Invasion of the newbies

[esteban]

I have to agree with Seldane about the distaste for the American equivalents - I always thought Turbografx-16 was a pretty horrible name. Even in those days I considered spelling anything with an 'x' or 'z' was pretty cheesy. Japanese all the way.

OK, it seems like only a handful of North Americans actually like the name "TurboGrafx-16" !!!

Rambling ensues.... (about the names of consoles)

As Keranu and vestcoat have already pointed out, "TurboGrafx-16" truly epitomizes 80's pop culture -- so much so that it is the SWATCH WATCH of video game consoles. I'll take an egregious name like "TG-16" over bland, boring names like "Sega Master System" and "Nintendo Entertainment System" any day.

"Genesis" and "Saturn" are kool names -- but they quickly lose their edge because it's hard to make an impression from a generic word. It's much easier to 1) create a new word or 2) combine two or more generic words when devising a console name. "Dreamcast" is a friggin' great name, AND it doesn't lose any ooooooomph the way "Genesis" and "Saturn" quickly devolve back into "normal" words. Perhaps if I hadn't gone to so many bible studies when I was a kid, I wouldn't be so jaded by "Genesis" (which is a kick-ass name, otherwise).

But you know what would have been much better than "Genesis"? Sticking with a biblical theme, I'd go with Leviathan (I like the imagery and connotations of this as well -- it could have worked!). Leviathan -- a console name that can still rid the world of heathens. OK, I'm joking about Leviathan. Or maybe not .

I'm no fan of the Xbox, but I have to admit that the branding is cleverly devised. Does it compare to the beauty of "Dreamcast"? No way.

"Genesis" and "Saturn" are timeless words. Classic words. So I don't think that they will ever sound dated. They will always sound respectable. All of the other console names I listed, however, will quickly become dated.

On that note, "TurboGrafx-16" is wonderful because it is so HOPELESSLY dated.  "Odyssey", "Genesis" and "Saturn" will stand the test of time, and our grandchildren will say, "Hey granpops, 'Saturn' would be a kool name for our virtual reality video game complex."

And "PC Engine" ? I am sorry, but this is no less a mouthful (or less ugly) than "TG-16".  Concerns over aesthetics are highly subjective, of course, so I can't fault anyone for preferring "PC Engine". But to suggest that that PCE is categorically better-sounding than TG-16 is folly. Folly I tell you! (For the record, I like both PCE and TG-16 )

Now, MegaDrive -- that's a friggin' great name. Some might say it is rather generic, but to me it is akin to "PC Engine" -- except "MegaDrive" is much more successful in its connotation of "sheer power" and brawn, with poor "PC Engine" sounding weak in comparison.

I have no evidence to support this, but I think that the name "MegaDrive" was modelled after "PC Engine".

And "MegaCD" -- how great is that? And the fact that the spelling of Sega and Mega mirror each other?

OK, I'll have to stop. I fear that folks don't read long posts

[GUTS]

Hell yeah, Sega always came up with the best names.  The first time I heard that the Genesis was called a Megadrive in other countries, I was actually a little bumbed out that we didn't get that name over here in the US since it sounded so burly.  Genesis is awesome too, but Megadrive is just unbeatable,  I still think it's probably the top coolest console name ever.

[Keranu]

I pretty much agree with Steve's post about these names. And shame on you guys who don't like the name "Turbo Grafx 16". I suppose you guys just didn't appreciate the 80's like I did   .

[FM-77]

What about Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Super Nintendo. Why is Super before Nintendo? As if the company name was Super Nintendo. It should have been Nintendo Super Entertainment System, but I guess that was the whole plan.

Super Nintendo Gamecube.  

It is a good thing they didn't name the Dreamcast "Katana" -- that wouldn't have been a good name. People (parents, etc) would be worried about its content too, I'm sure.

[sunteam_paul]

I didn't much care for the name Genesis either...There are very few cases in which altering the original Japanese name makes something sound better (obviously excepting pure Japanese language titles).

Wataru vs Keith Courage
Gunhed vs Blazing Lasers
Kujaku-O vs Spellcaster / Mystic Defender
PC Kid vs Bonk
Schbibin Man vs Shock Man
Aleste vs Power Strike
Goemon vs Mystical Ninja
Galbaran (Ys3) vs Demanicus (good grief)

All the alternate western names just sound dumbed down by comparison and always have. They are attempt to aim them at 'kids'. I was a kid at the time and I thought all the western names were just awful.

[nodtveidt]

steve, my console prototype was called Leviathan.

[FM-77]

Wataru vs Keith Courage
Gunhed vs Blazing Lasers
Kujaku-O vs Spellcaster / Mystic Defender
PC Kid vs Bonk
Schbibin Man vs Shock Man
Aleste vs Power Strike
Goemon vs Mystical Ninja
Galbaran (Ys3) vs Demanicus (good grief)

Blazing Lasers? You wish! It's Blazing Lazers!    Worst name ever? -Yes.

Oh and it's Galbalan. And that's a pretty lousy name as well, I actually prefer Demanicus (not saying I like it though).

[rolins]

Wataru vs Keith Courage
Gunhed vs Blazing Lasers
Kujaku-O vs Spellcaster / Mystic Defender
PC Kid vs Bonk
Schbibin Man vs Shock Man
Aleste vs Power Strike
Goemon vs Mystical Ninja
Galbaran (Ys3) vs Demanicus (good grief)

Blazing Lasers? You wish! It's Blazing Lazers!    Worst name ever? -Yes.

