Famicom Goes International

The NES was available in some parts of Europe almost at the same time it was available in the US. It first debuted in 1986, with local distributors releasing it in Scandinavia and Germany. In 1987, Mattel signed a deal with Nintendo of Japan to distribute the NES in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Italy. Mattel did all right in Oz, but mostly struggled in Europe, whose NES division treated the console like a mere toy in advertising.

Countries in mid-Europe (France, Germany, The Netherlands) were handled by Nintendo International, an independent company of Nintendo themselves and the company that took over Mattel's UK distribution in early 1990. Mattel still held on to Italy until 1991, meaning that the NES had almost zero penetration in that region. This sort of hodgepodge distribution scheme in Europe was the main reason for the Sega Master System's superior sales. The situation didn't improve for Nintendo until it finally set up shop itself in Germany.

How popular was the NES in Europe? Several "Game Mag" articles have said that it was like the popularity of the NES over the SMS in the USA, only the opposite. This isn't entirely true for Nintendo International countries did fairly well with the console and by 1990, about 12 percent of French households owned a NES. Nintendo International also published in several languages their own Nintendo Power magazine clone, called Club Nintendo. Unlike NP it was a free newsletter and had a circulation of about 800,000 at its prime.

Admittedly, these effects aren't the sort of dominance that Nintendo displayed in USA. The company didn't really hit it in Europe until the introduction of the Game Boy, which was also an instant success.

The NES was a mild success in Australia, and Mattel's division sublicensed a few dozen games from American and Japanese companies. Beam Software (makers of Smash TV, Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum and a lot of other so-so NES games) were based in Australia and produced one or two titles exclusively for the locals. Most notable and the only sim based on the rare sport - Aussie Rules Footy.

Also mixed in the local market was the slightly mysterious company HES (Home Entertainment Suppliers.) This Australia-only unlicensed third party had their own method of getting around Nintendo's lockout chip. They used a dongle into which the licensed NES cart had to be inserted. (Codemasters used a similar tactic for their UK releases - they simply put their games in Game Genie cases.) Although not really a pirate company, all of their games came from Sachen, BIT Corp. and other Taiwan/Hong Kong manufacturers. Some HES titles have not seen official NES-cart release anywhere else, making them appealing to collectors.

As Famicom's popularity grew in Japan, it also spawned the creation of many pirate companies throughout Asia who attempted to capitalize on the success of the system. These companies released unlicensed cartridges and even compatible consoles at cheap prices. Dendy, one of the best known, was the Russian version of Famicom, released and sold after the Soviet Union's collapse. It was pretty much an exact copy of the original Famicom with only a few minor "local" adjustments.