Last Update: September 5th 2013

It’s been quite a while now that I have had some deep interest for the South Korean video game market. It first started a few years back when I moved to Hong Kong for a job at a videogames online retailing company. I started getting a few Playstation 2 and Gamecube Korean games because these were offering Japanese artworks with English ingame texts. That was until I found out about a retro-gaming market in South Korea. As a collector of Japanese games I found it very interesting to see that Korea had an alternative market of its own. And as a true Megadrive Fan I just went crazy when I found out about all the Sega games and systems sold in Korea under the Samsung license. I’ve already introduced the Hyundai Super Comboy aka Super Nintendo with my small collection of games to my French readers here and here and now the time has come to introduce you to the Samsung Super Gam*Boy!

A bit of history

“After the end of World War II, South Korea banned “Japanese cultural imports” such as music, film, Manga and literature. In South Korea, the ban was partially lifted under the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1998. In January 2004, the ban on imports of Japanese CDs and DVDs was finally lifted in South Korea. Despite this, there were some South Korean DVD imports of movies that were identical to Japanese DVDs sold from 1999 to 2003.” (source : Wikipedia).

After reading this, many deducted those were the reasons why Sega handed its Master System & Megadrive to Samsung (as they would do later with the Saturn and same as Nintendo did with Hyundai from the NES to the N64 era). Supposing that Japanese entertainement companies selling products in South Korea under their own name was just impossible and that the only way they found to avoid this embargo was to ask some major South Korean electronic manufacturers to handle both of their products localization and distibution isn’t that far fetched. And it’s probably true that because of these fragile relationships, many games officially distributed in South Korea contained English roms & texts rather than Japanese ones. However this has never been proven so far and the true reasons remain unknown to me to this day (it could have also been simply because any foreign entrepreneurship in South Korea required a joint venture or because Sega wasn’t willing to lay down financial resources for such a small market, or all of the above together…)

Quick view at the Master System/Mark III Era

In order to understand the South Korean branding of Sega Products, I belive it is important to start with the Master System. At the begining a few rebranded Sega Mark III consoles and games were released by a company named OACS but the Master System was quickly handed to Samsung under the name of Gam*Boy – Gem * Boy (and Nintendo’s GameBoy under the name of Mini-Comboy… sigh). It came with the shapes of a model 1 Master System and only had one small cosmetic change in its life time. The earlier version had its name written in Hangul, while the latest one had it written in Latin alphabet.

The system plays Sega Mark III Japanese cartridges and Sega “My Card” only, like the über-superior Master System from Japan. While priced at 119000₩ on release (around 120US$) and more expensive than the very popular Zemmix consolized MSX or any Famiclone, the Gam*Boy did sell quite well in South Korea. According to an early 1994 issue of the Game World magazine, the Gam*Boy sold about 130 000 units over its first year on the market, in 1989 (while the NES/Comboy poorly performed at 20 000 units for the same year, surely suffering from famicom wide spread piracy).

(thanks to derboo @smspower.org for the charts.)

A Gam * Boy Magazine Ad… It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Gam*Boy !

Among the great things about this Korean Master System are without a doubt the exclusive games as Mark III cartridges (such as Sonic 1 & 2, Streets of Rage 1 & 2 etc.…) and its joypads. As you can see on the pictures they are rounded and come with a real D-pad (which was supposed to be a Nintendo exclusive license by the way…).

Later in the early 90’s Samsung released the equivalent of the Master System Model 2 and changed the name to Samsung Gam*Boy II – Samsung gemboyi II which came built-in with the game Alex Kidd in Miracle World translated in Korean. When this model came around Samsung had already released the Megadrive under the name of Super Gam*Boy – Super * gemboyi.

But that’s not all, another fourth and fifth late revision of the Sega Master System were released under the name of Aladdin Boy – Aladdin Boy. The third one came into a classic black color while the fourth and final revision came into a pretty strange blue and yellow color and was sold with a Megadrive joypad (I belive the previous joypad production had been discontinued by then, otherwise why would you need a third button?). However the console box for that one is pretty nice isn’t it?

A bunch of Samsung Gam*Boy games from my own collection. As previously said, some games like the following Sonic 2 never even had a release in Japan :

Behold The Mighty Super Gam*Boy!

What better name than Super Gam*Boy – Super * gemboyi could suit the Gam*Boy successor more? After all we had our Nes and Super Nes right? I’ve been a Megadrive Fan since the early 90’s. When I first got it for Christmas, it also happened to be my first very own video game system. Ever since that time, It is still my opinion that it has one of the best design a video game machine can offer, especially that first model with the ring. Finding the following Samsung models outside of South Korea has been quite difficult and it will be for any of you that might get interested in getting one (same goes for any old Korean video game console anyway). These are truely some of my favorite pieces of hardware of all time (right after the Sega Wondermega) and even though I only found them in loose condition, they are in great shape with almost no scratches (especialy the earlier model presented right below).

