Samsung Super Aladin Boy (AKA Sega Megadrive)

[Goldberg]

Scouring eBay for some bargains, I keep coming across Korean versions of Megadrive Games.
So, curiosity has finally got the better of me and I have learned something..

Japanese companies could not sell in Korea unless they went through a 3rd party. This often included changing some of the chips in the machines too.

The Sega Megadrive was known as the Samsung Super Aladin Boy (the master System was known as the Aladin Boy). Nintendo used Hyundai for their Korean releases.

I found an interesting article here on the Super Aladin Boy/Sega Megadrive:

http://www.segagagadomain.com/hardwa.../korean-md.htm

What that says above roughly translates as Super Aladdin Boy which is what the Koreans called the Sega Mega Drive. Yep, even though the Mega Drive name still appears on the machine and games they had to go ahead and give it a different name. However, all this had a reason. You see, back before the turn of the millennium Japanese companies couldn't sell their electronic goods in Korea without going through a 3rd party. Nintendo went with Hyundai while Sega went with Samsung. Samsung also released Sega's Master System in Korea under the name of Aladdin Boy, hence the Mega Drive being called the Super Aladdin Boy.
As you can see above the actual hardware looks very similar to the Japanese hardware with a few little alterations. The main being the Korean text under the 16 BIT logo along with the Samsung logo replacing the Sega logo in the bottom right corner of the machine. Everything else is pretty much identical to the Japanese system. Although this system is actually made in Korea by Samsung. Samsung also manufactured the Master System and Saturn for the Korean market. The Saturn is a joke though. There's no reset switch even though the button is there and the whole system feels very cheap. Samsung even went to the trouble of removing the Japanese language option from the bios while leaving all the other language options intact and even more strange, not bothering to add a Korean option. Talk about childish!Below you can see photos from the Samsung Mega Drive PCB. It clearly states "made in Korea" by Samsung as well as having a whopping big Gold Star chip (now L.G.) on it as well as a Samsung one. The Audio chip is still by Yamaha and main CPU by Sega. The machine's region coding is the same as Japan as well. So all Japanese software will run on this Mega Drive as will the Japanese Mega CD and 32X.
	The bottom of the machine also looks the same as all others apart from these stickers. The big long sticker actually gives the addresses and phone numbers of all the Samsung dealers in Korea. Probably in case your machine dies and you need to get it repaired.The center sticker is your basic machine details such as power, serial number and maker. And of course the maker is marked as Samsung, not Sega.Finally there's 3 incan (name prints). I'm not sure what these are. They could be the prints of the shop where the system was bought or something entirely different. I really don't know.Below you can see the service center and serial stickers in higher detail by clicking on the thumbnail pictures.
Around the back of the system things do look quite empty. The PAL System has an RF out, AC in and Multi AV out. The Japanese system has all of those plus a modem port. The Korean Mega Drive though only has the Multi AV out and AC in. Looks like there's no call for a RF out in Korea and it seems unlikely that Samsung would bother to support the modem.
Around the front of the machine near the ear phone socket we have two prices listed in Korean won. I have no idea what these relate to though since I don't speak Korean. The sticker is one of those wax based ones that sort of breaks off than peel off. I'm not sure if this sticker is put on to the machine by Samsung of the actual store. It does seem a bit odd for Samsung to do it though. Finally there's the control pad. As you've guessed it's just the Sega pad with Samsung's name printed upon it. So there you have it. The most rare of all Mega Drives available. The Koreans are not too keen on selling there older consoles to the none natives so not many of them manage to leave the country which is probably why you may have never seen this particular model before.

[Goldberg]

The Super Comboy (Super Nintendo) article here:

http://scanlines16.com/blog-3/retro-...omboy-english/

Hyundai Super Comboy : The Master List (in English)

Posted on 5 March 2013
Over the last years, I’ve presented a bunch of South Korean Hyundai Super Nintendo games on this blog. I haven’t updated that area of my collection since then because I’ve been busy with other things, like finishing the Samsung Super Gam*Boy article.
This article being *almost* completed, I decided to move on and spend some more time on gathering infos about Nintendo’s 16bit console Market in South Korea. It’s been a little more difficult for me to actually get my hands on Super Comboy games and shoot them from every angle like I did with the Super Gam*boy games ; mainly because of the global popularity of the Super Nintendo around the world. Popularity also means there’s a lot more people now than there used to be getting interested in purchasing those games when they appear which result in constant price increases. To be perfectly honnest this is one of the reason I haven’t been too keen on sharing my infos, as I’m quite sure this kind of article will brings new players into collecting Super Comboy games. Players that will surely go credit card crazy as soon as the next Complete-In-Box Super Comboy game pops-up. So I made a choice, I recently convinced myself that some games are now simply out of my league and decided to publish this piece anyway. Enjoy it

Super Comboy Loose Cartridges taken from my personal collection.

BEHOLD THE HYUNDAI SUPER COMBOY 슈퍼 컴보이 MASTER LIST !


