Istoria jocurilor video din România

[gamer 16]

Hi. I wanted to ask if anyone can tell me anything about the video game's history in Romania. I've been looking a bit on the internet but I can not find anything. I decided to write in this forum. If someone also has information about importers or distributors of a any console, please write as well. Thank you for all the information.

[gamer 16]

Because no one wrote back, I decided to find some information myself.
Nintendo
Omnitoys from 1994-2000 distributed Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 and maybe NES (but in very small quantities) Skin Media from 2001-2004 distributed Gamecube and Game Boy Advance. TNT Games sold Wii and Nintendo DS in 2004-2012. From 2016, the distributor is CD Media by Best Distribution.
Playstation
Probably in 1996, Sony Romania became a distributor.

I am still looking for information about Sega or other companies.So if anyone has any information, please write to me. Thanks.

[Crbl2001]

What about Microsoft?

[gamer 16]

So when it comes to Xbox consoles they have been distributed since 2003 by Best Computers. Microsoft Romania has been selling Xbox since 2006.

I have also found information that since 2004 N-Gage has been distributed by Nokia Romania.

[rodarkone]

Hey gamer 16 - nobody wrote you because is a very convoluted topic, I will try to give you some of what I know, but is very thin' so let's get started in Romania before 1989 (the communist regime fall) was very "sensitive" to have any "western" influence, you could have gone to jail if somebody reported you to secret police, and the collaboration with the secret police was 1/3 people. So mostly the "entertainment" was by using the home computers (some local brands like HC family or CIP03 that were clones of Sinclair) very rare few (celebrities, some families who receive goods from abroad and the very few that travel abroad) had access to video game consoles, I know a few folks that had NES consoles before 1989.

After revolution the first wave of consoles were the Atari clones from china, multi consoles that had anywhere from 100 games to 9999-in-1 of course in reality there were just about 100 anyway but with a different pallet swap. I remember I got my first clone in 1990-1991, called Sally game, it was built in Siria (yeah a I know .. funny thing) and it was a Atari Junior clone, the good thing was that this clone had a working cartrige slot (in general the slot was just a dummy) and I managed to buy 1 extra game from a consignment store ( locally called "Consignatie" ).

In the same period there were a wide spread a small electronic games (sprite based) that were swapped by the youngsters in schools (classes 1-8) or high-schools (classes 9-12). Basically those were single games or multigame based.

First "official' consoles that I remember, were Sega Mastersystem that were sold in stores and you just drool over the graphic on the "newer" color televisions.

My first console was an original Gameboy (I still love this "small" console to death) that was broght to me by my father from abroad (I would say it was 1990 / 1992) with few games (I know for sure that I had initially Tetris, Super Mario Land and Tiny toons)

In the years 1994 and up .. there was a big boom of computers ... so I can just tell you that the majority of youngsters were playing PC games, I remember all the time in my university I was only focused on PC's. The biggest PC game distributor in Romania was "BEST distribution/BEST computers" that were selling computer games, and they had a big catalog, having contracts with EA, Activision etc.

Coming back to game consoles I just heard stories about the consignment stores from "Unirea" super-store (mall) that were selling, renting or swapping games,and I remember that a console game was extremely expensive, and folks there prefer to rent the game for a few days or swap an old game for a new one.

The next official console that I bought was a PS2, that I bought was from a big computer chain called "Flamingo" with the specific desire to play a little game called "God of War" ... it was a self birthday present and I was super super excited for it, unfortunately when I bought it, they didn't had memory cards, so instead turning off the console, I was just let it run until the next day when I finished the game ... couple of days later I got the memory card and I played the game again, from begining. (I still have my original console) is the first one I have bought with my own money, new from the store.

There were a few SONY stores in the city center of Bucuresti (capital city of Romania) that were selling Playstation (original) games and accessories (but not in abundance).

The next console I have bought from store was a PS3 - original 60 GB model, that was backward compatible with PS2.

... there was a forum called computergames.ro where a lot of ppl provided the story of "how they become a gamer" with cool historical data, but unfortunately it doesn't exist anymore, not sure if somebody has an arhive of that. (and of course is in Romanian language )

Also on our forum there is a similar thread ... here

PS: some of the dates are from memory so I cannot be 100 % of the accuracy as it was a very long time ago, and is not documented with pictures or videos, that would have made things easy(er).

[gamer 16]

Many thanks for writing. Some of the events you described also took place in other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. For example, these are Atari clones, sometimes called Rambo (since this character is often on the box). And when it comes to games with sprints, do you mean Game nad Watch clones produce by the Soviet company Elektronika? They were also popular in other countries of the region.

As for other consoles, maybe there is more information in some newspapers but unfortunately I don't have access to them. It's a pity because it's an interesting topic.

[rodarkone]

That's correct - the RAMBO - atari 2600 clones were the most "wide spread"

The Game & Watch clones produce in soviet were also on the market, especially in the eastern part of the country, folks from border were bringing those to sell in Romania for profit

But there were also Tetris 99-in-1 cloned.

