I find it that pretty much all the younger generations these days have no idea how video games came to Malaysia. I don't too. So for future's sake, let's document the arrival, lifespan, and popularity of arcades, and each console/handheld generations throughout the years, and to see how far back video gaming has been in Malaysia. Basically, I need those who have lived long enough to explain all that. This is kinda a tricky issue though, because while I have never seen any pre-PS2 consoles/games in a shop (or anything in that generation like Gamecubes, Xbox, or Dreamcast), I have seen things like bootleg GBC games and what seems to be bootleg SNES cartridges in very old shops. So there's the trouble of dealing with the history of bootlegs and pirated video games (anyone remember those handheld Tetris?), how they compare with the quantity of original materials here, and anything relevant.

This post has been edited by ganondork: Dec 21 2015, 04:22 AM

It started with the Atari. There was one shop in Jalan TAR last time selling Atari Computers. I believed that was the first or at least one of the first.

This

You need to know that during famicom era, we do receive the original NES (japan model) and a lot of bootleg model. Any other console like pcengine or turbografx is really rare. i dare say there is not much information before playstation era. Only NES, SNES, gameboy and few sega genesis /mega drive.

Others all play arcade. Cos console that time were really expensive.

This post has been edited by amxpayne67: Dec 21 2015, 09:41 AM

Micro Genius

Yeah. I remember that. In fact i bought my 1st computer, an Atari there. Computer in the keyboard. Just plug into tv.
Its model is Atari 600XL if i still remember correctly.

There are Commodore 64, Spectrum snd another brand starts with Zxxxx, can't remember.

ZX Spectrum you meant?

I only know these famous brands locally....Commodore, Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad....can't think of another brand with Z...

I was so used to those old 8-BIT computers....when introduced to PC...it's very weird for me...why ah...the PC so big in a separate box from the keyboard!!! LOL.

Yeah. Thats the one. Wow. . Old timer. . .

And i really love Atari's basic programming language. Its so flexible.

This post has been edited by Blindspot61: Dec 21 2015, 04:57 PM

Old fag spotted...LOL

My dream machine...a Commodore Amiga...

Too bad can't afford one when i was a kid.



This post has been edited by Matrix: Dec 21 2015, 04:59 PM

Arcades? Space Invaders?

ok, from what I recall, the early days of video gaming, the importers were parallel importers and there was no actual official presence for video games or authorised disributors.

hence you get the same kind of con-men/con-women selling games with prices varying from shop to shop.

the 1st actual official console to be brought to Malaysia using the 'official/authorised ditributor' model was iinm Sega Megadrive.

the company appointed by sega of japan to be the authorised distributor in Malaysia (and Singapore along with several asean countries) was WYWY...

1st megadrive console (basically Japanese megadrive but pal output)



2nd megadrive console (now in English)



and the wywy company still exists until today (though merged with another company), but no longer distributes sega or any video games for that matter...

http://servtouch-wywy.my/

they had a decent marketing campaign and actually bought full page ads in the English/Chinese papers in Malaysia/Singapore to announce the arrival of officially licensed megadrive consoles/games.

when street fighter II champion edition was released for megadrive, they also put out ads on papers again...

the sony playstation (psone) was the 1st official video game console to be brought in officially by the principal companies themselves (sony Malaysia sdn. bhd.) although it suffered from piracy issues.

but sony did try and their flagship store in KLCC even had a dedicated sony psone section (I used to drool at the display and games back when I was still studying, dreaming of the day when I can own original games)

in fact, I recall that sony had to dispose a lot of original PS1 games for dirt cheap when the ps2 was in full swing and luckily enough I got to buy a few of them at the ampang cash converters shop...



and until now sony has always brought in all of their consoles to Malaysia officially and luckily enough, ever since the ps3 days, the piracy problem has largely been avoided by sony due to their stronger copyright protection.

and iinm the sony PlayStation segment brings a significant amount of money to their sales, probably just behind their dslr/camera segment.

This post has been edited by Faidzal: Dec 21 2015, 11:32 PM

my father used to buy those game cartridges for Micro Genius (8-bit) and SNES (16-bit) in the 1990s.

One cartridge alone can cost as high as RM80.

Did arcades and the consoles enter our country about the same time they hit USA's shores, or did we only get them a few years after they got popular in the West? Are video games here as big as it is in Japan and USA in the 80s and 90s?

Were all the cartridge-based games and consoles imported (from which region?) or completely pirated? I don't think I have ever seen official game cartridges until the DS-era. In fact, I'm actually surprised our technology level was that high enough to bootleg games, including Pokemon ROMhacks and fan-translation.

What about the Nintendo 64? I have seen at least one Gamecube before (although no idea where to buy it) but I have never seen N64, Xbox, and Dreamcast in person. Were games for all those consoles pirated too?

Hearing about Commodore and ZX Spectrum, what about PC's history in Malaysia? Did we ever get (official or pirated?) Apple II and DOS/Win95, or just Japanese ones like the PC-9801? For a long time I thought Dota and CS:CZ were the only computer games out here. Did our country ever get the Doom/Quake/Half-Life/Unreal Tournament fever as America did? When did online gaming pick up here?


Overall, what is the general most popular game for each pre-2006 console in Malaysia (or, in PC's case, for each era/decades)? I think for PSX/PS2 it's obviously FIFA/NFS, whereas for GB/GBC/GBA it's Pokemon.

This post has been edited by ganondork: Dec 23 2015, 12:56 AM

i think for home consoles, we imported immitation famicoms from taiwan (micro genius etc.)
so my first console was a micro genius, back in 1991.

Start with ATARI than Micro Genius than Nitendo and SEGA and than PS1 and then PS2 and then desktop gaming and then married stop playing PS3 got PS4. My evolution in gamings.

i can recall seeing ads bout Micro Genius on TV last time lol

i can also remember MCA promoting PS3 coz can keep old people busy

our country always had all those games

but its (like most good things in Msia) limited to those neighborhoods with higher purchasing power

the kid down my road had a 3DO+Atari Jaguar. back then was like the most expensive console ever

wow..i still remember when my mum bring me to shopping complex,then i bring extra money for playing Nintendo in the shop
rm2 per hour..game used 3.5" diskette to load up..
then stopped because a lot of games are in Japanese language..can't understand a thing

Is that the one that looks like a cassette player ?

The games are on the cassette and took probably a lifetime (well maybe 15-30 minutes or probably less) to load.

My friend's elder brother came back from studying in the US that time and brought back that thing, so we all went to his house to play Lode Runners, Summer Olympics and other games I can't even remember already but mostly games that are you can find at amusement park like Ampang Park those days.

My first pc game (my dad's obviously) was around 87-88 I think, or probably 89.

Karateka was my favorite, too bad never completed the game.

The came Wolfenstein 3D which I think I completed but it was Dune II that made me enjoyed RTS.

The Atari 2600 console and original cartridges were available in Malaysia in the late 70's. At that time our CRT TV system was PAL only, so our imported cartridges would be from a PAL-compatible country (US was NTSC).

Defender was a stand-out game for the 2600.

I also have vague memory of seeing a Pong machine in KL before the Atari 2600 came out.

We had shops selling fake Apple ]['s and IBM PCs. One of these Apple shops, Pineapple Computers, is still around today.

Almost all games/software were pirated. One would go to the computer shop and choose the games from a catalogue, then wait for them to be copied to 5 1/4 inch floppy disks.

The popular games were Choplifter, Castle Wolfensten, Zork, Wizardry and a few others I have probably forgotten.