GAMES

As you can see on the Master List, I’ve counted 34 official Hyundai/Cost releases, 1 bootleg release and 1 official accessory so far. But there might be more, for exemple some variations still need to be accounted for as no real box pictures have been seen for them up to this day like the Super Mario Kart blue box. Also it seems that a lot of games were imported straight from japan, some carrying a very simple black & white instruction sheet in Korean (Romancing Sa-Ga 2)… hard to say how many of these are around in South Korea, besides it looks as if most of these were RPGs with a heavy load of japanese text. One can hardly consider them as real Super Comboy release (unlinke NBA JAM T.E. who was at least repacked by Hyundai).
(you can click on the game’s name for further details, when available).
•Official Releases :
Axelay – 아크스레이

Brawl Brothers – 브롤 브라더스

Congo’s Caper – 콩고스 캡퍼

Contra III : The Alien Wars – 콘트라 3

Dragon Ball Z Super Butouden 3 – 드래곤볼Z 초무투전 3 – Hyundai 현대전자

Dragon Ball Z Super Butouden 3 – 드래곤볼Z 초무투전 3 – Cost 코스트 교역 (Reprint)
F-Zero F-제로

Fighter’s History – 파이터스 히스토리

Final Fight – 화이널 화이트

Hanguk Pro Yagu (Super 3D Baseball) – 한국 프로 야구

Mega Man X – 메가맨 X

Mega Man X 3 – 메가맨 X3 – Cost 코스트 교역

Street Fighter II – 스트리트화이터

Super Buster Bros. – 슈퍼 부스터 브로스

Super Donkey Kong – 슈퍼 동키콩

Super Donkey Kong 2 – 슈퍼 동키콩 2

Super Donkey Kong 3 – 슈퍼 동키콩 3

Super Ghouls’n Ghosts – 슈퍼 구울즈 엔 고스트

Super Mario All Stars – 슈퍼 마리오 올스타즈

Super Mario Kart (Blue SNES Box) – 슈퍼마리오 카트 To Be Confirmed (TBC)

Super Mario Kart – 슈퍼마리오 카트 (Reprint)

Super Mario RPG – 슈퍼 마리오 RPG

Super Mario World – 슈퍼 마리오 월드

Super Mario World – 슈퍼 마리오 월드 (Reprint)

Super Mario World 2 : Yoshi Island – 슈퍼 마리오 월드2: 요시아일랜드

Super Soccer – 슈퍼사커

Super Street Fighter 2 – 슈퍼 스트리트화이터 2

Taekwon-Do – 태권도

Tetris & Dr. Mario – 테트리스 & 닥터 마리오

TMNT IV : Turtles in Time – 확대 던지기의 위력

The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past – 젤다의 전설 – 과거로의 링크

Tiny Toon Adventures : Buster Bust Loose ! 타이니 툰 어드벤처 : 버스터 부츠 루즈
U.N. Squadron – U.N. 스쿼드론

NBA JAM T.E. – NBA 토너먼트 에디션

•Bootleg :
Super 20 in 1 – 슈퍼 20 일 – GL (Game Line) GL 게임라인

•Japanese Import with black & white instruction sheet in Hangul (might be more of these around) :
Romancing Sa-ga 2 – 로맨싱 사가 2

Seiken Densetsu 3 – 성검전설 3 (TBC)

Utopia – 유토피아

•Official Accessory :
Super Mini Comboy – 슈퍼 미니컴보이





HARDWARE REVISIONS


I’ve counted 4 different console revisions and 2 Joypad revisions :
1) Console with English Buttons names, ON/OFF and POWER LED Embossed in English on the front plates (100% English)

2) Console with Hangul Buttons names, ON/OFF and POWER LED Embossed in Hangul on the front plates (100% Hangul)

3) Console with Hangul Buttons names and embossed POWER LED, but ON/OFF is embossed in English on the dark grey font plate (mixed)

4) Console with Hangul Buttons names, ON/OFF and POWER LED Embossed in English on the front plates but also printed in Hangul on the side. (Mixed)

3 different variations taken from my personal collection

Again there might be more, these are just the obvious hardware revisions but I belive some motherboard were also different, check out this exemple :

Different Power plug, some are AC other are DC = means different revisions of the motherboard (I also believe some might have the plug-in sound board and some just the soundchip, I haven’t checked yet, but the one I’ve modified myself with stereo output had the sound board inside).
Regarding the Joypad (SNSN-005 KOR), only 2 known variations :
1) Start + Select buttons in English
2) Start + Select buttons in Hangul










ADS






Let’s finish this article on a funny note with the 2 super cheesy TV commercials (beware, copyright infringement inside !) :

[QfanatiQ]

I miss my Snes!

[{{909}}]

very interesting, but not surprising with the Koreans.

Its a shame they didnt do the same in the UK and have Alan Sugar manufacturing the NES.

[Goldberg]

very interesting, but not surprising with the Koreans.

Its a shame they didnt do the same in the UK and have Alan Sugar manufacturing the NES.

He wouldn't have brought that terrible console out that he did then!

[Mystical_2K]

very interesting, but not surprising with the Koreans.

Its a shame they didnt do the same in the UK and have Alan Sugar manufacturing the NES.

i wouldnt want that fuckwit anywhere near the SNES or any other classing gaming machine, he should stick to his own brand of shite

[{{909}}]

i wouldnt want that fuckwit anywhere near the SNES or any other classing gaming machine, he should stick to his own brand of shite

stung on an e-m@iler?

[Goldberg]

stung on an e-m@iler?

Hahaha, the parents bought one of them when they went down to about £30 many moons ago.
Was great at the time as we had an uncle working abroad and we used to dial up each morning to check the emails and send him a list of PS1 games I wanted him to get from the Hong Kong markets

[Mystical_2K]

stung on an e-m@iler?

nope just hate the guy and the shite he produces, i would shove his e-m@iler right us his sugar coated arse