And other type of electronic games, all kind of shapes and sizes coming from western countries (Germany, Austria .. etc)

[gamer 16]

Yes, even this Omnitoys company that I wrote about earlier imported Nintendo consoles in German versions.

I forgot to say that before 89 years the Soviets distributed their pong consoles in small quantities in other Eastern Bloc countries. I don't know if they were in Romania either. I have also heard that Poland and Bulgaria produced their own pong consoles on a small scale. And again, I do not know if it was also in Romania but it is so long ago that hardly anyone will remember.

[florent]

First , there were the Atari clones called Rambo , then the most succesful were NES clones called Terminator . They still sell Terminator games nowadays with high prices , the famous yellow cartridges . People who didn't have money went for portable Tetris consoles and played coin-operated arcade games . When the 16 Bit consoles hit the market , they were first spotted in Unirea Shopping Center . SNES was much more expensive than Sega Mega Drive , was this a global thing ? Sellers from Unirea had the Playstation before Sony Stores . I remember seeing a Playstation in Sony catalogue , but it was a slim . Best Distribution was also selling Playstation , Gamecube and GBA consoles and games . I don't remember them selling Xbox Classic , which was poorly promoted . Arcade games clubs were slowly replaced by Internet-Cafes . People who were not into PC gaming went for Playstation 2 . A very big hand to the console market was given by Altex , who sold not only consoles but also a large variety of games .

[Crbl2001]

There was a big problem with SNES's price.It was more powerful than Genesis/Mega Drive(sound chip was made by Sony)
And yeah,this was a global situation.

[gamer 16]

Yes. Super Nintendo was more expensive than Sega Mega Drive. I found the price from 1997. http://www.consolegames.ro/forum/att...tendoflyer.jpg
Unfortunately, I did not find the price for Sega. I wonder if Saturn or Dreamcast appeared in Romania

[Crbl2001]

I'm not sure about Saturn,but I know Dreamcasrlt appeared.

[gamer 16]

Perhaps Saturn was, but probably PlayStation was more popular and for this it was not widely available.

If you look at the markets of countries neighboring Romania, Atari Lynx, Amiga CD32 and 3DO were also available there, so maybe this consoles appeared here in small quantities.

[Crbl2001]

Yeah I remember playing a 3DO like 21 years ago.
So there are consoles that are popolar and some that aren't.In Romania PlayStastion is easily the most popular console brand.
Atari was somehow obscure in Romania,not many people knew about It.
On the other hand,Nintendo is quite popular here,but...you know...it's Nintendo
Sega was quite popular too,but since they're not in the console "war" anymore...
Sony,as I said,is very popular here.Most of the people only know about PlayStation 3 and 4.Believe me, I know this kind of people.
Microsoft is popular too,but not as Sony is.
In the rest,like in many other countries,we had lots of NES/SNES/Atari 2600/GameBoy Clones.
And that's the gaming industry in Romania.

[lukecelmare]

Yes. Super Nintendo was more expensive than Sega Mega Drive. I found the price from 1997. http://www.consolegames.ro/forum/att...tendoflyer.jpg
Unfortunately, I did not find the price for Sega. I wonder if Saturn or Dreamcast appeared in Romania

Just to give you an idea , the average monthly wage in Romania in 1997 was 632.086 .

[gamer 16]

It's a bit strange that it cost so much in 1997. The console was already old even on the Romanian market.

[Crbl2001]

It was 7 years old,of course,but on the other hand it was a powerful console,it could even do 3D

[Crbl2001]

Any other informations?

[gamer 16]

Because no one wrote back, I decided to find some information myself.
Nintendo
Omnitoys from 1994-2000 distributed Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64 and maybe NES (but in very small quantities) Skin Media from 2001-2004 distributed Gamecube and Game Boy Advance. TNT Games sold Wii and Nintendo DS in 2004-2012. From 2016, the distributor is CD Media by Best Distribution.
Playstation
Probably in 1996, Sony Romania became a distributor.

I am still looking for information about Sega or other companies.So if anyone has any information, please write to me. Thanks.

I came back after a long time. Unfortunately, I didn't get much information.
1. Omnitoys was founded in June 1995 and the first Nintendo ads in comics appeared in early 1997. It's difficult to know exactly when they started distributing Nintendo consoles. Was it 1995 or 1996 or 1997? I do not know.
2. I know that they have registered the Nintendo trademark in Romania and the advertising slogan '' Distractie fara sfarsit '' which appears in SNES ads. However, I couldn't find the date anywhere.
4. SKIN Media sold Nintendo consoles in 2001-2003. Later, everyone thought that Best Distribution would become a distributor, but in the end TNT Games was chosen.
3. I still can't give the exact release date of PS1. I don't know if it was 1996. Romania is not on the list of these countries so it's hard to find www.playstation-europe.com
4. I know that at the beginning of 1999 Sony Overseas Bucharest Office announced a great tour around the country in which LEVEL magazine was to take part. I don't know how it ended.

That's all.

[paul]

Have you talked to RvsS? He's from Best Distribution and knows the market. Maybe he can tell you more or can get you in contact with people that know more. Send him a PM.