History of Sega in Argentina

History of Sega in Argentina
Official Sega distributor(s): Gameland (1992-1995/96), BMG Ariola (1995/96-1998), CD Market (1999-200x), Synergex (2007-2012), NC Games (200x-2019), Latam Games (2012-present)

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Gameland

In the 70s Argentina was one of the countries where Sega imported its game machines.

In 1992 the division of Impotronic called Gameland began working with Brazilian Tec Toy in order to distribute Sega consoles. From June 1992, Gameland began advertising first model of Sega Master System (known in the region as Master System II) and first model of Sega Mega Drive (known in the region as Mega Drive II). In 1993 they introduced Game Gear with Master System II (known in the region as Master System III Compact) and year later Sega CD and Master System Super Compact. The last system sold by them was Mega 32X in 1995. Stock intended for Argentina can be identified by sign PAL N or 220V.

In 1992, Club Sega de San Martin was established by distributor. From the very beginning, the distributor had its own Hotline and the consoles were distributed with a phone number.

BMG Ariola and CD Market

Between 1995 and 1996, distribution was took over by BMG Ariola which sold Mega Drive II (known in the region as Mega Drive III), Sega Saturn and new version of Master System III Compact. Cablevisión TCI carried an Argentine version of the Sega Channel from September 1996.

In late 1999, CD Market began distribution of Sega Dreamcast, although it is not clear whether the stock came from Tectoy or from USA.

Piracy

Infamous King Karol mascot

When Gameland began distribution of Sega hardware in 1992, market was already flooded with hundreds of Famicom clones. There also existed market of importers which delivered to country new games and systems by e.g Sega, originate from USA, Europe (mainly Spain) and some like T&T from Asia. The first Mega Drive clones began to pop up on the market sometimes between 1992/1993 and in mid-90s became one of the most popular video game systems in the country due to it's low price. In addition to clones, pirated versions of games and accessories also reached the country. The popularity of Mega Drive systems was very long and lasted until late 2000s. During this time, the name also evolved. Initially, the consoles came to Argentina under the name Mega Drive, but due to many clones with different names, people began to call 16-bit systems Sega. In the 2000s, clones called Genesis became popular and many younger players call this systems like that. The number of clones supplied to the Argentine market and it's distributors is impossible to count due to the existence of hundreds of fakes, many of which not localized to this market in any way, but sold in standard packaging seen in other parts of the world.

Gameland as first began fighting parallel imports and bootleg games with advertisements, informing customer how legal games looks like. But the fight was very unfair and many video game magazines like Action Games printed adverts with bootleg systems next to official ones.

In the 1990s, there were many companies that started by copying the Famicom and expanded their offer to Mega Drive, that includes Electrolab with Super 16 Bit, MG-16, MG-16R and MGW-16; Froggy System 16 distributed by BTE Electronics SA, as a successor of 8-bit Froggy Family Game; Nasa Mega Drive and New 16 Bit by famiclone producer Nasa.

On the other hand King Karol Argentina promoted it's King Karol consoles with mouse mascot, resembling Sonic and even releasing own cartridge with changed cover.

In addition to selling counterfeit and unlicensed games, Argentina had created its own ones. Miky released TC 2000 (1995), Futbol Argentino 96 (1995), Truco '96 (1995), Futbol Argentino 98 (1997).

Other smaller brands includes Turbo Aito distributed by Universe Electronic SRL (1994), KW-II, Kowi 96' and Kowi 97' by Kowi, Kinyo Mega Drive, MG-2 distributed by Kinyo, Argevision Mega Drive, Generation II by Argo, Super Senga by Casa Mundo (1994).

One of the longer existing companies on the market is Songa, which sold Super Songa (mid-1990s), Songa Magic 2 (mid-1994), Songa II (late 1996), Songa ZW-163 (early 2000s) Songa ZW-167 (2000s), Mega Brasil 3 (2000s) and many more. Other long term producer is Alien Argentina with systems like Mega Drive One or 16-bits Mega Drive 2.

In 2000s, new clones were often disguised as Genesis 3, despite not being officially released here or took parts of design from Genesis 2. It was also the time when portable MD clones began to hit the market, like Mega Drive Portable series by Dynacom Argentina, HG-806 or PXP Slim Station.

The new Mega Drive clones are sold to this day.

Present days

In 2007, Synergex became a representative of Sega and distributed titles until 2012. From late 2000s, Sega games are distributed locally by two distributors - Latam Games and NC Games.