The Super Gam*Boy was less successfull than the Gam*Boy in its early years. In the same way as the rest of the world, Nintendo 16bit console quickly became much more popular and when Hyundai released the Super Comboy in 1992 it outsold the Super Gam*boy in only a year :

Let’s have a look at it side by side with the Japanese model.

Japanese Sega Megadrive on the left, Samsung Super Gam*Boy on the right, each with its version of Sonic The Hedgehog.

Both systems are very similar in appearance, they have the purple area around the power led as well as the “AV Intelligent Terminal High Grade Multipurpose Use” purple text on the circular molding and the big “16-BIT” written in gold letters. Both of them are early models with the extension port in the back and they both play NTSC-JP encoded games. Appart from the Samsung & Super gemboyi logos they appear both identical on first look. However you might notice how the “Reset” button is a bit lighter on the Samsung model, at first I thought it was suffering from discoloration, but when I opened the system to clean it and take pictures I found out that the whole button had this color (only the top would have had that color, had this been some kind of sunfading). I’ve searched for other pictures on some Korean websites and all of them had that lighter color which appears to be specific to the Korean Megadrive.

The minute you flip the console around you notice some other tiny differences. The most obvious ones are the stickers. The sticker in the middle displays the system name, serial, product reference (Super Gam*Boy ref# is SPC-200, FYI Gam*boy aka Master System was SPC-100), AC specs and the old Samsung Logo written in Korean in lieu of the usual Sega one. The second one, the big sticker on the left, shows a list of Samsung Service Centers (Samsung Service Center) with phone numbers all sorted by areas. There’s also a third Quality Control sticker with some chop marks on it (Quality Certification) on the right. But there’s still a little difference that remains under there and correct me if I’m wrong but I own 3 Japanese and 1 Asian Model 1 Megadrive and none of them have those 2 square shapped little pads at the bottom. I’ve only seen those squary things under the Samsung Megadrive. That’s it for the differences, now let’s have a look at the Queen, shall we?

The Super Gam*boy by Samsung

Under the Hood

Ok, now that we’ve seen how nice it looks from the outside let’s strip the thing a bit. I’ve also taken appart the Japanese model for some comparison shots.

Super Gam*boy Motherboard

The first noticeable thing is that the South Korean model has a big GoldStar chip inside. Goldstar is the previous name of a well known Korean electronic manufacturer that calls himself “LG” today. However, the motherboards and most of the other chips are still branded by Sega and other Japanese manufacturers like Toshiba, Sony, Yamaha & NEC. One other thing I’ve noticed, which happens to be quite a funny fact, is that on my early Japanese model one of the chip is made by Samsung in Korea while the very same chip on the Korean model is made by NEC in Japan. One could also argue that the whole motherboard layout is different but unfortunately I don’t own every Japanese and South Korean revisions to make a deeper comparison.

Of course the South Korean and Japanese PCBs shown above are just 2 of the many revisions of the system. We already know for a fact that Japan, US & Europe had many motherboard revisions for the Model 1 Megadrive and it seems South Korea got itself the same treatment. For exemple here’s another PCB close-up hosted at segagagadomain.com.

Super Aladdin Boy Motherboard

This one is taken from a late revision (Super Aladdin Boy – Super Aladdin Boy) which had its EXT port removed in the back. As you can see the Goldstar chip is still there but this time the motherboard is branded by Samsung (SPC-200R / 201R REV A) and the nearby chip is also a Samsung one while on early model of the Super Gam*Boy it had a Nippon Electronic Computer chip…

Comparison shot of the Super Gam*Boy next to the Super Aladdin Boy

The Super Aladdin Boy (on the Right) had the “EXT” port removed.

The sticker on the front of the Super Aladdin Boy indicates both the ex-factory price (Ex-factory prices : 124 600₩ ~115US$) and the suggested retail price (Suggested retail price : 165 000₩ ~150US$)

Family reunion with Super Gam*Boy, Super Aladdin Boy & Super Aladdin Boy II

Names and Design Variations

Now, we’ve seen how the Master System had different names and variations in South Korea already : Gam*boy for the model 1, Gam*Boy II & Aladdin Boy for the model 2. Well, the naming went pretty similar for the 16Bit. Let’s have a look at the different retail boxes.

