostly failed.

------
antidaily
The Master System was so great. Wonder Boy in Monster Land is one of my all
time favorite games.

------
shadowmoses
I know zero people that had a Sega Genesis and didn't love it as a kid.

------
m45t3r
Brazillian here. Thanks to this article I remembered the many bootleg games we
had here in Brazil.

For example, we had this hack called "Futebol Brasileiro 96" (something like
"Brazillian Soccer 96") that was a modification of "International Superstar
Soccer Deluxe" for SNES. It had brazillian teams and translated menus and
narration to Portuguese, however the translation was so broken that it was
funny. A clip of this game:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b82MzyafDzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b82MzyafDzg).
I still play this game sometimes, because the narration is unique (it is more
of a Spanish them Portuguese).

Another one is a hack called "Ayrton Senna Racing", modification of "Nigel
Mansell F1 Challenge". This seems to be a much better hack, however I didn't
play it when I had a SNES. The translation seems fine, except for the lack of
accents in the words. Clip here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKeB1AXsUqY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKeB1AXsUqY)

Or this one, called "Omega Brazil '97", hack of my favorite racing game of all
time: Top Gear 2. I had the original game, not this pirated version. But it is
still funny (anyway, Omega was considered a luxuous car in 1997, this is why
this hack used it). Clip here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQkjHhc99M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJQkjHhc99M)

The hacks are not limited to SNES however (the article even shows some
"official" hacks made by TecToy for Sega Master System/Mega Drive (Genesis)).
I remember various hacks for "Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer" (a game
that was much more popular here in Brazil them "Fifa", at least until the
PS3/Xbox 360 era). The majority updated team formations, translated menus to
Portuguese, changed the music, etc. Some even included Portuguese narration,
in some cases the sound was just ripped from live TV soccer games. An example
can be found here (and it seems to be a recent patch, from this year):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fpv4nhcAfY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fpv4nhcAfY).

The gaming industry is much better nowadays. You can find current generation
consoles in local stores, with official imports instead of going to the grey
market. There is even popular series (like FIFA/Pro Evolution Soccer,
Assassins Creed and GTA) that has official translations to Brazillian
Portuguese, including in some cases dubbing (the last Mortal Kombat is an
interesting example since some people criticized the performance of one of the
artists that dubbed Cassie Cage). The games are still expensive though, but
Steam helps in this case. However I sometimes miss the old times.

------
goshx
Can confirm. I had a Master System II when I was a kid. Spent hours of my
young life playing Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Most of my friends at the time
had Mega Drive consoles (Genesis == Mega Drive, not Master System).

