> >In fact, I don't recall seeing ANY of the third-party games at my local
> >stores (in Toronto) in the era - just mail order from certain places
>in the USA. >
> >
>That's a bummer...
>
>Did you never see any of the working designs titles, either?
I never saw them in the original release.
I eventually saw a couple of them up here in one specialty store, but it
seemed like they went out of their way to acquire them.
>That could have been a copyright issue more than anything else. Or it
>could be that the companies owning the original copyrights to the games
>being translated were not giving these companies the right to distribute
>outside the US. That's not uncommon.
No, I don't think that was the issue at all. Canada and USA are usually
considered as one region with regard to licensing and copyrights.
I got the feeling (whether it's true or untrue) that one of two things
happened:
(1) NEC liked to import, produce, and distribute the games - just like
Nintendo. And while they allowed third party companies to create the
games, I think those companies might have been left to work out their own
distribution - which is pretty hard to do actually.
(2) Maybe everybody just "forgot" or overlooked Canada. It happens. And
once in a while, people decide not to distribute at all in Canada due to
the perception that all documentation needs to be bilingual.... which
certainly isn't the case (but additional research *is* required in order to
find out what *IS* necessary). So maybe they gave up on us. Or maybe NEC
set a dangerous precedent by doing it for their early titles. I know they
didn't continue with french manuals for too long...
- Dave