Regarding the sudden change of name from Gam*Boy to Aladdin Boy for the whole set of early 90’s Sega Systems in South Korea, some people belive it’s because in 1992, when the Disney movie Aladdin was released it became quite popular in South Korea. Samsung Might have thought it’ll be a good marketing strategy to change its product name with the word Aladdin in it. This is highly unlikely since Samsung was already using the name of “Aladdin” about a year ago for one of its new PC, the “Aladdin Magic Computer“. Also if we take a closer look at all dates, here’s what we find:

Samsung Super Gam*Boy (Super gemboyi) back cover advertising from the magazine Game World (Game World) of october 92…

November 92, still on the back cover of Game World, Samsung Megadrive is now called Super Aladdin Boy (Super Aladdin Boy)

Now, the release date of Disney movie Aladdin in South Korea : July 3rd 1993 (source : IMDB).

Here are some side by side comparison shots of a Super Aladdin Boy II with a Japanese and European Megadrive 2. Notice how the Power and Reset buttons on the Super Aladdin Boy II are similar to the European model in terms of shapes while the color layout of the system matches the Japanese system.

From left to right : European Sega Megadrive 2, South Korean Samsung Super Aladdin II, Japanese Sega Megadrive 2.

Games

For such at small market, South Korea had quite a lot of titles released on the Super Gam*boy, some of them didn’t even get a release in Japan like Decap Attack, Sonic 3D, Toe Jam & Earl 2 or the Tiny Toons and some got released in Korean ONLY (Space Turtle Battleship – Space Turtle Ship). There’s been quite a lot of game variations in South Korea, all distributed by 2 companies : Samsung mostly, and Hi-COM (who seemed to be one of Samsung distributor). Basically there were 5 main types of Samsung releases.
The very first batch of 10 titles that came out on the system had specific box art for the Super Gam*Boy and sometimes came in small VHS like boxes.

First run of Samsung Megadrive games in South Korea.

And as you will see later in this article, some Master System games were even brought on Megadrive cartridge during the early Super Gam*Boy period, probably as a transition between the 2 systems (more or less legitimately…). Then came the “White, Silver & Gold” series, then the “Full Page Cover” series and the “Brick Wall” series.

Finally, the late releases were sold under the name of Samsung Home Console Games – Samsung Home game consoles with a blue, red and yellow label pretty similar to the late Japanese or European Megadrive blue label or US Genesis red label.
The Samsung Home Console Games – Samsung Home game consoles logo can also be found on the retail boxes of the Super Aladdin Boy II, both on the SPC-201N and SPC-1600R bundles.

Here’s some pictures of games I have gathered together over the last years. And by the way, If you are selling/ seeing for sale any CIB Korean game that I don’t have, please let me know !

Let’s start with the only exclusive South Korean game released by Samsung, a vertical Shoot’em up : Uzu Keobukseon – Space Turtle Ship (more infos here)

The only exclusive Samsung title released in South Korea.

Then let’s have a look at a bunch of Loose cartridges. The first set of photos shows the 10 original games released for the Super Gam*Boy, you can recognize them by the roundish blue Samsung label. From those original titles, Golden Axe and The Super Shinobi were later re-released in the “White, Silver & Gold” series. It also seems that Samsung never got the license for Rambo III, so they had to put an orange Sega logo sticker over the cart label.
Don’t hesitate to click on any of the game’s name for more pictures such as other versions comparison shots and extras infos.

Tatsujin – Tasujin – GM4001JG

Altered Beast – Wed Royal Standard – GM4002JG

Space Harrier II – Space Harrier II – GM4003JG

The Super Shinobi – Detroit Super City – GM4004JG

Golden Axe – Golden Axe – GM4005JG

Super Thunder Blade – Super Thunder Blade – GM4006JG

Rambo – 람보 III – GM4007JG

Daemagyecheon – One magyechon – GM5008JG

Zoom – Zoom! – GM4009JG

Thunder Force II – Thunder Force II – GM4010JG

Some other random loose games, in order of appearance : Mystic Defender – Ondal General, Power Monger – Power monggeo, Chiki Chiki Boys – Naughty Adventures, Fatal Fury – Page two days Fury, Landstalker – Land Stalker, Last Battle – The Last Battle, Mutant League Football – That mutbol myutan tree, Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu Soccer-hen MD – Adoring high school - football, Rampart – Rampart, Sonic 3D Blast – Sonic 3D Blast, Streets of Rage 2 – Bare Knuckle 2, Streets of Rage 3 – Bare Knuckle 3, Super Street Figthers II – Super Street Fighter 2, Toe Jam & Earl – Pat holyiwa, Toe Jam & Earl in : Panic on Funkotron – Patrick Hall this, World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck – Mickey and Donald (click on any game’s name for more pics and infos).

