Steepler
From Sega Retro
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| Steepler | ||
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| Founded: 1991 | ||
| Defunct: 1996 | ||
Headquarters:
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Steepler was video game distributor in former USSR countries.
History
The company started selling Dendy's console in 1992 which quickly became a hit. Steepler also started to release the cartridges in its own packaging. A small shop in Moscow also began to acquire dealers in other parts of Russia. In 1993, the shops in the CIS region and Baltic States were opened. In the same year, the Video-Ace Dendy magazine was created.[1]
In 1994, 1 million copies of Dendy were sold. Steepler decided that they should move all production to Russia to save costs, which meant that they purchased the Tenzor instrument engineering plant, located in Dubna.
Later the company separated with antoher one name Lamport. In the same year, the competition appeared: Kenga (created by Kenga, imported by Kenmaster and distributed by Lamport), Bitman (by Bitman) and Subor. No one was able to beat Dendy. Steepler began selling Mega Drive without Sega premision.
At the end, the company signed a contract with Nintendo to distribute their products in all states of the former USSR countries.[2]The products were imported from Germany. Super Nintendo and Game Boy were released. Steepler also had the right to sell the original NES console but it did not do that because Nintendo allowed for further distribution of the Dendy console.
In 1994, the Dendy New Reality program was created on Russian television which presented games for various consoles and promoted especially Nintendo products. In the same year cooperation with the Video Ace Dendy magazine ended and the Steepler created a new one called Dendy: The New Reality (just like the name of the slogan of the Dendy company). In 1996, a new television program called Mir Dendy was created, but it was not as popular as the predecessor. The same year promised the premiere of Virtual Game Boy, but it was not released in Europe and thus in Russia. In mid-1996, Steepler went bankrupt.
The exact reasons for the fall were never given. One of many cited are:
1. Poor sales of expensive Super Nintendo
2. In 1995, the prices of oil fell in which the company invested and many companies broke contracts with Steepler.
3. Problems related to the automation of the Russian State Duma
Dendy (company)
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| Steepler | ||
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| Founded: 1994 | ||
| Defunct: 1998 | ||
Headquarters:
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Dendy was establish in August 1994 by Incombank and Steepler. It was a chain of sales companies selling games and consoles. Dendy was the exclusive distributor of Nintendo, Konami, Ocean, Acclaim in Russia and CIS . [3]In 1995 Dendy became Subor representative in Russia and CIS.
Despite the collapse of Steepler, Dendy continued to exist as a distributor of Nintendo. In 1997, Bonza was one of the last great events. It was a cartridge for Dendy and Sega Mega Drive which simulated a real money machine. There was also a portable version for a special console.[4]
Little is known about Nintendo 64 in Russia which was released at the end of 1996 by Dendy. The console was expensive and it was sold during the economic crisis in Russia and was imported by many other Russian companies from Europe, the USA and Japan. In 1998, the crisis of games in Russia began and Dendy like many companies that sold games at that time fell.
Dom Dendy
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| Steepler | ||
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| Founded: 1993 | ||
Headquarters:
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Dom Dendy was establish in 1993. At the beginning it was a small retailer shop of Steepler and Dendy. It exist in Russia to this day and sells modern consoles like PlayStation 4 and also some clones of Sega and Dendy/Famicom.