Samsung made video game consoles once, and they were hilariously named

I’ve been a video game fan for as long as I can remember, but I never cared about console wars. I gamed on just about anything. If it had buttons, I was in. Yet somehow, I never gamed on a Samsung console, despite the fact that, surprisingly, Samsung did make a couple. Well… sort of.

Turns out, back in the day, Samsung released 8-bit and 16-bit home consoles in its home market, and they looked a lot like SEGA clones. They weren't. In fact, they were legitimate, official releases. But you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, especially based on their ridiculous names.

The first 8-bit Samsung console in South Korea was called the Samsung Gam*Boy. Yep. Sounds familiar, right? Then came the sequel, based on the cheaper Master System II refresh. It was called the Samsung Aladdin Boy.

And it only got wilder. Samsung’s 16-bit entries? Super Gam*Boy and Super Aladdin Boy. I mean… it's hard not to smile imagining the brainstorming sessions that led to Samsung and/or SEGA using these brands.

In late ’80s and early ’90s South Korea, you couldn’t just buy a SEGA or Nintendo console. Japan and South Korea had a complicated relationship, so Japanese electronics companies needed a local partner to reach the Korean market.

That’s where Samsung came in. In 1989 and 1992, Samsung teamed up with SEGA to release the Master System and Master System II under its own brand. That's how the Gam*Boy and Aladdin Boy came to be.

And the Gam*Boy, at the very least, wasn't exactly a Master System carbon copy. It had a different, Samsung-branded controller and an internal power supply rather than an external brick.

Later, SEGA's 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis console became the Samsung Super Gam*Boy and Super Aladdin Boy in South Korea.

Likewise, the SEGA Mega-CD was branded CD Aladdin Boy, and the Game Gear was known as the Samsung Handy Gam*Boy.

The odd one, in this case, was the SEGA Saturn, which went on sale in Korea as the Samsung Saturn rather than something like the Saturn Boy.

I must admit that SEGA holds a special place in my heart, and yes, I am a Samsung fan too. My first taste of gaming was on an 8-bit Master System I didn’t own. And a few years later, I bought my own 16-bit SEGA Mega Drive console. So it's impossible for me not to find this bit of gaming and Samsung history utterly fascinating.

Interestingly, Nintendo played the same game but found a different South Korean partner. Its NES/Famicom launched in Korea as the Hyundai Comboy, and the Super Nintendo became the Hyundai Super Comboy.

There were also the Hyundai Comboy 64 (Nintendo 64), as well as the Hyundai Mini Comboy, the latter of which replaced the actual Nintendo Game Boy.

Somehow, the “Boy” brand dominated several generations of gaming consoles in Korea. So I guess Samsung wasn't alone in this odd branding adventure.

Nowadays, Samsung and video games intersect in a different way. The company no longer sells consoles, but its modern TVs, smart monitors, and even Freestyle projectors feature the cloud-based Gaming Hub platform in select markets. Plug in a controller, and you can play games through paid cloud services without extra hardware.

Likewise, the Gaming Hub mobile app allows smartphone and tablet users in select markets to play mobile games through the cloud without necessitating downloads.