“White, Silver & Gold” games:
(remember, you can click on any of the game’s name for more pics & info)

Bare Knuckles – Bare Knuckles

Some “Full Page Cover” games:
Art of Fighting – Sizing of the Issues

“Full Page Cover” Samsung games with the japanese MD logo on the spine:
Contra Hard Corps – Contra Hard Core. This South Korean version has a Japanese-like cover but holds a US Rom.

“Samsung Home” Games:
Light Crusader – Light Crusader

Hi-Com Games:
Sonic Collection – Sonic Classic

Some cool cartridges

The most noticeable thing about the following game cartridges is that these are either SG-1000 or Sega Mark III games that plays directly on any Sega Megadrive or Genesis system without the need of a pass-through adaptor.

Super Wonderboy – Super Wonder Boy, SPC-200 game

This game is really cool, it comes in a classic megadrive clamshell box and a slightly modified japanese shaped megadrive cartridge where the label is only on the front. It also uses the japanese artwork from Super Wonder Boy in Monster World while the game truly is just the old classic Wonderboy (you know, the half naked blond dude with a skateboard… ). This game seems to be an official game released by Samsung, not a bootleg. A very interesting item!

Most of you surely already know how complicated it is to sort the wonderboy/monster world/adventure island series but here are some new facts about it :

– 1) Super Wonder Boy in Monster World was also released in South Korea for the Samsung Master System, it came in a Sega Mark III gold box and uses the same artwork as the one from that video (aka its japanese original artwork). Again there’s a funny fact about the box mentioning a 1MB game while the Japanese one states it’s a 2MB game (probably just a mistake though).

– 2) Classic wonder boy was also released by Hi-COM for the Master system in South Korea, gold box as well, but hold on tight : this one has a weird Hudson like adventure island artwork on the cover instead of the classic wonderboy artwork we all know…

– 3) As seen on the above video, classic Master System WonderBoy was released on Megadrive and uses Super Wonder Boy in Monster World arworks…

Power Strike – Power Strike, SPC-200 game
Like Wonderboy above, this is a Master System game called Power Strike or Aleste in Japan. It’s hard to say how many of these convert exist in South Korea.

Various 3 in 1 cartridge, SPC-200 games made by Hi-Com and/or Samsung

Again, it appears to me that these cartridges were official releases in South Korea, athought they were most likely produced without the agreement of Sega Japan. They have been be made either by Hi-COM and/or Samsung in the very early stage of the Super Gam*boy era, check out this picture :

The old english Samsung logo is directly engraved onto the plastic.

The followings are Bootleg cartridges containing a bunch of Sega Master System games. Some of those SMS games are Korean Exclusive games made by OPEN or Hi-COM. The original versions of these exclusive titles as stand alone Mark III cartridges are very rare and go for quite some money when they appear on ebay.

Super Game 130

Super Game 138

Game Set 30 – Game set of 30.

Super Game 270 – Super game 270 (by CTI)

Extras (game listing, pictures & ads)

Other Sega Hardware released by Samsung for the Megadrive
Samsung Super-32X (SPC 32X):

Mega/Sega-CD (CD-Aladdin Boy & CD-Aladdin Boy II):

A Brand New Wireless joypad from my own collection:

South Korean Ads:

Some of the finest Korean collections:

Disclaimer & Thanks

All content from this article is ©scanlines16.com – 2011-2013, except for pictures without scanlines16.com watermarking who belong either to the public domain or to their respective owner.

Do not copy, modify or sell this article unless you have been authorized to do so by scanlines16.com. You can however quote some part of it as long as you give credit to scanlines16.com for it and post a link to this original page along with the quote. It has taken me a lot of time to compile, understand and write all the informations from this article, please respect my work.

Thanks to Guardiana.net for being such a ressourceful website and being THE best Megadrive website around. Thanks to Cyberguile for his astonishing discoveries over the last years and Thanks to smspower.org community and hardcoregaming101.net for their precious informations. Thanks to molotovwars for his input regarding the Super Gam*Boy games variations in general, to Taksangs for his pictures, to Hongseok for his Gam*Boy Master List and for helping me filling the blanks here and there and to all the people in South Korea collecting and posting images of their retro-gaming collection on the internet at Naver, Ruliweb & Egloos.

Ah, and of course thanks to you for reading this quite long article, I hope you enjoyed it

Other articles you might enjoy :
Gamecube South Korean Master-List
IQue GameBoy Advance
South East Asian Megadrive