Found this from Frank Cifaldi kinda interesting, felt posting here might be neat since we have several Brazilians that linger and might have stories or tales to tell. Be sure to see Frank's replies to himself as well:
https://twitter.com/frankcifaldi/status ... 7753480192
Brazilian Phantom console and licensed NES cartridges
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Re: Brazilian Phantom console and licensed NES cartridges
I never realized that Gradiente released licensed games, I always assumed everything was pure piracy.
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Re: Brazilian Phantom console and licensed NES cartridges
Gradiente did eventually produce a licensed version of the NES via its Playtronic venture, but it was not a big seller considering all the clones sold before it.
Re: Brazilian Phantom console and licensed NES cartridges
IIRC, by the time Playtronic released the Brazilian NES (i.e. the original NTSC console with an extra board that converted the video output to PAL-M), they had already released the SNES as well, so we were well into the 16-bit era already. The NES was probably marketed as a budget system for people who couldn't afford the SNES, but anyone who cared about video games already had an NES clone (the Phantom System was one of the most popular clones) or a SEGA console.
I remember a couple of friends owning Playtronic NESs at the time, but Phantom Systems and Turbo Games were much more common.
I remember a couple of friends owning Playtronic NESs at the time, but Phantom Systems and Turbo Games were much more common.
Re: Brazilian Phantom console and licensed NES cartridges
I've found this topic, in portuguese to be very informative too.
Looks like Gradiente have licensed some titles but some got unreased.
I was also wondering why I have never seem pirate games with battery backup RAM back in the day, cost prohibitive perharps?
Edit: Looks like the answer is in this topic wich tells my fight to build a translated repro of Zelda.
The problem seems to be that the pirate mapper could not support some of the functions needed by the game very well.
To make a good product they possibly would need to make a better mapper clone or add external circuits to fix the issues, wich probably would make the costs prohibitive.
Looks like Gradiente have licensed some titles but some got unreased.
I was also wondering why I have never seem pirate games with battery backup RAM back in the day, cost prohibitive perharps?
Edit: Looks like the answer is in this topic wich tells my fight to build a translated repro of Zelda.
The problem seems to be that the pirate mapper could not support some of the functions needed by the game very well.
To make a good product they possibly would need to make a better mapper clone or add external circuits to fix the issues, wich probably would make the costs prohibitive.