Oh and it's Galbalan. And that's a pretty lousy name as well, I actually prefer Demanicus (not saying I like it though).

Blazing Lazers is a much better name than Gunhed, and it's my favorite pce game. But I really could care less about changes to the game's title name. Just as long as the name fits the game's theme.


-

[torgo]

Just remember that a LOT of Americans were stupid enough to believe the whole "Blast Processing" BS that Sega was laying out there.

[vestcoat]

Do you guys remember how the N64 was going to be the Ultra 64?
I always kinda liked that name, for the same reason i like TG16.
heheh

[nodtveidt]

Both of those Ys 3 names are pretty llama.

[Black Tiger]

Just remember that a LOT of Americans were stupid enough to believe the whole "Blast Processing" BS that Sega was laying out there.

Its not BS, they pushed the system as far as it would go under those very specific conditions... -just like every other game that features slowdown and/or flicker.

Nobody thought to come up with a snazzy name for it before(as far as I can think of).

The closest was with MLB2 or whatever it was called for Intellivision. The developer couldn't fix a game crashing bug in the game, so they marketed it as cutting edge technology in the maunal.

Also, Masters Of The Universe featured a new technology entitled "Super Graphics". If only they'd thought to sue NEC later on...

[esteban]

steve, my console prototype was called Leviathan.

Oh yeah!

Now, as far as "Blazing Lazers" is concerned: it's a corny name, for sure, but I have to admit that I like it. I also like GunHed, because "Gun Head" has epic, kick-ass connotations. I actually saw the live-action movie for GunHed back when it was originally released -- that movie wasn't worthy of the name, because it did NOT kick my ass. The video game, however, does indeed kick ass.

"GunHed" is akin to "Blood Gear"

in that the two words juxtaposed in the title sound damn kool

"Blazing Lazers" is much better than "Lightning Force", IMO. But "Thunder Force" sounds very kool, indeed.

-----------

Lords of Thunder is KOOLER than Winds of Thunder. It's official! Perhaps the only time a North American title was superior to its Japanese counterpart!

[Bonknuts]

From this article - http://www.answers.com/topic/blast-processing

Blast processing ... ... a technical feature of the Mega Drive that wasn't replicated on the SNES - the ability for the CPU to be working on one visible section of map while the graphics processor displays another. Since only the visible part of the map is uploaded at any one time, this feature greatly increases the distance that the map can scroll from one frame to the next, but few if any people will have been able to discern that meaning from the advertising.

All three systems (MD,PCE,SF) had only 64k of vram, almost every game had a vartual BG map dynamically uploaded to the video memory replaceing the current background table. I consider Blast processing a load of crap. What blast processing in Sonic really was the ability to have the least amount of enemies on screen while moving the game speed as fast as possible  

 Final fight on the Snes was letter boxed so they would have enough time at the begining of the display raster and the end, to dynamically upload character frames(animation) into memory for the current screen - 64k vram simply wasn't enough to hold all the frames as once, but you didn't see Nintendo using it as a some marketing gimic - though it wouldn't have supprised me    And the game still slowed down  

[Keranu]

Wataru vs Keith Courage
Gunhed vs Blazing Lasers
Kujaku-O vs Spellcaster / Mystic Defender
PC Kid vs Bonk
Schbibin Man vs Shock Man
Aleste vs Power Strike
Goemon vs Mystical Ninja
Galbaran (Ys3) vs Demanicus (good grief)
.

I'll give you my opinions on these names .

Wataru vs Keith Courage - I give it to Wataru here only because Keith Courage is a pretty silly made up name, but if they had a cooler sounding name, I would give it to the American side because Americans would undersatnd it more than just some Japanese word/name.

Gunhed vs Blazing Lazers - Blazing Lazers no doubt beats it, I love the cheesy title and you have to understand that you just can't release a name like "Gunhed" out in America because Americans won't know what the hell that means, since Japanese people are always throwing random English words together.

Kujaku-O vs Spellcaster / Mystic Defender - Don't know of this game, but out of all those, I think Mystic Defender definitely sounds the coolest .

PC Kid (Genjin) vs Bonk - Bonk is a much more fitting name and I prefer it, though you gotta love the pun of PC Gunjin as it ryhmes with PC Engine. Of course in this case, you would have to change the name for America because Americans aren't aware of "PC Engine" .

Shubibin Man (or whatever name you want to use) vs Shock Man - Well neither name is really good here, but once again you can't really just use a strict Japanese name like "Shubibin Man" out here because us big, stupid Americans need something we can understand, but Shock Man could've definitely used a better name.

Aleste vs Power Strike - Aleste, no doubt .

Goemon vs Mystical Ninja - I really like both names here and it's hard to say which is better for me.

Galbalan vs Demanicus - I actually prefer Demanicus slightly more here, though Galbalan sounds kind of cool too.

The biggest deal is that Japanese love to throw random English words together in their title names, and this just doesn't work out for America and Europe really . "Radiant Silvergun? What is that supposed to mean!?!??! "

Here's a fun one to compare: Devil's Crush or Devil's Crash? I'll leave that up to you guys.